Jessica Wong
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Jessica Wong was a candidate for at-large representative on the Fall River Public Schools school board in Massachusetts. Wong was defeated in the at-large general election on November 7, 2017. Wong unofficially withdrew from the race in October 2017, but her name still appeared on the ballot.[1]
Elections
2017
Six seats on the Fall River Public Schools School Committee in Massachusetts were up for general election on November 7, 2017. Incumbents Paul Coogan, Mark Costa, and Joseph Martins won their re-election bids along with challengers Kevin Aguiar, Joshua Hetzler, and Thomas Khoury. Challengers Amy M. Blanchette, David Cowen Jr., Susan Gancarski Dunse, Kristen Gauvin, Crystal Stone, and Jessica Wong were defeated in the general election on November 7, 2017. Challenger Sean Connell was defeated in the primary election on September 12, 2017.[2][3] Wong unofficially withdrew from the race in October 2017, but her name still appeared on the ballot.[1][4]
All seven seats on the school committee were up for election. The seventh seat was held by the mayor of Fall River, but was not covered by Ballotpedia as the city fell outside of municipal elections coverage.[2]
Results
| Fall River Public Schools, At-large General Election, 2-year terms, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Paul Coogan Incumbent |
13.91% | 7,393 |
| Mark Costa Incumbent |
11.68% | 6,208 |
| Joseph Martins Incumbent |
10.90% | 5,795 |
| Kevin Aguiar |
10.53% | 5,598 |
| Joshua Hetzler |
9.91% | 5,269 |
| Thomas Khoury |
9.60% | 5,099 |
| Kristen Gauvin | 8.47% | 4,503 |
| Amy M. Blanchette | 6.61% | 3,511 |
| Jessica Wong | 5.50% | 2,924 |
| Crystal Stone | 5.49% | 2,919 |
| Susan Gancarski Dunse | 4.50% | 2,394 |
| David Cowen Jr. | 2.84% | 1,510 |
| Write-in votes | 0.04% | 19 |
| Total Votes | 53,142 | |
| Source: Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Elizabeth Camara," December 2, 2017 | ||
| Fall River Public Schools, At-large Primary Election, 2-year terms, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Kevin Aguiar |
13.12% | 4,106 |
| Paul Coogan Incumbent |
12.84% | 4,018 |
| Joseph Martins Incumbent |
11.47% | 3,592 |
| Mark Costa Incumbent |
11.23% | 3,515 |
| Joshua Hetzler |
8.74% | 2,737 |
| Thomas Khoury |
8.47% | 2,650 |
| Kristen Gauvin |
6.34% | 1,986 |
| Amy M. Blanchette |
6.09% | 1,908 |
| Jessica Wong |
5.57% | 1,743 |
| Crystal Stone |
5.10% | 1,598 |
| Susan Gancarski Dunse |
4.28% | 1,339 |
| David Cowen Jr. |
3.43% | 1,073 |
| Sean Connell | 3.32% | 1,040 |
| Total Votes | 31,305 | |
| Source: Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Elizabeth Camara, Fall River Elections," October 6, 2017 | ||
Funding
The City of Fall River does not publish and freely disclose school board candidate campaign finance reports. If you have any information regarding the campaign finance disclosures in this race, please contact the school board elections team at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Campaign themes
2017
Wong highlighted the following issues on her campaign website:
| “ | School Safety
Maintaining school safety is crucial in creating a productive learning environment for our students. I can attest to my own experience of feeling unsafe in a school environment. I understand the feeling of hating school, never wanting to go, and not trusting my teachers. I have worked closely with the Fall River Youth Violence Prevention Task with helping create safe spaces for our students, addressing bullying, being the lead facilitator of the Confronting Discrimination group, participating in National Youth Violence Prevention Week, and making a strong effort to attend trainings at the School Community Partnership meetings to educate myself on current issues at hand. Our schools need to be proactive and reactive when it comes to school safety. Proactively, our schools need to be taking appropriate security measures to protect everyone in the schools. Whether it’s re-writing crisis plans in case of an emergency and actively using them, creating a solid crisis team, running safety drills, adding more SRO’s, and improving communication networks. Overall, we need to make sure that we are improving teacher to student relationships. Building healthy relationships is key to protecting our students. When our students feel important and visible. Reactively, our schools should be taking appropriate measures to hold individuals accountable for any injustices. Under-reporting and sweeping problems under the rug should not be tolerated. I am looking to seek new and innovative ways to ensure the safety of our schools. Community Engagement I can attest firsthand on how important it is to have a strong collaborative effort from community agencies involved in our students. While a K-12 education is the groundwork for teaching our students basic academic knowledge, our schools are also responsible for teaching our students appropriate societal behaviors and life skills. As overwhelming as it be for school administrations to take on all of those responsibilities, I believe that with a strong collaborative effort from various agencies/organizations in our community, we can provide a plethora of opportunities for our students to grow. That is why I am encouraging to parental-involvement and developing stronger partnerships from community agencies in our students’ education. To encourage community engagement, I’d like to work with the school faculty and community organizations to develop more opportunities for internships and other academic opportunities for our students, and personally engaging in community outreach as I have been doing on the campaign trail. Infrastructure Renovation Keeping up with the infrastructure of our school buildings is conducive to a productive learning environment. Which is why I am in full support of the redesign of BMC Durfee High. I have not been out of that school that long to not remember the leaking ceilings, bathrooms with no doors, or just an overall upgrade that is direly needed. I am looking to work closely with the Massachusetts School Building Authority to have a firm understanding of what this project entails. Given that this will be MSBA’s biggest project to date and how costly it will be, I am looking to ensure full transparency of the projects details with the residents of Fall River. Program Development Aside from improving our students’ academic development, I am also looking to incorporate innovative programs to improve our students’ work ethic, life skills, and social/emotional well-being. In the past we have had programs such as Peaceful Coalition that have kept our youth off the streets and shaped their lives for the better. We’ve also had Resiliency For Life that targeted that students that needed the most help academically/socially and created a family-like environment and kept those students in school. Programs like these facilitated by some of the most caring adults within the schools. They provide a safe space for the students, they build relationships between the teachers and students. I believe that when we invest in meaningful programs that invest in our students, we invest in building our society. I will advocate for sustenance and funding for such programs that allow for college and career readiness and maintaining the social/emotional well-being of our students.[5] |
” |
| —Jessica Wong (2017)[6] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Jessica Wong Fall River Public Schools school board. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Herald News, "Wong removes herself from consideration for Fall River School Committee," October 17, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Herald News, "Final day to file: Preliminary Fall River school board election is a go," August 8, 2017
- ↑ The Herald News, "Results of Fall River preliminary election," September 12, 2017
- ↑ The Herald News, "Fall River City Election results 2017," November 7, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Elect JWong for Fall River School Committee, "Issues," accessed September 7, 2017
| Fall River Public Schools elections in 2017 | |
| Bristol County, Massachusetts | |
| Election date: | Primary election: September 12, 2017 • General election November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Paul Coogan • Incumbent, Mark Costa • Incumbent, Joseph Martins • Kevin Aguiar • Amy M. Blanchette • Sean Connell • David Cowen Jr. • Susan Gancarski Dunse • Kristen Gauvin • Joshua Hetzler • Thomas Khoury • Crystal Stone • Jessica Wong |
| Important information: | What's at stake? • Additional elections on the ballot • Key deadlines |
