Flagler County Public Schools elections (2014)

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2014 Flagler County Public Schools Elections

General Election date:
August 26, 2014
Runoff Election date:
November 4, 2014
Table of Contents
About the district
Method of election
Elections
What was at stake?
Key deadlines
Additional elections
External links
See also
Florida
Flagler County Public Schools
Flagler County, Florida ballot measures
Local ballot measures, Florida
Flag of Florida.png

Three seats on the Flagler County School Board were up for general election on August 26, 2014. The general election determines if candidates for each seat could garner a majority of the vote total. Because no candidate in District 2 received 50 percent plus one of the vote in the general election, the top two vote recipients advanced to the runoff election on November 4, 2014.

District 1 incumbent Andy Dance defeated newcomer Maria Barbosa. The District 2 election featured incumbent John Fischer and challengers Toni Baker, Lynnette Callender and Janet McDonald. Since neither Fischer nor McDonald was able to garner 50 percent plus one of the vote, they faced each other in the runoff election in November, where McDonald won. Trevor Tucker won re-election to the District 4 seat against challenger Michael McElroy.

The district complied with state requirements for class sizes for the second year in a row and, thus, avoided paying penalties for exceeding the limits. However, the district's attempt to incorporate exceptional student education (ESE) students into general education classrooms was criticized by board members and parents at an October 2014 board meeting.

See also: What was at stake in the Flagler County School Board 2014 election?

About the district

See also: Flagler County Public Schools, Florida
Flagler County Public Schools is located in Flagler County, Florida

Flagler County Public Schools is based in Bunnell, the county seat of Flagler County, Florida. Flagler County is home to 99,956 residents, according to the United States Census Bureau.[1] Flagler County Public Schools was the 34th-largest school district in Florida, serving 13,007 students during the 2011-2012 school year.[2]

Demographics

Flagler County underperformed in comparison to the rest of Florida in terms of higher education achievement in 2012. The United States Census Bureau found that 23.5 percent of Flagler County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 26.2 percent for Florida as a whole. The median household income in Flagler County was $48,134 compared to $47,309 for the state of Florida. The poverty rate in Flagler County was 14.4 percent compared to 15.6 percent for the entire state.[1]

Racial Demographics, 2013[1]
Race Flagler County (%) Florida (%)
White 83.9 78.1
Black or African American 11.4 16.7
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.4 0.5
Asian 2.3 2.7
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.1 0.1
Two or More Races 1.9 1.9
Hispanic or Latino 9.4 23.6

Party registration, 2014[3]
Party Number of registered voters
Republican 25,742
Democratic 24,013
Unaffiliated 18,877
Other 2,010
Total 70,642

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Voter and candidate information

The Flagler County School Board consists of five members elected to four-year terms. Each member represents a specific geographic district also represented by a county commissioner. There was a general election on August 26, 2014, and the runoff election for District 2 took place on November 4, 2014, as no candidate received 50 percent or more of the general election vote in that race.

Candidates for the school board filed for the election by June 20, 2014. The county's elections office hosted early voting for the general election at various locations from August 16, 2014, to August 23, 2014. The early voting window for the runoff election ran from October 25, 2014, to November 1, 2014. The last day to request a mailed absentee ballot in the general election was August 20, 2014, and the runoff election deadline was October 29, 2014.

Elections

2014

Candidates

District 1

  • Andy Dance Green check mark transparent.png
    • Incumbent
    • Graduate, University of Florida
    • Owner, Andrew S. Dance and Associates, LLC.
  • Maria Barbosa
    • Licensed clinical counselor

District 2

  • John Fischer
    • Incumbent
    • Graduate, Kean University
    • Retired financial advisor
  • Janet McDonald Green check mark transparent.png
    • Graduate, Muhlenberg College and LeHigh University
    • Retired educator, specialist

Candidates defeated in the general election:

District 4

Election results

Runoff: District 2
Flagler County Public Schools, District 2 Runoff Election, 4-year term, 2014
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Nonpartisan Green check mark transparent.pngJanet McDonald 54% 17,792
     Nonpartisan John Fischer Incumbent 46% 15,176
Total Votes 32,968
Source: Flagler County Supervisor of Elections, "2014 General Election Results," November 14, 2014
General: District 1
Flagler County Public Schools, District 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2014
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Nonpartisan Green check mark transparent.pngAndy Dance Incumbent 60.1% 7,426
     Nonpartisan Maria Barbosa 39.9% 4,929
Total Votes 12,355
Source: Flagler County Supervisor of Elections, "2014 Primary Official Results," August 28, 2014
General: District 2
Flagler County Public Schools, District 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2014
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Nonpartisan Green check mark transparent.pngJanet McDonald 32.8% 4,110
     Nonpartisan Green check mark transparent.pngJohn Fischer Incumbent 32.6% 4,087
     Nonpartisan Lynnette Callender 22.5% 2,822
     Nonpartisan Toni Baker 12.1% 1,511
Total Votes 12,530
Source: Flagler County Supervisor of Elections, "2014 Primary Official Results," August 28, 2014
General: District 4
Flagler County Public Schools, District 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2014
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Nonpartisan Green check mark transparent.pngTrevor Tucker Incumbent 50.2% 6,066
     Nonpartisan Michael McElroy 49.8% 6,008
Total Votes 12,074
Source: Flagler County Supervisor of Elections, "2014 Primary Official Results," August 28, 2014

Endorsements

None of the candidates received official endorsements as of the general election.

Campaign finance

Candidates received a total of $52,590.66 and spent a total of $44,769.79 as of October 28, 2014, according to the Flagler County Supervisor of Elections.[4]

District 1

In the District 1 race, candidates raised a total of $12,201.44 and spent a total of $10,039.42.[4]

Candidate Monetary
contributions
In-kind
contributions
Expenditures Cash on hand
Maria Barbosa $5,450.00 $826.76 $5,450.00 $0.00
Andy Dance $4,730.00 $1,194.68 $4,589.42 $140.58
District 2

In the District 2 race, candidates raised a total of $24,638.08 and spent a total of $19,360.37.[4]

Candidate Monetary
contributions
In-kind
contributions
Expenditures Cash on hand
Toni Baker $1,420.00 $30.00 $1,420.00 $0.00
Lynnette Callender $3,733.33 $588.50 $2,353.85 $1,379.48
John Fischer $7,540.00 $126.25 $5,411.35 $2,128.65
Janet McDonald $11,100.00 $100.00 $10,175.17 $924.83
District 4

In the District 4 race, candidates raised a total of $15,751.14 and spent a total of $15,370.00.[4]

Candidate Monetary
contributions
In-kind
contributions
Expenditures Cash on hand
Michael McElroy $8,400.00 $0.00 $8,400.00 $0.00
Trevor Tucker $6,970.00 $381.14 $6,970.00 $0.00

Past elections

What was at stake?

With three incumbents all facing challengers in the general election, 2014 could have seen a slate of new faces join the board. However, only one incumbent failed to secure re-election in general election on August 26, 2014. Andy Dance and Trevor Tucker retained their seats in Districts 1 and 4, respectively, while District 2 incumbent John Fischer proceeded to a runoff election on November 4, 2014, against Janet McDonald.

Issues in the district

Class size compliance

County school officials stated in October 2014 that they had complied with state requirements for class sizes. These class size requirements were first created by an initiated constitutional amendment which was approved by voters in 2002. Voters upheld the intent of the original amendment in 2010 when they defeated Amendment 8, which would have changed the language from a maximum class size to a school-wide average class size. The deadline for compliance in the 2014-2015 school year was October 17, 2014. The class size limits are as follows for core academic classes: 18 in kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eighth grade and 25 in high school grades. Over enrollment in just one class would prevent a district from having complied with the law. If the district had failed to do meet these limits, it would have been subject to financial penalties. This marked the second consecutive year that the district complied with the class size limits. In 2012, however, the district paid a penalty of $14,938 due to failure to meet the requirements.[5]

ESE full inclusion

The school district began an attempt to fully incorporate its "exceptional student education" (ESE) into the general education classroom in 2014-2015 school year. As of October 2014, multiple complaints about the project had been voiced. According to the Florida Department of Education, ESE is part of providing education programs for students who have disabilities and students who are gifted.[6] One major complaint against the inclusion of ESE students into the general education classroom has been their ability to test at the grade level required in the class. Students are tested quarterly with "standard, grade-level assessments that affect their term grades," but ESE students are not always at the grade level of their general education classroom peers. Parents have voiced concerns over the effect the inclusion project is having on their autistic children.[7]

Board member Colleen Conklin stated at an October 21, 2014, board meeting that teachers had told her they had not received proper training to incorporate the ESE students into their classrooms. She challenged the district's ESE specialist Tracy Umpenhour to explain how that happened. Umpenhour stated that while training had been provided, it focused on ESE teachers instead of general education teachers.[7]

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the school board election in 2014:[8]

Deadline Event
June 20, 2014 Last day of candidate filing period
August 16, 2014 First day of early voting in general election
August 20, 2014 Last day to request mailed absentee ballot for general election
August 23, 2014 Last day of early voting in general election
August 26, 2014 General election day
October 25, 2014 First day of early voting in runoff election
October 29, 2014 Last day to request mailed absentee ballot for runoff election
November 1, 2014 Last day of early voting in runoff election
November 4, 2014 Runoff election day

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Florida elections, 2014

Area residents voted on county and statewide races on November 4, 2014. Residents of Flagler County voted on races for county commission seats. Voters decided on a statewide ballot measure to amend the state constitution to allow the use of medical marijuana. The November 4, 2014, ballot included races for state legislature, state executive and U.S. House seats.

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Flagler + County + Schools + Florida"

See also

External links

Footnotes