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Basilio Bonilla
Basilio Bonilla was an at-large member of the Bethlehem Area Board of Directors in Pennsylvania. The seat was up for general election on November 3, 2015. There was a primary election on May 19, 2015. He filed to run in the Democratic primary. Bonilla did not win a primary nomination.[1][2]
Bonilla participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates.
Biography
Bonilla graduated from Liberty High School in the Bethlehem Area School District in 2008. At the time of his candidacy, he was a student at Moravian College. He is a member of the board of directors for the Bethelehem Area Vocational Technical School and the Lehigh Valley Hispanic Center.[3]
Elections
2015
Five of the nine seats on the Bethlehem Area Board of Directors were up for election in the general election on November 3, 2015. There was a primary election on May 19, 2015.
Incumbent Craig Neiman ran unopposed and won re-election to the Region 2 seat. He cross-filed in the primary election and won both the Republican and Democratic nominations for the seat. He originally filed to run for an at-large seat as well but withdrew from that race.
Region 3 candidates included incumbent Eugene McKeon and newcomer Dan Treffinger, who also ran for an at-large position in the primaries. McKeon won both primaries for the Region 3 seat and was, therefore, the sole candidate to advance to the general election for the region. While Treffinger did not advance in the Region 3 race, he did advance from the Republican primary for the at-large seat.
In addition to Treffinger, the race for the at-large seat included Dean Donaher and Thomas Thomasik running as cross-filed candidates, as well as Karen Beck Pooley running as a Democrat. Donaher, Thomasik and Pooley defeated Treffinger in the general election.
Other candidates that ran in the primary election but did not win a nomination were incumbent Basilio Bonilla, Inez Aguilar and Samuel Nazario. No independent candidates filed to run in the general election.[4][5]
Results
At-Large
| Bethlehem Area School District, At-Large Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Dean Donaher |
22.2% | 2,949 | |
| Democratic | Thomas Thomasik |
17.3% | 2,297 | |
| Democratic | Karen Beck Pooley |
16.4% | 2,178 | |
| Democratic | Basilio Bonilla Incumbent | 15.4% | 2,042 | |
| Democratic | Samuel Nazario | 13% | 1,732 | |
| Democratic | Inez Aguilar | 8.6% | 1,138 | |
| Democratic | Dan Treffinger | 7.1% | 944 | |
| Democratic | Write-in votes | 0.1% | 10 | |
| Total Votes | 13,290 | |||
| Source: Lehigh County, "Municipal Primary - May 19, 2015: Bethlehem School District," accessed July 7, 2015Ballotpedia confirmed these results are official by phone. and Northhampton County, "May 19, 2015: Summary Report," accessed July 7, 2015 | ||||
Funding
Bonilla reported no contributions or expenditures to the Lehigh County Voter Registration Department in the election.[6]
Endorsements
Bonilla received no official endorsements for his campaign during the election.
Campaign themes
2015
Ballotpedia survey responses
Bonilla participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display his responses to the survey questions. When asked what his top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:
| “ | If re-elected my top priority will be working to balance out growing budget with minimal tax increase. It will also be my goal to create a district wide tax rebate program for our senior citizens.[7] | ” |
| —Basilio Bonilla (2015)[8] | ||
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important:
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Idaho. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving college readiness | |
| Expanding career-technical education | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column, and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:
| Question | Response |
|---|---|
| "Modifications are required before they are implemented." | |
| "No" | |
| "Yes" | |
| "No" | |
| "In order to ensure equal opportunities for both high and low achieving students our district must continue its practice of co-teaching in classes where low achieving students are mixed with those who are high achievers. Also in those classes we should use the high achieving students as mentors to help thoughs who struggle." | |
| "Expulsion should be used for serious offenses to ensure the safety of other students as well as the integrity of education at district schools." | |
| "If a school in a district is failing we must first find out why the school is failing (is it the curriculum, the amount of poverty, etc.) and then work to fix Thoughs weaknesses. We also need to involve the community and parents in order to make our schools succeed." | |
| "No" | |
| "Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district." | |
| "As school board members we need to be visible within our community. Attend school and community events (PTO/PTA Meetings, Neighborhood Watch meetings, School plays and concerts, etc.) We need to be a accessible via email and other social media outlets." |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Basilio Bonilla' 'Bethlehem Area School District'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Bethlehem Area School District, Pennsylvania
- Bethlehem Area School District elections (2015)
- Embroiled incumbents see differing outcomes in May 19 school board elections across five states (May 21, 2015)
- Incumbency no guarantee of success in Nov. 3 school board elections (November 6, 2015)
- What happened in Nov.'s top board elections? (November 4, 2015)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Bethlehem Area School District, "Board of School Directors," accessed April 15, 2015
- ↑ Northampton County, "2015 Unofficial Ballot," accessed March 17, 2015
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Basilio Bonilla," accessed May 13, 2015
- ↑ Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, "Unofficial List of Candidates, Municipal Election, November 3, 2015," accessed September 22, 2015
- ↑ Northampton County, "Unofficial General Municipal Ballot," accessed September 22, 2015
- ↑ Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed February 3, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Basilio Bonilla responses," May 13, 2015
| 2015 Bethlehem Area School District Elections | |
| Lehigh County, Pennsylvania and Northampton County, Pennsylvania | |
| Election date: | Primary election: May 19, 2015 General election: November 3, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Basilio Bonilla (D) • Incumbent, Craig Neiman (D/R) • Inez Aguilar (D) • Dean Donaher (D/R) • Samuel Nazario (D/R) • Karen Beck Pooley (D/R) • Thomas Thomasik (D/R) • Dan Treffinger (D/R)
Region 2: • Incumbent, Craig Neiman (D/R) Region 3: • Incumbent, Eugene McKeon (D/R) • Dan Treffinger (D/R) |
| Important information: | Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
