Wright wins Appo seat; sane candidates net 71% of the vote
Middletown, Del. — Kelly Wright upset two-term incumbent Edna Cale and two other challengers Tuesday to win a five-year term on the Appoquinimink school board.
“As much work as this campaign was, now the real work begins reuniting the community and working to solve some of the district’s financial problems,” said the 33-year-old environmental engineer, who was making her second bid for a school board seat, having lost a four-way contest in 2011.This year, Wright earned 328 votes, or 41 percent of the 799 ballots cast.
Cale came in second with 240 votes, or 30 percent of the total, followed by Matt Brown, who picked up 227 votes, or 28 percent,
A couple of things…. 1) Congratulations to Ms, Wright. I’m not sure why she felt the need to say that the community is in need of “reuniting” in her statement. Maybe that’s a style quibble on my part, but I didn’t think this race was especially rancorous. Of course I wasn’t in it, so what do I know?
But while I’m in free advice mode, what’s this? “A lot of people will say this election was driven by ___. ” Why bring up what sore losers might say? Let them bring it up and thereby allow them to establish their sore loser credentials. The election is over the second the polls close. There is no need to give legitimacy to anything “a lot of people” might say to soothe their sore loser feelings. But if you absolutely have to say something, is it really “a lot” of people stewing in their sore loser juices? What’s wrong with “some people..” or better yet, “a few people.”
2) Edna Cale was a decent person and a good board member who will be missed.
3) The wild card (and probable teabag) with a highly suspect commitment to the cause of public education only got 28% of the vote. Good.
4) 799 ballots cast? That’s pitiful.
In Sussex County – which also had elections yesterday – two races were notable not for who won, but for who lost.
In Seaford and Laurel, the losers included Jerry Semper (S) and Barbara Hudson (L). What’s quite remarkable is that just a few years ago, they were the Democratic nominees for state House seats versus Danny Short and Biff Lee. Now they can’t even win a school board race. Sad.
I hope Mitch Crane does a better job than his predecessors in selecting candidates and helping them with the resources to win.
Jason 330 (Probable teabag) Cannot help yourself can you?
God Bless those who support the Constitution, accountability and fiscal discipline.What a novel idea?
Long may they rave!
Yup–it is pitiful, in the face of 2 recent referendums that brought out near TEN times that amount of many people who were going “to show the school board”, or “could do it better themselves”, or “let me at ’em” , “they don’t know what they are doing”…it’s a very sad follow-up when the difference between candidates 1, 2, and 3 is less than 100 votes of an overall 800 votes. Again, the nanosecond memory of voters unless you are touching their wallet, and not their kids’ or community’s lives. Oh, and the memory will become duller by 2014 as the education budget woes dim, even though the people and problem will remain.
Second verse, same as the first. Please Dover, remember who and what should be priorities in a public budget. And don’t make them beg, grantwrite, apply,compete, act up, or shoot-up to get what they need.
JC your pals kept their most potent turnout weapon in its sheath. With no lies about 35% property tax increases, they don’t get much attention.
Why the lament over the voter turnout? I completely agree that it’s “sad” so few vote in school board elections in comparison to the referendum, but given how much public comment there was about “I don’t have kids, so why should I pay?” or “My kids are grown”, is it suprising they don’t give a hoot about who the Board members are? They just want to be able to complain about them when their once-every-five-years decision affects how many trips to Starbucks they can make in a month.
Little trip through the Appo school board election vote total history shows that the turnout this year is the fourth-highest total in the past 14 years. Throw out the two years where there were no opponents (2005- Kev. Hensley; 2002- J. Christian and J. English). There were two years where votes cast topped 1,000 (2012- 1,294; 2000- 1,971).
The 758 votes is not great by any stretch, but it’s certainly better than the horrendously pathetic totals of years past (223 votes in 2007; 261 votes in 2010; 367 votes in 2006; 338 votes in 2001; 315 votes in 1999). I’m not Mr. Optimist by any stretch, but perhaps the high turnout in 2012 and the decent, but still in need of improvement, turnout this year is a sign that folks are not nearly as disengaged as they’ve been in the past. I believe “voter fatigue” played a significant role in yesterday’s total. Four community wide votes in six months is a bit much to some folks (general election, two referendums, one school board).
Last thing… I completely agree w/ Joanne’s last sentence in her first post. The Governor’s budget priorities certainly do not refelct what his public comments always seem to be. He needs to show just how much he values education by restoring funding and ceasing the slashing. Otherwise, he’s just paying lip-service.
I can understand those who vote their wallet though. Consider the messages that are sent (and received) regarding the education system. At best it can be described as a swamp. There is little to no agreement on almost anything except that people want good schools but the messaging delivered and received is that nothing works.
Citizens are left with the thought that someone wants them to pay to do more of what doesn’t seem to be working in the first place. I think people would be more receptive to messages that articulate what they are currently getting for their money and what they can expect to get if schools were funded at a greater level. Until that happens, I expect that citizens will vote their wallet.
As an example, my school taxes went up by $200. I don’t have a clue why. It’s the same school, same teachers, same everything, only it’s $200 more. I suspect that it is because with school choice, students who have special needs are choosing the school district I live in, even when they live in a different district (at least that’s how I understand it).
In any case, when the wallet is impacted, I think people would like to see the cost versus benefit analysis and given that there is strong disagreement on performance standards, criteria, and measures, I can understand their choices.
@Dave: I agree on everything. The districts need to do a much better job in detailing to folks the “why” for the increases. And “why” does not mean telling people “it’s needed because funding from the state was cut.” Instead, they should provide line-item of the funding losses, the number of “choice” losses, legal costs, etc. As long as it doesn’t violate privacy laws, I think districts should be as open-book as possible with information. That, to me, is the first step in changing the mindset of the citizens who have no legit information to counter the thinking that “same school, same teachers, same everything” should equal an increase. Give the community as much information as possible.
I was having some math fun and came up with teh following completely unscientific voting data. Breaks down as follows: # of votes cast in 2013 board elections v. most recent student population numbers = ratio of students per vote cast (hope that made sense):
Red Clay- 11:1 ratio (16,103 students; 1,498 votes cast)
Colonial- ??? (9,855 students; no contested board races)
Christina- 27:1 (16,848 students; 633 votes cast)
Brandywine- 10:1 (10,801 students; 1,078 votes cast)
Appo- 13:1 (9,433 students; 758 votes cast)
Capital- 11:1 (6,273 students; 601 votes cast)
Milford- 8:1 (4,155 students; 532 votes cast)
Smyrna- 11:1 (5,116 students; 487 votes cast)
C.R.- 8:1 (7,632 students; 1,007 votes cast)
Cape- 9:1 (4,845 students; 570 votes cast)
I.R.- 13:1 (8,871 students; 697 votes cast)
Laurel- 4:1 (2,177 students; 613 votes cast)
Seaford- 6:1 (3,460 students; 573 votes cast)
Woodbridge- 17:1 (2,260 students; 131 votes cast)
Wow jason@0915, I was trying to stay on topic per your request about numbers, and there you go all “constituency” baiting about where voters are. How do you begin to paint a “who voted or didn’t vote” picture, and then align me to that? SEVENTY SEVEN voters at Old State Elementary–that campus probably has 1000 kids. But 77 voted–does that mean 77 care? 77 wanted change/no change?, 77 remembered, or 77 recognize a civic duty regardless and make the effort? You just can’t embrace a community vote can you?
JC sorry about the snark. I was probably reacting to Appo Truths comment at the Transcript Facebook page more than yours here.
To think I read Delaware Liberal first. Maybe I need to repriortize to some random Facebook page for my first news of the morning :).