There was an election yesterday to choose directors for the new district school board. Admittedly, it was a pretty low-profile affair. None of the local media have reported the results (the newspapers, of course, went to press too early to await the results, and the local radio station seemed oblivious; nothing posted in the WSESU website, either, tho they were the ones tallying the returns.) As the newly-elected board is, remarkably, supposed to meet this evening, presumably someone knows who it is who’s meeting. Anyone out there have an inside track on the results?
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No results sent
The Town Clerk usually sends results for elections, but nothing was sent out last night. If we get anything, we’ll post it. I’m sure someone out there knows!
Some results
I just got some intel on Brattleboro saying that Ricky Davidson did not get elected (so that suggests probably David did) & apparently Emily was elected. Nothing heard about the other towns, tho not much contested. Turns out that although the polls closed at 7 the WSESU didn’t count the votes til this a.m. No doubt more reports will filter in. Be interesting to know the turnout numbers — in Guilford it was very quiet!
Estimated turnout
Based on the vote totals, it looks like turnout was about 600 in Brattleboro, 500+ in Dummerston, , 500+ in Putney, just under 500 in Guilford? Maybe just over 2,100 or so for the whole district.
Results!
MAY 21, 2019 – WSESD SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION RESULTS
Term Name Total
One Year Brattleboro
– Robin Morgan 273
– Emily Murphy Kaur 312
One Year Dummerston
– Kristina Naylor 523
One Year Putney
– Timothy Morris 328
– Sergio W. Simunovic 197
Two Year Brattleboro
– Richard “Ricky” Davidson 260
– Susan Schmitt 86
– David Schoales 313
Two Year Guilford
– Write-In Kelly Young 175
Two Year Putney
– Anne Beekman 471
Three Year Dummerston
– Robert Thibault 383
– Write-In Susan Meggiolaro 122
Three Year Guilford
– Shaun Murphy 481
Thanks to KO for sending them along!
Thanks for posting!
When I left Guilford after working at the polls from 8 am til just before 2 pm, it had been really slow, so there must’ve been quite a rush in the final hours. The 500-600 reported for the 3 smaller towns is not a bad turnout. But 600-ish for Brattleboro is actually the outlier. Not only a much smaller % turnout, but interesting in that Brattleboro had contests for both seats.
Well, good luck to this new board, which now has the responsibility formerly handled by 4 Town boards and the BUHS as well!
A Theory
Maybe some of the votes came from early voting or mail ins in Guilford, so the polls saw fewer people than may have voted? Maybe?
Oh, wait a minute ....
I spaced out: These vote totals are the combined votes for all 4 voting towns, not by town. So, taking, for example, the big vote getter, Kristina Naylor in Dummerston, with 523 votes: Those 523 voters were from not only Dummerston, but Brattleboro, Putney & Guilford, all combined.
SO, in fact, the more or less 600 people who voted are spread over the 4 towns. So it’s not 2,100 people who voted; it’s about 600. So maybe let;s say, 300 from Brattleboro & 100 each from the other towns (tho I’m suspecting it was something well below 100 for Guilford, maybe 100 or so Dummerston, and 350 Bratt. Or something like that.) I wonder if we’ll be seeing those by-town totals. Maybe not, since the town-by-town was supposedly irrelevant in this unusual election.
I think you are right
Yes – my estimates assumed people didn’t vote for surrounding towns. Forgot about that.
That makes the turnout even more pathetic than first imagined.
Results and next steps
Thanks for posting the results. iBrattleboro scoops the story again! I, too, wish this board well. I have enjoyed being on the Brattleboro Town School Board for the last couple of months. I am truly daunted by what this 8 person board representing four towns is charged to accomplish. We will be having another vote soon on the merged budget – and on the article changes for the merger agreement. There is a discussion going on about giving Brattleboro 3 more seats on the board to better reflect the relative populations of citizens and students across the four towns. Another article being proposed will create Leadership Councils at each of the schools to be filled with citizens, parents, staff, admin and board members. There is clearly more work for the merged board than 8 can do. More involvement will be welcomed across the district.
Population might not be best way to allocate seats
Rather than population, we should base the number of seats each town gets based on voter turnout. Base it on enthusiasm.
Vote totals this low almost shouldn’t count… we almost need a minimum percentage rule before we could consider a vote legit.
So, why so low? Did everyone forget? Was it too nice a day? Everyone leave town on vacation early this year? Is it that people don’t care, or is it that they do care and abstained out of protest for the merger? Maybe they care and also trust all of the candidates to do a good job so didn’t need to vote?
It’s weird. Do schools encourage kids to encourage parents to vote? Is it laziness? Is it a topic too difficult? Are people resigned dan feel their voice doesn’t matter since a merger was forced upon us?
It is the modern age and we have a great technology called postal mail. Ballots could be mailed to every voter. (I believe we’ve had this ability since the late 1700’s). Return postage could be included, or volunteers could canvass the town and collect ballots by neighborhood.
Should Brattleboro Reps Have More Power On Merged School Board
I worry that giving Brattleboro extra seats gives the town too much power over the board. Towns were asked to give up local control to a combined board in which each town has equal say. If Brattleboro gets extra seats, they will have more say than other towns. I’m not sure this was the intent of this merger, although I can see benefits for the State education people in terms of directing public education in VT. Hierarchies are easier to control.
Why low turnout...
Those of us who are or have been engaged in this Act 46 saga, had expected low turnout and general lack of either interest or, in many cases, simply awareness that the process was unfolding. Having any kind of election/vote in late May is out of the usual rhythm of either Town Mtg or General Elections.
There was confusion about even something as basic as what this latest new board is. Also many of the candidates were unopposed. In Guilford, an extreme example, only one candidate for the 3-year and no candidate on the ballot for our 2 year (tho Kelly Young agreed to be written in, and in fact got a respectable number of votes.) So, only a couple of contests was a partial factor.
Many voters didn’t understand that they weren’t voting just for the directors from their town. And many people in, say, Guilford, didn’t know or know anything about, for example, the one contest in Putney, etc.
Chris makes an interesting suggestion that one reason for low participation might have been the lingering anti-merger sentiment throughout the 4 towns. That might have been expected. But, in fact, a number of the candidates had strong association with the Alternative Governance Structure committee, the group favoring an alternative to the WSESU Study Committee’s merger plan. Conversely, some key players in the years-long push for merger were not running in this election. So my sense is that a bit of what voter participation took place was actually from folks who had been opposing merger, but are nonetheless anxious to see a good process now that the unified district is happening.
Andy Davis makes a good point that this new board of just 8 people will have a tight timeline and lots of work to do, just to get through the June annual district meeting and the July 1 change-over from individual school boards to the new governance.
That next meeting of the voters in the 4 towns is, I think, June 25. Talk about a set-up for low attendance! But we should all make an effort to be there to give support to this new board during this time.