Peter Kurzenhauser
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Peter Kurzenhauser was a candidate for Dranesville District representative on the Fairfax County School Board in Virginia. The general election was held on November 3, 2015.[1] Peter Kurzenhauser lost the general election on November 3, 2015.
Biography
Kurzenhauser earned an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the United States Naval Academy in 1979. He served in the United States Naval Reserve for 22 years. Kurzenhauser was the co-founder of a start-up company that he sold in 2010. He and his wife have two children who attend district schools.[2]
Elections
2015
The Fairfax County School Board is a 12-member board elected to serve four-year terms. Three seats are elected at large and nine seats are elected by district.[3] All 12 seats were on the ballot on November 3, 2015.
At-large incumbents Ryan McElveen, Ilryong Moon and Ted Velkoff faced Robert Copeland, Omar Fateh, Jeanette Hough, Manar Jean-Jacques, Peter Marchetti and Burnette Scarboro for three seats. While Moon and McElveen won re-election, Velkoff was defeated, placing fourth to challenger Hough.
Braddock District incumbent Megan McLaughlin, Hunter Mill District incumbent Pat Hynes and Providence District incumbent Patricia Reed faced Katherine Pettigrew, Mark Wilkinson and Dalia Palchik, respectively. Dranesville District incumbent Jane Strauss competed against challenger Peter Kurzenhauser. McLaughlin, Hynes, and Strauss won re-election; the fourth incumbent, Reed, lost to Palchik.
The races for both the Mount Vernon District and Sully District seats featured newcomers after neither incumbent filed for re-election. Karen Corbett Sanders defeated W. Anthony Stacy in the Mount Vernon race, while Karen Keys-Gamarra lost to Thomas Wilson in the Sully District race. Lee District incumbent Tamara Derenak Kaufax, Mason District incumbent Sandra Evans and Springfield District incumbent Elizabeth Schultz all ran unopposed and won re-election to their seats.
Results
| Fairfax County School Board, Dranesville District, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Jane Strauss Incumbent |
54.3% | 14,086 |
| Peter Kurzenhauser | 45.4% | 11,789 |
| Write-in votes | 0.28% | 72 |
| Total Votes | 25,947 | |
| Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2015 November General", accessed November 3, 2015 | ||
Funding
Kurzenhauser reported $15,000.00 in contributions and $3,088.65 in expenditures to the Virginia State Board of Elections, which left his campaign with $11,911.35 on hand as of October 28, 2015.[4]
Endorsements
Kurzenhauser received an official endorsement for his campaign from the Fairfax County Republican Committee.[5]
Campaign themes
2015
Candidate website
Kurzenhauser's campaign website listed the following themes for 2015:
| “ |
Student Wellness Exercise. - As a former football player in the FCPS and for the US Naval Academy, coach of local youth teams, and participant in youth ballet, I strongly supports changes to give students more opportunities to exercise. I oppose cuts to high school sports, support efforts to encourage more students to walk or bike to school, and would like to see more programs like Girls on the Run implemented in all elementary schools. Sleep. - I am glad that FCPS, under Dr. Garza's leadership, finally adopted later high school start times, after over a decade of dragging its heels and overstating the costs. As someone who uses Georgetown Pike daily, I also would work closely with the Supervisors, FCPS, civic groups, and others to minimize traffic impacts. Nutrition. - The City of Falls Church has opted out of the USDA free lunch program for two of its schools, so that it can offer higher-quality meals in those schools. I would like to see this pilot program at similar schools in the Dranesville District. I thank Real Food For Kids - Fairfax and the Student Health Advisory Committee for their efforts to improve the quality of school breakfasts and lunches for students county-wide. Discipline. - FCPS has gradually reformed its former zero-tolerance policies, so students no longer are routinely expelled for first or minor infractions. However, the Student Rights & Responsibilities regulation needs further improvements, and I hope in particular to see more progress on the effort to reduce student bullying. Race to Nowhere. - Too many of our students are engaged in a "Race to Nowhere," which starts with excessively-burdensome school schedules. Private school students have fewer required core courses and are admitted to selective colleges. However, FCPS policies impose requirements beyond state mandates and intentionally give students less flexibility about when they can take state-mandated courses. FCPS should change those policies, to allow students to take more electives during high school. Class Size Over the past decade, every elementary school in the Dranesville District that is part of the McLean HS pyramid or the Langley HS pyramid, and two elementary schools in the Herndon HS pyramid, have reported average general education class sizes that exceeded 23 students in one or more years. This data shows that the Dranesville District member, who has been on the school board for over two decades, has not done enough to reduce class sizes in Dranesville District schools. The average FCPS elementary school class size in FY 2001 (22.2 students) was almost identical to the average FCPS class size in FY 2015 (22.3 students). This county-wide average has fluctuated by only one student in 15 years. This data shows that statements by the longtime Dranesville District representative about how the only problem is that FCPS has increased class sizes overall in the last few years distorts the picture. She is focusing on “average” class sizes throughout the county, and not acknowledging that class sizes in some schools increased more than in other schools. The larger problem is that FCPS has balanced its budgets, over many years, on the backs of students and teachers in a subset of schools predominantly located in a few magisterial districts. Budget Accountability The Budget committee and Budget Task Force should then use the results of the performance audit to conduct a zero-base review of all the line items in the budget. Again in my experience, the current practice of basing next year's budget on the present year, plus some new initiatives and a percentage increase, leads to bloat and ineffective programs. I applaud the Fairfax County School Board for hiring an Auditor General to review school operations, programs, and processes. This is a good step in the right direction for finding fiscal efficiencies for our schools. Employee Compensation I believe the School Board – like boards of corporations - should create a committee to assess the competitiveness of the compensation packages of each category of FCPS employees. Until these studies are done, we simply do not know whether salaries and benefits for some other categories of employees – such as central department employees – are higher, lower, or the same as the market rates in our area. Delivering excellent education to students should be the primary mission of FCPS, and requires both highly skilled teachers and good working conditions, especially reasonable class sizes. To attract and retain high-quality teachers, we need to offer them market or above-market compensation. [6] |
” |
| —Peter Kurzenhauser, (2015), [7] | ||
About the district
- See also: Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia
Fairfax County Public Schools is located in northeast Virginia in Fairfax County. The county seat of Fairfax County is Fairfax. This county was home to 1,137,538 residents in 2014, according to estimates by the United States Census Bureau.[8] In the 2012-2013 school year, Fairfax County Public Schools was the largest school district in Virginia and served 180,616 students.[9]
Demographics
Fairfax County outperformed the rest of Virginia in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 58.6 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 35.2 percent for Virginia as a whole. The median household income in Fairfax County was $110,292, compared to $63,907 for the state. The poverty rate was 5.9 percent, compared to 11.3 percent for the entire state.[8]
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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.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Peter Kurzenhauser' 'Fairfax County Public Schools'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia
- Fairfax County Public Schools elections (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
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "List of Candidates," September 9, 2015
- ↑ Kurzenhauser for School Board, "About Pete," accessed October 14, 2015
- ↑ Fairfax County Public Schools, "School Board: Overview," May 14, 2015
- ↑ Virginia State Board of Elections, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed October 27, 2015
- ↑ Fairfax County Republican Committee, "2015 Elections," accessed October 12, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Kurzenhauser for School Board, "Issues," accessed October 14, 2015
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 United States Census Bureau, "Fairfax County, Virginia," accessed January 27, 2015
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed April 22, 2014
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "Election Results," accessed September 9, 2015
