Jody Bayless

Jody Bayless

Jody Bayless was a candidate for the District 6 seat on the San Antonio Board of Trustees in Texas. He was defeated in the general election on May 9, 2015.

Bayless participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. To read his responses, check out his 2015 campaign themes.

Elections

2015

See also: San Antonio Independent School District elections (2015)

The general election on May 9, 2015, in the San Antonio Independent School District featured three seats up for election. In the District 2 race, incumbent James Howard faced Jason Mims. District 6 incumbent Olga Hernandez competed against three challengers: Jody Bayless, Scott Meltzer and David Soto. Incumbent Patti Radle was unopposed in District 5. All three incumbents were ultimately re-elected.

Results

San Antonio Independent School District, District 6 General Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Olga Hernandez Incumbent	52.1%	1,316
	Nonpartisan	Scott Meltzer	36.2%	915
	Nonpartisan	David Soto	7%	177
	Nonpartisan	Jody Bayless	4.7%	120
Total Votes				2,528
Source: Bexar County Clerk, "Joint City and School Election May 9, 2015: Official Results," accessed June 1, 2015

Funding

Bayless reported no contributions but $152.80 in expenditures to the Texas Ethics Commission, which left his campaign with $152.80 in debt as of May 1, 2015.

Texas school board candidates and officeholders must file semiannual reports, which were due on January 15, 2015, and July 15, 2015. In addition, candidates in contested elections were required to file 30-day and 8-day pre-election reports, unless the candidate chose modified reporting.

Candidates in contested elections who did not intend to exceed $500 in contributions or expenditures, excepting filing fees, were eligible for modified reporting. If they exceeded the threshold before the 30th day prior to the election, candidates were required to submit the 30- and 8-day reports. If they exceeded the threshold after the 30th day prior to the election, they were required to file a report within 48 hours of exceeding the threshold and participate in regular reporting for the rest of the election cycle.

Endorsements

Bayless did not receive any official endorsements for this election.

Campaign themes

2015

Ballotpedia survey responses

Bayless 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:

“	I have a vision. I have a vision that that one day, one day soon, all of the students, teachers and personnel involved in the education of our children, will have an educational passion that will impact them to get up in the morning and run to the school house and fest at the table of learning. How will that happen? When the needs of the students have become the focus and are being met, after all,,,,this institution is For the Children and For the Children it does exist. Please note; I didn’t say the "wants" of the children...but their needs. Their needs of learning, security, belonging, safety, etc. These are the natural needs of each and every human being and if our needs are not being met, we tend to reject. These needs encompass the total being; physically, mentally, socially and spiritually. How can we meet those needs? Create an environmental atmosphere that is safe and accepting by revisiting our "Code of conduct" and upholding it as a nonnegotiable, rock solid document. Every day in our school you can hear and see this document not being adhered to; creating an unstable environment for learning which affects learning outcomes presently and in the future. One BIG example is the usage of personal technology at school. Cell phones are used throughout the school day and a teachers instruction is often replaced by ear buds, ear phones as well as rapping ruin and Utube entertainment. Also, any time of the day you can drive by many of our secondary campuses and see students who have elected to hang out outside the school building instead of being in the classroom learning abhorring state compulsory education laws.	”
—Jody Bayless (2015)

Bayless also included the following statement with his responses:

“	I have worked side by side with some very awesome educational professionals who take their careers very seriously and uphold the code of conduct created by the district and do not sway from it and teach their curriculum every day. We need to give them the liberty to be creative with the curriculum as they individually find ways to engage the students innovatively in this exciting area of life called education. These heart driven teachers need to honored and rightfully compensated for impacting the student's lives with a quality education lending to the value of education. I also believe we need to bring in a tool to maintain positive proactive administration at every campus to be accountable for their decisions as administrators. A evaluation tool that is implemented by educators, students, parents and district administration. Though it takes the whole team to educate a child, it also takes leaders starting at the school level to step up and be the leaders they have been hired to be. When all of the needs of the students have been met what will be the results? Student and educators and all of the school personnel will run to school each day because the value of education will rise…rise to the importance that it is, For The Children. Scores and learning percentage outcomes will naturally rise and the state and end of course tests will no longer be a dread but a welcome challenge because learning has progressively occurred from primary through secondary levels. Self-esteem will rise, For the Children. Attendance will rise, For the Children. Drop out rates will be nonexistent, For the Children. Communities, parents, higher education entities, and businesses will want to become involved, For the Children. As a SAISD School Board Trustee…I will represent the community including parents presenting their concerns as we evolve into a national model urban school district. Is our school district going there? It has come a long way in the past 25 years. We have some amazing new programs and several updated facilities. At the parent Summit I attended last week, I heard of some amazing new programs that have been recently implemented, including the magnet schools that generate more specific directions for the student's futures, and programs that give students vision by promoting college and skills certifications for the job market. We have to keep moving forward and revamp our underlying structures of procedures and classroom management providing for the children attending to their needs and encouraging the teachers to keep increasing the momentum moving forward. We all need a solid foundation so we can be successful and sense security along the way, For the Children. I bring to this board innovative ideas and a passion that is completely focused, For the Children.	”
—Jody Bayless (2015)

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 Texas.
Education on the ballot

Issue importance ranking
Candidate's ranking	Issue
1	Improving college readiness
2	Closing the achievement gap
3	Expanding career-technical education
4	Balancing or maintaining the district's budget
5	Improving education for special needs students
6	Expanding school choice options
7	Expanding arts education

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
What is your stance on implementing Common Core standards?	"Should be implemented."
Should your district approve the creation of new charter schools?	"No."
Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system?	"Yes."
Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement?	"Yes but not the only metric and should not be the only criteria for promotion or academic achievement."
How can the district ensure equal opportunities for high and low achieving students?	"At the beginning of each year, I believe each school should evaluate each student to see where they are in each area of their personal education, pertaining to their previous year's grade level. Then, based on a level system they can meet each student's academic needs ranging from high to low with a few number of levels in between. The higher level students can then be challenged more to higher learning areas and challenges, while the students who need remedial assistance to achieve may concentrate on the areas they need to work on to gain the achievement they need before they go to higher levels. In this way all of the children will have the basis to move on to a higher grade level with a stronger foundation at each grade level."
How should expulsion be used in the district?	"Students with behavior problems should be sent to alternative schools to remove them from their current environments rather than being expelled."
If a school is failing in your district, what steps should the school board take to help the students in that school?	"The board needs to work closely with the superintendent to require the administration of the school that is failing should stand up and evaluate each of the areas of the school and look for weaknesses; teacher's qualifications, lesson delivery, classroom management, student centered curriculum, etc. i believe the problem is not with the students as they come to school wanting to learn but what are the obstacles from making this happen? If the administration cannot not fix the problem and there is no growth, then administration needs to move on to another campus or eliminated and replaced with qualified personnel. NOT revamp the whole school, eliminating educators who are on the front line every day to serve the needs of the students."
Do you support merit pay for teachers?	"I believe the teachers that continue on their contract with a district from year to year should be earn a significant percentage raises every year."
How should the district handle underperforming teachers?	"Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district."
How would you work to improve community-school board relations?	"Invite the community at every chance and have special events where they are the focus i.e. parent summits, which are district has recently began to implement and they have been very successful. I have attended all of the summits and the attendees have been very positive and the community is embracing these events as a way to be an integral part of the educational system in our district."

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Jody Bayless San Antonio Independent School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Jody Bayless - Google News

See also

• San Antonio Independent School District, Texas
• San Antonio Independent School District elections (2015)
• Decreased success for school board incumbents in Texas; 1/3 defeated in largest districts (May 11, 2015)

External links

Suggest a link

• San Antonio Independent School District