Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff
2018 - Present
2026
6
Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff is a member of the Poway Unified Board of Education in California, representing Trustee Area D. She assumed office in 2018. Her current term ends on December 11, 2026.
O'Connor-Ratcliff ran for re-election to the Poway Unified Board of Education to represent Trustee Area D in California. She won in the general election on November 8, 2022.
O'Connor-Ratcliff was previously an at-large member on the board from 2014 to 2018.
Elections
2022
See also: Poway Unified School District, California, elections (2022)
General election
General election for Poway Unified Board of Education Trustee Area D
Incumbent Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff defeated Janet Bremseth in the general election for Poway Unified Board of Education Trustee Area D on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff (Nonpartisan) | 65.1 | 8,155 |
 | Janet Bremseth (Nonpartisan) | 34.9 | 4,373 | |
| Total votes: 12,528 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2018
General election
General election for Poway Unified Board of Education Trustee Area D
Incumbent Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff defeated Stanley Rodkin in the general election for Poway Unified Board of Education Trustee Area D on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff (Nonpartisan) | 65.5 | 7,866 |
| Stanley Rodkin (Nonpartisan) | 34.5 | 4,143 | |
| Total votes: 12,009 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2014
Three at-large seats on the Poway Unified School District Board of Education were up for general election on November 4, 2014. Incumbents Marc Davis and Todd Gutschow ran against challengers Charles Sellers, John P. Riley, Katie Newbanks, Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff, T.J. Zane and Jeannie Foulkrod. O'Connor-Ratcliff, Sellers and Zane won election to the board by defeating Davis, Gutschow, Newbanks and Foulkrod.
Results
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan |  Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff |
16.9% | 19,921 | |
| Nonpartisan | Charles Sellers |
14.4% | 16,921 | |
| Nonpartisan | T.J. Zane |
14.4% | 16,958 | |
| Nonpartisan | John P. Riley | 12.5% | 14,680 | |
| Nonpartisan | Todd Gutschow Incumbent | 12.1% | 14,294 | |
| Nonpartisan | Marc Davis Incumbent | 11.5% | 13,511 | |
| Nonpartisan | Katie Newbanks | 9.2% | 10,837 | |
| Nonpartisan | Jeannie Foulkrod | 9.1% | 10,663 | |
| Total Votes | 117,785 | |||
| Source: San Diego County Registrar of Voters, "Gubernatorial General Election," accessed December 23, 2014 | ||||
Finanzierung
O'Connor-Ratcliff reported $12,749.00 in contributions and $138.88 in miscellaneous cash increases to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters. She also reported $7,715.18 in expenditures, leaving her campaign with $5,172.70 cash on hand as of October 18, 2014.[1]
Endorsements
O'Connor-Ratcliff received endorsements from the following organizations:[2][3][4][5]
- San Diego County Democratic Party
- San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council
- Poway School Employees Association
- Service Employees International Union
- Evolve
She also received endorsements from a number of local officials, educators, community leaders and school board members, including Poway Unified School District board member Kimberley Beatty.[6] A list of her supporters can be found here.
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2014
O'Connor-Ratcliff highlighted the following issues on her campaign website:
| " | Michelle’s Promise to A.C.T. The ultimate goal of all the following priorities is to increase the quality of education our children receive. When we bring the community into the process, everyone wins. Our district has big issues to deal with that could significantly impact our kids’ education. The stakes are too high to continue with “business as usual.” I’m running for School Board to bring positive change for our kids and our whole community. I will A.C.T. to bring more A-accountability, C-communication, and T-transparency to our district. More ACCOUNTABILITY means the district must publicly report, explain, and be answerable for consequences of its decisions. I will call for:
More COMMUNICATION means the district must increase community engagement efforts and provide more information and more opportunities for input.
More TRANSPARENCY means the district must make important information more accessible to the public, i.e., easier to find and understand.
Community involvement, trust, and support are critical to ensuring student success. I believe that with these improvements, our district will become stronger and our kids will be more successful. I have several other important priorities that do not fit easily into one of the above categories. I believe we must also:
California schools have loaned billions to the state, interest free, since 2007 and we are at the bottom in the nation in per student funding– 21% below the national average! This travesty hurts our schools and our children, resulting in basic classroom supplies being paid for by teachers out of their own pockets, the largest class sizes in the nation, and losses of important school programs like student support services, sports, physical education, performing and fine arts, librarians, school nurses, counseling services, and after school programs. Even with the new focus on community input for our district’s spending priorities through a Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), we can only do so much with limited resources. But just think what we could accomplish if our average per pupil funding increased 21% to the national average. As a school board member, I will pursue increased education funding from the state at every opportunity. We can’t afford not to.
Although capital appreciation bond (CAB) “deals” like the one our School Board approved in 2011 are now illegal thanks to recent state legislation, PUSD taxpayers not yet born are still responsible for our district’s $1 billion CAB repayment. In fact, 69% of households within our school district boundaries are on the hook. This billion dollar payback cannot stand. I will pursue solutions to this problem until we find a way to reduce our district’s total borrowing costs substantially. This will involve soliciting ideas from many sources, including our own community members, some of whom may be experts in this area with ideas the district has yet to think of and solutions not previously utilized. My work as a Deputy Legislative Counsel in Sacramento writing legislation provided the expertise I need to work with our district’s state representatives to pursue a legislative remedy if necessary. Whatever the avenue, I will continue to seek solutions to the CAB problem and the systemic failures that led to the CAB in the first place.
After parents, PUSD’s excellent teachers and support staff make the single biggest positive impact on our children’s education. These committed employees have lost many opportunities to increase their levels of expertise due to cutbacks in State funding. Teachers tell me that they miss the opportunities that used to exist for collaboration and collegial dialogue with their grade level and subject area colleagues across the district. They are frustrated with “reinventing the wheel”and need increased opportunities to share their expertise, curriculum, and best practices with one another. They want continued focused training around effective teaching of the Common Core standards and need more materials to support these new standards. They also feel strongly about reducing class size so that they can increase opportunities to individualize challenge and enrich instruction for their students. I plan to regularly visit schools throughout the district to assess their ongoing and ever-changing needs by talking directly to the teachers and staff and soliciting their continuing input.
As a parent of a special needs child, I am very committed to making sure his education and that of all challenged students is the best it can be. Three years ago, my son’s autism diagnosis threw us for a loop. It came with a hefty dose of helplessness and uncertainty. After our first IEP meeting, I realized how much I didn’t understand. There’s nothing like personal experience to direct your priorities, and ensuring the high quality of our school district’s special education programs, teachers, aides, and parent support resources has become very important to me—not just for me and my son, but for all families who have children affected by a disability.[7] |
” |
| —Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff's campaign website (2014)[8] | ||
See also
2022 Elections
External links
|
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ San Diego County Registrar of Voters, "Campaign Finance Disclosure Search," accessed October 27, 2014
- ↑ San Diego County Democratic Party, "Endorsed Democratic Candidates," accessed October 27, 2014
- ↑ San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, "November 2014 Endorsements," accessed October 27, 2014
- ↑ UT San Diego, "Bond debt dominates Poway school board race," October 13, 2014
- ↑ Evolve, "Endorsements: November 04, 2014 Election," accessed October 27, 2014
- ↑ Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff for Poway Unified School Board, "Michelle’s Endorsements," accessed October 27, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff for Poway Unified School Board, "Issues," accessed September 29, 2014
