Hall Pass: Your Ticket to Understanding School Board Politics, Edition #121

Welcome to Hall Pass, the newsletter that keeps you plugged into the conversations driving school board politics and education policy.

In today’s edition, you’ll find:

• On the issues: The debate over closing underperforming schools
• School board filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications
• DeSantis, Florida Democratic Party issue dueling school board candidate endorsements in Aug. 20 primaries
• Extracurricular: education news and numbers from around the web
• Candidate Connection survey

Reply to this email to share reactions or story ideas!

On the issues: The debate over closing underperforming schools

In this section, we curate reporting, analysis, and commentary on the issues school board members deliberate when they set out to offer the best education possible in their district. Missed an issue? Click here to see the previous education debates we’ve covered.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), districts closed 755 schools—or about .77% of all K-12 public schools—during the 2021-22 school year, the most recent year for which data are available. Districts close schools for a variety of reasons, including declining enrollment or academic underperformance.

Mary Ellen Flannery writes that school closures harm students, families, and communities—especially those with fewer economic resources. Flannery says school closures make transportation issues worse, harm students’ attendance and performance, and hurt local economies (especially in rural districts where schools are large employers). She says it’s better to expand support and funding for struggling schools.

Michael J. Petrilli writes that school closures are not always bad for students and are sometimes necessary to promote equitable education. Petrilli says closures can benefit poorer students and reduce achievement gaps if they are relocated to better schools. He says helping disadvantaged students move from underperforming schools to higher-performing schools should be a focus of educational policy.

How Educators Are Stopping School Closures | Mary Ellen Flannery, NEA Today

“In both places, board members said they were trying to save money. But at what cost to Black and brown students, educators and parents asked. The efforts to close their schools have been traumatizing to students, and they mask the solutions that educators know would really help their schools and students. … When neighborhood schools close, whether it’s in urban or rural communities, students are forced to attend schools farther from their homes. The new distance—plus the trauma of displacement—can affect student attendance and performance. … Parents, especially from lower-income families without reliable transportation, also face challenges in getting to their children’s schools. This curtails their opportunities to volunteer in classrooms or attend after-school plays or sporting events—or even parent-teacher conferences. Closures also affect the health of communities. In rural areas, they may be the biggest employer. … Instead of closing schools, educators say school boards should invest in community schools that focus on what students in the community truly need to succeed, such as free meals, after-school, mental-health supports, etc.”

The case for closing underenrolled, low-performing schools | Michael J. Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

“Do students suffer when their schools are closed—either for low performance, as occasionally happened in the No Child Left Behind era, or for underenrollment? … [I]t depends on whether the affected students land in higher-performing schools. If so, they tend to do better, at least in the long run. If not, they do worse. … So what should the equity-minded school board member or superintendent do, in the face of this challenging and fraught situation? Rather than promise that school closures won’t disproportionately affect low-income communities or communities of color, promise that all affected students will have access to higher-performing schools. In other words, promise that, by closing schools, students will be better off than they are now, especially low-income students and students of color. … Closing schools is a wrenching process, but ensuring that our most disadvantaged students land in more effective environments than they attend today is more than a silver lining. It should be the overriding goal, one that can narrow achievement gaps if done right. That’s real equity.”

School board update: filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications

This year, Ballotpedia will cover elections for over 11,000 school board seats across more than 30 states. We’re expanding our coverage each year with our eye on the country’s more 80,000 school board seats.

Upcoming school board elections

Except for Memphis-Shelby County Schools, the largest district in Tennessee, the districts on the list above held partisan primaries on March 5. School board elections in the Memphis-Shelby County Schools district, however, are nonpartisan.

one of five states—including Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia—where state law allows for both partisan and nonpartisan school board elections, depending on the circumstances. In Tennessee, due to a law enacted in 2021, local political parties may nominate candidates to run in partisan primaries and general elections. In four states, school board candidates run in partisan elections only. More than 90% of school boards are nonpartisan.

Minnesota

Ballotpedia will cover the nonpartisan primary for Minneapolis Board of Education At-large on Aug. 13 in Minnesota. Three candidates are running in the election—incumbent Kim Ellison, Elena Condos, and Shayla Owodunni. Ellison was first elected in 2012.

The two candidates who receive the most votes will advance to the Nov. 5 general election.

Minneapolis Public Schools is the third-largest in Minnesota, with an estimated enrollment of around 29,000 students.

Oklahoma

Ballotpedia will cover a special general election runoff in Oklahoma on Aug. 27 for a seat on the Sequoyah Public Schools school board. Greg Perry and Lyndsey Young are running in the election. Perry and Young ran in the April 2 special general election, but a lawsuit over voting irregularities resulted in a new election date. Preliminary vote tallies showed Perry with 225 votes to Young’s 222.

After reviewing the voter registries, Young challenged the results, which revealed 10 irregular votes due to a mixture of out-of-district voters and one person voting twice.

On April 11, District Court Judge Lara Russell upheld Young’s challenge. Election officials sent a letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) the following day requesting a new election be held on Aug. 27.

In her order, Russell cited a 1991 Oklahoma Supreme Court case, Jackson v. Maley, which established that a court may order a redo election if the number of irregular votes is larger than the margin of victory. Click here to read about noteworthy redo elections.

Sequoyah Public Schools is located northeast of Tulsa and has an estimated student population of 1,300 students.

DeSantis, Florida Democratic Party issue dueling school board candidate endorsements in Aug. 20 primaries

With Florida’s Aug. 20 school board primaries around the corner, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) have endorsed candidates in the nonpartisan elections. In some cases, DeSantis and the FDP have backed competing candidates.

According to a WFUT analysis of Florida election data: “Fifty-five Florida counties currently have school boards where the majority of members are registered Republicans. Democrats hold just 11, four of which could flip red this fall.” WFUT identified districts in the counties of Jefferson, Volusia, Osceola, Hillsborough, and St. Lucie as the ones that could gain Republican majorities this year.

In Florida, each county constitutes a school district. School board elections take place every two years in even-numbered years.

It has become more common in recent years for governors and other state executive officials to wade into local school board elections. In 2023, Ballotpedia identified 31 state executive officials or candidates for those offices in nine states who made 111 school board endorsements. In 2022, eight officials or candidates in four states endorsed 109 candidates.

• DeSantis endorsed 23 candidates on July 19, saying they had “pledged to serve with a focus on student success, parental rights, and curriculum transparency.” This is the third consecutive year that DeSantis has endorsed school board candidates. DeSantis endorsed candidates in fourteen districts. DeSantis is the first state executive official to endorse school board candidates this election cycle. In February 2023, DeSantis released a list of school board incumbents he planned to help unseat in 2024.
• The FDP backed 11 candidates on July 26. Chair Nikki Fried said, “Our Take Back Local program is our way of investing in the candidates we feel will be most competitive in the upcoming election. We are not going to let Ron DeSantis and his allies take over our school boards with far-right, Moms for Liberty candidates.”

In Florida, if two or more candidates run for a school board seat, a nonpartisan primary election is held. A candidate who gets a simple majority of votes (50% + 1 vote) in the primary election, they are elected to office outright, provided no write-in candidate qualifies for the general election. If no candidate gets a majority, the two candidates with the most votes advance to a general election.

In three districts—Duval County Public Schools, Hillsborough County Public Schools, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools—DeSantis and the FDP backed competing candidates.

Here’s a look at the candidates DeSantis and the FDP have endorsed.

Duval County Public Schools District 7

Melody Bolduc and Sarah Mannion are running in the Aug. 20 primary. DeSantis endorsed Bolduc, while the FDP endorsed Mannion. In 2022, two DeSantis-backed candidates won seats on the board, giving Republicans a 4-3 majority.

Bolduc has 24 years of teaching experience. According to her website, Bolduc “wants to keep politics out of the classroom. Children should be taught how to think, not what to think. We must immerse our children in high level activities, engage them in mathematical and scientific reasoning with a strong emphasis on reading, writing, and critical thinking.”

Mannion is an attorney. According to her website, she has served on parent-teacher associations and school advisory boards. She says she is “committed to using her experience working with teachers, school administrators, and families to provide a top quality education for our students.”

Overall, four seats are up for election on the Duval County Public Schools school board this year.

Hillsborough County Public Schools District 3

Incumbent Jessica Vaughn and Myosha Powell are running in the Aug. 20 primary. The FDP endorsed Vaugn, while DeSantis endorsed Powell. DeSantis included Vaughn in his 2023 list of incumbents he hoped to unseat.

In 2022, DeSantis and his Democratic gubernatorial opponent, Charlie Crist, issued dueling endorsements for candidates running for Hillsborough County Public Schools school board. DeSantis and Crist had mixed success in those races.

Vaughn was first elected to the board in 2020. Vaughn is running on her record, which includes “student safety, prioritizing student achievement, empowering teachers and employees, transparency, parental access, rebuilding trust, equity/equality for all and fiscal responsibility.”

Powell’s website says she decided to run “after attending several school board meetings and seeing the disregard, antagonization, and condescension parents were met with by school board members,” and that “it was clear that parents had few allies on the board.”

Four seats are up for election this year.

Hillsborough County Public Schools District 1

Incumbent Nadia Combs, Layla Collins, and Julie Magill are running in the Aug. 20 primary. Magill completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey. The FDP endorsed Combs, while DeSantis endorsed Collins.

Combs was first elected in 2020. On her website, she lists the following priorities: “hiring, retaining, and training,” “early learning,” “technical and vocational training,” and “fiscal responsibility.”

Collins’ priorities include restoring “public trust and accountability,” empowering “parental control in education” and engaging “in parental involvement,” and working “to enhance skilled workforce training.”

Miami-Dade County Public Schools District 7

Incumbent Mary Blanco, Javier Perez, and Max Tuchman are running in the Aug. 20 primary. DeSantis endorsed Blanco and the FDP endorsed Tuchman.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools is the third-largest district in the country and the largest in Florida.

According to Axios’ Sommer Brugal, “Miami-Dade’s School Board became decisively conservative with the election of two Gov. Ron DeSantis-backed candidates in 2022 and two of his appointees who joined later.”

DeSantis appointed Blanco to the board in 2023. Blanco’s platform includes prioritizing “school safety for children, teachers, and school employees,” promoting “parental rights and transparency in school curriculum and textbooks, grades K-12, and ensuring “students with special needs receive the best services and secure funding for all District 7 schools and programs.”

Tuchman’s platform includes investing “in early childhood education,” increasing “parental involvement in the classroom,” “improving student safety both in school and online,” and better preparing “students for the jobs of the future.”

Five seats are on the ballot this year.

In November, Florida residents will decide Amendment 1, which would make school board elections partisan beginning in 2026. Click here to learn more.

Ballotpedia is covering school board elections in 25 Florida districts on Aug. 20. General elections are scheduled for Nov. 5.

Extracurricular: education news from around the web

This section contains links to recent education-related articles from around the internet. If you know of a story we should be reading, reply to this email to share it with us!

• DOJ asks Supreme Court to partially restore Biden Title IX rule in Republican-led states | The Hill
• Court OKs Florida school board to interrogate 7-year-old student in book ban litigation | Tallahassee Democrat
• Private School Enrollment Is on the Rise. What’s Going On? | Education Week
• Harris Could Set Democrats’ K–12 Agenda By Reviving Ideas from 2020 | The 74
• What could a Vice President Vance do to advance rural and small town education? | Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Inside Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s support for private school vouchers | Spotlight PA
• Boise weighs updates to suicide prevention policy | Idaho Ed News
• Lawmakers propose decade-long plan to reduce Nebraska K-12 property tax rates | Nebraska Examiner
• Backers of school choice, sentencing initiatives submit signatures for Colorado’s November ballot | The Denver Gazette

Take our Candidate Connection survey to reach voters in your district

Today, we’re looking at survey responses from Heather Felton and Mark Stanoch, two of three candidates running in the Aug. 20 primary for Manatee County School District school board District 1, in Florida. Two seats on the Manatee County School District school board are up for election this year.

Alex Garner is also running in the election, but had not submitted a survey as of this writing.

The Manatee County School District is the 15th largest district in the state, with an approximate student enrollment of 51,000 students.

Here’s how Felton answered the question, “What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?”

“My passion is for ensuring a safe, supportive, and enriching public education for ALL Manatee County students. I want the rights of ALL parents and their children to be the focus.

As people often ask, I am opposed to the rampant banning of books. Books should be age and grade level appropriate and not every book should be available for every child. Parents should have – and always have had – the right to determine what is available to their own children.

I am a determined moderate and my focus is the kids – not the politics.”

Here’s how Stanoch answered the question, “What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?”

“I am a strong advocate of Parental Rights. I believe that public schools must engage with parents in the delivery of instruction. Teachers should always communicate with parents in discussing their concerning with their child’s behavior. I am also a strong advocate of charter schools. These schools do not have the same construction requirements as public schools and are therefore much less costly to build. So, charter schools are a low-cost alternative to addressing the overcrowding issues currently plaguing our schools. And charter schools provide a wonderful opportunity of enhancing the curricula currently being offered.”

If you’re a school board candidate or incumbent, click here to take the survey. If you’re not running for school board, but there is an election in your community this year, share the link with the candidates and urge them to take the survey!