Arlington Public Schools elections (2017)
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One of the five seats on the Arlington Public Schools school board in Virginia was up for at-large general election on November 7, 2017. Incumbent James Lander did not file to run for re-election, which left the seat open for a newcomer. Alison Priscilla Dough, Monique O’Grady, and Mike Webb ran for the seat, and O'Grady won the election.[1]
The 2017 election continued a four-cycle district election trend of adding at least one new member to the board. For information on election trends in the district and the state, click here.
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Arlington school board consists of five members elected to four-year terms. Elections are held at large on a staggered basis every year in November. Two seats were up for election on November 8, 2016, and one seat was up for election on November 7, 2017.[2][3]
To qualify as school board candidates, interested parties had to be at least 18 years old, U.S. citizens, and residents of Virginia for at least one year prior to the election. To get on the ballot, candidates had to file nomination paperwork with their county election office by June 13, 2017.[4][5]
To vote in this election, citizens of the school district had to register by October 16, 2017.[6] Photo identification was required to vote in Virginia.[7]
Candidates and results
At-large
Results
| Arlington Public Schools, At-large General Election, 4-year term, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Monique O’Grady |
70.35% | 50,734 |
| Mike Webb | 17.55% | 12,659 |
| Alison Priscilla Dough | 10.30% | 7,427 |
| Write-in votes | 1.8% | 1,296 |
| Total Votes | 72,116 | |
| Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2017 November General," accessed November 21, 2017 | ||
Candidates
| Alison Priscilla Dough | Monique O’Grady 
|
Mike Webb | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Virginia elections, 2017
The Arlington school board election shared the ballot with elections for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and the 45th, 47th, 48th, and 49th Districts of the Virginia House of Delegates. It also shared the ballot with elections for seats on the Arlington County Board.[1]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for Virginia school board elections in 2017:[6]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| June 13, 2017 | Candidate filing deadline |
| October 16, 2017 | Voter registration deadline |
| November 7, 2017 | General election |
Endorsements
The Arlington Education Association Political Action Committee, Blue Virginia, the Arlington Sun Gazette, and the Arlington Democratic Party endorsed Monique O’Grady.[8][9][10][11]
Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Campaign finance
Candidates received a total of $54,798.69 and spent a total of $52,957.66 in the election, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.[12]
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alison Priscilla Dough | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Monique O’Grady | $34,535.53 | $32,770.86 | $1,764.67 |
| Mike Webb | $20,263.16 | $20,186.80 | $76.36 |
Filing schedule
The following table details the filing schedule for campaign finance reports for school board candidates in Virginia who ran in a general election on November 7, 2017. The left column details the time period covered for each report, and the right column details the report's due date.[13]
Past elections
To see results from past elections in Arlington Public Schools, click here.
What was at stake?
Report a story for this election
Ballotpedia researches issues in school board elections across the United States, but information availability is a challenge for us in many school districts. Please contact us about the issues that impact your local school district. Note that not all submissions may meet Ballotpedia's coverage requirements for inclusion.
Candidate survey
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Election trends
The 2017 Arlington school board election mirrored the district's 2015 election in two ways: there were no unopposed seats and no incumbents on the ballot. With three candidates on the ballot, however, the 2017 election attracted more candidates per seat than the 2015 election, which attracted two candidates per seat.
The 2017 election was the fourth election cycle in a row that elected at least one newcomer to the board. The district's 2013 election was the last time incumbents swept the ballot.
| School board election trends | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Candidates per seat | Unopposed seats | Incumbents running for re-election | Incumbent success rate | Seats won by newcomers | |
| Arlington Public Schools | ||||||
| 2017 | 3.00 | 0.00% | 0.00% | N/A | 100.00% | |
| 2016 | 2.00 | 100.00% | 50.00% | 100.00% | 50.00% | |
| 2015 | 2.00 | 0.00% | 0.00% | N/A | 100.00% | |
| 2014 | 1.50 | 50.00% | 50.00% | 100.00% | 50.00% | |
| 2013 | 1.00 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 0.00% | |
| Virginia | ||||||
| 2016 | 1.85 | 19.51% | 63.41% | 84.62% | 46.34% | |
| 2015 | 1.61 | 44.66% | 66.02% | 85.29% | 41.75% | |
| 2014 | 2.16 | 15.63% | 75.00% | 66.67% | 50.00% | |
| United States | ||||||
| 2016 | 1.90 | 34.05% | 71.31% | 82.39% | 41.04% | |
| 2015 | 1.72 | 35.95% | 70.37% | 82.66% | 40.81% | |
| 2014 | 1.89 | 32.57% | 75.51% | 81.31% | 38.24% | |
Issues in the district
Board announces it will consider changing school names
The Arlington school board announced at a school board meeting on August 17, 2017, that it would review all school names in the district and consider changing some of them. The announcement came after protests and violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. A petition asking to change the name of Arlington school district's Washington-Lee High School, which was partially named after Robert E. Lee, had gathered over 200 signatures as of the announcement.[14]
School board Chair Barbara Kanninen said the board would seek community input from a range of voices on the district's school names. She also said the board would work to establish naming criteria for the district.[14]
“Given all this, it is simply clear to us as a Board that now is the time,” said Kanninen. “It’s time to talk about the names of our schools, and what they mean and why they matter. It is time to talk about the values these names reflect and the messages we are sending our children.”[14]
Marc Beallor, a member of the group Indivisible Arlington, spoke in support of changing the name of Washington-Lee High School during the public comment portion of the board meeting. "We must build on the momentum of the current crisis and use this as a teaching moment in Arlington Public Schools,” he said.[14]
Mila Albertson, president of the Washington-Lee Alumni Association, opposed changing Washington-Lee High School's name and said the move to change school names could set a precedent of changing names and flags throughout the state. “The name Washington-Lee is exalted because of its graduates, not because of the two [people] it is named for,” said Albertson.[14]
Board member Reid Goldstein said the board would not make any knee-jerk decisions. “It’s very, very important that we do this right, or we’re going to keep doing this over and over again,” said Goldstein.[14]
The board did not change any school names prior to the 2017 election.
About the district
- See also: Arlington Public Schools, Virginia
The Arlington school district is located in northeastern Virginia in Arlington County. The county seat is Arlington. Arlington County was home to an estimated 230,050 residents in 2015, according to the United States Census Bureau.[15] The district was the 11th-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 24,559 students.[16]
Demographics
Arlington County outperformed the state of Virginia as a whole in terms of higher education achievement in the years 2011 to 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 72.9 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 36.3 percent of state residents. During the same time period, the median household income in Arlington County was $105,763, compared to $65,015 for the entire state. The poverty rate in the county was 7.1 percent, while it was 11.2 percent statewide.[15]
| Racial Demographics, 2015[15] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race | Arlington County (%) | Virginia (%) |
| White | 76.2 | 70.2 |
| Black or African American | 9.2 | 19.7 |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.7 | 0.5 |
| Asian | 10.5 | 6.5 |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Two or More Races | 3.2 | 2.9 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 15.7 | 9.0 |
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 Arlington Public Schools Virginia election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Arlington Public Schools | Virginia | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Arlington County Voting and Elections, "2017 Elections," accessed June 14, 2017
- ↑ Arlington Public Schools, "About the School Board," accessed June 8, 2017
- ↑ Arlington Public Schools, "School Board Members," accessed June 8, 2017
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "Becoming a Candidate," accessed June 8, 2017
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "Certificate Of Candidate Qualification: Local Offices," accessed June 8, 2017
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Virginia Department of Elections, "2017 Election Calendar: Election Deadline Calendar," accessed June 8, 2017
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "In-Person Voting," accessed June 8, 2017
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Monique O’Grady," October 31, 2017
- ↑ Blue Virginia, "My Endorsement for Arlington County School Board: Monique O’Grady," April 23, 2017
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Arlington Democrats pick Gutshall for County Board, O’Grady for School Board," May 13, 2017
- ↑ Arlington Sun Gazette, "Sun Gazette endorses O’Grady, Lopez in political races," September 14, 2017
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "Campaign Finance Reports: Search Committees," accessed January 17, 2018
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "Campaign Committee: 2017 Reporting Deadlines," accessed July 18, 2017
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 ARL Now, "BREAKING: School Board to Consider Changing School Names," August 17, 2017
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 United States Census Bureau, "Quickfacts: Arlington County, Virginia," accessed June 9, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Common Core of Data, file ccd_lea_052_1414_w_0216161a, 2014-2015," accessed November 16, 2016
| Arlington Public Schools elections in 2017 | |
| Arlington County, Virginia | |
| Election date: | November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Alison Priscilla Dough • Monique O’Grady • Mike Webb |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Additional elections on the ballot • Key deadlines |
