Ballotpedia's 2018 school board election coverage plan

Welcome to Ballotpedia’s one-stop source for information about the 2018 school board elections. On this page you can find comprehensive, unbiased coverage of candidates and elections, including links to every state’s general election page on Ballotpedia and unique election reporting.

If you have any questions about school board elections, please contact Mandy Gillip.

Click here for an index of all School Board related Ballotpedia reports.

Our coverage

In 2018, Ballotpedia covered school board elections in 402 of America's school districts. There were 945 school board seats up for grabs across 26 states. Collectively, these districts served 12,128,279 students during the 2015-2016 school year—approximately 24.6 percent of all public school students in the U.S.^[1]^[2]

Click here for a list of school board elections by state.

Battleground 2018 school board elections

The election in Detroit Public Schools Community School District was held in the midst of elevated levels of lead and copper being found in the district's water supply. The district switched to bottled water instead of water fountains at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, and the school's board and superintendent faced long-term decisions about how to cover the increased cost of this method of water supply.^[3] Incumbent Deborah Hunter-Harvill and retired nurse Corletta Vaughn won the two seats up for election.

Broward County Public Schools in Florida also held elections for five of nine seats on its school board.^[4] Among the 15 candidates who made the ballot were two parents—Lori Alhadeff and Ryan Petty—who each lost a child in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February.^[5] In the wake of the shooting, school safety and the intervention-based program PROMISE became critical issues in the race.^[4] Incumbent Ann Murray, Alhadeff, Laurie Rich Levinson, incumbent Nora Rupert, and incumbent Donna Pilger Korn won the five seats on the board.

In Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland, chief executive officer Kevin Maxwell announced he was stepping down from that role in May 2018, leaving the school board to approve of the CEO appointed by the county executive.^[6] Parents expressed concern with the transparency of the school board, distribution of resources, failing facilities, and alleged grade fixing.^[6]^[7] Joshua Thomas defeated incumbent Lupi Grady in District 2. Newcomer Pamela Boozer-Strother won the open District 3 seat. Belinda Queen defeated incumbent Carolyn Boston in District 6, while incumbent Sonya Williams won re-election to District 9.

The races for four seats on the District of Columbia State Board of Education were called "symbolic battlegrounds over the future of public education" by the Washington Post. They saw over $150,000 poured into them. By August, the candidates had received more in contributions than candidates received in the full election cycle in the previous school board election. Although former D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty took away most of the board's power in 2007 and placed the appointment of most education positions in the hands of the mayor, the city council considered in 2018 whether to remove some of that authority from the mayor's office.^[8] Emily Gasoi won the open Ward 1 seat, incumbent Ruth Wattenberg won re-election to Ward 3, Zachary Parker won the open Ward 5 seat, and Jessica Sutter defeated incumbent Joe Weedon in Ward 6.

In Pinellas County Schools in Florida, 13 candidates filed for the four seats up in 2018, including three of the four incumbents whose terms were up in 2018. Incumbents Terry Krassner and Peggy O'Shea lost their bids for re-election to the At-Large District 2 and 3 seats to Jeff Larsen and Nicole Carr, respectively. Rene Flowers won re-election to her District 7 seat and Bill Dudley won the open seat in District 6. The school board was under critical examination after an investigation of the board and district was published in 2015. According to the report, five elementary schools in the district produced students who were failing standardized tests. The investigation tied these students' struggles to a 2007 decision the board made impacting the student composition at district schools.

Our candidate pages

There are two types of candidates: current officials who are running for office and new candidates who do not currently hold an office we cover on Ballotpedia. We strive to provide you, our reader, with the following information for all candidates:

Clear biographical information, including education
Who the candidate is running against and when the election will be held
Photo of the candidate
Campaign logo
Campaign themes
Campaign finance information
Endorsements
Links to candidate campaign website and social media profiles (where available)
Election results

Signature filing deadlines

A mixture of states and counties set deadlines for when local candidates must declare for election. Once the filing deadline passes, the state or county will verify signatures and issue an official list of candidates document. The timing of a document like this varies for each state and county. Some states and counties immediately release a document that is an unofficial list of candidates —meaning it could contain some candidates who ultimately either withdraw or are disqualified prior to the primary. In these situations, Ballotpedia staff added links to these lists and added names of candidates to election pages within one month of the list being released. Profiles were then built for the final list of candidates.

However, in other situations, states and counties did not release any compiled list of candidates until weeks or even months have elapsed past the deadline. In these situations, Ballotpedia staff worked to build as many candidates profiles as possible based on news reports and direct contact with candidates and government offices.

Primary elections

As each primary took place, Ballotpedia staff indicated the winners and losers within 24 hours of the primary. Candidates in a primary then had an election box added to their profile.

Example: Jon DiPietro

Following the primary, the district's election overview page was updated to indicate which candidates would appear in the general election. The timing of the results varied by state and county.

Example: Manchester School District elections (2017)

General elections

See also: List of school board elections in 2018

As each general election took place, Ballotpedia staff updated election overview pages with check marks () to indicate the winner of each race. Election result boxes were then added to the candidate and election overview pages once official results became available.

Original analysis

Throughout the election season, Ballotpedia staff created analysis pages and articles regarding the school board races. For example:

Post-election news reports highlighting the most competitive races and detailing what was at stake in each race, with a particular emphasis on the November general election