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Barrow County School System elections (2016)

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Barrow County School System Elections
Primary election date:
May 24, 2016
General election date:
November 8, 2016
Enrollment (13–14):
13,165 students

Four of the nine seats on the Barrow County Board of Education were up for general election on November 8, 2016. A primary election was held on May 24, 2016. District 8 incumbent Rolando Alvarez (R) defeated challenger John McKay (R) in the primary. Alvarez won without opposition in the general election. In District 6, Republican incumbent Rickey Bailey defeated Democratic challenger Brittany Mayweather in the general election. District 2 incumbent Garey Huff Sr. (R) and District 5 incumbent Lynn Stevens (R) won re-election without opposition.[1]

In September 2016, Barrow County's school board joined other Georgia school districts in opposing a state constitutional amendment dealing with state oversight of failing schools. Learn more about the amendment and school board responses to the amendment here.

Elections

Voter and candidate information

The Barrow County Board of Education consists of nine members elected to four-year terms. Members in Districts 7, 8, and 9 are elected at large, while the other six members are elected by district.

The candidate filing period for Georgia school board candidates lasted from March 7, 2016, to March 11, 2016. Prospective candidates for partisan office submitted declarations of candidacy with their county parties. The voter registration deadline for the primary election was April 26, 2016. County residents were able to register to vote in the general election through October 11, 2016.[2]

The following dates were key deadlines for Georgia's partisan school board elections in 2016:[3]

Deadline Event
March 7, 2016 First day of candidate filing period
March 11, 2016 Candidate filing deadline
April 26, 2016 Voter registration deadline for primary election
May 24, 2016 Primary election
July 26, 2016 Primary runoff election (if necessary)
October 11, 2016 Voter registration deadline for general election
November 8, 2016 General election

Candidates and results

District 2

Results

Barrow County School System,
District 2 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.png Garey Huff Sr. Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 4,313
Total Votes 4,313
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Election November 8, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016
Barrow County School System,
District 2 Republican Primary Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Garey Huff Sr. Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 1,052
Total Votes 1,052
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election May 24, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016

Candidates

Garey Huff Sr. Republican Party Green check mark transparent.png

Placeholder image.png

  • Incumbent

District 5

Results

Barrow County School System,
District 5 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.png Lynn Stevens Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 4,750
Total Votes 4,750
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Election November 8, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016
Barrow County School System,
District 5 Republican Primary Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Lynn Stevens Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 620
Total Votes 620
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election May 24, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016

Candidates

Lynn Stevens Republican Party Green check mark transparent.png

Placeholder image.png

  • Incumbent

District 6

Results

Barrow County School System,
District 6 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.png Rickey Bailey Incumbent 78.15% 3,412
     Democratic Brittany Mayweather 21.85% 954
Total Votes 4,366
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Election November 8, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016
Barrow County School System,
District 6 Republican Primary Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Rickey Bailey Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 968
Total Votes 968
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election May 24, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016
Barrow County School System,
District 6 Democratic Primary Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Brittany Mayweather  (unopposed) 100.00% 52
Total Votes 52
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election May 24, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016

Candidates

Rickey Bailey Republican Party Green check mark transparent.png Brittany Mayweather Democratic Party

Rickey Bailey.jpg

  • Incumbent

Placeholder image.png

District 8

Results

Barrow County School System,
District 8 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.png Rolando Alvarez Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 24,416
Total Votes 24,416
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Election November 8, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016
Barrow County School System,
District 8 Republican Primary Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Rolando Alvarez Incumbent 54.34% 2,579
John McKay 45.66% 2,167
Total Votes 4,746
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election May 24, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016

Candidates

Rolando Alvarez Republican Party Green check mark transparent.png

Placeholder image.png

  • Incumbent

Defeated in the primary

John McKay Republican Party

Placeholder image.png

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Georgia elections, 2016

Georgia's general election ballot featured races for U.S. president, U.S. House and U.S. Senate. This ballot included races for the Georgia State Senate, Georgia House of Representatives, state courts, and county courts.

The May 24 school board election shared the ballot with Georgia's statewide primary. This primary included races for Georgia State Senate, Georgia House of Representatives, and local court seats. Primaries for U.S. House and U.S. Senate seats were on the ballot.

Endorsements

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

See also: List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2016

All candidates in the 2016 election filed as exempt from campaign finance reporting, according to the Barrow County Board of Elections. Georgia candidates are able to file as exempt from reporting if they do not exceed $2,500 in contributions or expenditures during an election.[4]

Past elections

What was at stake?

Election trends

School Board Election Trends Banner.jpg

Barrow County School System surpassed the average number of candidates per seat for Georgia board elections covered by Ballotpedia in 2014. Barrow County's election featured 2.6 candidates per seat, while Georgia school board elections as a whole averaged 1.85 candidates per seat. The 2016 election featured 1.5 candidates per seat with two seats unopposed out of four seats up for election.

School board election trends
Year Candidates per seat Unopposed seats Incumbent success rate Seats won by newcomers
Barrow County School System
2016 1.5 50.00% TBD TBD
2014 2.6 20.00% 50.00% 60.00%
Georgia
2014 1.85 46.56% 86.54% 31.3%
United States
2014 1.89 32.57% 81.31% 38.24%

School board opposition to Amendment 1

School boards throughout Georgia passed resolutions opposing a state constitutional amendment that would have changed how failing schools are governed in the state. Amendment 1, which was up for a yes/no vote on November 8, 2016, would have allowed the state to create an Opportunity School District (OSD) to govern schools given a rating of chronically failing. If approved, the OSD would have been run by a governor-appointed superintendent with the power to directly manage districts, share governance with school boards, or change schools into charter schools. Gov. Nathan Deal (R) and StudentsFirst Georgia supported the measure, while the Georgia Association of Educators and the Georgia Parent-Teacher Association opposed Amendment 1. The measure was defeated on November 8, 2016.

A "yes" vote supported authorizing the state to form an Opportunity School District that would govern certain elementary and secondary schools determined to be "chronically failing."[5]
A "no" vote opposed authorizing the state to form an Opportunity School District that would govern certain elementary and secondary schools determined to be "chronically failing," thereby continuing to have school boards/districts supervise respective schools.[5]

Board members expressed concerns about state intervention in school administration after approving resolutions of opposition. "All this does is take authority away from, not just local school systems, but from local taxpayers and parents," said Barrow County board member Lynn Stevens (R).[6] Cherokee County board chair Kyla Cromer (R) said, "The big part of this in my mind is that as a member of this school board our job is to protect the children of Cherokee County, and I see no benefit in this to them."[7] "Why doesn’t the state give local boards the finances to be able to do the things that they’re saying they can do?" said Newton County board member Almond Turner (D).[7] Richmond County board president Helen Minchew expressed concern about allowing the state to take control over local schools, saying "we have a way of communicating, we visit our schools, we stay in touch, and it's the essence of local control."[8]

The following table lists basic information on resolutions of opposition approved by school boards with November 2016 elections covered by Ballotpedia:

District Resolution date Vote
Barrow County September 13, 2016 7-1[9]
Cherokee County September 1, 2016 7-0[10]
Clayton County September 6, 2016 9-0[11]
Dougherty County September 28, 2016 7-0[12]
Fayette County August 19, 2016 5-0[13]
Newton County June 21, 2016 5-0[14]
Richmond County August 18, 2016 9-0[8]

Proponents of the amendment argued that new solutions were needed for the district's low-performing schools. According to Georgia Leads on Education, 127 Georgia schools were considered to be failing by the Governor's Office of Student Achievement in September 2016. Schools are marked as failing if they received a College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) score that was below 60 in 2013, 2014, and 2015. The state had 181 school districts with over 2,200 schools in the September 2016 report. Dougherty County School System (4) and Richmond County School System (19) were two districts with November 2016 elections that had schools on the list and opposed the amendment. Below is a table showing the official failing schools and their respective districts from September 2016:[15][16][17]

Candidate survey

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About the district

See also: Barrow County School System, Georgia
Barrow County School System is located in Barrow County, Georgia

Barrow County School System is located in Barrow County, Georgia. The county seat of Barrow County is Winder, Georgia. Barrow County was home to 71,453 residents in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau.[18] The district was the 29th-largest school district in the state in the 2013–2014 school year and served 13,165 students.[19]

Demographics

Barrow County underperformed in comparison to the state of Georgia in terms of higher education achievement in 2012. The United States Census Bureau found that 16.6 percent of Barrow County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 27.8 percent for Georgia as a whole. The median household income in Barrow County was $51,202, compared to $49,604 for the state of Georgia. The poverty rate in Barrow County was 13.6 percent, compared to 17.4 percent for the entire state.[18]

Racial Demographics, 2012[18]
Race Barrow County (%) Georgia (%)
White 82.4 62.8
Black or African American 11.5 31.2
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.5 0.5
Asian 3.5 3.5
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.1 0.1
Two or More Races 2.0 1.8
Hispanic or Latino 9.4 9.2

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 'Barrow County School System' 'Georgia'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Barrow County School System elections (2016) - Google News

See also

Barrow County School System Georgia School Boards
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External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "Qualifying Candidate Information," accessed April 18, 2016
  2. ↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "2016 Qualifying: Reference Calendar & Documents," accessed March 11, 2016
  3. ↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "2016 Elections and Voter Registration Calendar," accessed March 11, 2016
  4. ↑ Nick Katers, "Email exchange with Barrow County Elections Supervisor Monica Franklin," October 26, 2016
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Open States, "Senate Resolution 287," accessed April 11, 2016
  6. ↑ Barrow Journal, "BOE joins OSD opposition," September 14, 2016
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Columbia County News-Times, "School boards speak out against OSD amendment," September 18, 2016
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 WorldNow, "Richmond County School Board members call for defeat of "Opportunity School District" bill," August 23, 2016
  9. ↑ Barrow County School System, "Called Board Meeting 9/13/2016 - 6:00 PM," September 13, 2016
  10. ↑ Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Cherokee County Board moves to oppose Deal’s Opportunity Schools," September 26, 2016
  11. ↑ Clayton County Public Schools, "Board Meeting-Tuesday, September 6, 2016," September 6, 2016
  12. ↑ NBC 12, "Dougherty Co. School Board openly opposes OSD," September 28, 2016
  13. ↑ Griffin Journal, "Fayette County opposes schools amendment," August 19, 2016
  14. ↑ Newton County Schools, "Newton Board of Education Adopts Resolution Opposing Governor’s Opportunity School District," June 23, 2016
  15. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named List
  16. ↑ Georgia Department of Education, "Schools and Districts," accessed September 29, 2016
  17. ↑ Georgia Department of Education, "College and Career Ready Performance Index," accessed September 29, 2016
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 United States Census Bureau, "Barrow County, Georgia," accessed May 12, 2014
  19. ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed November 16, 2015
2016 Barrow County School System Elections
Barrow County, Georgia
Election date:November 8, 2016
Candidates:District 2: Incumbent, Garey Huff Sr. (R)

District 5: Incumbent, Lynn Stevens (R)
District 6: Incumbent, Rickey Bailey (R) • Brittany Mayweather (D)

District 8: Incumbent, Rolando Alvarez (R) • John McKay (R)
Important information:What was at stake?
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