California school board elections, 2017

Elections

A total of 17 California school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held elections in 2017 for 51 seats. The elections were scheduled on various dates.

Here are several quick facts about California's school board elections in 2017:

• The largest California school district by enrollment with an election in 2017 was the Los Angeles Unified School District with 646,683 K-12 students in the 2014-2015 school year.
• The smallest California school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2017 was the Redondo Beach Unified School District with 9,364 K-12 students in the 2014-2015 school year.

The districts listed below served 977,484 K-12 students during the 2014-2015 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district names for more information on each one and its school board elections.

2017 California School Board Elections
District	Primary Election	General Election	Runoff Election	Regular term length	Seats up for election	Total board seats	2014-15 enrollment
Redondo Beach Unified School District	N/A	3/7/2017	N/A	4	3	5	9,364
Glendale Unified School District	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	4	3	5	26,168
Inglewood Unified School District	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	4	3	5	13,469
Burbank Unified School District	2/28/2017	4/11/2017	N/A	4	2	5	16,332
Arcadia Unified School District	N/A	4/18/2017	N/A	4	2	5	9,582
Pasadena Unified School District	3/7/2017	4/18/2017	N/A	4	4	7	18,586
Los Angeles Unified School District	3/7/2017	5/16/2017	N/A	4	3	7	646,683
Modesto City Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	4	7	30,228
ABC Unified School District	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	20,998
Ceres Unified School District	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	4	7	13,694
Compton Unified School District	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	4	7	22,106
Downey Unified School District	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	22,698
El Monte Union High School District	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	5	9,388
Fontana Unified School District	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	1	5	39,982
San Bernardino City Unified School District	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	53,365
San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School District	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	5	11,858
Whittier Union High School District	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	5	12,983

November 7 election results

School board incumbents see 91% success rate

A total of 91.3 percent of school board incumbents running for re-election in 10 of California’s largest school districts on November 7, 2017, kept their seats. A total of 43.48 percent won re-election without facing opposition. Newcomers won nearly one-third of the seats on the ballot (32.26 percent).

In 2015—the last time a majority of those 10 districts held elections—81.11 percent of school board incumbents who sought re-election in the state’s largest school districts won new terms. The higher success rate in 2017 is due in part to a higher percentage of uncontested seats. A total of 32.26 percent of seats were uncontested on November 7, 2017, and incumbents won re-election to all of them. A total of 22.95 percent of seats were uncontested in 2015.

Issues

80% of largest school districts scheduled to hold elections in 2017 switch to 2018

Over 80 percent of the largest school districts in California that were scheduled to hold school board elections on November 7, 2017, extended board member terms until November 2018. The process allowed the districts to comply with a 2015 voter participation law that required local election dates to coincide with statewide election dates by November 2022. A majority of the state’s largest school districts already aligned their school board elections with statewide election dates in even-numbered years. Ten of the largest districts held elections in November 2017, down from the 46 that held elections in 2015. Nine of those districts must submit plans to switch their elections to even-numbered years by January 2018 if voter turnout for the November 2017 election was 25 percent less than the average for statewide general elections. The tenth district held a special election for a vacant seat.

School boards pass sanctuary resolutions

See also: Sanctuary policy preemption conflicts between the federal and local governments

California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson called on the state's school districts to set up policies to protect students residing in the country without legal permission in December 2016. The San Francisco Unified and Los Angeles Unified school districts already had such policies on the books, but by February 5, 2017, another seven of the state's 25 largest school districts had also adopted similar policies, and they were joined by a number of smaller school districts throughout the state.

The districts that adopted policies to protect students residing in the country without legal permission used terms such as sanctuary, safe haven, and safe zone and instructed staff to not allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents onto district property without approval from district administration. Virginia Kice, a spokesperson for ICE, said that ICE agents would not request access to schools as they were considered sensitive sites.

The school districts' policies were similar to those of sanctuary cities, which limit the involvement of local officials in the enforcement of federal immigration law. Examples of sanctuary policies include restricting local law enforcement from arresting individuals who violate federal immigration law and prohibiting law enforcement inquiries into a person's immigration status. On January 25, 2017, Trump issued an executive order that introduced penalties for sanctuary cities and made them ineligible for federal grants. The order stated that sanctuary policies "caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our republic."

On January 31, 2017, the California State Senate Public Safety Committee approved SB 54, a bill seeking to create a border-to-border sanctuary throughout California. The committee approved the bill in a 5-2 party-line vote with Democrats in support. It next moved to the Senate Appropriations Committee, which it passed on March 13, 2017. The bill was passed by the Senate with a 27-12 vote on April 3, 2017, and moved to the Assembly, where it was approved by 51-26 vote on September 15, 2017. California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed the bill into law on October 5, 2017. It went into effect in January 2018.

Academic performance

See also: Public education in California

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Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The chart below presents the percentage of fourth and eighth grade students that scored at or above proficient in reading and math during school year 2012-2013. Compared to three neighboring states (Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon), California's fourth grade students fared the worst in mathematics, with 33 percent scoring at or above proficient in the 2012-2013 school year.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
California	33%	28%	27%	29%
Arizona	40%	31%	28%	28%
Nevada	34%	28%	27%	30%
Oregon	40%	34%	33%	37%
United States	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables"

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the United States

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for California and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.

In the United States, public schools reported graduation rates that averaged to about 81.4 percent. About 54 percent of all students in the country took the ACT, while 50 percent reported taking the SAT. The average national composite scores for those tests were 20.9 out of a possible 36 for the ACT, and 1498 out of a possible 2400 for the SAT.

California schools reported a graduation rate of 80.4 percent, highest among its neighboring states.

In California, more students took the SAT than the ACT, earning an average SAT score of 1,505.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores, 2012-2013
State	Graduation rate, 2013		Average ACT composite, 2013		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
California	80.4%	Third	22.2	26%	1,505	57%
Arizona	75.1%	Fifth	19.6	50%	1,551	35%
Nevada	70.7%	Fifth	21.3	32%	1,454	48%
Oregon	68.7%	Fifth	21.5	34%	1,539	49%
United States	81.4%		20.9	54%	1498	50%
**Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Sources: United States Department of Education, "ED Data Express" ACT.org, "2013 ACT National and State Scores" The Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT scores by state, 2013"

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades nine through 12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for California was higher than the national average at 4.2 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 4 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for California
	California	U.S.
Total population:	38,993,940	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	155,779	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	61.8%	73.6%
Black/African American:	5.9%	12.6%
Asian:	13.7%	5.1%
Native American:	0.7%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.4%	0.2%
Two or more:	4.5%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	38.4%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	81.8%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	31.4%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$61,818	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	18.2%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in California. **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.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in California

California voted for the Democratic candidate in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

More California coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in California
• United States congressional delegations from California
• Public policy in California
• Endorsers in California
• California fact checks
• More...

See also

California	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in California List of school districts in California	School board elections, 2017 California school board elections, 2016 California school board elections, 2015 California school board elections, 2014	School boards in session: 2015 in brief School board incumbency analysis: 2015 in brief Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey

Footnotes

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