Delaware school board elections, 2017

Elections

A total of five Delaware school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held elections in 2017 for five seats. All of the elections were scheduled on May 9, 2017.

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

• The largest Delaware school district by enrollment with an election in 2017 was the Red Clay Consolidated School District with 16,301 K-12 students in the 2014-2015 school year.
• The smallest Delaware school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2017 was the Colonial School District with 9,711 K-12 students in the 2014-2015 school year.

The districts listed below served 62,872 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 Delaware School Board Elections
District	Primary Election	General Election	Runoff Election	Regular term length	Seats up for election	Total board seats	2014-15 enrollment
Appoquinimink School District	N/A	5/9/2017	N/A	5	1	5	9,877
Brandywine School District	N/A	5/9/2017	N/A	5	1	7	10,739
Christina School District	N/A	5/9/2017	N/A	5	1	7	16,244
Colonial School District	N/A	5/9/2017	N/A	5	1	7	9,711
Red Clay Consolidated School District	N/A	5/9/2017	N/A	5	1	7	16,301

Issues

Issues across the districts

Brandywine School District

See also: Brandywine School District elections (2017)

Policy update

The Brandywine School District announced a change in its student search and seizure policy in May 2017. The revised policy went into effect at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year.

This policy change came after a lawsuit was settled between the school district and a district parent on January 30, 2016. The lawsuit stated that in 2015 a high school student was mistaken for another student and his backpack searched without explanation. When a credit card knife—a knife that folds into itself to become roughly the shape and size of a credit card—was discovered, the student was automatically suspended under the district's zero tolerance policy on weapons. The lawsuit argued that the search of the student's backpack without providing a reason was unconstitutional.

The amended rules gave students the right to know why a search was conducted and required parent or guardian authorization to perform searches and seizures. They also extended the amount of time students and parents had to submit a grievance, from a 24-hour window to a 72-hour window, and broadened the definition of a grievance. For example, an email from students or parents would be considered a grievance. Brandywine School District administrators, teachers, and employees were trained on the new policy over the 2017 summer break.

Christina School District

See also: Christina School District elections (2017)

Resolution passed March 21, 2017

The Christina School District Board of Education passed a resolution called the "Christina Board of Education Declaring Its Commitment to a Safe and Supportive School Environment for All Students Regardless of Immigration Status" on March 21, 2017. The resolution clarified the district's policy toward students residing in the country without legal permission. Four members of the board voted for the resolution—Frederick Polaski, John M. Young, Elizabeth Paige, and Shirley Sutton-Saffer—and two voted against it—George Evans and Harrie Ellen Minnehan. Margaret Mason did not vote on the resolution following her April resignation.

An explanation of the board's decision to pass the measure can be found in the introduction of the resolution. The board cited district policy and a Supreme Court decision that protects a student's access to public education regardless of immigration status. The board also said its decision was based in a desire to ensure students feel safe and welcome in district campuses. It also detailed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) policy requiring express permission to enter sensitive locations, including schools, while conducting its duty to identify immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission and to take action. The school board defined express permission as coming from "specific law enforcement officials."

Following these statements, the resolution listed six affirmations. The board's first two points addressed the ICE policy: it begins by stating the belief that ICE's presence on school grounds would not be conducive to learning. The board then asked that ICE continue following its current policy to get permission to enter school grounds. The next four affirmations were directed towards district staff and teachers. The board instructs them to treat students equally, without asking about their or their relatives' immigration status. The resolution ends by giving teachers permission to discuss the resolution in an age-appropriate manner and stating that the information contained therein would be distributed to all district employees.

Colonial School District

See also: Colonial School District elections (2017)

Tax referendum scheduled for June 6, 2017

On March 23, 2017, the Colonial School District Board of Education voted to bring a tax referendum to citizens in a special election on June 6, 2017. If passed, property taxes in the district would increase by 38 cents for every $100 in assessed home value. Delaware Online published an article estimating that the tax increase would raise individual taxes by approximately $300 a year. The district expects the tax to generate roughly $10.9 million in additional revenue. The tax rate would be raised over a two-year period. In the first year the tax rate would increase by 27 cents and in the second year it would increase by 11 cents.

The same 38 cent tax increase was rejected by 58.9 percent of voters in a referendum on February 28, 2017. As it did in the February referendum, the district planned to use 84.1 percent of the proposed tax revenue to maintain class sizes, support a growing student population, and pay operation costs. But while the February tax measure planned to use the remaining funds to expand the district's curriculum offerings, the second tax measure would use it to offset an expected budget deficit caused by statewide funding cuts proposed by the Governor of Delaware, John Carney Jr. (D). In his 2018 fiscal year budget, the governor proposed statewide spending cuts—including decreasing funding to Delaware schools—and tax increases to balance the budget. The Colonial School District Board of Education estimated the cuts would mean a $3.4 million decrease to the district's budget.

If the tax referendum is once again defeated, the board believes that the district will need to cut $4 million in the 2017-2018 school year and make further cuts in the 2018-2019 school year. When added to the proposed state cuts, the board of education projects a five percent total decrease in its funding based on the 2016-2017 school year budget of $157 million during the 2017-2018 school year.

John Di Mondi, a New Castle councilman, was against the proposed tax increase. He argued that the 38 cent increase could prove to have a bigger effect on those with lower incomes. He believed spending inefficiencies were behind the unbalanced budget. Di Mondi suggested salary and benefit decreases would be a viable solution.

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Delaware

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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. Delaware's scores were lower across the board than its neighboring states, (Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania).

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Delaware	42%	33%	38%	33%
Maryland	47%	37%	45%	42%
New Jersey	49%	49%	42%	46%
Pennsylvania	44%	42%	40%	42%
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 Delaware 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.

Delaware schools reported a graduation rate of 80.4 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, lowest among its neighboring states.

In Delaware, more students took the SAT than the ACT in 2013, earning an average SAT score of 1351.

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
Delaware	80.4%	Fourth	22.9	15%	1351	100%
Maryland	85%	Second	22.3	21%	1483	73%
New Jersey	87.5%	First	23	23%	1521	78%
Pennsylvania	85.5%	Second	22.7	18%	1480	71%
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 Delaware was higher than the national average at 3.6 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 3.5 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for Delaware
	Delaware	U.S.
Total population:	944,076	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	1,949	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	69.4%	73.6%
Black/African American:	21.6%	12.6%
Asian:	3.6%	5.1%
Native American:	0.3%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.7%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	8.7%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	88.4%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	30%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$60,509	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	13.9%	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 Delaware. **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 Delaware

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

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, one is located in Delaware, accounting for 0.5 percent of the total pivot counties. As of May 2017, eight state House districts and five state Senate districts intersected with a Pivot County in Delaware. The state has one at-large congressional district.

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Delaware had one Boomerang Pivot County, 4.00% of all Boomerang Pivot Counties.

More Delaware coverage on Ballotpedia

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

See also

Delaware	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Delaware List of school districts in Delaware	School board elections, 2017 Delaware school board elections, 2016 Delaware school board elections, 2015 Delaware 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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