Hall Pass - July 13, 2022

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Stay up to date on school board politics!

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Welcome to Hall Pass. This newsletter keeps you plugged into the conversations driving school board politics and governance. Each week, we bring you a roundup of the latest on school board elections, along with sharp commentary and research from across the political spectrum on the issues confronting school boards in the country’s 14,000 school districts. We’ll also bring you the latest on school board elections and recall efforts, including candidate filing deadlines and election results.

In today’s edition, you’ll find:

• On the issues: The debate over whether teachers unions affect school boards and classrooms
• School board filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications
• School board recalls: a look at this year’s ongoing efforts
• Extracurricular: education news from around the web
• Subscriber survey
• School board candidates per seat up for election

Reply to this email to share reactions or story ideas!

On the issues

In this section, we curate reporting, analysis, and commentary on the issues school board members deliberate when they set out to offer the best education possible in their district.

The debate over whether teachers unions affect school boards and classrooms

In our June 1 edition, we reported on 141 school districts that held April elections in which incumbents lost to challengers at a rate nearly twice the historical average.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited this data to argue that incumbent losses demonstrate parents' desire to challenge the control of teachers unions in classrooms. The Editorial Board argued that unions exercise significant control over school boards, allowing unions to push for progressive policies in classrooms and dismiss parent concerns. 

In a Washington Post op-ed responding to the Journal, Jay Mathews writes that teachers unions do not exercise significant control over classroom issues, teaching approaches, or curriculum. Matthews says unions typically focus on securing teacher salaries and pensions, while most changes to teaching and learning come from teachers. Mathews says principals and school district administrators are often to blame for problems with schools, teaching, and curriculum.

The Parental School-Board Revolt Continues | The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal

“[T]he root problem with public schools has long been traceable to failed monopoly governance. School boards are dominated by teacher’s unions, which have an intense interest in the outcome. Parents who have day jobs and lack the time to monitor school instruction are at a disadvantage, and school board elections typically take place on primary or other days when turnout is low. … The pandemic shutdowns gave parents more incentive and opportunity to pay attention and, when they did, many school boards dismissed their concerns. Teachers union leaders these days, even at the local level, aren’t focused on student performance as they once were. They’re part of an increasingly ideological vanguard that follows progressive national dictates no matter what parents might prefer. … But parents who are taking on the burden and risk of challenging entrenched boards are acting in the best tradition of American self-government.”

Don’t blame teachers unions for bad schools. Worry instead about inertia. | Jay Mathews, The Washington Post

“So, unions, like most of us, can be helpful or hurtful. But are they quashing attempts to make our schools better, as the Journal suggests? My reporting on the most productive school reforms indicates they are not doing that. For several decades, I have been asking teachers who have successfully raised achievement whether unions got in their way. In every case, the answer has been no. The real villain is the administrative inertia found in nearly all human organizations, including school systems. Innovative teachers discover their best ideas look too risky to principals or too expensive to district administrators. School boards have never spent much time on what happens inside classrooms and thus rarely engage with such reforms. The same is true of teachers unions. … Union emphasis has always been on salaries, pensions and security. Those issues are unrelated to the most effective advances in teaching.”

School board update: filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications

Ballotpedia has historically covered school board elections in about 500 of the country’s largest districts. We’re gradually expanding the number we cover with our eye on all of the roughly 14,000 districts with elected school boards.

States with school board filing deadlines in the next 30 days   

Louisiana 

• The filing deadline for districts within our scope holding Nov. 8 primaries is July 22. 

Michigan

• Four seats on the Ann Arbor Public Schools school board are up for election Nov. 8. The filing deadline is July 26. 

New Jersey

• Three seats on the Jersey City Public Schools school board are up for election Nov. 8. The filing deadline is July 25. 

Upcoming school board elections

Maryland

We’re covering the following school board elections on July 19.

• Baltimore County Public Schools
• Cecil County Public Schools
• Frederick County Public Schools
• Harford County Public Schools
• Howard County Public Schools
• Montgomery County Public Schools
• Prince George's County Public Schools

School board recalls: a look at this year’s ongoing efforts

We recently released our mid-year recall report, which summarizes all recall efforts across the country—including efforts to recall school board members—through the first half of the year.

In previous newsletters, we’ve looked at some of the decided recall elections. As of July 13, we’re tracking 14 recall efforts against 33 school board members currently underway. A recall effort that is underway means that supporters are waiting for petitions to be approved, circulating petitions for signatures, or waiting for signatures to be verified. In some cases, these campaigns may no longer be active, but they’re still listed as underway because the signature deadline has not passed. 

• In nine of the 14 recall efforts we classify as underway, supporters cited responses to the coronavirus pandemic as at least one of the reasons for beginning the recall effort. 
• In four of the efforts, supporters cited a lack of transparency, violating school board policies, negligence, or critical race theory. 
• In one case, information regarding the reason for the recall effort was not available. 

Let’s take a look at a few examples of the reasons behind these recall efforts. 

Virginia Beach City Public Schools recall, Virginia (2021-2022)

The group Students First VA launched an effort to recall six of the 11 members of the Virginia Beach City Public Schools school board. The group’s website states: “A vast majority of students in Virginia Beach were kept out of in-person school from March 2020 through June 2021 due to the decisions of some members of the VA Beach School Board. These decisions harmed children and caused a major educational setback for students.” 

One of the six board members named in the petition, Beverly Anderson, responded in the following way: “The group’s written reasoning for the recall fails to mention the safety mitigations that the school system, CDC and Governor put into place during the pandemic. As school board members it’s our job to think of the safety of all students, teachers and staff when making decisions for the school system.”

To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters must collect signatures equal to 10% of the votes cast in the last election for the office. If enough signatures are collected, the petitions will be reviewed by the circuit court.

Brett Weir and Kathy Weykamp recall, St. Joseph Public Schools, Michigan

Shawn Hill, a resident of St. Joseph, Mich., named board members Brett Weir and Kathy Weykamp in the recall petitions. The petitions said, “Board of Education Minutes for meeting held 8/23/2021 indicate that (the trustee) was present and a motion to support the SJPS Return to Learn Operational Plan carried 6-0. The minutes including a recommendation for required face masks for all students indoors, and not including a provision for a parent to make a determination to avoid required masking for their child while inside any SJPS facility.” 

Weykamp did not submit a response to the petition in which she is listed. Weir called the petition “unclear, misleading, inaccurate and opinionated.”

The recall effort began in March,  and supporters are required to get signatures from 25% of voters in the school district in the last gubernatorial election within 180 days. 

Romulus Community Schools recall, Michigan

Rita Hampton, a former educator and a resident of Romulus, Mich., started the effort to recall three of the seven members of the board after the board voted to place Superintendent Benjamin Edmondson on leave. The board later fired Edmonson. Hampton said, “[Edmonson] brought the Romulus school teachers back to work with a solid contract and attended a golf outing when he was recovering from surgery. He came here for less money during a pandemic. I respect him because he’s a man of his word. When he says he is going to do something, he does it.” 

Debi Pyles, one of the three board members named in the recall petition, said firing Edmonson was a difficult decision and that the board respected other opinions. Pyles said, “Our top priority right now is to get the district’s finances cleared up so we can all have confidence — not only in our budgets but our financial processes. This has been a long-standing problem for Romulus Community Schools.”

To get the recall on the ballot, supporters must collect approximately 3,000 signatures per board member.

Woodland Park School District RE-2 recall, Colorado

The 2022 Woodland Park School District Recall Campaign started the effort to recall three of the five members of the Woodland Park School District RE-2 school board in June. Recall supporters said: “Since the time immediately following their 2021 election to the Woodland Park School Board, David Rusterholz, David Illingworth II, and Suzanne Patterson have repeatedly been both negligent in their responsibilities to the Woodland Park community at large and have violated both policy and Colorado law.” We have not yet identified an official response to the recall effort. 

To get the recall on the ballot, supporters must collect 3,000 signatures in 60 days.

We’ll bring you more information about the status of these recall efforts in the future. 

Click here to read more about recall efforts in the first half of the year. Click here to read about our research into conflicts around the coronavirus pandemic in school board elections. To date we have identified 658 school districts in 40 states where candidates took a stance on responses to the coronavirus pandemic.

Extracurricular: education news from around the web

This section contains links to recent education-related articles from around the internet. If you know of a story we should be reading, reply to this email to share it with us! 

• Ducey signs new school voucher law, opponents launch campaign to stop it | AZMirror
• How Blue States & Red States Use COVID Relief Funds Differently to Aid Schools | The 74
• SAT Will Go Digital for K–12 Test-Takers | EdTech
• There Are New Rules Governing Federal Grants For Charter Schools. What Difference Will They Make? | Forbes
• Inequities ‘devastating the lives of children’: Pennsylvania fair school funding trial begins | Chalkbeat
• Kansas joins multi-state agreement for expanded computer science education in K-12 schools | KZRG

Tell us what's happening in a school district near you!  

School districts around the country face diverse issues and challenges. We want to hear what's happening in your school district. Complete the very brief survey below and we may share your response with fellow subscribers in an upcoming newsletter.

Today's question: 

News outlets have reported that some districts face a teacher shortage heading into the 2022-2023 school year. Is this an issue in a school district near you? What challenges does it present for the district? How is the district dealing with these challenges, if they exist?

Click here to respond!

Take our Candidate Connection survey to reach voters in your district

Today, we’re highlighting survey responses from the upcoming Aug. 4 Williamson County Board of Education school board general elections in Tennessee. In the June 22 edition of Hall Pass, we included survey responses from two independent candidates running for Williamson County Board of Education—Tiffany Eccles (District 2) andKristi Bidinger (District 6). 

One of Bidinger’s opponents in the general election for District 6—Deborah Pace (I)—since completed our Candidate Connection survey. In order to highlight and contrast two perspectives from candidates in the same race, we’re once again including Bidinger’s response—along with Pace’s. 

Six seats are up for election—Districts 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12. Sixteen candidates are on the ballot. Primaries took place May 3. Bidinger and Pace are running against incumbent Jay Galbreath (R). Galbreath has not completed our Candidate Connection survey.

Here's how Bidinger responded to the question "Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?"

• “Advocating to our local and state leaders the importance of fully funding our public schools.
• Increasing a safe, healthy learning environment for all students.
• Listening to parents and the community about issues that are important to them and finding transparent solutions.”

Click here to read the rest of Bidinger’s answers.

Here's how Pace responded to the question "Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?"

• “Our current curriculum, Wit & Wisdom, is not age-appropriate, is harmful to young children, and is Anti-American at it's core, teaching children that they are only oppressors or oppressed. We deserve better than a curriculum that failed our state standards not once but twice. The incumbent knows this, and yet voted to keep the curriculum in our schools for another 5 years, even after acknowledging 'the material is heavier than many of the kids can really handle at their age'.
• I am in this race because the incumbent has not stood up for the conservative values of our district. Now, more than ever, we need our voice to be heard on the school board. We need a fighter who will keep our schools as safe as possible, and uphold the conservative values that made our school system great for so many years. I will be the conservative voice on the board, cultivating a safe and supportive learning environment for all children and teachers.
• Parents have been pushed out of the process, and stripped of their rights to make medical decisions for their children. This has had a drastic impact on the delicate balance between parents, teachers, and the school board. And our children have suffered as a result. I want to restore that relationship by renewing parents' rights, re-focusing the school board on their roles as servants of Williamson County, and doing an in-depth analysis of why so many of our teachers have left WCS over the last few years.”

Click here to read the rest of Pace’s answers.