Illinois school board elections, 2016

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Elections

Most Illinois school board elections are held with the consolidated election on the first Tuesday in April of odd-numbered years. These elections do not utilize primary or runoff elections.

One of Illinois' school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment in the 2012–2013 school year holds elections every year: Peoria Public Schools District 150. In even-numbered years, the district holds its elections in March; in odd-numbered years, it holds them in April on the regular school board election date. The general election for two seats on the Peoria Public School District school board was March 13, 2016.

Here are several quick facts about the Peoria school board elections in 2016:

• Peoria Public Schools District 150 was the 14th-largest school district in Illinois in the 2013-2014 school year with 13,778 K-12 students.
• Two seats were up for election in the district.

Click on the district name for more information on the district and its school board elections.

2016 Illinois School Board Elections
District	General date	Regular term (years)	Seats up for election	Total board seats	Student enrollment
Peoria Public Schools District 150	3/15/2016	5	2	7	13,778

Issues

Chicago Public Schools mayoral control contested

See also: Battles over school governance (2016)

Ill. Gov. Bruce Rauner (R)

Illinois public school districts are typically controlled by locally elected school boards. The structure of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) school board was changed by former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1995 when the Illinois General Assembly passed the Chicago School Reform Amendatory Act. This reform allowed the mayor to appoint school board members and replaced the superintendent of the school board with a chief executive officer (CEO).

Controversy shrouded the appointed board after an investigation of Chicago Public School's CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett was initiated in 2012. It was revealed that Byrd-Bennett, appointed to her position by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, was the focus of a federal grand jury probe. At issue was her relationship with a former employer, a leadership program for K-12 administrators called SUPES Academy, and a contract the district made with the academy in June 2013. The contract involved $20.5 million for "leadership development services" to train the district's chiefs, deputy chiefs, principals, and assistant principals from June 2013 to June 2016.

The 2013 contract was not the district's first with SUPES Academy; the district paid the academy approximately $15 million from 2012 to 2015. The parties entered into a one-year agreement in 2012 but agreed to dissolve the former contract when the 2013 one was approved and SUPES Academy was officially hired on a "non-competitive basis." The contract under investigation was reviewed and approved by an internal committee, the district's chief procurement officer, and the board of education before it was signed on June 26, 2013. Some argued, however, that the contract should have been opened up to give the district a chance to consider competitive bids; other organizations in the area had similar training programs.

CPS Interim CEO Jesse Ruiz

Both SUPES Academy and CPS said they would fully cooperate with the investigators. Byrd-Bennett, who had not been accused of any wrongdoing at the time, took a paid leave of absence on April 20, 2015, while the investigation continued. Board Vice President Jesse Ruiz was appointed to fill in as her replacement in the interim. Byrd-Bennett then resigned on June 1, 2015, and Ruiz maintained his role as interim CEO until July 2015.

Two days after his succession, Ruiz suspended the contract with SUPES Academy. He said he thought it was "prudent that we take a pause." All training seminars with the academy were canceled for the remainder of the 2014-2015 school year. In a statement, SUPES Academy said it was disappointed by the suspension but looked forward to working with CPS again in the future.

CPS Board President David Vitale

In a board meeting on April 22, 2015, both Ruiz and board President David Vitale defended the board's decision to approve the contract in 2013, saying they had followed the precautions put in place for no-bid contracts. “Given the information we had at that point in time, and given the information that we were provided as board members, I stand by that vote,” Ruiz said. After the contract was approved, however, additional information was revealed, and the board and the CPS inspector general agreed to have the matter looked into further. That was when investigations into the contract began. The grand jury followed with its own investigation in 2014.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) was open with his criticism of Chicago Public Schools. "This investigation is very sad, I hope there's been no wrong-doing, but Chicago Public Schools has been a source of patronage, cronyism, dealings, massive bureaucracy. It hasn't really served the families and the parents of the children in a very long time," said Rauner. He also suggested bankruptcy might be the best option for the school district.

In June 2015, Emanuel appointed four new members to the CPS school board, replacing members whose terms were about to end. Those former members all voted to approve the no-bid contract with SUPES Academy in 2013. The new members were sworn into their new positions in July.

Emanuel appointed a new permanent CEO for Chicago Public Schools in July 2015. He named Forrest Claypool, his chief of staff at the time, to the position. Claypool formerly headed the city's transit agency. Emanuel called Claypool "exactly the right person at the right time." The Chicago Teachers Union, however, was not as certain of the mayor's choice. Union President Karen Lewis said that though the union could work with anyone, the appointment of Claypool was a bad idea because he had no background in education. "It's been tried before and didn't work," said Lewis.

On January 20, 2016, Rauner announced the introduction of a proposal that would allow the state to take over the school district. It would also allow both the city and the school district to file for bankruptcy—an option that had not been legal prior to 2016. “If the mayor is unwilling to stand up for his taxpayers and his school children in dealing with the Chicago Teachers Union, [then] rather than trying to push his liabilities on the state, we’re asking the mayor to partner with us,” said Rauner.

A new proposal, HR 1104, was passed by the Illinois House of Representatives on April 13, 2016. The bill sought to return control of Chicago Public Schools to voters in 2019. It did not pass in the Illinois State Senate before the Legislature closed for the 2016 session. Opponents argued that this bill would give more power to the Chicago Teachers Union, while proponents pointed to the shortcomings and scandals that plagued the mayor-appointed CPS school board.

Election trends

Trends in Illinois school board elections

See also: School boards in session: 2015 in brief

The state's 2016 elections attracted a lower average number of candidates than the state's 2014 elections attracted. In 2014, one of the largest school districts in Illinois held a school board election for one seat. The election had two candidates, averaging to two candidates per seat. In 2016, one school district held elections for two seats, and three candidates ran (an average of 1.5 candidates per seat). The chart to the right details the number of seats up for election and the number of candidates who ran in the state in 2014 and 2016.

The state's 2015 school board elections had a much higher number of seats on the ballot than the 2014 and 2016 elections. Rather than having just one district hold elections, 24 districts held elections for 82 seats. An average of 1.70 candidates ran per school board seat in the state that year.

The following sections analyze competitiveness and incumbency advantage in school board elections held in Illinois' largest school districts. These districts did not utilize primary or runoff elections. Winners only had to receive a plurality, or relative majority, of votes to secure a seat. All of the school board elections held in the state in 2014, 2015, and 2016 were nonpartisan.

Details of the data discussed here can be found in the table below.

Competitiveness

In 2016, 50 percent of the seats on the ballot were unopposed. This was a higher percentage of unopposed seats than the state saw in 2014. With two candidates running for the one seat on the ballot in 2014, no school board seats were unopposed, which was much lower than the 32.57 percent of school board seats that were unopposed nationwide that year.

In 2015, 29.27 percent of the school board seats up for election in Illinois were unopposed. This was lower than the 35.97 percent of school board seats that were unopposed across the United States in 2015.

Incumbency advantage

See also: School board incumbency analysis: 2015 in brief

In the state's 2014 and 2016 school board elections, newcomers took 100 percent of the seats. In 2016, no incumbents ran for re-election, leaving the seats open for newcomers to take. In 2014, the one incumbent whose term was up for re-election ran to keep her seat. She faced one challenger and lost the election. Nationwide in 2014, newcomers took 38.19 percent of the school board seats on the ballot, and 81.37 percent of incumbents who ran for re-election retained their seats.

A total of 71.95 percent of incumbents whose seats were on the ballot in Illinois in 2015 ran to retain their seats, and 77.97 percent of them won additional terms. Nearly half of the seats on the ballot—42.68 percent—went to newcomers in 2015. This was higher than the 40.77 percent of seats newcomers took nationwide in 2015. A total of 82.66 percent of school board incumbents who sought another term won re-election across the United States that year.

The map below details the success rates for incumbents who ran in school board elections that were held in the largest school districts by enrollment in the United States in 2014.

Data table

Illinois school board elections, 2014 - 2016
	2014	2015	2016
All candidates
Seats up	1	82	2
Candidates	2	139	3
Candidates/seat	2.00	1.70	1.50
Unopposed seats	0	24	1
% unopposed	0.00%	29.27%	50.00%
% seats won by newcomers	100.00%	42.68%	100.00%
Incumbents
Sought re-election	1	59	0
Unopposed	0	23	0
Retained	0	46	0
% retained	0.00%	77.97%	0.00%

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Illinois

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Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
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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 (Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin), Illinois had a smaller percentage of fourth grade students score at or above proficient in math and reading.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Illinois	39%	36%	34%	36%
Indiana	52%	38%	38%	35%
Iowa	48%	36%	38%	37%
Wisconsin	47%	40%	35%	36%
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 Illinois 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.

Illinois schools reported a graduation rate of 83.2 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, lowest among its neighboring states.

In Illinois, more students took the ACT than the SAT in 2013, earning an average ACT score of 20.6.

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
Illinois	83.2%	Third	20.6	100%	1,807	5%
Indiana	87%	First	21.7	38%	1,470	70%
Iowa	89.7%	First	22.1	66%	1,763	3%
Wisconsin	88%	First	22.1	71%	1,771	4%
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 Illinois was lower than the national average at 2.9 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 2.4 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for Illinois
	Illinois	U.S.
Total population:	12,839,047	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	55,519	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	72.3%	73.6%
Black/African American:	14.3%	12.6%
Asian:	5%	5.1%
Native American:	0.2%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.2%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	16.5%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	87.9%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	32.3%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$57,574	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	16.8%	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 Illinois. **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 Illinois

Illinois 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, 11 are located in Illinois, accounting for 5.34 percent of the total pivot counties.

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. Illinois had 11 Retained Pivot Counties, 6.08 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.

More Illinois coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Illinois
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See also

Illinois	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Illinois List of school districts in Illinois	School board elections, 2016 Illinois school board elections, 2015 Illinois school board elections, 2014	Education reform at the state and local levels (2016) School boards in session: 2015 in brief Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey