Oklahoma school board elections, 2016

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Elections

General elections for Oklahoma school boards were held February 9, 2016. If no candidate won a majority of the votes cast in a given race, the district was required to hold a runoff election on April 5, 2016. Special elections for unexpired board terms were held in conjunction with the general election cycle.

Thirteen Oklahoma school districts were among America's largest school districts by enrollment in the 2012–2013 school year.

Here are several quick facts about Oklahoma's school board elections in 2016:

• The largest school district by enrollment with an election in 2016 was Oklahoma City Public Schools with 40,913 K-12 students.
• The smallest Oklahoma school district among the nation's top 1,000 largest with an election in 2016 was Owasso Public Schools with 9,490 K-12 students.
• Oklahoma City Public Schools and Tulsa Public Schools tied for the most seats up for election in 2016 with two seats on the ballot each.
• The other 11 districts tied for fewest seats up for election in 2016 with one seat on the ballot each.

The district listed below served 256,252 K-12 students during the 2013-2014 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district name for more information on the district and its school board elections.

2016 Oklahoma School Board Elections
District	General date	Runoff date	Regular term (years)	Seats up for election	Total board seats	Student enrollment
Broken Arrow Public Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	5	1	5	17,947
Edmond Public Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	5	1	5	23,020
Jenks Public Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	5	1	5	11,181
Lawton Public Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	5	1	5	15,463
Midwest City-Del City Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	5	1	5	14,586
Moore Public Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	5	1	5	23,019
Mustang Public Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	5	1	5	9,976
Norman Public Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	5	1	5	15,601
Oklahoma City Public Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	5	2	8	40,913
Owasso Public Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	5	1	5	9,490
Putnam City Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	5	1	5	19,378
Tulsa Public Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	4	2	7	40,152
Union Public Schools	2/9/2016	4/5/2016	5	1	5	15,526

Issues

Oklahoma district considered using Bible curriculum from founder of Hobby Lobby

See also: Battles over school governance (2016)

In April 2014, the Mustang Public Schools Board of Education approved the creation of a Bible history class as an elective course for students at Mustang High School. The curriculum was promoted to the board by Steven Green, the president of Hobby Lobby and founder of the Museum of the Bible. Green's politics had been in the spotlight on a national level as well, including Hobby Lobby's case before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding religious objections to birth control and the Affordable Care Act. According to The Associated Press, which obtained a copy of the curriculum, the "curriculum says people should rest on the Sabbath because God did so after six days of creation, and says people risk God’s punishment if they do not obey him."

Both the curriculum and the process by which the curriculum was approved came under fire. It was alleged that the board meeting violated Oklahoma's open meeting laws. Just before the meeting at which the vote to approve the curriculum was made, the school board met in small groups with Green in Oklahoma County. County District Attorney David Prater stated,

“	Even if there’s an out-of-county board, if they come here and meet in an attempt to circumvent the Open Meetings Act, just because they’ve met in a place that’s not routine, doesn’t mean they circumvent their requirements for meetings. If someone is going to that great of length to avoid quorum, it sounds like they’re being pretty darn careful.	”
—District Attorney David Prater (2014)

While board member Jeff Landrith denied even knowing of the meetings, it was later revealed that he had sent a note stating that he would not be able to attend them. Superintendent Sean McDaniel said of the decision to hold separate, private meetings:

“	This was something that we wanted to be able to have conversation about and ask questions. If we have the media and the public coming into Hobby Lobby headquarters with us, that can just be confusing and awkward since we’re all seeing it for the first time. My thought was, ‘Hey, let’s hold off on having a public meeting until we see a little more.'	”
—Mustang Superintendent Sean McDaniel (2014)

Additionally, a Wisconsin-based group called Freedom from Religion threatened to sue the district over the course, calling the curriculum developed by Green's organization a violation of the First Amendment. The group sent a four-page letter stating their intention to seek legal action against any district that teaches the course to schools across Oklahoma. The letter stated that the curriculum, "did not teach about the bible, but preached from the bible."

In December 2014, it was announced that the district would still be seeking to offer a Bible history class, but that it would not be using curriculum developed in conjunction with Green. The district's decision to drop Green's curriculum led to Freedom from Religion dropping further legal action.

In response to the controversy, Sen. Kyle D. Loveless (R-45) introduced Senate Bill 48 in early 2015. The proposed law would have protected school districts who provide elective courses on the "objective study of religion or the Bible" from being held liable for providing the courses, but the bill ultimately died in committee.

Election trends

Trends in Oklahoma school board elections

See also: School boards in session: 2015 in brief

School board elections held in Oklahoma's largest school districts in 2015 attracted fewer candidates than the elections held in 2014. The 2015 elections also had fewer newcomers elected to school boards compared to the 2014 elections. Neither year saw much competition, however, as more than half of the seats on the ballot went unopposed in both 2014 and 2015. A total of 85.71 percent of seats went unopposed in 2015, and 62.50 percent of seats on the ballot in 2014 went unchallenged.

The following sections analyze competitiveness and incumbency advantage in Oklahoma's school board elections. These districts did not utilize primary elections, but runoff elections were possible as the state required candidates to receive a majority of the votes cast. All of the school board elections held in the state in 2014 and 2015 were nonpartisan.

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

Competitiveness

In 2015, Oklahoma's largest school districts attracted an average of 1.14 candidates per seat on the ballot. This was lower than the average 1.31 candidates who ran in the state's 2014 school board elections. Twelve of the 14 seats up for election in 2015 were unopposed, and in 2014, 10 of 16 seats on the ballot went unchallenged.

Unopposed races

Of the 14 seats up for election in 2015, only two saw contested races. The 12 uncontested races did not appear on the ballot.

Oklahoma unopposed races
Year	Total seats	Unopposed seats	Percent unopposed
2015	14	12	85.7%
2014	16	10	62.5%

Oklahoma's school board elections have a history of low competition. Of the 13 largest school districts in Oklahoma, only seven held elections in 2014 or 2013. Owasso Public Schools had a particularly long history of unopposed races with its last contested race occurring in 2006.

No candidate races

In 2015, there were no school board seats up for election that did not see at least one candidate file for the race.

In 2014, one seat failed to garner any candidates for the general election. The seat on the Union Public Schools Board of Education was filled by an appointment of the remaining board members.

Incumbency advantage

See also: School board incumbency analysis: 2015 in brief

Twelve of the 14 incumbents whose seats were on the ballot in 2015 ran for re-election, and all 12 of them retained their seats. One of those incumbents defeated a challenger to win re-election; the others were unopposed in the bids to keep their seats.

Fewer incumbents ran to retain their seats in the 2014 school board elections. Sixteen seats were on the ballot, and 10 incumbents ran to keep them, a total of 62.50 percent. Eight of those incumbents won re-election, seven of which ran unopposed.

The map below details the success rates for incumbents who ran in the 2015 school board elections that were held in the largest school districts by enrollment in the U.S.

The map above details the success rates of incumbent who ran to retain their school board seats in the largest school districts in each state. States depicted in gray did not hold school board elections.

Runoff prevalence

Oklahoma runoff prevalence
Year	Possible	Actual
2015	0	0
2014	1	1

Candidates must secure votes totaling 50 percent plus one to win school board elections in Oklahoma. If no candidate secures a majority in the general election, the top two vote recipients advance to a runoff election.

In 2014, only one race advanced to a runoff election. In 2015, no district had more than two candidates running for any one board position, which made a runoff election unnecessary.

Data table

Oklahoma school board elections, 2014 - 2015
	2014	2015
All candidates
Seats up	16	14
Candidates	21	16
Candidates/seat	1.31	1.14
Unopposed seats	10	12
% unopposed	62.50%	85.71%
% seats won by newcomers	43.75%	14.29%
Incumbents
Sought re-election	10	12
Unopposed	7	11
Retained	8	12
% retained	80.00%	100.00%

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Oklahoma

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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 table 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 (Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri), Oklahoma had the smallest percentage of students scoring at or above proficient in all categories.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Oklahoma	36%	25%	30%	29%
Arkansas	39%	28%	32%	30%
Kansas	48%	40%	38%	36%
Missouri	39%	33%	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 Oklahoma 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 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.

Oklahoma schools reported a graduation rate of 84.8 percent, the lowest among its neighboring states.

In Oklahoma, more students took the ACT than the SAT, earning an average ACT score of 20.8.

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
Oklahoma	84.8%	Second	20.8	75%	1689	5%
Arkansas	84.9%	Second	20.2	90%	1697	4%
Kansas	85.7%	Second	21.8	75%	1752	6%
Missouri	85.7%	Second	21.6	74%	1773	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 Oklahoma was lower than the national average at 2.5 percent in the 2010-2011 school year and 2.5 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for Oklahoma
	Oklahoma	U.S.
Total population:	3,907,414	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	68,595	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	73.1%	73.6%
Black/African American:	7.2%	12.6%
Asian:	1.9%	5.1%
Native American:	7.3%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more:	7.8%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	9.6%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	86.9%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	24.1%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$46,879	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	19.7%	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 Oklahoma. **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 Oklahoma

Oklahoma voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

More Oklahoma coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Oklahoma
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• Public policy in Oklahoma
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See also

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