South Carolina school board elections, 2016

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Elections

General elections dates for South Carolina school districts were largely determined locally for 2016. According to the South Carolina School Boards Association, 69 of the state's 81 districts were scheduled to hold elections this year.

Twenty-three of the 26 South Carolina school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held elections for 93 seats. All of those districts held general elections on November 8, 2016. Primaries were held on June 14, 2016, if necessary. In the case of a tie in the primary results, a primary runoff was held on June 28, 2016.

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

• The largest school district by enrollment with an election in 2016 was the Greenville County School District with 74,475 K-12 students.
• The smallest South Carolina school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2016 was the Anderson School District One with 9,445 K-12 students.
• Two districts tied for the most seats on the 2016 ballot with six seats up for election.
• Nine districts tied for the fewest seats on the 2016 ballot with three seats up for election each.

The district listed below served 508,860 K-12 students during the 2013-2014 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.

2016 South Carolina School Board Elections
District	Primary date	General date	Regular term (years)	Seats up for election	Total board seats	Student enrollment
Kershaw County School District	6/14/2016	11/08/2016	4	5	9	10,493
Aiken County Public School District	NA	11/8/2016	4	4	9	24,716
Anderson School District Five	NA	11/8/2016	4	6	9	12,792
Anderson School District One	NA	11/8/2016	4	3	7	9,445
Beaufort County School District	NA	11/8/2016	4	4	11	20,725
Berkeley County School District	NA	11/8/2016	4	5	9	31,766
Charleston County School District	NA	11/8/2016	4	5	9	45,650
Darlington County School District	NA	11/8/2016	4	4	8	10,159
District 5 of Lexington and Richland Counties	NA	11/8/2016	4	3	7	16,644
Dorchester School District Two	NA	11/8/2016	4	3	7	24,334
Florence Public School District One	NA	11/8/2016	4	5	9	16,280
Fort Mill Schools	NA	11/8/2016	4	3	7	11,727
Georgetown County School District	NA	11/8/2016	4	5	9	9,712
Greenville County School District	NA	11/8/2016	4	6	12	74,475
Horry County Schools	6/14/2016	11/8/2016	4	6	12	40,943
Lancaster County School District	NA	11/8/2016	4	3	7	11,963
Lexington School District One	NA	11/8/2016	4	4	7	24,210
Richland County School District One	NA	11/8/2016	4	4	7	24,372
Richland School District Two	NA	11/8/2016	4	3	7	26,780
Rock Hill Schools - York County District 3	NA	11/8/2016	4	4	7	17,617
School District of Oconee County	NA	11/8/2016	4	3	5	10,547
School District of Pickens County	NA	11/8/2016	4	3	6	16,716
Sumter School District	NA	11/8/2016	4	3	7	16,794

June 14 primary results

The Kershaw County School District held a primary election on June 14, 2016, for the District 5 seat, as it was the only contested seat in the election. Challenger James Smith defeated incumbent Louis Clyburn Jr. and advanced to the general election that was held on November 8, 2016. Four unopposed candidates joined him on the general election ballot. Because they were unopposed, they automatically advanced to the general election.

Election results

Note: An (i) next to a candidate's name indicates incumbent status.

Kershaw County School District
Primary Election
District 5
☐ Louis Clyburn Jr. (i)
☑ James Smith

Election trends

Trends in South Carolina school board elections

See also: School boards in session: 2015 in brief

The 2015 school board elections in South Carolina's largest school districts attracted a smaller average number of candidates per seat on the ballot than the state's 2014 school board elections did. Despite having fewer candidates per seat, the 2015 elections had a lower percentage of seats go unopposed than the 2014 elections had. Newcomers fared nearly equally well in both 2014 and 2015. They took one-third of the seats on the ballot in 2015, and 35.79 percent of the seats on the ballot in 2014.

The 2015 elections had considerably fewer seats on the ballot than the 2014 elections had. Nine seats were on the ballot in 2015, whereas 95 seats were on the ballot in 2014.

The following sections analyze competitiveness and incumbency advantage in South Carolina's school board elections. 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 and 2015 were nonpartisan.

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

Competitiveness

In 2015, elections held in South Carolina's largest school districts attracted an average of 1.44 candidates per seat. This was lower than the average 1.67 candidates who ran per seat in the state's 2014 school board elections. In spite of having fewer candidates run per seat, the 2015 elections had a lower percentage of seats go unopposed than the 2014 elections had. A total of 11.11 percent of seats went unopposed in 2015, compared to the 44.21 percent of seats that went unopposed in 2014.

Incumbency advantage

See also: School board incumbency analysis: 2015 in brief

Three-quarters of the incumbents who ran for re-election in 2015 retained their seats. Eight of the nine incumbents whose terms were on the ballot ran to keep their seats, and six of them won. All six of the winners defeated challengers to win additional terms. A newcomer won the one seat that went unopposed that year.

In 2014, 79.73 percent of incumbents who ran to keep their seats won re-election. A total of 74 of the 95 incumbents who were up for re-election ran to retain their seats, and 59 of them won. Out of those winners, 38 ran unopposed; the others had to defeat challengers in order to win their bids for re-election.

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.

Data table

South Carolina school board elections, 2014 - 2015
	2014	2015
All candidates
Seats up	95	9
Candidates	159	13
Candidates/seat	1.67	1.44
Unopposed seats	42	1
% unopposed	44.21%	11.11%
% seats won by newcomers	35.79%	33.33%
Incumbents
Sought re-election	74	8
Unopposed	38	0
Retained	59	6
% retained	79.73%	75.00%

Academic performance

See also: Public education in South Carolina

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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 (Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee), South Carolina had the smallest share of fourth grade students who scored at or above proficient in both 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
South Carolina	35%	31%	28%	29%
Georgia	39%	29%	34%	32%
North Carolina	45%	36%	35%	33%
Tennessee	40%	28%	34%	33%
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 South Carolina 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.

South Carolina schools reported a graduation rate of 77.6 percent, second lowest among its neighboring states.

In South Carolina, more students took the SAT than the ACT, earning an average SAT score of 1436.

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
South Carolina	77.6%	Fourth	20.4	51%	1436	64%
Georgia	71.7%	Fifth	20.7	51%	1452	75%
North Carolina	82.5%	Third	18.7	100%	1479	62%
Tennessee	86.3%	Second	19.5	100%	1709	8%
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 South Carolina was lower than the national average at 2.8 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 2.5 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for South Carolina
	South Carolina	U.S.
Total population:	4,894,834	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	30,061	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	67.2%	73.6%
Black/African American:	27.5%	12.6%
Asian:	1.4%	5.1%
Native American:	0.3%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more:	2%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	5.3%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	85.6%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	25.8%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$45,483	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	22%	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 South Carolina. **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 South Carolina

South Carolina voted Republican 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, five are located in South Carolina, accounting for 2.43 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. South Carolina had five Retained Pivot Counties, 2.76 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.

More South Carolina coverage on Ballotpedia

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

See also

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