South Dakota school board elections, 2016

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Elections

General elections for South Dakota school boards in 2016 were held on either April 12, June 7 or June 21. School boards were required to set the date of the election by resolution no later than the first regular meeting after January 1, 2016. There were no primary or runoff elections; special elections to fill the unexpired terms of vacated seats were held in conjunction with the general elections.

Two South Dakota school districts were among America's largest school districts by enrollment in the 2012–2013 school year. Both districts had elections in 2016 for a total of four seats.

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

• The largest school district by enrollment with an election in 2016 was Sioux Falls School District with 23,384 K-12 students.
• The smallest South Dakota school district among the nation's top 1,000 largest with an election in 2016 was Rapid City Area School District with 13,353 K-12 students.
• Both district had two seats up for election.

The district listed below served 36,737 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 South Dakota School Board Elections
District	General date	Regular term (years)	Seats up for election	Total board seats	Student enrollment
Sioux Falls School District	4/12/2016	3	2	5	23,384
Rapid City Area School District	6/7/2016	3	2	7	13,353

June 7 election results

South Dakota school board elections

One school district in South Dakota held elections for two school board seats on June 7, 2016. There were six candidates in the election and only one, or 16.66 percent of all candidates, was an incumbent. The incumbent was not re-elected meaning 100 percent of the seats were won by newcomers.

Election results

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

Rapid City Area School District

Rapid City Area School District
Area 3

☐ Dave Davis (i)

☑ Ron Riherd

☐ Thomas Udager

Area 6

☐ David Phelps

☑ Amy Policky

☐ Paul Sterling

Election trends

Trends in South Dakota school board elections

See also: School boards in session: 2015 in brief

The 2015 school board elections in the South Dakota's largest school districts saw a higher number of candidates run per seat than the 2014 school board elections, but they had a lower number run compared to the 2013 elections. The 2015 elections also had a higher percentage of seats go unopposed than the 2013 elections, while the 2014 elections had the highest percentage of unopposed seats out of the three election years. Three seats were up for election in both 2013 and 2014. In 2015, there were five school board seats on the ballot.

The following sections analyze competitiveness and incumbency advantage in South Dakota'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 from 2013 to 2015 were nonpartisan.

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

Competitiveness

An average of 1.60 candidates ran per seat on the 2015 ballot in South Dakota's largest school districts, and an average of 1.33 candidates ran per seat in 2014. The 2013 school board elections in the state had the highest average of the three years with 2.00 candidates running per seat. In 2015, 20.00 percent of seats up for election were unopposed. This was lower than the 66.67 percent of seats that went unopposed in 2014. The 2013 school board elections had no seats go unopposed.

Incumbency advantage

See also: School board incumbency analysis: 2015 in brief

Every incumbent up for re-election in 2015 sought to retain their seats. This was also true of the three incumbents up for re-election in 2014. In 2013, however, only one of the three incumbents whose seats were up for election that year ran for re-election. Four of the five incumbents who ran to retain their seats in 2015 won re-election. One of those winner ran unopposed; the other three defeated challengers to keep their seats. In 2014, all three incumbents won re-election, and all but one faced opponents. In 2013, the one incumbent who ran won another term, and the two open seats went to newcomers.

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 Dakota school board elections, 2014 - 2015
	2013	2014	2015
All candidates
Seats up	3	3	5
Candidates	6	4	8
Candidates/seat	2.00	1.33	1.60
Unopposed seats	0	2	1
% unopposed	0.00%	66.67%	20.00%
% seats won by newcomers	66.67%	0.00%	20.00%
Incumbents
Sought re-election	1	3	5
Unopposed	0	2	1
Retained	1	3	4
% retained	100.00%	100.00%	80.00%

Academic performance

See also: Public education in South Dakota

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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 (Montana, Nebraska, and North Dakota), South Dakota had the smallest share of fourth grade students that 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 Dakota	40%	38%	32%	36%
Montana	45%	40%	35%	40%
Nebraska	45%	36%	37%	37%
North Dakota	48%	41%	34%	34%
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 Dakota 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 Dakota schools reported a graduation rate of 82.7 percent, lowest among its neighboring states.

In South Dakota, more students took the ACT than the SAT, earning an average ACT score of 21.9.

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 Dakota	82.7%	Third	21.9	78%	1760	3%
Montana	84.4%	Third	21.3	72%	1595	25%
Nebraska	88.5%	First	21.5	84%	1734	4%
North Dakota	87.5%	First	20.5	98%	1799	2%
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 Dakota was lower than the national average at 2.6 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 3.1 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for South Dakota
	South Dakota	U.S.
Total population:	857,919	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	75,811	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	85%	73.6%
Black/African American:	1.6%	12.6%
Asian:	1.2%	5.1%
Native American:	8.6%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.6%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	3.3%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	90.9%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	27%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$50,957	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	15.3%	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 Dakota. **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 Dakota

South Dakota 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 Dakota, 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 Dakota had four Retained Pivot Counties and one Boomerang Pivot County, accounting for 2.21 and 4.00 percent of all Retained and Boomerang Pivot Counties, respectively.

More South Dakota coverage on Ballotpedia

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

See also

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