Texas school board elections, 2016
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Elections
General elections for Texas school boards in 2016 were held on the following dates: May 7 and November 8. Special elections were held in conjunction with some general elections to fill vacancies. Runoff elections were held in some districts if no candidate won a majority of votes cast in a given race. Runoffs from the May generals were held on June 18, 2016, and those from the November generals were December 13, 2016.
Of the 113 Texas school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment, 83 districts held school board elections for 249 seats in 2016.
Here are several quick facts about Texas' school board elections in 2016:
- The largest school district by enrollment with an election in 2016 was the Houston Independent School District with 211,552 K-12 students.
- The smallest Texas school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2016 was DeSoto Independent School District with 9,404 K-12 students.
- Twenty-eight of Texas' largest districts tied for the fewest seats on the 2016 ballot with two seats up for election each.
The districts listed below served 2,306,541 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 and its school board elections.
Issues
Dallas Independent School District
City Hall politics shadow races in Districts 7, 2
In the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, the race for the Dallas ISD District 7 seat drew attention from local political leaders. Dallas City Council members Scott Griggs, Philip Kingston, and Adam Medrano publicly endorsed District 7 candidate Audrey Pinkerton, while state Rep. Rafael Anchia (D-103) endorsed candidate Isaac Faz. The three city council members, who frequently voted in a bloc opposed to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, self-identified as "urbanist reformers" aimed at changing the status quo lingering in City Hall.[1] Griggs, Kingston, and Medrano opposed Rawlings' defeated "home rule" proposal introduced in 2014. The proposal, had it succeeded, would have disbanded the DISD Board of Trustees, though Rawlings did not specify what structure would replace the board.[1][2] In contrast, Anchia supported Rawlings and his home rule push.[1]
The District 7 race, according to Kingston, was "a mirror image of the power struggle we’re having on the City Council. There is no difference. There is an established power structure that believes in control. And there are people that want to bring grassroots democracy to the DISD board — the same stuff we’re trying to bring to the Dallas City Council."[1] Mayor Rawlings, commented on the race, saying, "the school board is too white and needs more qualified minority trustees like Faz"—a narrative dismissed by the opposing voting bloc.[1] Pinkerton won the race, bringing the support of her city council endorsers into the school board room.
In District 2, while the race was less contentious, the fight to replace former member Mike Morath was initially dominated by candidates Dustin Marshall and Suzanne Smith. Marshall was officially endorsed by city council member Jennifer Staubach Gates, a Rawlings supporter seen as a potential mayoral candidate. Gates, however, expressed a desire to work with any winning candidate.[1] "All the political posturing might not yield the politicians’ desired results anyway. Some of the candidates Kingston has supported in the past have voted against him in key moments on the City Council," she stated.[1] At the conclusion of general election, Smith was no longer a front runner and instead Mita Havlick arose as Marshall's biggest opponent. Neither candidate won a majority of votes, prompting a runoff election on June 18, 2016, where Marshall ultimately defeated Havlick.
Candidates differ on Teacher Excellence Initiative
The Teacher Excellence Initiative (TEI) was a pay-for-performance program adopted by the Dallas ISD. The program evaluated teacher excellence based on student test scores, surveys, and classroom performance. Instructors accumulated points based on rankings in each of these three areas, and the rankings influenced the instructors' eligibility for pay raises. While Dallas ISD administrators expressed support for this system, the program faced criticism from other district players. Candidates for the school board race in 2016 had different views on continuing the TEI.[1]
Carlos Marroquin was the sole candidate in District 2 to call for the program to be scrapped. In District 4, Omar Jimenez also called for the program to be thrown out, while the remaining candidates expressed a desire to restructure, improve, or overhaul the program.[1] Neither Marroquin nor Jimenez were elected to the board, and the winners in the race fell among those seeking a compromise in the program's continuation.[1]
Trustee vacates seat
Dallas ISD trustee Mike Morath was appointed to lead the Texas Education Agency in December 2015. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) tapped Morath to replace commissioner Michael Williams, leading to Morath's resignation from the District 2 seat. A special election for the seat was held in conjunction with the general election on May 7, 2016. Morath was a supporter of the Teacher Excellence Initiative (TEI) and encouraged the expansion of early childhood programs in the district.[3] Dustin Marshall defeated three fellow candidates to win the one-year term in District 2. Marshall was also in favor of continuing the TEI, but expressed a desire to reform the program.[1]
Board approves $1.4 billion budget
The Dallas ISD school board passed a $1.4 billion budget for the 2016-2017 school year. This is roughly $300 million less than the $1.7 billion dollar budget in the 2015-2016 school year. While the budget gave hourly workers a 2 percent salary raise, it also cut 260 jobs district-wide. These job cuts mainly affected salaried guest teachers with one-year term contracts and assistant principals.[4]
There was some controversy surrounding this budget during the spring of 2016. An additional $1.3 million was added to the budget to raise the minimum pay of roughly 650 district maintenance and operations employees. With the passage of the budget, the pay scale floor for these Dallas County workers was raised from about $8.00 per hour to a minimum of $10.37 per hour—a "living wage"—according to the Dallas Morning News.[1][1] Board incumbent Miguel Solis was a proponent of the raise, saying, "I think it’s great that the administration is considering it. Dallas ISD has an active role to play as it relates to wage stagnation in our city and our county.” The increase was also supported by Angela Davis, president of the National Education Association of Dallas, and Rena Honea, president of the Alliance/AFT employees association. Both individuals cited the income struggles hourly workers faced as the main catalyst for their organizational support.[1]
School construction investigation concluded
An EF-3 tornado tore through North Texas in December 2015, causing damage to homes, businesses, and schools. Shields Elementary School, located south of Dallas in the Red Oak Independent School District, sustained significant damage when an outer wall collapsed in the storm's wake. Subsequently, Red Oak had the school's campus inspected by a third-party engineer, citing questions about the school's construction, which was completed by Ratcliff Constructors.[5] Ultimately, the wall was found to have been improperly secured. Ratcliff agreed to pay for repairs to the school building, to be completed by a different contractor.[6][7]
These events prompted concern about the quality of construction in the Dallas ISD, where nine public schools were built by Ratcliff Constructors and another seven were renovated by the company. Three of these 16 schools were inspected in April when the school board was scheduled to vote on another construction contract with the company. Board members Miguel Solis and Joyce Foreman expressed discontent with the district's continued use of Ratcliff in building projects after a third investigation in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District uncovered an improperly secured wall built by the same corporation. That wall was repaired, but the investigation continued.[7][8]
The school board voted to approve a new contract with Ratcliff after the completion of the investigation. All of the district's campuses were deemed to be safe, and Ratcliff was hired to build an addition at Casa View Elementary School.[7]
Approval for new district headquarters
On April 28, 2016, school board trustees voted 5-3 to allocate $46.5 million for the purchase of a new district headquarters. The district will purchase a 16-floor office building on the city's north side holding administrative offices, a welcome center, staff workspaces, and a student records center. Funds for the project will come from the sale of administrative offices made unnecessary by the purchase, $25 million set aside for a new building, and $11.9 million in reserve funds.[9]
Supporters of the purchase cited $27.7 million in cost savings by 2021 based on district estimates. District 3 school board trustee Dan Micciche argued that these savings would be passed along to improve school operations. Miguel Solis, the District 8 school board trustee, stated that the new headquarters would be more efficient and cost-effective than the city's existing administrative offices. Additional board members Bernadette Nutall, Joyce Foreman, and Lew Blackburn opposed the purchase over concerns that the money saved on administrative costs would not be used to improve school buildings. Foreman argued that the district would pay twice the $23 million assessed value of the purchased building. Parents with students at South Oak Cliff High School also expressed frustration with the district's decision to use funds for a new headquarters rather than a new high school.[9]
DISD schools continues skipping lockdown drills
The Dallas Independent School District requires that all schools conduct one lockdown drill every semester. But in 2013, it was discovered by NBC 5 Investigates that approximately 75 district schools did not record security drills or did not perform them. The district pledged to correct the problem. In 2015, the media source checked back in with the district and found another 70 schools lacking records to indicate whether or not they had performed security drills. Once again, the district promised it would take action to fix the problem. In March 2016, NBC 5 Investigates found records indicating that three district schools still did not record lockdown drills in the fall semester: Barbara Manns Education Center, Robert E. Lee Elementary, and Birdie Alexander Elementary schools. The district later said that Robert E. Lee Elementary scheduled a lockdown drill soon thereafter and that Birdie Alexander School actually completed a drill in January 2016. According to Stephanie Elizade, the DISD chief of school leadership, principals were going to face disciplinary measures if they did not hold drills during the 2016 school year.[10]
Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District
Lawsuit settlement changes voting format
- See also: Power struggles in public education
After a settlement in a voting rights lawsuit in 2015, district residents voted on as many candidates as there were seats up for election in school board elections. Guillermo Ramos filed the lawsuit in 2015, alleging that the voting format was used by white voters to disenfranchise Hispanic voters despite the Hispanic majority in the district. The school board voted 5-2 to come to a settlement in order to stop the lawsuit. Board members Richard Fleming and Randy Schackmann opposed the settlement.
The settlement forced one member of the board to resign in order to give Ramos a seat on the board until the next election was held in May 2016. Board member Nancy Watten volunteered to resign and gave up her seat to Ramos. The board was also required to pay $60,000 in attorney fees and to spearhead voter registration efforts in the community. Another aspect of the settlement included a change to the voting format for residents in the school district. Prior to 2016, voters in the district voted for one at-large candidate. Starting with the election in May 2016, voters distributed multiple votes among at-large candidates. Each voter was able to vote for as many candidates as there were seats up for election. In 2016, there were three seats up for election. Voters voted for three candidates among the five candidates running in the election.
Ramos' attorneys alleged that the at-large voting method had allowed white voters to keep Hispanic candidates off the school board by bloc voting since 1995. As of 2016, the district was 56 percent Hispanic and Ramos was the only Hispanic member of the school board.[11]
Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District
Dead tie leads to runoff election
The Harlingen ISD Board of Trustees election held on May 7, 2016, featured a contested race for Place 7 after long-time incumbent Verna Young opted not to seek another term. Candidates Eladio Jaimez and Rosalinda Mercado-Garza filed for the seat Young occupied from 2001 to 2016. No clear winner could be determined on election night, as the unofficial results reported 1,422 votes cast for Jaimez and 1,421 votes cast for Mercado-Garza. The election was further complicated after the Cameron County Early Voting Election Board added a provisional ballot to Mercado-Garza's tally, bringing the candidates to an exact tie.[12]
Section 2.002 of Texas Election Code states that in the event of a tie vote, "the tying candidates may agree to cast lots to resolve the tie."[13] Accordingly, the candidates were given the option of tossing a coin to determine the winner. Both Jaimez and Mercado-Garza declined this option, however, citing the duty to honor supporters through a continued campaign.[12][14] This decision triggered a formal recount by Harlingen City Hall, which confirmed the tie and led to the certification of the results on May 17, 2016.[12]
The board of trustees scheduled a second election on June 11, 2016, which was decided during a board meeting held on May 19.[15] The candidates responded favorably to these events. “We will continue to visit all the areas that have polling places in the community,” Mercado-Garza said. “We will continue doing the meet and greets and block walks." Jaimez expressed a similarly optimistic sentiment: "It’s not often you get a second chance to work on things you should have done better."[12] HCISD's chief financial officer, Julio Cavazos, reported that the recount cost the district $2,000 and that the special election cost another $30,000 in general funds. Jaimez defeated Mercado-Garza in the tie-breaker election to win the board seat. The vote margin was much wider than in the previous election, with Jaimez winning almost 59% of the votes cast. Mercado-Garza fell short of Jaimez by 559 votes, according to Valley Central.[12][16]
Election trends
Trends in Texas school board elections
- See also: School boards in session: 2015 in brief
The 2015 school board elections in Texas' largest school districts attracted a smaller average number of candidates per seat than there were in the state's 2014 school board elections. The 2015 elections also had a higher percentage of seats go unopposed compared to the percentage that went unopposed in 2014. Newcomers fared better in the state's 2014 elections than in 2015. They won 38.50 percent of the seats on the ballot in 2014, compared to the 34.40 percent of seats they won in 2015.
The following sections analyze competitiveness and incumbency advantage in Texas' school board elections. Two of the 80 school districts that held elections in 2015 utilized runoff elections. In the other districts, winners only had to receive a plurality, or relative majority, of votes in the general election 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 the largest school districts in Texas attracted an average of 1.69 candidates per seat on the ballot. This was lower than the average 1.86 candidates that ran per seat up for election in 2014. The 2015 elections also had a higher percentage of unopposed seats. Nearly half of the seats—48.62 percent—were unopposed in 2015, compared to the 37.61 percent of seats that were unopposed in 2014.
Incumbency advantage
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A total of 83.53 percent of incumbents who ran for re-election in 2015 retained their seats. A total of 170 of the 218 incumbents whose terms were on the ballot ran to keep their seats, and 142 of them won. Of those winners, 92 were unopposed; the others won re-election by defeating challengers. In 2014, 81.76 percent of incumbents who ran for re-election won additional terms. A total of 170 of the 226 incumbents whose seats were up for election ran to retain their seats, and 139 of them won. Of those winners, 76 were unopposed; the others defeated challengers to keep their seats. 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.
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Data table
| Texas school board elections, 2014 - 2015 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 2015 | |||||||||
| All candidates | ||||||||||
| Seats up | 226 | 218 | ||||||||
| Candidates | 421 | 369 | ||||||||
| Candidates/seat | 1.86 | 1.69 | ||||||||
| Unopposed seats | 85 | 106 | ||||||||
| % unopposed | 37.61% | 48.62% | ||||||||
| % seats won by newcomers | 38.50% | 34.40% | ||||||||
| Incumbents | ||||||||||
| Sought re-election | 170 | 170 | ||||||||
| Unopposed | 76 | 92 | ||||||||
| Retained | 139 | 142 | ||||||||
| % retained | 81.76% | 83.72% | ||||||||
Academic performance
- See also: Public education in Texas
The sections below do not contain the most recently published data on this subject. If you would like to help our coverage grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia.
| Education terms |
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| 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 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 (Louisiana, New Mexico, and Oklahoma), students in Texas had the highest scores in nearly every category, falling behind only Oklahoma in fourth-grade reading.[17]
| Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Math - Grade 4 | Math - Grade 8 | Reading - Grade 4 | Reading - Grade 8 | |
| Texas | 41% | 38% | 28% | 31% |
| Louisiana | 26% | 21% | 23% | 24% |
| New Mexico | 31% | 23% | 21% | 22% |
| Oklahoma | 36% | 25% | 30% | 29% |
| U.S. averages | 41% | 34% | 34% | 34% |
| Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables" | ||||
Graduation, ACT and SAT scores
The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Texas and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.[17][18][19]
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.[20]
Texas schools reported a graduation rate of 88 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, highest among its neighboring states
In Texas, more students took the SAT than the ACT in 2013, earning an average SAT score of 1437.
| 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 | ||
| Texas | 88% | First | 20.9 | 37% | 1437 | 59% | |
| Louisiana | 73.5% | Fifth | 19.5 | 100% | 1655 | 5% | |
| New Mexico | 70.3% | Fifth | 19.9 | 70% | 1626 | 12% | |
| Oklahoma | 84.8% | Second | 20.8 | 75% | 1689 | 5% | |
| 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 Texas was lower than the national average at 2.4 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 2.5 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.[21]
State profile
State profile
| Demographic data for Texas | ||
|---|---|---|
| Texas | U.S. | |
| Total population: | 27,429,639 | 316,515,021 |
| Land area (sq mi): | 261,232 | 3,531,905 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White: | 74.9% | 73.6% |
| Black/African American: | 11.9% | 12.6% |
| Asian: | 4.2% | 5.1% |
| Native American: | 0.5% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0.1% | 0.2% |
| Two or more: | 2.5% | 3% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 38.4% | 17.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 81.9% | 86.7% |
| College graduation rate: | 27.6% | 29.8% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $53,207 | $53,889 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 19.9% | 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 Texas. **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 Texas
Texas 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, one is located in Texas, accounting for 0.5 percent of the total pivot counties.[22]
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. Texas had one Retained Pivot County, 0.55 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.
More Texas coverage on Ballotpedia
- Elections in Texas
- United States congressional delegations from Texas
- Public policy in Texas
- Endorsers in Texas
- Texas fact checks
- More...
See also
| Texas | School Boards | News and Analysis |
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Footnotes
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 The Dallas Morning News, "Dallas ISD board candidates differ on future of teacher pay-for-performance," April 8, 2016 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "blog" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ The Dallas Morning News, "Greg Abbott praises Mike Rawlings for home-rule push," April 30, 2016
- ↑ KERA News, "Mike Morath, Dallas School Board Member, To Lead Texas Education Agency," December 14, 2015
- ↑ NBC DFW, "Dallas ISD approves $1.4 billion budget for 2016-2017," June 24, 2016
- ↑ Fox4, "Dallas ISD re-inspects school construction after FOX 4 Investigation," April 15, 2016
- ↑ Red Oak ISD, "Update on Construction at Shields Elementary on Ovilla Road," January 28, 2016
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Fox4, "Dallas ISD: No issues found at nine schools built by Ratcliff Constructors," May 3, 2016
- ↑ Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD, "Update: EMS conducts building checks for storm safety," April 18, 2016
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 The Dallas Morning News, "Big decision made in Dallas ISD on proposed $46.5 million headquarters building," April 29, 2016
- ↑ NBC 5 Investigates, "Three DISD Schools Skipped Lockdown Drills After District Pledged to Do Better," March 21, 2016
- ↑ The Dallas Morning News, "Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD scraps at-large voting in settlement, gets first Latino trustee," October 9, 2015
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Valley Morning Star, "School Board Place 7 goes to voters again on date still to be set," May 19, 2016
- ↑ Texas Constitution and Statutes, “Election Code Title 1, Chapter 2, Subchapter A,” accessed May 19, 2016 (See Sec. 2.002)
- ↑ Valley Morning Star, "School election all tied up," May 14, 2016
- ↑ Valley Morning Star, "School tie-breaker election June 11," May 20, 2016
- ↑ Valley Central, "Results: Eladio Jaimez wins Harlingen school board runoff election," June 11, 2016
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables," accessed May 13, 2014
- ↑ ACT, "2012 ACT National and State Scores," accessed May 13, 2014
- ↑ Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT Scores by State 2013," October 10, 2013
- ↑ StudyPoints, "What's a good SAT score or ACT score?" accessed June 7, 2015
- ↑ United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Common Core of Data (CCD), State Dropout and Graduation Rate Data File, School Year 2010-11, Provision Version 1a and School Year 2011-12, Preliminary Version 1a," accessed May 13, 2014
- ↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
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