A decade ago, of eligible voters participated in Albuquerque’s local school board elections. But things changed in 2019, after New Mexico moved its local elections from February to November. This year, suggest at least a third of eligible voters helped choose the individuals charged with overseeing – and perhaps improving – the city’s schools. That’s worth celebrating, even if we the outcome of this particular election.

In a 2021 Education Next , 39% of American adults said they didn’t know if their local school board members were elected (nearly all are), and another 5% said they were appointed (which isn’t typical). Yet, despite Americans’ confusion, local school boards  decide how the hundreds of billions of dollars the U.S. devotes to K-12 education are spent, who becomes superintendent and which reading, math, science, and social studies curricula local schools use.

Stakes like those should command the attention of parents and taxpayers. Yet, in practice, turnout for school board elections is often pitifully low. In New Jersey, where the public schools serve more than 40,000 students, only 2.8% of eligible voters cast a ballot in the 2024 school board election. Meanwhile, nearly 70% of Newark students are reading below grade level.

In a recent study conducted by Michael Hartney and David Houston and published by our organization, , we asked more than 5,000 school board members in more than 3,000 school districts across the country about their views on education issues such as school choice and curriculum.

The results confirm what many families feel: School boards are insulated from the communities they serve. For example, 25% of school board members are current or former public school teachers – a dynamic that can make hearings feel like internal staff meetings, albeit the kind that are periodically interrupted by angry parents.

Or consider the racial composition of boards. While the percentage of Americans who are white has declined by 10 percentage points since 2001, the percentage of white board members has risen ever-so-slightly. Meanwhile, the percentage who are Hispanic has barely budged, and the share who are Black has actually declined.

Strikingly, most board members admit that their elections aren’t competitive: Just one in five describe them as “vigorously contested.” Consequently, they also diverge from the public on major issues. For example, 75% of board members give their local schools an A or a B, compared to 51% of all U.S. adults. Meanwhile, just 29% of board members support charter schools, compared to 45% of the public.

This disconnect is not inevitable, but it is structural. Which means that fixing it requires more than a snappy campaign slogan or a good election cycle.

First and perhaps most importantly, the with “asynchronous” school board elections should follow New Mexico’s example and move them so they coincide with general elections, which have much higher turnout and are thus more representative.

Second, secretaries of state and local election offices should include school board elections in their official voter guides, so they are more visible to and accessible by voters who aren’t attending every local board meeting.

Finally, education reform groups and community organizations should actively recruit and support a broader, more representative pool of candidates who better reflect their increasingly diverse communities and their perspectives.

From budgets to bus routes, local school board elections have important consequences. Making them more democratic – by boosting turnout, helping voters who want to make informed decisions grasp the stakes and ensuring that every community has a voice – is a messy but essential step towards public schools that work.

The Minneapolis school board has formally asked Superintendent Dr. Lisa Sayles-Adams for information that could lead to school closures. They passed a resolution to the effect at a recent .

The board first drafted the directive —which asks for an initial report to the board by April 2026 — at two day-long meetings in June and August. The planning follows years of discussion about closing schools in a district with 29,000 students but the capacity for 42,000 and thus a bevy of half-empty schools.

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Even as enrollment declines at a school building, the fixed expenses for building staff — like principals, secretaries, nurses, librarians, culinary workers, custodians and social workers — stay the same or go up. With so many buildings below capacity, a big portion of each Minneapolis student’s funding has to go toward covering these fixed building-level costs, draining money away from instruction and extracurricular activities.

The board resolution comprises topics for district administrators to investigate, including efficient use of current buildings, potential changes to magnet programs, and ways to increase enrollment in the district.

Years-long discussion about the financial burden of operating small enrollment schools

The process for downsizing the district’s footprint has been long and circuitous.

In, the district prepared a comprehensive financial assessment forecasting that without significant cost cutting, the district would end up draining its reserves, while expenses would exceed revenues by the end of fiscal year 2026. The district has avoided that fate by cutting services and raising class sizes, but it is still unable to balance its budget without relying on reserves and other one-time funds.

The 2022 memo did not prescribe closing schools, but it did present an analysis showing enrollment growth alone could not overcome the district’s structural inefficiencies resulting from operating many schools with small enrollments. At the time of the analysis, Anoka-Hennepin was operating 37 school buildings while enrolling about 37,000 students. Minneapolis was operating 61 buildings while enrolling about 29,000 students. Minneapolis had about half as many students per building as Anoka-Hennepin.

The board first publicly discussed reducing the number of schools in March 2023, when asked Rochelle Cox, the then-interim superintendent, to develop a draft plan for “school transformation.” Neither Cox nor the board took action.

Two months before current Superintendent Dr. Lisa Sayles-Adams started at the district in early 2024, the School Board passed a “transformation resolution” that directed the district to do an accounting of physical space but stopped short of calling for a timeline on school closures.

Sayle-Adams after passing a budget in June 2024, because, she said, the community asked her to address the issue.

Low enrollment schools require more funding per student for building-level staff

The district is contending with rising costs and operating a significant number of small buildings, as well as buildings operating below capacity. Given the rising fixed costs of operating these buildings, that leaves less money for everything else, from class size reduction to teacher pay and programs commonly found in most school districts like world languages, art, music and athletics.

Across the district, as building-level enrollment has declined, students have lost access to services like academic support if they’re struggling; staff to address student behavior; and community liaisons to help parents connect with schools. Small elementary schools have difficulty funding full-time positions for electives like art, music and gym, while hiring part-time staff for these positions is challenging. Some elementary students have gone without these electives, or only have music or art for part of the school year.

Enrollment declines at middle and high schools have meant fewer elective options, like world languages, dance, theater and orchestra, as well as extracurriculars. Students also lose access to advanced coursework — like AP or IB classes — when there are too few students in the school who want to enroll. Many of the district’s high schools are now sharing athletic teams because individual schools lack enough students and funding to support a robust athletics program.

The decline in services drives some families to schools outside the district that have the services and programs they desire, compounding the enrollment declines.

Declines in enrollment mitigated by new-to-country students

Minneapolis Public Schools in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to a combination of factors including implementing a controversial plan redrawing school boundaries, and keeping its schools closed longer during the pandemic than any other Minnesota district, which was followed in March 2022 by a three week educator strike.

The district has enjoyed a small enrollment increase both last year and this year. Although the district does not track the immigration status of students, the increase has been almost entirely to students newly arrived to the United States from Central America. Since the 2021-22 school year, English learner students have increased from 17% of the district’s students to 23% in the 2024-25 school year, according to Minnesota Department of Education data.

This year, the district expects to spend at least $17 million more on English learner services than it receives in funding from state and federal sources. Although the Legislature increased state aid for English learners during the 2023 legislative session, the district’s funding is insufficient to cover the cost of providing the intensive services needed by students with the lowest levels of English proficiency.

Many of the newcomer students are also unhoused, which has led to growing costs for the district to transport students from shelters outside district boundaries, as required under the federal McKinney-Vento law. The state has started to pay the cost of this transportation under a law passed in 2023.

It is not clear whether changes to federal immigration policy will impact the district’s ability to continue to rely on newcomers to stabilize or grow enrollment in the future.

Future enrollment expected to decline, limiting district’s funding

Hazel Reinhardt, a demographer hired by the district, says enrollment is in the coming years because of lower birth rates, fewer families choosing to raise children in the city, and the state’s favorable laws around charter schools and open enrollment, allowing parents to send their children to St. Paul or suburban schools.

Reinhardt told the board in that once parents leave for charter and private schools or open enrollment options, “precious few” districts are able to bring them back.

Most of the district’s funding is based on enrollment, so declining enrollment has created a . Growing costs for both labor and services have outpaced increases in state and local funding.

The district continues to cut services, increase class sizes and pull from its dwindling reserve funds to balance its annual budget. The district is expected to use $25 million from its reserves this school year after using $85 million from reserves last school year.

The district’s enrollment woes and related financial distress are not unique to Minneapolis, with similar challenges facing large urban districts like , , , and . Denver and have closed a small number of schools in recent years, but not enough to stabilize district finances. And school boards in Seattle and have walked away from closure plans after significant public pressure, leaving both districts with growing budget deficits.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.

There’s more to being a diligent school board member than attending a couple of meetings a month.

Those meetings require preparation, research and one-on-one conversations with school leadership. There are school site visits. Many districts require regular board training. Sometimes there are spinoff committee meetings about parcel taxes or school nutrition. There’s also an expectation that board members attend events like football games, PTA meetings and retirement ceremonies. Meetings with parents and other constituents are a core part of the role, too.

For all of this, Woodland Joint Unified School District board president Deborah Bautista Zavala says she earns a stipend of $240 a month, minus taxes — the maximum allowed by the state for her district with just under 10,000 students.

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“You don’t do it for money, but to improve the education of students,” said Bautista Zavala.

But the lack of money, she said, is a real problem for attracting and retaining qualified school board members who truly represent the community.

That could change if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs Assembly Bill 1390, which would raise the maximum monthly stipend for school board members in both school districts and county offices of education.

This would be the first time in over 40 years that school board members’ compensation has been reconsidered — and the measure comes at a time when school boards are grappling with financial deficits, consolidation, uncertainty about federal funding and potential school closures.

Proponents of the bill have argued that while school board members dedicate large amounts of time to their position, they are not compensated adequately. Currently, school board members can earn no more than $60 each month in small districts or up to $1,500 for the state’s largest districts.

There is also a clause in the current law that allows board member stipends to be raised by 5% each year beyond the maximum, but 7 out of 10 boards still have stipends at or below the maximum, according to Troy Flint, chief information officer for the California School Boards Association.

Raising school board compensation has been a longstanding issue for the California School Boards Association, which sponsored the bill, but it has become more pressing in the years since the pandemic, Flint said.

“The job is vastly more complex than it used to be,” said Flint. “It requires a strong knowledge of finance, an aptitude for community engagement, a working knowledge of educational theory and an ability to deal with culture wars and political issues.”

The role is at an inflection point: More than 6 out of 10 school board members did not run for reelection over the past three cycles, Flint said.

Legislative analysis referenced an EdSource article, which found that 56% of 1,510 school board races across 49 California counties did not appear on a local ballot in 2024, either because there was one unopposed candidate who became a guaranteed winner or because there were no candidates at all.

The bill’s author, Assemblymember JosĂ© Luis Solache Jr., D-Lynwood, argues that increasing board members’ compensation could lead to bigger, more diverse candidate pools. School boards often attract retirees or other professionals with stable income and spare time. Low stipends put the job out of reach for those from working families or younger people who are already struggling to make ends meet, Solache said.

Solache would know: He began serving on the board for the Lynwood Unified School District starting in 2003, when he was 23 years old. He has since worked with other young elected officials to find ways to recruit young people into office. Solache sees this bill as a way to improve recruitment for an important community role.

“It’s an underpaid job. We compensate the president, senators, Assembly members, state senators,” Solache said. “Why can’t you compensate the school board members that have jurisdiction over your child’s education?”

Raising the stipends of elected officials can raise eyebrows in Sacramento, Solache said. The bill set the maximums by setting an amount between inflation since 1984, when rates were set, and what the maximum would have been if the boards had raised the rates 5% annually as allowed by law.

Maximums for board members in the smallest districts saw the greatest increase. Currently, the maximum for a board member at a school district with fewer than 150 students is $60 a month. Under this bill, that same board member could earn up to $600 monthly, which Solache said is more equitable.

But board members won’t necessarily see raises, even if Newsom signs it into law. The bill merely raises the ceiling for compensation. The decision to actually offer raises to school board members will happen at the local level, and that could be a tough sell given the budget constraints school districts are facing in the coming year.

“There’s no getting around that: that in a time of limited resources, adding money for board members is taking money away from other places,” said Julie Marsh, a professor at USC’s Rossier School of Education, who recently served as the lead author of a study analyzing the experiences of 10 school board members across the state.

“We need to just really keep in mind the demands of that role and the decisions that they’re making around the superintendent, the budgets for these places, the curricular decisions that are being made. And as a state, there’s been a lot put on these positions in terms of making really important decisions,” she said.

Bautista Zavala believes it will be tough to make the case to some of her fellow board members at Woodland Unified, which is in a community 20 miles northwest of Sacramento. The district of 9,500 students struggled to pass a facilities bond last November, despite facilities in dire need of improvement. The optics of board members giving themselves a raise could be tricky if they’re also negotiating with teachers or classified staff.

“You have to be strategic about bringing this forward,” she said.

She encourages board members to raise stipends to bring new voices to school boards. She says members who believe they don’t need a raise can donate the stipend.

Some people believe serving on a board is a civic duty, and compensation shouldn’t factor into the role, said Jonathan Zachreson, board member at Roseville City School District. But he said that’s not realistic for many people. He hopes that raising the stipends for board members will also mean raising the expectations for board members.

Zachreson is concerned that some boards outsource policymaking to groups, including the California School Boards Association, rather than doing in-depth research themselves to find a solution that works best for the community.

“It’s worth the time commitment to actually learn and not just rubber-stamp proposals,” said Zachreson.

But some believe there could be unintended consequences in raising the stipends of board members.

“The worst-case scenario, I think, from a superintendent’s point of view, would be if the increase in pay becomes attractive to the wrong kind of people, who want to micromanage the superintendent and want to be well compensated for that,” said Carl Cohn, a former superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District and State Board of Education member.

Some boards are exempt

Some school districts and county boards of education are exempt from this model because they have their own local charter. This includes the Los Angeles Unified School District, the state’s largest school district with an $18.8 billion budget this academic year; it won’t be impacted by the bill should it become law. A separate LAUSD Compensation Review Committee outlines board members’ salaries — a strategy that Marsh said makes the district appear less self-serving.

In 2017, Los Angeles Unified school board members who didn’t work elsewhere received a 174% pay increase.

“With the increase in compensation in Los Angeles Unified, we saw candidates earlier in their careers, single parents, women of color, immigrants and others with similar lived experience to our students step up,” said board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin in a statement to EdSource. “I hope that will be the trend across the state and improve decision-making for California’s public schools.”

According to a 2023 committee resolution, Los Angeles Unified board members made $127,500 annually if they weren’t employed elsewhere and $51,000 if they had another source of income. And on July 1 until 2027, board members would receive a 1% annual increase — leading most recently to salaries of $128,775 and $51,510, depending on outside employment.

Meanwhile, compensation in the San Francisco Unified School District, currently $500 monthly for board members, is governed by the city and county and is also exempt. The board of supervisors must approve compensation for county board members in Alpine, San Benito and San Bernardino counties.

Beyond compensation

Increasing school board members’ compensation might help address issues such as poor recruitment and retention, Marsh said. But professional development and other non-financial support could go a long way, since board members come in with varying degrees of knowledge on data, governance and technology.

“With the rapidly changing context around us — whether that’s around the politics and the political climate and the divisiveness, or shifting technology — I think there’s a need to further support folks,” Marsh said.

This was originally published on .

A bill to give Indiana school board candidates the option to run as Republicans or Democrats has passed a key vote in the House and could soon head to the governor’s desk.

But the changes that House lawmakers made to Senate Bill 287 may first require a stop in a conference committee, where legislators from both chambers would hash out a final version.

The bill passed by the House on Monday gives school board candidates the option to state a party affiliation, identify as independent, or remain nonpartisan in general elections. It creates mechanisms for county parties to challenge an affiliation, and provides that a straight ticket vote does not apply to school board offices. It also provides raises to school board members.

The bill passed by the House doesn’t require a primary election for school board candidates. However, in the version passed by the Senate, the bill would have required school board candidates to go through the same primary process as other political candidates.

The bill’s sponsor in the House, GOP Rep. J.D. Prescott, said that disclosing party affiliation would drive up voter turnout in school board elections and help voters choose a candidate that aligns with their values.

“Politics are already in our schools, whether we like it or not, influencing everything from how schools handled COVID-19 to budgets, tax rates, debt, curriculum choices and more,” he said. “Just because our elections are nonpartisan, certainly doesn’t mean the candidates and board members are.”

A version of this proposal by Indiana legislators since school boards became a hotbed of conflict during the pandemic over issues like masking and school closings. It due to concerns over the effect it could have on school boards. Board members’ primary responsibilities are approving a school budget and hiring a superintendent.

Most public testimony on the proposal this year and in years past has been in opposition.

Democratic lawmakers, too, have rejected the idea. Among several arguments they made on Monday, Democrats said the bill actually disincentivizes voters from learning more about their school board candidates, and possibly creates an opportunity for candidates to disingenuously state a party affiliation for political advantage.

“[Voters] don’t care if it’s a Democrat or Republican, they just want to make sure our kids’ needs are being served,” said Rep. Cherrish Pryor, a Democrat who spoke in opposition to the bill.

Rep. Tonya Pfaff, a Democrat, also raised concerns about conflicts with , which bars certain government employees from partisan political activities.

And Democratic Rep. Chuck Moseley, a former member of the Portage Township School Board, rejected the argument that politics on school boards is a fact of life.

“We kept politics out of that for one specific reason, because we were representing not just the taxpayers of that school corporation, we were also representing the kids that were in that school,” he said. “We had a responsibility to the parents of those kids that we wouldn’t interject our political thoughts and ideology into school board decisions.”

But some GOP lawmakers explicitly supported the possibility that the bill could help conservative candidates.

Rep. Hunter Smith said the educational landscape has been “growing increasingly and covertly more political for decades,” to the point that district curriculum directors could not find curriculum “void of slanted cultural endorsements and ideologies.”

“I believe this measure will promote leadership more in line with the values of Indiana’s over 2 million parents who entrust their children to our schools every week,” Smith said.

Under the bill, in order to state a party affiliation, a school board candidate must have voted in that party’s two most recent primary elections, or obtain written certification from the county party chairman that they are a member of the party. A candidate’s affiliation could be challenged if they don’t take one of these steps.

The bill also raises pay for school board members from $2,000 as in current law, to an amount not more than 10% of the lowest starting salary of a teacher in that school district.

It would take effect this July; however, there are no school board elections in Indiana in 2025.

The bill passed the House 54-40, with several Republicans joining Democrats in opposition. The Senate will vote on accepting or rejecting the changes made in the House.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat.ÌęChalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

Mayor Brandon Johnson picked 10 of 11 people Monday to round out the city’s new half-elected, half-appointed school board — including some who ran unsuccessfully in this November.

The new board will be sworn in Jan. 15, 2025, and will include 10 people who won in November. State law required the mayor choose the other 11 people, including a board president, by Monday.

The shift to an elected school board in Chicago . The process set forth in state law is complicated. Though there were 10 school board races in November, each district was split into two subdistricts. State law limited who Johnson could pick — allowing him to only choose people who did not live in the same subdistrict as winners of the election.

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Johnson announced the school board appointees late Monday, just hours before the deadline.

• Sean Harden, a South Side native and former CPS employee, will serve as president of the Board of Education and represent the city at large.
• Ed Bannon, who ran for alderman in 2023 and served on the Dever Elementary School Local School Council, will represent District 1a alongside Jennifer Custer in 1b.
• Debby Pope, a current appointed school board member and former CTU employee and retired teacher who filed campaign finance paperwork and considered running for an elected school board seat, will represent District 2b alongside Ebony DeBerry in 2a.
• Norma Rios-Sierra, an artist who also works as cultural events manager for nonprofit Palenque LSNA, will presumably represent District 3a alongside Carlos Rivas Jr. in 3b.
• Karen Zaccor, a retired teacher and active CTU member who finished second in a six-way race in November’s election, will represent District 4a alongside the winning candidate Ellen Rosenfeld in 4b.
• Michilla Blaise, a current school board member who withdrew as a candidate one month before Election Day, will represent District 5b alongside Jitu Brown in 5a.
• Anusha Thotakura, a former teacher who also lost her bid in November, will represent District 6a alongside Jessica Biggs in 6b.
• Emma Lozano, a Pilsen pastor and advocate for bilingual education and immigrant rights. It is not clear which district Lozano lives in, but it would presumably be either district 7b or 8b alongside either Yesenia Lopez in 7a or Angel Gutierrez in 8a.
• Frank Niles Thomas, a current board member appointed last month, will represent District 9a alongside Therese Boyle in 9b.
• Olga Bautista, a current board member appointed last month, will presumably represent District 10b alongside Che “Rhymefest” Smith in 10a.

It was not immediately clear why the mayor only announced 10 of 11 picks before the deadline. State law does not spell out any impacts for partially missing the deadline.

Johnson’s picks will make up a majority of the board, giving him significant influence over a governing body that for the past three decades was exclusively controlled by Chicago’s mayor.

The mayor’s appointees included most of the current board members as well as losing school board candidates who were endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, a close ally of the mayor’s.

Johnson’s office announced the names after the mayor struggled to negotiate a deal with aldermen on his second city budget. Late Monday, after multiple amendments and Johnson tossing out his proposed property tax increase entirely, the City Council approved a $17.1 billion city budget by a vote of 27 to 23.

After that budget vote, as he called for more state revenue, Johnson told reporters he was looking for school board members “who understand the urgency of this moment, people who know that they have to organize and work collectively to fight for progressive revenue in the state.”

“But really the big characteristic that I’m proud that people demonstrated was a real care for the families who do the work as well,” Johnson said, adding that he also searched for people who were not “dismissive” of teachers.

The mayor’s influence over the school board may extend beyond his own picks. Four of the election winners were backed by the union, which ideologically aligns with the mayor. That means 15 of the 21 members could often vote in alignment with his policy preferences, such as avoiding school closures and sending more money to neighborhood schools.

It also could mean the board could vote to borrow money in order to cover pension obligations and labor union costs, as Johnson pushed CPS to do in the spring and summer, helping to lead to the resignation of the entire previous board.

Before taking office, school board members are required to complete state-mandated training. Last week, newly elected board members were notified by the school district’s board office that would be postponed, per a request from the current board. Carlos Rivas, who was elected to represent District 3 on the West Side, said the Academy of Local Leadership at National Louis University, in light of the district’s cancellation, is now providing training this week. Rivas was part of .

“At the end of the day, what’s most important is that we are prepared to govern on day one,” Rivas said.

Rivas said the school district’s board office said they still plan to hold five days of sessions with new board members from Jan. 6-10.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.  Sign up for their newsletters at . 

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President-elect Donald Trump is not the only conservative candidate who made a comeback on Election Day. In Temecula, California, former school board president Joseph Komrosky was elected a trustee once again after that brought national attention to the school district about an hour northeast of San Diego.

By just over 200 votes, against his teachers union-backed opponent, David Sola, to obtain a seat on the governing body of the Temecula Valley Unified School District (TVUSD), which . Three other seats on the five-member school board were also up for election. Conservatives won most of these races, giving the school board that has made headlines for its a right-wing majority once again.

Results from the school board election and other races throughout California were just finalized December 3 because state laws and voting-by-mail procedures require more time to process ballots. In major elections, officials have up to a month to certify results.

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Across the country, school boards and states have enacted policies in recent years to ban (CRT), censor books, single out LGBTQ+ youth or ignore the lines between church and state. Temecula is a city with a plurality of Republican voters, and its school board has passed policies more aligned with the rightward shift in public schools in red states than with the liberal ethos of California. The trustees banned curriculum described as CRT and all flags but the American flag, which was widely perceived as a way to prevent Pride flags from being displayed on campuses. The board in May 2023, which . It also backed a plan that would have required school personnel to “out” transgender students to their families. Due to legal action, or the threat of such action, most of these policies were rolled back, but the election outcome places the newly conservative board in prime position to usher in more divisive proposals.

“We did it! We won!!! Praise the Lord,” after the election results were certified. “Thank you Temecula for standing behind me again. Thanks to all of you who supported me during this campaign, as I couldn’t have done it without you. That said, I will continue to protect the innocence of your children at TVUSD.”

Komrosky did not respond to The 19th’s request for comment about his victory, which came as a blow to organizers locally and nationally who mobilized for the recall campaign against him. After Komrosky and two other conservatives joined the five-member school board in 2022, they proceeded to pass policies that sparked public outrage, with footage of parents ejected from heated Temecula school board meetings going viral on social media and directing national attention to a town of nearly 111,000 that had previously been known for its wineries. The board also faced scrutiny when it fired TVUSD Superintendent Jodi McClay without cause. In November, McClay began as superintendent of St. Helena Unified School District near San Francisco.

The three conservatives were all elected with help from Pastor Tim Thompson’s Inland Empire Family PAC, which aims to fill school boards with members of the Christian right. In May, Trump’s son Eric Trump and Kash Patel, his pick to lead the FBI, traveled to Temecula to . That month,

The successful recall against Komrosky and the departure of another conservative board member who relocated to Texas caused the Temecula school board to lose its right-wing majority for much of this year. But now that Komrosky has been elected once again, along with two newcomers who have been described as right-leaning and one liberal-leaning incumbent,  Komrosky’s detractors predict that the school board will likely resume approving policies that split the community and garner negative attention for the city.

One of them is Jeff Pack, cofounder of One Temecula Valley PAC, a political action committee started with the aim of uniting community members across partisan lines.

“Obviously the dangerous part is Komrosky is back on the board,” he said. “We’re disappointed about that, because we 
 think he’s going to be even more vindictive this time. All he has to do is say a couple of buzzwords that scare people, and we have to thread a whole bunch of needles to convince them that they’re .”

Pack foresees more by the school board, attempts to and possibly the singling out of teachers who don’t subscribe to the trustees’ views.

Edgar Diaz, president of local teachers union Temecula Valley Educators Association (TVEA), won’t hazard a guess about the policies the newly elected conservative board members might enact. He stressed, however, how important it is for all school board members to prioritize students’ educational needs.

“That’s all we’re really focused on, and we’re hoping to work with any school board member, as we did last time, that would help to move forward those goals and set down a path that would allow our district to continue to be successful in educating the students of the community,” he said.

Diaz said that TVEA is made up of educators of all political persuasions but did not discuss why he thought only one of the three candidates backed by the union, incumbent Steven Schwartz, won their races. Fellow incumbent Allison Barclay lost her seat to Melina Anderson, endorsed by the Riverside County Republican Party. A third TVEA-backed candidate, Gary Oddi, lost his race to Emil Roger Barham, also endorsed by the Riverside County Republican Party. Two conservative candidates, Komroksy and Jon Cobb, were endorsed by the Inland Empire Family PAC, but Schwartz defeated the latter contender.

The community divisions over the Temecula school board have attracted activists from , a project of People for the American Way, a nationwide progressive advocacy organization. Grandparents for Truth works to give students the “freedom to learn” by opposing censorship and championing diversity in the classroom, among other issues.

Alana Byrd, national field director for People for the American Way, fears that far right conservatives may be using the same playbook to broadly enact policies, such as religious instruction in public schools, in districts across the country. She said the group is monitoring attempts in states such as in classrooms and Christian stories in the curriculum, respectively.

“As an organization that’s committed to religious liberty, we’re not preaching against the Bible. We’re not preaching against religion at all,” Byrd said. “The problem is that separation of church and state, when it is either mandated or it’s financially incentivized to teach a specific religion as this kind of state-sponsored religion, that’s where it gets really concerning. And I would not be surprised if there seems to be a playbook, if the next thing on Komrosky and his colleagues’ list is to introduce some sort of religious mandate or thinly veiled mandate.”

Despite the success of the recall campaign, Pack said it was an uphill battle for One Temecula Valley and the Temecula Valley Educators Association to stop Komrosky and other right-wing candidates from making it onto the school board. Republicans not only make up a plurality of the electorate in Temecula, but voters in Riverside County, where it is located, narrowly backed Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race. California may be a blue state, but it is home to millions of red voters, with some communities, particularly outside of the state’s major cities, known for their dense concentrations of GOP supporters.

“We did an incredible job,” Pack said of the effort to elect non-extremists to the board. “I think it’s historic for all of the candidates, all of the efforts, the money, the time and just the effort spent on working to get these candidates elected has never been done here. We’re proud of that effort, and we came real close. Hopefully in the future, we’ll be able to get them over the line because I think the community is going to start seeing some of the damage that has already been done and will start affecting the kids and the schools.”

He said the tight race between Komrosky and Sola demonstrates how important it is for the public to vote in school board elections. Some people likely voted for president but not for school board because they didn’t think the local race mattered or don’t have school-age children, Pack said.

“Our mantra has always been that a failed school district is a failed city, a failed community,” he said. “If the school district tanks, then you’re going to start seeing the repercussions of it, even if you don’t have kids. So, yeah, local local elections really do matter, especially at the school level.”

Because taxpayer dollars support schools, Diaz said, all community members should feel invested in school board races.

“Everyone has a voice in that, just like everyone has a voice in who should represent their neighborhood in the city council,” Diaz said.

While Byrd is dismayed by the outcome of the Temecula school board races, she said the work to hold the new trustees accountable and uplift the rights of all students in the district must continue.

“The One Temecula Valley PAC and the activists on the ground as well as Grandparents for Truth will continue to monitor what policies they might introduce and continue to fight back against anything that doesn’t support diversity, doesn’t support the students, doesn’t support the teachers, doesn’t support the families,” she said.

Charter-backed upstart failed in the Nov. 5 elections to unseat , the longtime LAUSD educator and policymaker who won the election and will begin his third and final term on the LA Unified board in January. 

Chang conceded in a message to supporters that he wasn’t going to be able to overcome ł§łŠłółŸ±đ°ù±đ±ôČőŽÇČÔ’s 4 percentage point lead. 

Chang, a math teacher at James Madison Middle School in North Hollywood, who previously helped found charter schools in LA, trailed behind Schmerelson with 48% of the vote, while Schmerelson garnered  52%.

The contest between the two men had the potential to tip the district’s school board away from a 4-3 majority of union-backed members, and impact the board’s handling of several facing LAUSD, including restrictions on charter schools’ use of buildings, which Chang said he’d move to reverse if elected. 

victory is part of a successful election season for many teachers . 

The outspoken former teacher and principal has sided closely with local unions on issues of space and resources for charter schools. His win could mean more headwinds for the nation’s largest charter school sector here moving forward. 

ł§łŠłółŸ±đ°ù±đ±ôČőŽÇČÔ’s campaign didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Two other LA Unified school board races being decided by voters this year were not as close.

For District 1 in South LA, board admin defeated with 71% of the vote, versus 29% for Al-Alim, whom the in the primary over anti-semitic social media. 

For LAUSD Board District 5, which covers parts of Northeast and Southeast LA, union-backed led with 61% of the vote, versus 39% held by Ortiz.

Meanwhile, a majority of LA voters voiced their approval of a to repair and upgrade aging school buildings. 

As of Friday, voters cast 68% of ballots in favor of , which was backed by members of the LAUSD board, district superintendent Alberto Carvalho, the teachers union and local construction groups.  

Measure US would be LAUSD’s largest ever school facilities bond, and would be paid for with property tax increases. It requires a 55% majority in order to pass. 

The Los Angeles County Clerk is still counting votes and is providing daily. 

As of Friday the clerk had recorded more than 3.7 million votes in all the elections held November 5, with roughly 35% of eligible voters still uncounted.

Following his so-so results with school board endorsements during the primary election in August, Gov. Ron these campaigns hadn’t drawn as much of his attention because he had “so much other stuff going on.”

DeSantis endorsed 23 candidates and watched 11 lose, six win, and six have their fate on hold until this week. Tuesday, four runoffs went in favor of DeSantis endorsees, with wins in Brevard, Miami-Dade, Volusia, and Lee counties.

In all, DeSantis watched 13 of his 23 endorsements lose, while 10 won — eleven counting his less-formal endorsement of Laurie Cox in Leon County, who won in August against Democratic-endorsed candidate Jeremy Rogers.

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Eight-year member Matt Susin won reelection to the Brevard County School Board, fending off Ava Taylor with a margin of nearly 20%. He previously served as chair of the board, which remains fully conservative, .

DeSantis-endorsed Donna Brosemer challenged incumbent Carl Persis to win a seat on the Volusia County School Board. Brosemer finished with 58% of the vote to Persis’ 41%.

Vanessa Chaviano, a DeSantis endorsee running for an open seat on the Lee County School Board, beat Sheridan Chester with 69% of the vote to Chester’s 30%, with nearly 300,000 votes cast.

DeSantis’ endorsement was not enough for Stacy Geier to claim an open seat on the Pinellas County School Board; she lost to Katie Blaxberg, a . Geier held a 2% edge on Blaxberg in the August primary, although the general favored Blaxberg by more than 4%.

DeSantis endorsee and Air Force veteran Mark Cioffi lost his bid for the Hernando County School Board. He lost to Michelle Bonczek by nearly 10% in the general, despite earning 44% of votes to Bonczek’s 28.8% in the primary, which prompted the runoff.

Democratic endorsements both lose

Two of the Democratic Party’s 11 school board endorsements faced runoffs Tuesday. Of the 11 the party backed, seven won in August. Facing runoffs were Max Tuchman in Miami-Dade and Stephanie Arguello in Seminole County.

Tuchman, a tech entrepreneur, lost in a big way to incumbent and DeSantis endorsee Mary Blanco, who earned 67.88% of votes — 86,151 to Tuchman’s 40,773. Blanco was appointed to the board a year ago by DeSantis.

Arguello, a public health PhD student, lost to incumbent and chair of the board Abby Sanchez by nearly 6%. Sanchez earned 52.95% of votes, or 114,630 votes to Arguello’s 101,842.

‘Other stuff’

The “other stuff” DeSantis alluded to included Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational use of marijuana, and Amendment 4, which would have guaranteed a right to an abortion in the Florida Constitution. Both fell just short of the 60% voter approval threshold.

The governor, the First Lady, and other GOP officials paraded around the state campaigning against the two amendments in the weeks between two major hurricanes and Election Day. Some said the outcomes of the amendments could be a major mark on the governor’s record, for better or worse, if he chooses to pursue the White House again.

Nonpartisan school board elections will remain, as voters rejected Amendment 1 Tuesday, which would have printed candidates’ political party affiliations next to their names on the ballot. The races will remain nonpartisan on paper, although partisan endorsements likely will not stop any time soon.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on and .

showed that candidates backed by the powerful Chicago Teachers Union won four seats, one of them unopposed. Meanwhile, pro-school choice candidates backed by wealthy donors won three seats, with three seats won by independent candidates.

The independents include a rapper who beat three opponents on the city’s South Side. said he ran to ensure that every school gets a registered nurse, a librarian, counselors, tutors, support staff and quality arts instruction.

The 10 new board members will join 11 others who will be appointed in coming weeks by Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teacher and union organizer.

“There’s a lot going on here,” said Hugo Jacobo of , a nonprofit that supports independent school board candidates.

Groups that advocate for charter schools spent about $3 million on the race, The Chicago Sun-Times , with the union spending about $1.6 million on its endorsed candidates through its own political action committees and at least eight other PACs. Other estimates show the union spending more than on the races.

The union’s preferred candidate came up empty in District 3, one of Chicago’s most politically progressive areas. A reform-oriented candidate, , beat union-endorsed candidate by 12 percentage points, despite a reported $300,000 in donations. The union painted a more positive picture Tuesday night, with President Stacy Davis Gates , “Billionaires spent a lot of money to get three out of 21,” referring to the larger board that will eventually be seated. “I keep telling you, it’s cumulative. It keeps getting bigger and it keeps growing. And we want more people for this group project.”

Tuesday’s results push Chicago Public Schools, the fourth-largest school system in the United States, into a new phase, with observers saying a fully elected board could improve schools and make them more responsive to parents and taxpayers. 

But whether the shift will curb the system’s recent chaos is another matter. 

Last month, the entire seven-member board resigned after Mayor Brandon Johnson threatened to oust schools CEO Pedro Martinez. Johnson had appointed six of the seven members . 

He brought in a new board, but a week later the newly appointed president, the Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson, after news reports revealed he’d written antisemitic and sexist posts on social media and posted that he agreed with a theory that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were an “inside job.”

Tuesday’s split result, while offering what will likely be a variety of perspectives on finances, management and curriculum, is bound to be just the beginning of a new, and perhaps even more tumultuous era — for one thing, all 21 seats, including the 10 from Tuesday, will be on the ballot in 2026.

“This first cycle was really a warm-up for 2026, when all 21 seats are up for election and the stakes are real,” said Peter Cunningham, a former head of communications for the district and founder of the nonprofit .

Cunningham, who also served as a spokesman for U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, said Tuesday’s election “became a referendum on Mayor Johnson and the teacher’s union because of the chaos at the board over the last few months. They did not get a clear mandate to pursue their more controversial policy proposals, but they will likely do it anyway because this is their last chance to control the board.”

The range of ideologies among fully elected board members could fuel further drama, said Meredith Paige, a mother of two high schoolers and leader of , an advocacy group.

“The chaos is going to continue,” she said.

From appointed to elected board  

For nearly 30 years, Chicago’s mayors have enjoyed the right to appoint and dismiss board members, with the city standing for decades as one of just a handful with mayoral control — New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C. and Detroit are among others where mayors still wield considerable power over school policy. 

Until now, Chicago Public Schools was also the school district in Illinois that didn’t have an elected board. But the state legislature in 2021 ordered the city to transition to a fully elected, 21-seat board. 

It may take a while for the changes to sink in with voters, said Paige, who canvassed in neighborhoods last week and met “a lot of people who had no idea that there was a school board election.” Others believed Chicago already had an elected school board. “So that’s been a problem the whole time,” she said. “Even now, parents don’t understand how this is going to work.”

Among the first business items the hybrid board will face in coming months: whether to terminate the contract of Martinez, the schools CEO, who has served since 2021. They must also decide whether to approve Johnson’s push to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to defray short-term expenses, including a $175 million pension payment for non-teaching employees.

The district faces a projected deficit of $505 million next fall, due partly to rising healthcare costs and the expiration of federal ESSER pandemic funds. Johnson’s predecessor, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, also shifted hundreds of millions of dollars in pension costs from City Hall, which had historically underwritten them, to the district.

And the city is also hemorrhaging students: enrollment has dropped by 20%, or more than 80,000 students, since 2010.

In July, Martinez and the school board proposed a $9.9 billion budget that aimed to close the deficit through staff cuts and freezes affecting nearly 250 jobs. The board authorized the budget as written, but relations between the mayor and the district soured. 

Johnson has proposed taking out a $300 million loan to fund teacher pay increases and pension contributions, and he in October for comparing his critics to confederates who opposed freeing slaves “because it would be too expensive.”

Even if both sides agree on a new source of spending, the district and the union are also engaged in a contentious negotiation over the terms of the next teacher contract. One estimate said paying out an expected series of teacher raises and taking on more pension debt from the city could increase its deficit to nearly $1 billion. 

Despite Johnson’s bid to fire Martinez, the CEO remains popular, said Jacobo of Chicago Democrats for Education. “He’s the only one really concerned about the financial situation of our city and our school district system, so people want someone responsible like him to stay.”

Paige, the parent advocate, agreed. “The mayor and CTU want to fire the CEO, who has brought a lot of stability to the district. So there’s a lot of frustration over that.”

She said the bitter, two-week in 2019 is also having lingering effects: “There’s still a lot of toxicity in the system over that — and just a general” she hesitated, “‘frustration’ is the nicest word I can think of right now — that the mayor seems so disconnected from reality of the financials that he wants to put the district in peril to pay the teacher’s contract.”

The state legislature has given Chicago until 2027 to transition to a fully elected board, and despite the challenges, Jacobo said the change will be welcome.

“I’m very glad that there will be a number of these new school board elected members who honestly are just not beholden to anyone but the parents, the voters in their district,” he said. “And when they talk, when they speak, it’ll be with a perspective of what is best for their community. I think it’s one step forward, but a lot of work to go.” 

A third measure in Colorado, appeared headed for defeat. 

Despite the growing popularity of such programs with conservative lawmakers, the results continued the trend of voters, when given the chance, rejecting the idea of allowing public funds to pay for students’ tuition at private schools. 

“These bills are super unpopular, even in rural Trump country,” said Joshua Cowen, a Michigan State University professor and outspoken voucher opponent. 

He was particularly surprised by the results in Kentucky, where voters defeated , 65% to 35% even though former President Donald Trump won the presidential contest there by the same margin. The measure would have allowed state funds to pay for students to attend anything other than a traditional public school. “In an election that seems to be turning on ‘What has the government done for my family?,’ a lot of conservative voters in deep rural parts seem to be asking ‘What would vouchers do for my family?’ ”

In Nebraska, a law, passed last year, that created a private school scholarship program. Support Our Schools Nebraska, a union-backed group, led the campaign to get the referendum on the ballot. In Colorado, a state that would create a right to school choice was failing to reach the 55% threshold to win. Criticized for its vague wording, the initiative could pave the way for voucher legislation in the future. 

Like public school supporters in other states, opponents argue that vouchers drain funding from state budgets and are more likely to serve families who never attended traditional schools. In Colorado, Christian homeschooling families because the initiative also acknowledged the rights of students. They viewed that language as a threat to parental rights.

But school choice advocates say families deserve options outside of the public system. 

“The results from these three states are disappointing and discouraging, especially in light of what other states like Florida have shown school choice can do for students and families over the long haul,” said Ben DeGrow, a senior policy director at ExcelinEd, a nonprofit that advocates for private school choice.

“Opponents have once again shown they can unsettle enough voters with rhetoric that ultimately denies students needed educational opportunities.”

Nevertheless, he doesn’t expect the movement to slow down. In addition to Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott and wealthy conservative donors worked hard to elect pro-voucher members to the House, DeGrow said Tennessee and Idaho are also likely states to push for private school choice programs next year. 

While choice initiatives drew significant attention this election year, there were also several other contentious ballot measures affecting education. 

Florida

A measure that would have required school board candidates to state their political party, failed to win 60% of the vote — the required threshold for the measure to pass. Backed by the legislature and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the measure received just 55%, according to unofficial results. 

“Honestly, I thought more people would vote no,” said Sue Woltanski, a school board member in Monroe County, Florida, who has written about the influence of conservative candidates endorsed by DeSantis and Moms for Liberty. “Where I live, people are so tired of the division in the community and seemed to be turned off by the hyper-politicization of school boards in particular.”

But Tiffany Justice, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, which has focused on culture war issues, like trans students in girls sports and sexually explicit library books, said she didn’t understand why anyone would be opposed to candidates disclosing their political affiliation.

“People want to say, ‘Well, the school board isn’t political,’ but the teachers unions have politicized school board races for years,” she said. ‘Ninety-nine percent of the that teachers unions give go to Democrats. I just think more information is good for voters.”

Massachusetts

Voters approved a proposal, sponsored by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, to relax high school graduation requirements, with a vote of 59% to 51%. Tenth graders would still have to take state exams in English, science and math, but they wouldn’t have to earn a passing score to receive a diploma.

The measure highlighted the debate between opponents of high-stakes testing and those who argue states have lowered the bar for achievement in the aftermath of the pandemic, leaving students less prepared for college. 

“Now watch inequities grow wider,” Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union and a Massachusetts resident, , noting how voters in towns known for high-performing schools rejected the measure. “May the odds be ever in your favor, kids.”

California

Voters approved a $10 billion bond issue — $8.5 billion of which will go to school districts for new construction and renovation projects. Some districts are also likely to use the funds for teacher housing as a way to ease shortages, but they’ll have to come up with local matching funds in order to receive the money.

Voters rejected the last statewide bond issue in 2020, meaning some schools have gone without , but opponents argued it didn’t make sense to spend billions on upgrades when student enrollment is declining.

The following are remaining results:

• With almost 90% saying yes, Arkansas voters overwhelmingly approved that would allow students attending vocational and technical schools to be eligible for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. 

• With a vote of 54%, approved a on firearms and ammunition to take effect April 1, 2025. The tax is expected to raise roughly $39 million a year, with $1 million going toward a school violence prevention program, staff training and facility upgrades to improve safety. Another $3 million would expand access to youth behavioral health programs.

• New Mexico voters approved a to fund upgrades and materials for school libraries, as well as early childhood education centers at both the state school for the blind and the school for the deaf.

• , voters approved a measure to increase from 4% to 5% the cap on investment earnings the state can transfer from the State School Fund to education. Local school councils of parents and educators decide how to use the funds. 

A affecting education funding was dropped from the ballot because it wasn’t published in a state newspaper 60 days before the election. The initiative that would have removed a state constitutional requirement that all revenue from income taxes and intangible property, like capital gains and royalty payments, be spent on education, children and people with disabilities. 

For the first time since the late 1960s, voters will elect half the school board — picking new members to join the five the mayor will appoint — as the district navigates a minefield of budget woes, declining enrollment, school closures, test scores that are still below pre-pandemic levels, and a demand for more charter schools.

On top of all that, the new board will have limited power and will need to split loyalties between voters and the Rhode Island Department of Education, which took control of the district in 2019 and just extended its control for another three years.

That extension by the state Council on Elementary and Secondary Education last month deflated hopes of some the district would return to the city’s control. A release of state control would have given the new board power to govern the schools, not just be an advisory board to Infante-Green.

Even so, 17 candidates are vying for five seats representing different sections of the city in this non—partisan election with no primary. Candidates include four current school board members and others who have previously run for city council but lost.

The Providence Teachers Union has endorsed five candidates, one in each of the five races. Stop The Wait, a charter school advocacy group, has in opposition to those who are union-backed.

Both the union and charter advocates are in an ongoing battle over whether to close schools with falling enrollment and turn the buildings over to charter schools. The debate most recently flared this summer over a proposal to put two charters in a recently-closed district school. Advocates say there is a long waitlist of students seeking spaces in charter schools, while the union says charters drain students and money from the district.

District funding is set by the city and state. And the city, not the board, controls who can use old school buildings, a key issue as charter schools seek facilities to grow. Still, contributions are likely to flow into the school board races, helping candidates on both sides. Campaign donations were not available to review in time for this story.

Though the new board members won’t have much power right away, observers and advocates say their role will still be important.

Brown University Professor John Papay, who has helped advise the district, said the new board can counter Infante-Green’s “clear concerns about the board’s current capacity” to govern.

“The Board, both as individual members and collectively as an institution, must fundamentally focus on building their capacity to constructively support the district,” she wrote the city and board after her decision.

Papay said the board can use the three years to learn best practices of how boards work and improve its interaction with the state and others, which has often been confrontational.

“I’ve heard that people are excited for the school board,” Papay said. “Maybe this election will help
do the work necessary to be able to facilitate the return to local control.”

Others, like charter school advocate Janie Segui Rodriguez, are taking a longer view. The board members are all running for four-year terms, which leaves them with a year left when state control ends.

“The board is very limited in their power, but at the same time, this is the board that’s going to receive the schools back in three years,” said Rodriguez, founder and CEO of Stop The Wait. “These are the people who are going to have the ability to implement and voice how we should do things going forward.”

The Providence Public School District, whose board has been appointed by the mayor since the late 1960s, has struggled academically for years and has lost more than 4,000 students over the last 20 years to now have less than 20,000 enrolled in its 37 schools.

A found that Providence lost almost 17 percent of its students since 2019 alone, some to charters, some to homeschooling, dropping out and population loss

The state took control of the district in 2019 after a Johns Hopkins University report found its academic performance and management faulty. Since then, the board has had little control. Infante-Green, not the board, hired and then extended the contract of superintendent Javier Montanez. 

With that control originally planned to end this year, voters in 2022 passed a city charter amendment calling for half of the board to be elected and half to be appointed by the mayor after this year’s election.

Though four current board members are running — Toni Akin in Region 2, Night Jean Muhingabo and Michael Nina in Region 3, and Ty’Relle Stephens in Region 4 — Mayor Brett Smiley isn’t endorsing anyone. He also won’t say if he would re-appoint any of the four if they lose or any of the five current members not running.

He must appoint a member from each region, however, after a nominating committee sends him recommendations.

Loyalty to the mayor or willingness to challenge him looms as a recurring issue for board members, both over charter schools and school funding.

Though Infante-Green placed some responsibility on the board for not governing well, she also delayed ending state control because the city does not give the school district enough money. State law requires Providence — or any city with schools under state control — to increase school funding each year by the same percentage as the state does.

Infante-Green has repeatedly warned the city that it is failing to meet that requirement, but school board members appointed by Smiley have criticized Infante-Green more than Smiley. The mayor even earlier this year, but failed.

The funding issue has flared up again, as superintendent Montanez Oct. 9 that he blamed on too little city support. The shortfall, he said, could force layoffs, and cuts of busing and winter and spring sports.

Candidates have not weighed in on those potential cuts yet. 

Âé¶čŸ«Æ· asked every candidate who made contact information available whether the board or other officials were most to blame for Infante-Green not ending state control. All avoided blaming the board and though a few mentioned the budget issues, none assigned responsibility to anyone.

The ability of charter schools to open in the city is another hot button issue. The Rhode Island Department of Education said about 32,400 students statewide — more than 19,000 from Providence — applied for about 2,900 open charter school seats for this school year. To charter advocates, that’s a clear indication more charter schools are needed.

“Despite the fact that there’s growing demand
we probably have the largest wait list in the country
our politicians don’t respond to that,” Rodriguez said.

She added: “We need people who are going to be able to champion what parents and families want, not one system over the other.”

She was frustrated that Providence City Council blocked an agreement earlier this year between Smiley and Achievement First Rhode Island Inc. and Excel Academy Rhode Island to

Stop The Wait has endorsed four candidates — incumbent board member Michael Nina in Region 4, private school administrator Michelle Fontes in Region 2, Jenny Mercado in District 3 and DeNeil Jones in District 5.

The Providence Teachers Union has endorsed Corey Jones, a former city council candidate with several other endorsements from local officials in Region 1, Andrew Grover in Region 2, Heidi Silverio in Region 3 and incumbent board members Night Jean Muhingabo and Ty’Rell Stephens in Regions 4 and 5.

The union did not reply to a request for comment on the endorsements from Âé¶čŸ«Æ·.

But Muhingabo and Stephens angered charter advocates and strengthened support of teachers when they questioned the lease of the Lauro school to charters.

“This resolution promotes the expansion of charter schools, diverting essential resources from our public schools and undermining our commitment to quality public education for all,” Muhingabo wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “We need to protect our public schools!”

Overall, candidates have mostly called for better cooperation between the city, state and schools and for making sure the state can release the district from its control. A few have broken out of that mold by also offering other ideas, including:

• DeNeil Jones, in Region 5, wants to move students in low—performing schools to open seats in higher—performing ones to improve learning and save money. Though not stated, such a change could open schools for charters.
  
• Corey Jones in Region 1 wants state and other social services placed in schools to easily help students.
  
• David Talan in Region 4 wants to make it easier, as students are assigned schools based on openings, for students to attend schools close to them and to open a school in the Washington Park neighborhood.
  
• Mercado in Region 3 hopes to create an app that helps parents with school registration, dual language programs and access to local services.

The entire seven-member Chicago Board of Education will resign in the coming weeks after months of tension between Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez.

The resignations pave the way for Johnson to appoint new board members who could then carry out his wishes, including potentially firing Martinez. Johnson’s office said late Friday he will announce new appointments on Monday at 10:30 a.m.

Word of the resignations comes more than a week after the school board took no action to remove Martinez and about a month before the city’s first school board elections, which will create for the first time a hybrid board of 10 elected members and 11 appointed by the mayor. In three decades of mayoral control, no Chicago mayor has replaced all of their hand-picked members so quickly. Johnson last July.

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The upheaval is also happening amid with Johnson’s former employer the Chicago Teachers Union.

In a joint statement Friday, Johnson and the current appointed school board announced all current members would “transition from service” later this month.

“None of the members leaving the current Board planned to continue onto the hybrid Board, and none are running for election. With the unprecedented increase in Board membership, transitioning new members now will allow them time to orient and gain critical experience prior to welcoming additional elected and appointed members in 2025,” the statement read.

Johnson said this week that he never discusses personnel issues in public. But he , “I was elected to fight for the people of the city and whoever is in the way, get out of it.”

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Jen Johnson, deputy mayor for education, youth, and human services, said the mayor’s office “did not ask for resignations.”

“We knew that none of these board members were running [for election] or going to stay, and so we collaborated to ensure that there was a shepherding, a passing of the torch, as we approach this new board,” Johnson said, adding that all seven board members signed on to the statement the mayor’s office sent to the press.

Earlier this month, the mayor asked Martinez to step down — which he Nonetheless, Martinez and the has declined so far to fire him.

Board members have declined to comment publicly on Martinez’s clash with Brandon Johnson, but the board has in recent months backed Martinez in a couple of decisions that defied the mayor’s wishes. That includes adopting this year’s budget, as well as declining Johnson’s request for CPS to take out a short-term loan to cover some upcoming costs.

The board members stepping down are Board President Jianan Shi, Elizabeth Todd-Breland, who was appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Mary Fahey Hughes, Tanya Woods, Mariela Estrada, Michelle Morales, and Rudy Lozano Jr.

Shi and Todd-Breland declined to comment further Friday. The other members have not returned emails or calls asking for comment on the resignation rumors this week.

The resignations will pave the way for Johnson to appoint new people to fill the vacancies on the board, who could then vote to approve a short-term loan and fire Martinez. The next school board meeting is Oct. 16, one of few remaining scheduled meetings before the is sworn in on Jan. 15, 2025.

“The board certainly will have the same authority, to evaluate the CEO against the objectives, and they will, you know, have to certainly tackle the incompleteness of the budget,” Deputy Mayor Johnson said.

Johnson did not directly answer when asked if it is the mayor’s hope that the new board will fire Martinez and approve a loan.

The mayor “will work with this new board just as he did with the current board to ensure we are protecting investments in our schools and that we are not cutting and using the truly chaotic solutions of past administrations, which harmed students in communities for generations,” she said.

In a statement, CPS CEO Martinez commended the board members “for their steadfast dedication to ensuring greater equity in our system, emphasizing our collective responsibility to improve the quality of education for those who are furthest from opportunity.”

If the mayor’s intention is to install a new board in order to fire Martinez, it would “be a group that has never evaluated [Martinez], has never worked with him,” according to a source familiar with the situation who was not authorized to speak with the press. “They don’t know any of his work, they haven’t been part of any of these conversations.”

That source also noted that new board members typically have an orientation, which could be difficult to wedge in before the board’s first meeting.

In order to conduct business, the school board must have a quorum, which define as “a majority of the full membership of the Board of Education then serving.”

Deputy Mayor Johnson declined to specify the exact date of departure for each current board member, calling the latter a “personal decision” for each person.

A CPS central office staffer, who was not authorized to speak with the press, said the board “doesn’t want to undermine the mayor publicly” and feels board members were pressured to leave for not adhering to the mayor’s wishes. Another source familiar with the situation, also not authorized to speak with the media, questioned the official explanation.

“The mayor’s office will try to spin this as a transition,” the source said. “There is no credible explanation for why seven people would all leave a month or two ahead of time to facilitate a transition.”

The mood in the CPS central office was “like a funeral home” Friday as news of the resignations broke, according to the central office staffer, who said many people were sad to see the board departures.

“You could tell they really care about what’s going on at the district,” the staffer said, adding that they have worked with multiple CPS boards. “They have a sense of responsibility that I think I haven’t seen in the past.”

Multiple board members had been in serious discussions to resign as of at least Sunday, three sources told Chalkbeat.

As rumors of resignations floated earlier this week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said before new members are elected. Friday morning, former Chicago school board member and once interim-CPS CEO Jesse Ruiz thanking current board members and urging them to “stay the course.”

“Despite all the pressures I know you all are under, I truly hope you continue to provide the steady leadership, governance and oversight that is critical for our public institutions to operate in the best interest of ALL its stakeholders,” Ruiz , the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The school board shakeup likely won’t have an immediate effect on schools, students, and educators, said Jeffery Henig, professor emeritus of politics and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, who has studied mayoral control of school boards.

The resignations “will create a potential embarrassment” for the mayor, but also give Johnson a chance to “step in strongly” and make swift decisions that he thinks are necessary, Henig said.

The turmoil could, however, create long-term problems for the new board, which may be tasked with replacing Martinez, hiring a permanent replacement, or addressing the issue of borrowing to cover costs, he said.

“This dramatic gesture by the current board could set into motion enough turmoil and public positioning and open vying for leadership in one faction [of the school board] versus another, that it would make it harder for the new board to set an even course at the beginning,” Henig said.

Some candidates running for school board in the November election began issuing statements.

Kate Doyle, a candidate in District 2, said she was “disappointed to see leaders step away” at a critical time and that if elected, she would “work to ensure that decisions are made transparently and with the long-term success of our students in mind.”

Tensions between Martinez, Johnson building for months

In its year-plus tenure, the Johnson-appointed Board of Education has pursued and approved policies that line up ideologically with the mayor. That includes making a commitment to moving away from , and

Martinez and his administration worked in tandem with the board to develop and implement those changes. But the school board has had some with his performance, WBEZ . According to documents related to his annual evaluation, board members felt blindsided or unprepared in certain circumstances. Still, CPS told WBEZ that the board and Martinez “have worked collaboratively throughout our tenure to have open dialogue, fostering a respectful and professional relationship.”

“It’s true that the board has been frustrated with Pedro along the way,” said the source familiar with the situation. “But I do think that, in my knowledge of the situation, there has been this relentless pressure to fire Pedro for cause and do it quickly, and the board is not comfortable doing that.”

According to Martinez’s contract, the board would need to provide six months notice before firing him without cause. If the board fired him for just cause, such as criminal activity, he would have to leave immediately. Martinez could sue the district if he believes he was wrongfully terminated.

At the heart of the tension between Johnson, his school board, and Martinez is the district’s budget, which faced a half-billion-dollar deficit before CPS made cuts to close it. That deficit existed largely because that the district used to beef up staffing and invest in new programs, such as tutoring, expired this week.

The district’s $9.9 billion did not set aside dollars for the new teachers contract, which it is currently negotiating. It is not unusual for the school district to amend its budget once a contract deal has been reached. WBEZ recently reported that the district has outlined several options, of furloughs and layoffs.

Johnson which included the same amount of funding for schools but resulted in other cuts, including of support staff who CPS said will be reassigned or paid for the rest of the year.

The district also did not include a $175 million pension payment for non-teaching staff that . Johnson opposed that cost shift before he became mayor, but has now asked CPS to continue paying it as he works to close .

Johnson was expected to deliver his city budget proposal in a speech to City Council on Oct. 16, but earlier this week the mayor’s office announced Johnson would deliver his budget on Oct. 30, a week after the school board is scheduled to meet.

Over the summer, Johnson asked CPS to take out to help pay for the cost of the pension payment and the added expenses of contracts for the teachers and principals unions. Martinez and the board refused, in fear that taking on such a loan would saddle the district with high-interest rates and deepen its looming deficit for years to come.

The board’s departure so close to the election will likely turn up heat on school board candidates, said Henig, the Columbia professor who has studied mayoral control.

“If the candidates haven’t been forced to address this, there’s gonna be a lot of pressure on them to address this,” Henig said.

Union negotiations turn up heat on Martinez

The conflict is compounded by between the district and the Chicago Teachers Union, where Johnson worked as an organizer before his foray into politics. The union’s wide-ranging proposal package asks for 9% raises, more staffing, and more support for students, but the district has said its financial challenges remain – and less than 10% of the CTU proposals could create .

The union further turned up the heat on school district officials after saying it obtained a list of potential co-locations between 140 schools. The district, Martinez, and the Board of Education have said they have no plans to close schools. In letters to staff and families earlier this month, Martinez said the list was created as part of its analysis for the five-year strategic plan, and that it led district leaders and the board to affirm that they did not want to close schools.

The union’s House of Delegates recently passed a vote of no-confidence in Martinez.

Under state law, no school closures can happen in Chicago until Jan. 15, 2025. After the union’s claims over the past couple of weeks, the now-outgoing board passed a resolution Thursday, which Martinez prompted, that calls for .

This was originally published by . Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .Ìę

But in mid-2021, dismayed by screaming matches over COVID protocols that often broke out at school board meetings, she decided to meet individually with the board members to discuss her concerns. She found them kind and professional, so she encouraged leaders of her local chapter to do the same thing. 

“I said ‘I think you’d like them,’ and they said ‘Nope, we don’t want to do that,’ ” Christian recalled. “All of a sudden, I was the bad guy. It was very polarized.”

After initially attending some of their meetings and supporting their cause, Christian cut ties with Moms for Liberty. To her, the moment demonstrated the uncompromising way the conservative group became a force in today’s Republican party. Keeping divisive issues like sexually explicit books and lessons on racial discrimination in the spotlight was a in 2022 as Moms for Liberty-endorsed school board candidates scored victories across the country, especially in Florida where the organization originated. 

Since then, the group hasn’t been able to repeat its success at the polls. But there are signs that taking control of school boards isn’t Moms for Liberty’s top concern right now. They’re spending money to mobilize voters for like-minded GOP candidates and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, an “anti-parent radical candidate.” Max Eden, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, suggested the group is focused on preparing “for the two alternative futures they stand to face.”

“If Trump wins, I expect that whomever he picks for [education] secretary will be tasked with a strong emphasis on the issues that they care about,” he said. “If he loses, there’s an expectation that Harris will double down hard on social issues from the left.”

Eden described Moms for Liberty’s recent strategy to join four Republican-led states in over the new Title IX rule as a “coup” from both an organizational and membership perspective. The revised regulation extends protections against sexual discrimination to LGBTQ students and gives transgender students the right to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. Moms for Liberty’s legal move spurred a federal court to issue an injunction, blocking hundreds of schools across the country from enforcing the new Title IX regulations. Moms for Liberty also used the ruling as an opportunity to so they could block the new provisions in more schools. 

‘Outraged over something’

The success of Moms for Liberty’s endorsed candidates, however, is still a way to measure the future of a “parental rights” movement that seeks more control over curriculum and opposes attention to race and social-emotional issues in school.

Former Florida school board members Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich founded the organization in 2021. At the time, their primary cause was battling mask mandates. But their approach quickly resonated with many disillusioned parents in the wake of COVID school closures and the intense reactions to school equity efforts often labeled as critical race theory.

“It’s hard to think of another education advocacy organization that has grown to such national prominence so quickly,” Brookings Institution in March.

In the 2022 election cycle, the group took in , and of its endorsed candidates were elected. But in 2023, the percentage of Moms for Liberty candidates winning school board seats dropped to , in part because other organizations to endorse their own candidates and slow down the group’s progress. This year’s results seem on track to mirror last year’s, but the group is not completely out of the running. 

Sue Woltanski, a school board member in Monroe County, Florida, has monitored and Moms for Liberty’s influence across the state, where it has joined forces with Gov. Ron DeSantis to endorse conservative candidates. A critic of their approach, she called Moms for Liberty members “people who have been outraged over something scary at their kid’s school.”

This year, the group targeted 14 school board races in Florida. Its candidates won just three of the open seats in the August primary. Another five are headed to November runoffs. In a statement, Justice and Descovich counted those candidates who advanced among their victories, saying they were “thrilled that Moms for Liberty saw a 60% win rate.” 

But the group’s tactics — like reading aloud the most salacious passages from sexually explicit library books at — often are aimed at making “people question whether it’s safe for their kids to go to public schools,” said Woltanski, who defeated one of their endorsed candidates two years ago. Moms for Liberty also embraces private , which continues to in Florida, causing public school enrollment in several districts to decline. 

“In my little vacation community, if we don’t have high-quality public schools we’re going to just be a resort,” she said. A lot of school boards have conservative members, she added, “but they are still in favor of public education.”

‘Us-versus-them mentality’ 

Examining Moms for Liberty’s win-loss record is just one way to measure its impact. Researchers at Michigan State University watched hours of school board meetings to better understand the overall effect of the group’s presence on rhetoric and behavior during the convenings. 

If Moms for Liberty-backed candidates took the majority of seats following the 2022 elections, they often acted quickly to fire superintendents, place restrictions on books and issue bans on critical race theory or lessons on sex and gender. Members of the public “turned out in high volume” to both support and oppose their policies, the researchers said.

“Successfully winning a majority of seats on the board seemed to deeply entrench the us-versus-them mentality, leading to increased and divided engagement at meetings in the post-election period,” they wrote. 

But even in districts where Moms for Liberty didn’t “flip” the board, the researchers found an overall increase in insults, threats and disorder, like outbursts from the audience, compared to the period between late 2019 and early 2020. 

“I don’t really think they have any true plans to govern,” said researcher Rebecca Jacobsen. She called their style the “politics of disruption.”

There were more displays of anger — a speaker banging their first on the podium, for example — and an increase in incidents in which police intervened and removed protesters. Before the pandemic, they found that police only got involved once. But in 2021 and 2022, as Moms for Liberty chapters were spreading across the country, they identified nine board meetings across five school districts where the police intervened.

The Moms for Liberty website urges chapters to push for policy changes, but some critics, like Christian in Florida, say members are more focused on national issues than local concerns, like school safety, bullying and curriculum.

“I thought they were going to educate moms and dads how to stand up for their children,” she said.

‘Close ties to powerful individuals’

At Moms for Liberty’s Washington, D.C., summit in late August — which featured a lengthy conversation between Justice and Trump — there was no evidence that the group had lost its edge. Despite a poor showing at the polls in Florida, members had other victories to celebrate. 

Three of their leaders, from Naples, from Palm Beach and from Brevard County, had won primary races for Florida House seats and made it onto the ballot in the general election.

“This is huge for us because it represents the momentum of change we are making across the country as we take our schools back from the union bosses,” the statement from Justice and Descovich said. Justice and Descovich declined Âé¶čŸ«Æ·â€™s requests for an interview.

As the November election approaches, Moms for Liberty has further turned its attention to increasing membership and mobilizing more voters, spending $3 million in , like Arizona and Georgia. With chapters in 48 states, the Brookings researchers said Moms for Liberty still carries a lot of influence.

“[Moms for Liberty] is a well-financed group with close ties to powerful individuals and institutions in conservative politics,” they wrote. The organization “represents a voting bloc that Republican political operatives are actively trying to court in the 2024 elections and beyond.”

Since then, superintendents in nine of those districts — stretching from Florida’s Atlantic coast to central California — have resigned or been fired, often after a period of conflict with board members.

“Six new board members clean house first night on the job,” on Facebook Nov. 16, the day after its slate of candidates took office in Berkeley County, South Carolina. Before a confused crowd, they , who had spent his entire career, over 20 years, in the district.

Moms for Liberty founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich told Âé¶čŸ«Æ· that their endorsed board members don’t always take office with plans to replace superintendents, but that sometimes it’s “necessary.”

Six of those nine districts hired permanent replacements; three still have interim chiefs.

Forcing out district leaders is one of the most obvious ways Moms for Liberty has made its mark over the past two years. As they over library books with sexually explicit content and LGBTQ-inclusive policies, members tend to portray these removals as victories for parental rights. Others say the group has unfairly targeted effective leaders and failed to address pressing issues like teacher shortages.

“The one thing that districts can point to that will demonstrate change is a new superintendent,” said Andrea Messina, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association, which conducts superintendent searches. “It’s an immediate message to the community.”

ILO Group, an organization focused on women leaders in education, analyzed superintendent turnover in those 17 districts for Âé¶čŸ«Æ· as part of to track leadership changes since the pandemic. 

The Laramie County district in Wyoming — where Moms for Liberty-endorsed candidates tipped an already conservative board further to the right last fall — is among those that have seen recent superintendent turnover. Margaret Crespo stepped down in August after serving as chief for two years. She who wanted to restrict books with sexually explicit content from children unless their parents gave permission. 

Crespo said she recognized what she was up against.

“They’re highly organized,” said Crespo, now a superintendent-in-residence with ILO Group. She said the organization knows how to mobilize quickly. “They have taken that skillset and moved it into this very dynamic political arena.”

Florida wins

Moms for Liberty’s goal is to “recruit moms to serve as watchdogs over all 13,000 school districts,” according to its website. combats what they view as government overreach and seeks to give parents more control over what their children learn, particularly as it relates to race, sex and LGBTQ issues. According to their tally, more than half of their first-time candidates won in the 2022 elections. 

The group’s impact is particularly noticeable in Florida, where Justice and Descovich served as school board members.

Their candidates flipped seven Florida school boards last November, four of which have had superintendent turnover — , and counties.

Justice and Descovich say they’re giving parents a voice in the political process. 

“We are focused on empowering parents who are seeing problems in their school districts to stand up and fight for their children and make real change by running for school board,” they said in a statement to Âé¶čŸ«Æ·.

Last month, they released a new “” with ready-made design templates, that they say should jump start the process for those seeking election in 2024.

As it looks ahead, the group’s fortunes may be shifting. it endorsed this past April for seats in Illinois, Oklahoma and Wisconsin haven’t fared too well. Of 32 endorsements in 15 races, just eight candidates won.

The groups advises winning candidates to reject training from their state’s school board association because many “foster the same woke propaganda Moms for Liberty is fighting against,” according to their site.

Because it’s a nonprofit, it’s unclear how financially successful the group has been. A 2021 put their revenue at $370,000, but membership has grown since then. There are now 285 chapters nationwide.

Other organizations such as and are working to counteract Moms for Liberty’s momentum. But experts say they are not nearly as well-funded and lack a national infrastructure.

“They’re out there, but they do need some connecting,” said Heather Harding, executive director of Campaign for Our Shared Future, a nonprofit advocating for attention to inclusion and equity in schools.

Moms for Liberty’s “network structure,” on the other hand, has given them considerable reach, said Rebecca Jacobsen, an education policy researcher at Michigan State University.

Some education advocates say once elected, however, the group’s members don’t always act with the same efficiency to address complex challenges in their districts.

“For all the power that they say they have, they haven’t really done much,” said Kathleen Low, president of the Berkeley County Education Association, which represents teachers in the district where Jackson was fired. 

The district is currently responding to a challenge over that include material one parent considers inappropriate for students. Among the titles are those targeted by Moms for Liberty members elsewhere in the state, including “The Kite Runner,” the story of an Afghan boy during the rise of the Taliban, which features a rape scene. In another, “Gabi: A Girl in Pieces,” a Latina teen chronicles her feelings about a friend’s pregnancy, another friend who comes out as gay and her father’s drug use.

Low called the issues a distraction at a time when schools in her district are short . include counselors, elementary teachers, and middle and high school teachers in core subjects and special education.

Book controversies are “like trying to discuss the feng shui of the furniture in a house that is on fire,” she said. “That’s how serious our situation is with staffing.”

Mac McQuillan, the Moms-endorsed chair of the board, didn’t return calls or emails seeking comment. 

Others note that solving such problems may not be part of the plan.

Members of Jacobsen’s research team have been watching hours of school board meetings in districts where Moms for Liberty won a majority last year. Compared to board meetings from 2019, they’ve noticed a shift in the “demeanor” of members, including new rules that limit public comments, less engagement and eye contact with parents or others who address the board and a more “hostile” atmosphere during meetings.

Moms for Liberty members, she added, have been successful at getting citizens without children in the local public schools to attend meetings and share their concerns about books and curriculum.

“You don’t have to have any agenda if your agenda is to disrupt,” Jacobsen said.

Six Colorado news outlets, including Newsline, are suing Denver Public Schools to gain access a recording of the district board’s in which board members discussed school safety plans and emerged with a new policy.

Members of the district’s Board of Education held a special meeting following a shooting last month at Denver’s East High School, which left two administrators injured. The incident was the on or near East High property in as many months, and the 17-year-old suspect was later found dead in Park County of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Board members spent the majority of the lengthy meeting behind closed doors, and upon returning to the public, voted unanimously to without any public discussion.

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Under Colorado’s Open Meetings Law, elected bodies such as school boards cannot make decisions on new policies or legislation out of the public eye. There are some exceptions that allow for closed-door executive sessions, including board consultations for legal advice, discussions on personnel matters and on individual students. Topics listed for discussion at the March 23 executive session included “security arrangements or investigations” related to the March 22 shooting, and details about individual students “where public disclosure would adversely affect that person or persons involved.”

The lawsuit’s plaintiffs include Newsline, The Denver Post, Colorado Politics/The Denver Gazette, KDVR Fox 31, Chalkbeat Colorado and KUSA 9News. Each of the news outlets filed a Colorado Open Records Request for the executive session recording and were all denied.

Rachael Johnson, an attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Steve Zansberg, a First Amendment attorney and president of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, are representing the coalition of news outlets. Zansberg said of the Colorado Sunshine Law.

Zansberg said the first issue the complaint addresses is the lack of proper notice regarding what board members would discuss behind closed doors. He said Colorado law says that when a public body fails to adequately announce its topic of discussion, the meeting is considered an “unlawfully closed public meeting,” not an executive session.

“They just went behind closed doors and discussed public business,” Zansberg said.

Even if the board properly announced the topics of discussion for a lawful executive session, Zansberg said the fact that board members left the five-hour discussion with a policy change and no public discussion is a blatant vilation of Colorado’s Open Meetings Law.

If there is probable cause to believe that a publicly elected board made a decision in an executive session, a judge will review the recording of the session and determine if this was the case, Zansberg said. Public bodies in Colorado are prohibited from adopting not just new policies, but any position on an issue behind closed doors.

“It was what the case law says was ‘a rubber stamping’ of a decision that had already been made behind closed doors, and that too violates the Open Meetings Law,” Zansberg said.

A ‘tremendous amount of public interest’

Jeff Roberts, executive director of CFOIC, said there was an expectation that board members would have a public discussion following the private meeting where they discussed a high-profile situation with consequences for the entire district. He said there has been a “tremendous amount of public interest” in school safety plans and changes around school resource officers.

“Both the open meetings law, and there’s a separate statute about school board meetings, both of them say policy decisions are not permitted in executive sessions,” Roberts said. “For executive sessions, there are certain authorized topics that they can discuss behind closed doors, but when they’re talking about changing a policy, which is what they did here, that’s something that needs to be done in a public setting. That’s the intent and the spirit of these laws.”

The only time an executive session is not to be recorded is when an elected body receives specific legal advice from an attorney. DPS’s general counsel, Aaron Thompson, was present in the executive session, but it’s unclear what role he played in the board’s discussion and if there is a recording of the private portion of the meeting.

The minutes from the executive session also on how long board members discussed each topic, another requirement of state law.

The district has the right to release the recording of the meeting at any time, and Zansberg said this would be the best thing the district can do to save taxpayers “the cost of having to defend this indefensible position.” If that happens, there’s no reason left for the plaintiffs in the complaint to continue litigating.

“I would again urge the Board of Education to exercise its discretion and release this recording,” Zansberg said.

Depending on how the district decides to respond to the suit, Zansberg said it can take a few months for the courts to issue a decision.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on and .

With the growing spotlight on school board races in recent years, some Florida GOP lawmakers want to see if voters think local school boards should be partisan — meaning school board members could be Democrats, Republicans, or another signifier of political alignments.

For at least two decades, the status quo has been nonpartisan school boards.

But the issue is important enough — there are 67 traditional school districts and some 2.8 million students in Florida’s public schools — that voters could go to the polls to decide if the boards should be partisan or nonpartisan. The decision would be in the form of a constitutional amendment.

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Republican lawmakers are currently pushing a bill, HJR 31, to do just that.

The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Spencer Roach, a Republican from Southwest Florida. The Senate version, SJR 94, is sponsored by Sen. Joe Gruters, who represents Sarasota and part of Manatee County.

The bill is moving in the GOP-controlled Legislature.

Supporters of the proposition say that local school board elections are already considered partisan, even if their political parties are not listed on the ballot.

“I’ve always taken the position that voters should have all the information available on their candidates and that nothing should be held back,” said Rep. Michael Caruso, a Republican who represents part of Palm Beach County.

“So what this bill does is puts it right out front and educates voters as to more information about those running for school board,” Caruso said during a recent House meeting.

But opponents think that school boards and education issues should be nonpartisan.

Cecile Scoon, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, said at a recent House committee meeting that Floridians are concerned about “making everything partisan.”

“The way people are behaving today, there’s such an allegiance to party. I’ve literally had people tell me ‘so, I don’t really believe that, but I have to say that because of the party. I want to get elected,” she said.

Scoon continued:

“This is one place where I think Americans really agree, Floridians agree: our public schools are our treasures. This is a place where students learn to deal with each other, different students from different backgrounds. And making school board races partisan is going to degrade from that.”

As of current state law, a constitutional amendment on the ballot would require at least 60 percent of voters to approve the measure. (There is current legislation that might raise that threshold to 66 percent.)

A legislative staff analysis on the issue shows that school board members have been elected in nonpartisan races since 2000, though the races were partisan prior to that.

DeSantis has gotten involved

It’s possible that HJR 31 is intentionally trying to make school board races more partisan — specifically, more right-leaning.

Ahead of the 2022 elections, the political climate and focus surrounding local school board elections had been intensifying over the course of the COVID pandemic and continue to this day.

Gov. Ron DeSantis made waves by endorsing local school board races over the summer, which was generally unprecedented given that school board members campaign in nonpartisan races.

And the governor campaigned to get his endorsed candidates elected. That included financial contributions, social media posts about the races, and speeches at campaign rallies, 

Overall, 25 of 30 school board candidates backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022 came out as winners, pushing a conservative and controversial agenda for Florida’s public school system,

And as recently as January, DeSantis said that he wanted school board elections to become for the elected officials.

Current voting data show that there is a higher number of registered Republicans in Florida than registered Democrats.

No Party Affiliation voters

A sticking point with the legislation comes down to the large number of Florida voters who are not registered as Democrats or Republicans. Those voters are either registered to one of about a dozen minor parties or are considered “no party affiliation,” or NPA.

According to the Florida Division of Elections data as of Jan 31, 2023, the breakout of active Florida voters is as followed: Republican (5,299,351), Democrat (4,882,042), No Party Affiliation (4,026,491) and Minor Party (262,815). There are a total of 14,470,699 active voters in Florida.

Florida is a closed primary state.

Because the state has closed primaries, in partisan races such as for governor, Senate or House of Representatives, only those who are registered for their party can vote for who the primary candidate would be.

Currently, because school board races are nonpartisan, any registered voter can cast their vote for the candidate they think is best suited for the job during the primaries.

So if school board elections become partisan, NPA voters would not be able to vote in the primaries, even though many of the school board races are determined then, unless there’s a runoff.

The Division of Elections says on its website regarding primaries:

“If races for nonpartisan (i.e., free from party affiliation) judicial and school board offices, nonpartisan special districts or local referendum questions are on the primary election ballot, then all registered voters, including those without party affiliation are entitled to vote those races on the ballot.”

Rep. Rita Harris, a Democrat who represents part of Orange County, raised that issue to the bill sponsor this week:

“NPAs would be excluded from part of the voting process if these races are partisan, so I don’t understand how that would be enfranchising them when they wouldn’t be able to be participating in the primaries,” she asked.

Roach replied: “What you said is accurate – they (NPA voters) would be precluded from that primary.”

Rep. Kristen Arrington, a Democrat, did not support the bill this week due to the number of voters in her district who are not registered either Democrat or Republican.

“In my county, in Osceola County, NPA’s are the largest voter pool currently and I truly want more participation in those primaries and want those folks come out and I do think that this will disenfranchise them,” Arrington said.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on and .

A bill that would have died in the Indiana House after lawmakers failed to vote on the measure by Monday’s deadline.

That means school board races will stay non-partisan — at least for now. Language from the bill could still crop up in others before the end of the current legislative session.

, authored by Rep. J.D. Prescott, R-Union City, sought to add political party identifications to what are now nonpartisan school board elections throughout the state. The legislation was the first to extend “local control” over the issue.

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Monday was the deadline for House bills to pass out of the chamber. Prescott did not call the bill for a full chamber vote, however, likely indicating a lack of support from the House Republican caucus.

GOP House Speaker Todd Huston expressed support for optional partisan school board races earlier this month, but noted that members of his caucus are “all across the spectrum” on Prescott’s proposal — “This is one of those bills that doesn’t split along party lines.”

Ultimately, Republican lawmakers could not find consensus over whether school board candidates should have to be nominated via party primaries or only be listed by political party on the November general election ballot.

“It’s hard to find that sweet spot,” Huston said on Monday. “We didn’t quite get it this year.”

Multiple other versions of the bill circulated through the Indiana Statehouse this year and last, to no avail.

A separate that died earlier in the current session would have instead to identify as a Republican, Democrat or Independent.

Currently, Indiana is among 41 states where local school board elections are held without any party identification on the ballot for candidates.

The move for partisan school boards bubbled up after local fights over COVID-19 protocols, race issues and book bans.

Latest version of the bill

Supporters of the bill have maintained that forcing school board candidates to declare a party will provide greater transparency for voters.

Democrats and representatives from multiple education groups opposed the bill, however, arguing that such steps would needlessly further inject politics into local school decisions.

The latest version of the bill would have given Hoosier communities two options to trigger a referendum vote.

One provision said sitting school board members could decide on their own to vote for their seats to become partisan. But local voters would still have gotten the final say.

Another option would have used a petition process requiring signatures of 500 voters or 5% of voters in the district, whichever is lesser. A successful petition would put the question on the ballot.

But locals also had the option to do nothing at all, meaning school board elections in a particular district would remain nonpartisan. That was the default option laid out in the bill.

Updated language in the bill clarified that Libertarians and other third-party candidates could run, as long as they declare their party affiliation.

Voters would also have been required to choose, individually, school board members on ballots — a straight-ticket option wouldn’t be available.

Whether through a school board vote or voter-led public question, school board candidates would have had to run in partisan primaries in order to be nominated for the general election, or forgo a primary altogether but have to use a partisan label in the general election.

To claim a party, school board candidates further must have voted that way in the last two primaries in which that person voted.

Candidates for school board additionally could not work for that school corporation, according to the bill.

A school board or community would have been forced to wait 10 years between any public questions if they later changed their minds and wanted to opt-out of partisan school board races.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com. Follow Indiana Capital Chronicle on and .

All six of his endorsed candidates, who advanced from an August primary to runoffs in the general election, won their races, according to unofficial results. That means that of the 30 candidates the governor supported this year, 25 won.

Three of the candidates are incumbents who won re-election— Stephanie Busin in Hendry County, Jacqueline Rosario in Indian River County and Jamie Haynes in Volusia County. Three more captured open seats — Sam Fisher in Lee County, Cindy Spray in Manatee County and Al Hernandez in Pasco County.

Hernandez was from the ballot when a circuit court judge ruled that he didn’t live in the region he sought to represent when he qualified. But his appeal to a district court was successful, with a three-judge panel ruling that he had . 

DeSantis has held considerable sway over school board politics this year, not just endorsing candidates but also members. Those concerned about the direction conservative board members are taking schools oppose his involvement, while others who want greater say in their children’s education support the shift.

“That is our mission and the reason we endorse,” said Tina Descovich, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a conservative advocacy group. Ballots, she said, should identify the party affiliation of board candidates. “It gives voters more information to work with. A more informed voter makes better decisions.”

But critics say the movement benefits parties more than students. 

“The only letters that a school board member should have after their name is EE — for education and equity,” said Joaquin Guerra, political director for the Campaign for Our Shared Future Action Fund, which organized to counteract efforts by groups such as Moms for Liberty. “We have enough politics in our lives.”

Alicia Farrant, who won election to the Orange County school board, was among the candidates Moms for Liberty endorsed. Her victory over Michael Daniels, a college administrator whose wife teaches in the Orange County schools, “means that we need to do a better job of engaging families in Florida and educating them about the importance of school board elections,” Guerra said.

Some experts say it’s a matter of time before the offices become officially partisan, not just in Florida, but other states as well. Moms for Liberty endorsed 270 candidates nationally, including 45 in California and 50 in South Carolina. Another group that works to elect conservative school board members, 1776 Project PAC, also endorsed candidates in multiple states. But ultimately, the results .

For years now, elections for judges, school board members and city council members have been nonpartisan “in name only,” said Susan MacManus, a politician science professor at the University of South Florida. “The partisan affiliation of the candidates has been laid bare for all to see.”

Unofficial results show 19 of the 30 candidates he endorsed won their races. Six others are headed to runoffs in the general election on Nov. 8 and five were defeated.

“Women with kids are the swing vote in Florida,” said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida. DeSantis, she added, was “brilliant” in waiting until early voting was over Sunday to on behalf of his candidates. “He knows that the majority of Republicans are going to vote on Election Day.”

The majority of the governor’s favored candidates won in counties that voted for former President Trump in 2020, but some also picked up seats in Democratic strongholds. 

“We’re excited about the boards we flipped that now have a majority of parents’ rights members,” said Tina Descovich, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a growing conservative organization that, like DeSantis, is opposed to schools’ attention to LGBTQ rights and social justice issues. “Parents know their children the best.”

In Miami-Dade, the state’s largest district, DeSantis-backed Monica Colucci, an educator who worked in the governor’s administration, defeated longtime incumbent Marta Perez. And Roberto Alonso, who founded an ed tech company and owns an adult day care, beat two other candidates, including Maribel Balbin, who was endorsed by the teachers union.

Balbin said she didn’t want Alonso to “walk into a seat without at least having a challenge of some sort.”

In Duval County, which includes Jacksonville, April Carney — who was part of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — beat incumbent Elizabeth Andersen, a licensed mental health therapist. Carney, one of DeSantis’s candidates, has not confirmed whether she was at the Capitol that day.

“I’m concerned for our teachers and students,” Andersen told Âé¶čŸ«Æ·. She rejected political endorsements because she didn’t want the race to be partisan. “This level of political involvement by the governor in a local race is unprecedented and un-American.” 

The primary was a chance to gauge how voters would respond to DeSantis’s anti-”woke” education agenda. 

DeSantis has made a cornerstone of his re-election campaign. In November, he’ll face U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, a Democrat and former governor who released his of school board preferences. But some education advocates viewed the endorsements from both candidates as unwelcome intrusion into nonpartisan races.

“Parents don’t like it,” said Melissa Erickson, executive director of the Alliance for Public Schools — an advocacy organization focusing on districts along the I-4 corridor, from Tampa (Hillsborough County) to Daytona Beach (Volusia County). “They want school board meetings to be boring again.”

In Hillsborough County, where Crist’s and DeSantis’s candidates went head-to-head, Erickson saw less of an impact. Incumbent Stacy Hahn, endorsed by DeSantis, was reelected, as was incumbent Karen Perez, who picked up Crist’s endorsement. Another DeSantis candidate, Patricia Rendon won an open seat. 

“Two incumbents are going back to the school board. People are voting for who they know,” Erickson said. “Nobody massively outperformed their demographic.” 

‘A one-size-fits-all’ agenda

DeSantis unveiled his initial in June. After Crist announced his preferred candidates in July, DeSantis expanded his list to cover 18 districts. 

To earn the governor’s support, candidates had to complete a survey and commit to furthering his 10-point , which includes keeping “woke gender ideology out of schools” and rejecting critical race theory in the curriculum.

Andersen, in Duval, said the pledge runs counter to the principle of local control in education. 

“To me that’s a one-size-fit-all education agenda,” she said. “We are not the same as Hillsborough or Miami. We want to make decisions that work for our schools and our kids.”

But she represents a more conservative, mostly white part of the county. Carney won 53% of the vote.

With the Florida governor expected to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024, the question is whether his education platform translates outside of Florida as well. He recently took his message to Arizona, Pennsylvania and Ohio, for Republican candidates. Republican Doug Mastriano, running for Pennsylvania governor, said he wanted to make his state the

“Many people have moved to Florida because of what we’ve done,” said Alysha Legge, who lost to incumbent Perez in Hillsborough. She pointed to above-average and keeping schools open during the pandemic as reasons contributing to the state’s growth. “I honestly would love for him to stay in Florida. We need him a little longer.”

and changing demographics have shifted the state in a . Part of that growth includes an influx of Cubans. While they tend to lean more Republican, , some experts on Florida politics said that doesn’t mean they are as far to the right as DeSantis and former President Donald Trump. 

​​”Hispanics are more in the center. They’re trying to figure out what U.S. politics are all about,” said Marcos Vilar, executive director of , a nonprofit that has worked to get Hispanic candidates elected to school boards. 

Vilar was more focused on races in Orange County, which has a large Hispanic population. DeSantis didn’t endorse anyone in those races, but there were still contests between conservative and more liberal candidates. 

, incumbents Teresa Jacobs and Angie Gallo fended off conservative challengers, but Alicia Farrant, part of Moms for Liberty, will face Michael Daniels in a runoff. Many of DeSantis’s picks also received backing from the , a conservative group focused on removing any influence of critical race theory over K-12 curriculum.

In Manatee County, just south of the Tampa area, Sean Conley challenged DeSantis-backed incumbent Chad Choate. Although he’s a Republican — supporting for-profit charter schools, tighter security and fiscal responsibility — Conley said he knew it would be difficult to win. Even the chairman of the local Republican party got involved in the race. urging members in an Aug.18 email to be “laser-focused” on winning the seats for DeSantis’s candidates. 

Rev. James Golden, another Manatee County board member who ran for re-election is a local leader in the Democratic party. But he said he has “scrupulously” avoided partisanship in his role as a board member. 

With voters last fall renewing a for the school district, Golden thought that was a good sign they would vote him in for another term. But challenger Richard Tatem earned just enough votes to avoid a runoff.

The governor, Golden said, is “tearing down the fundamental premise behind public education.” Teachers, he added, shouldn’t have to worry about “whose mama is a Democrat and whose daddy is a Republican.”

“It has been put back, so we do have that money,” Russell Bruhn, communication staffer with the Brevard County school district, told the Phoenix.

In Orange County, “The district received communication from the FLDOE prior to Thanksgiving that they were returning
 funds associated with the withholding of school board member salaries,” Orange communications staffer Michael Ollendorff said in an email to the Phoenix.

He shared a document from the education department outlining the electronic transfer of money distributed to these districts on Nov. 29.

The return of the money came at a time when the state’s education department was under scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Education over potential violations of federal education laws.

The USDE had filed a cease and desist complaint, over the state withholding money from school boards that had gotten federal grants to cover previous financial penalties.

A federal administrative hearing was scheduled for Dec. 10. But the feds withdrew the complaint when the state department returned funds to two school districts that had gotten federal grants. They were Alachua and Broward school districts.

The U.S. Department of Education provided the following statement in an email to the Phoenix:

“Following the state of Florida returning the withheld funds to local education agencies, the Department withdrew the current Cease and Desist complaint. The (U.S.) Department will continue to assist any state or local education agency to sustain safe in-person learning for all students.”

Here is the full breakout for the eight school boards that got their money back:

• Alachua: $194,720
• Brevard: $18,587
• Broward: $526,197
• Miami-Dade: $35,395
• Duval: $26,770
• Leon: $17,199
• Orange: $31,459
• Palm Beach: $27, 527

Jackie Johnson, communications staffer with the Gainesville-based Alachua County school district, told the Phoenix that they returned the money from the federal grant, saying that the district never tapped into those funds.

“The check we received from the feds — we sent that back to the feds,” Johnson said. The Phoenix reached out to the Broward County school district in South Florida about it’s federal grant money and is awaiting response.

Citing the Delta-variant surge earlier in the school year, some school districts wanted to require masks for children, with very few exceptions, but state education official determined it should be up to the parents to decide.

The , and the Florida Board of Education financially penalized eight districts for their strict mask mandates that did not allow parents to decide whether their students wear masks at schools. The state that approved of these strict mask mandates.

The feds got involved and created a new grant program called Project SAFE, intending to support districts that had been penalized by the state for placing COVID mitigation strategies.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on and .

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Scott Esserman, a parent and former classroom teacher who was endorsed by the union, held a strong lead Thursday night in the race for an at-large seat representing the entire city. In a crowded field of five candidates, he had garnered more than 39% of the vote.

Current school board President Carrie Olson had a commanding lead — 69% of the vote — over her challenger in District 3, which spans central-east Denver. Olson is a former Denver teacher who was endorsed by the union. She is the only incumbent running for reelection.

The races were tighter in southwest District 2 and northeast District 4, with union-backed candidates Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán and Michelle Quattlebaum holding leads in their districts as well. The District 2 race was particularly tight, though Gaytán’s lead over opponent Karolina Villagrana widened from 64 votes Tuesday night to 486 votes Thursday.

Denver elections officials said Thursday night there were 44,690 ballots left to count and that counting would continue Friday. A large number of ballots — 35,000 — were dropped off during the last three hours of voting Tuesday, which is extending the time it takes to tally all the votes, officials said.

Union-backed members have held a majority of seats on the seven-member Denver school board since in 2019. Before then, Denver had been a national exemplar of education reform and cooperation with charter schools.

Reached Tuesday night, Esserman said that although the union-backed candidates were outspent by pro-reform groups pushing for a different slate, the election results so far were “a testament to the kind of change people are ready to see” in Denver Public Schools.

“The vast majority of voters and members of our community are interested in seeing us do what’s best for students, and that’s what we’re going to do,” he said.

In the past two years, the union-backed board has undone or halted many reforms put in place by previous boards.

For instance, the board voted to reopen two comprehensive high schools — and — that previous boards had dismantled. Current board members also the controversial school ratings system that previous boards used to justify closing low-scoring schools in an attempt to improve academic achievement. The union opposes such closures.

The union also opposes the expansion of independent charter schools. The union-backed board attempted to delay the opening of a new DSST charter high school, but the State Board of Education that decision.

The union has spent big to hold on to its board majority, but supporters of education reform have spent even bigger to try to win back control. They say the union-backed board hasn’t focused enough on academics, especially during the pandemic.

As of last Monday, state campaign finance reports show independent expenditure committees associated with reform groups had spent more than $1.07 million in support of three candidates: Villagrana, Vernon Jones Jr., and Gene Fashaw. Such committees can spend unlimited amounts of money in elections but cannot coordinate with candidates.

Meanwhile, reports show the Denver teachers union had given more than $157,000 directly to four candidates: Esserman, Olson, GaytĂĄn, and Quattlebaum. The statewide teachers union gave at least another $75,000. Independent expenditure committees funded by teachers unions had spent more than $184,000 in support of those candidates, reports show.

Esserman had raised more money — $106,650 — than any other school board candidate in Colorado, even with expensive races in many suburban districts, according to an analysis of campaign filings by .

The winners of the election will oversee , craft a new strategic plan, and grapple with several long-simmering issues, including  and continued disagreement over the role of independent  and semi-autonomous . They will also help lead a district that is still navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Update:

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

In Tuesday’s runoff to fill two remaining seats on the Atlanta school board, unofficial results show incumbent Aretta Baldon, who has the backing of organizations advocating for the city’s Black and low-income students, barely held on to her seat representing District 2. She received 50.7 percent of the vote, while businesswoman and former Atlanta Public Schools student Keisha Carey earned 49.3 percent.

Meanwhile, with over two-thirds of the vote, newcomer Tamara Jones, an urban planner, defeated opponent KaCey Venning in a race for the at-large District 7 seat. The incumbent did not seek re-election. 

All nine seats on the board were up for a vote in this election cycle. But because of a new state law staggering the terms, Jones, and the others holding odd-numbered seats, will serve two years before running again in 2023 for full four-year terms.

Responding to questions from a civic organization,  emphasized her work to reduce the racial achievement gap, distribute resources more equitably across the district and open remote learning centers during school closures.Ìę said she will prioritize improving literacy instruction and said it’s important for the district to work closely with city and county officials to increase wraparound services for students and lower student mobility rates.Ìę

Five incumbents, including one who ran unopposed, appear poised to continue their terms on Atlanta’s school board following Tuesday’s election. Unofficial results show two newcomers — Katie Howard and Jennifer McDonald — will join them, but two other remaining races will be decided later this month in a Nov. 30 runoff.Ìę

In that election, incumbent Aretta Baldon, who was leading with 48 percent of the vote, will face challenger Keisha Carey. Tamara Jones, an urban planner, and KaCey Venning, an education and mental health advocate, are also headed to a runoff.

The election comes at a time when Atlanta’s population is growing more white and affluent, spurred in part by growth of the city’s tech sector. Overall, student achievement has improved in recent years, but advocacy organizations seized upon the election to raise awareness that many Black and Hispanic students aren’t sharing in that success. 

Unofficial results show incumbents Cynthina Briscoe Brown, EshĂ© Collins, current Chair Jason Esteves, Erika Mitchell and Michelle Olympiadis will hold on to their seats — a clear sign that voters are mostly satisfied with who’s running the district, said Anthony Wilson, executive director of Equity in Education, an advocacy organization that trained over 20 candidates for the board.The district’s all-time high of 80.3 percent likely has something to do with that, Wilson said. While he said he’s proud of the district’s progress, “I’m also concerned about the deep inequities that persist across our city’s schools.”

The group endorsed candidates for seven of the nine seats on the board, including Baldon, Collins, Esteves, Howard, Mitchell and Venning. They also backed Keedar Whittle, who runs an education staffing agency, but was unsuccessful in his effort to oust incumbent Brown for an at-large seat on the board. Brown, an attorney, was leading with over 70 percent of the vote.

Regardless of the outcome in the two runoff races, the board leading the majority Black and Hispanic district will have at least three new members. Some candidates saw significant overlap between issues facing the city and the district. Venning, for example, mentors young Black boys, many of whom support their families by selling water at intersections and freeway off-ramps. She leads a nonprofit to connect them with members of the business community and other youth employment programs. Across the city, some of the “water boys,” as they have become known, have been involved in violent incidents, contributing to concerns about rising crime — a major issue in the mayor’s race.

The election has energized groups focused on holding the 51,000-student district accountable for schools where most students score well below grade level. Equity in Education wants to see more wraparound services for students, integration efforts, and alternatives to suspensions and expulsions. 

The Latino Association for Parents of Public Schools is another group calling on the district to spread successful practices and programs from high-achieving schools to those that haven’t improved. Ricardo Miguel Martinez, president of the organization, said he’s focused on “every race, every policy, every day” and wants Latino parents not to be afraid to speak up about their children’s schools

“We look forward to working with all current, new and future elected officials to make sure Atlanta Public Schools and the city of Atlanta is equitable for all,” he said.

But Ricardo Miguel Martinez, president of the Latino Association for Parents of Public Schools, an advocacy group to persistent achievement gaps, wasn’t buying it. “We’ve got to stop saying Atlanta is Wakanda,” he told Âé¶čŸ«Æ·. “In Wakanda, Black and brown kids know how to read.”

Martinez is among those looking to next Tuesday’s school board election in Atlanta — where all nine seats are up for grabs — as an opportunity to address long-standing inequities in the 51,000-student, majority Black district. Pre-pandemic test scores showed that only about a third of Hispanic and a quarter of Black students scored proficient or higher in math and English language arts, compared with over 80 percent of white students.

“This election is where we start to say no more,” Martinez said.

In a district experiencing seismic demographic shifts, candidates represent a wide cross section of residents, from some who prioritize the most marginalized students to those who are well-connected to the city’s power structure. Atlanta is an emerging , where projects like are driving up local real estate costs. Lower-income families are increasingly fleeing the city for more affordable housing in the suburbs, leaving some advocates to wonder if their voices are being heard.

“It really feels like our families are being forced out,” said Kimberly Dukes, the executive director of , which helps parents track the quality of their children’s schools. “A lot of people look to Altanta as a dream. If you have money, you may be all right.” 

This is the last time all seats will be at once. A new state law, passed last year, will stagger the terms of board members. That means five of the winners will run again in two years, and four will serve a full four years. 

Four incumbents, including board Chairman Jason Esteves, are running for re-election, along with 18 challengers. Only one incumbent, Michelle Olympiadis, is running unopposed. The board manages a $1.4 billion budget, roughly twice that of the Atlanta City Council. But in a year when voters are also choosing the mayor and council members — and when crime rates and a lack of affordable housing have dominated the news — Esteves wonders if education is getting the attention it deserves.

“We’re at a pivot point as a school system and as a city. We have the opportunity to tackle generational issues,” he said. “The issues we have with poverty are manifested in the things we’re seeing related to crime. How we tackle those issues directly impacts the school system.”

A September showed a staggering 62 percent increase in homicides between 2019 and 2020. in July of a woman and her dog in the city’s Piedmont Park is among the senseless crimes leaving the city on edge and calling for solutions.

Crime has also become a central issue in the mayor’s race, with some candidates drawing connections between the role of education and improving the quality of life for residents. With Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms not running for re-election, the slate includes former mayor , who has promoted increased use of recreation centers to deter youth crime. Meanwhile, Courtney English, a former school board chairman, is running for . He’s currently director of community development for a nonprofit providing afterschool programs in apartment complexes near low-performing schools. 

City leaders don’t have any authority over the district, but a platform that includes coordination between the board, the council and the mayor’s office can “carry a lot of weight,” said Greg Clay, who served on a task force that wrote the district’s equity and social justice in 2019. He added that council and mayoral candidates who say, “That’s not my responsibility” when asked about education won’t be well-received.

‘A change in the demographics’

With more white and affluent residents drawn to Atlanta’s tech and financial sectors, the city is considered to have the widest in the nation. 

Those population shifts are fueling a threatened secession by the high-priced Buckhead neighborhood, where rising crime — including a 40 percent increase in this year — is the top concern. A separate Buckhead City would be a financial blow to the district’s tax base. estimated the district would lose $232 million — about a quarter of its local tax revenue. The legislature would still have to pass a bill to bring the question before voters in November 2022.

“The status of nearly 5,500 APS students who live within the boundaries of the proposed city would be in limbo,” according to a statement from the district. 

For now, parents in Buckhead and other north Atlanta neighborhoods have more immediate concerns — traffic gridlock, underfunding of International Baccalaureate and dual language immersion programs, and a splitting of some elementary schools that has put an added strain on parents. They say they fight the perception that they’re spoiled and always get their way. “There is commentary at times about how North Atlanta gets everything at the cost or sake of other clusters,” board candidate Jennifer McDonald said at a September candidate forum. “Frankly, I don’t feel like that’s accurate or fair.”

Black families, meanwhile, are increasingly moving to the suburbs, where housing is more affordable. Between 2010 and 2020, the growth of the white population in Atlanta was almost five times that of Black residents, compiled by the Atlanta Regional Commission.

“We’re going to have a lot of voters who know very little about what is going on in the schools,” said Esteves, adding that those who put their children in schools in the city’s wealthier neighborhoods, north of downtown, might not understand why a school on the south side receives more funding per student. “We have been 
 focused on equity and distributing resources based on need. A change in the demographics of the city requires us to continually talk about how Atlanta Public Schools does things and why.” 

But Martinez said higher per-student funding hasn’t changed the culture of low-income schools. His organization’s argues that the district needs to do a better job learning what makes a team of teachers successful at one school and replicate those practices at schools that haven’t seen academic growth in years. 

The fate of stagnating schools is another issue facing the new board. Earlier this month, members approved that directs Superintendent Lisa Herring to implement a “high-impact intervention” if a school doesn’t improve after three years. Those actions can range from merging under-enrolled schools to allowing charter school organizations to run them. Olympiadis was the only one on the board to oppose the policy, arguing that charter schools drain resources from the district.

According to a 2021 budget , 17 percent of district funds go toward charters, a share that’s still growing as charter schools add more grade levels. “All that money goes out the door before we figure out how we’re going to disperse funds across the rest of our schools,” Olympiadis said in an interview.

While school choice hasn’t been a major point of debate in the campaign, , a nonprofit that trained 23 potential candidates for this year’s election, has endorsed those who support “expanding school options,” said founding executive director Anthony Wilson. The organization’s platform is for students to have a “high-quality school within walking distance of their home,” he said.

Whether Herring can ensure more families have access to those high-quality schools is one issue the newly elected board will consider when it decides whether to renew her contract in 2023. Several candidates that she could not have stepped into the role at a worse time, and has done her best considering the challenges of the pandemic and remote learning. As with urban districts nationally, educators and parents worry the pandemic has only worsened achievement gaps. , the percentage of elementary school students scoring in the lowest level in reading increased from 34 percent in 2019 to 46 percent this year.Ìę

In fact, yawning achievement gaps played an important role in the decision to hire Herring in the first place. Under former superintendent Meria Carstarphen — who helped the district move past a — there was overall growth in the percentage of students scoring proficient on state tests. The graduation rate has reached 80 percent, up from 51 percent in 2012.

But board members who voted to replace Carstarphen, and advocates for Black and Hispanic students, said those gains haven’t been spread evenly across the district. Seventy-seven percent of Black students graduate, compared to almost 97 percent of white students.

‘Struggling in the system’

Other candidates have reservations about Herring, saying she needs to seek more parent and community input before making decisions. During the September forum, some candidates noted that the district often blindsides parents by sending important messages on Friday afternoons. A plan to change high school schedules to accommodate longer school days for elementary students drew widespread opposition.

The district has since hired a marketing and communications firm to improve its relationships with parents, incumbent Erika Mitchell said during the forum. 

Royce Carter Mann, a 19-year-old candidate who graduated from the district last year, is among those calling for greater transparency. Though young, Mann grew up in a politically active family with a grandmother who worked in the Carter administration. Named for the former president, Mann campaigned for Sens. John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in a January special election that gave Democrats control of the U.S. Senate.

Mann nurtured his interest in education policy while interning for the Atlanta school board. He pushed for the district’s new and wants students to have more say in their education.

“When students are included, it’s almost as a reward for being a high-achieving student,” he said. “It’s the students who are struggling in the system that we need to listen to the most.”

Mann supported a campaign to Midtown High last year, dropping the name of Henry W. Grady, a Civil War-era journalist who didn’t support equality for freed slaves. Last week, another school was renamed for Atlanta baseball legend , replacing that of Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader Forrest Hill.

While the symbolism is important, parents in the city’s predominantly Black southside neighborhoods want more than just school name changes. At the September candidate forum, board member Mitchell, whose constituents include those families, said, “We need to have equitable options in our schools so we can retain our students in our area, so they can be proud of the schools they’re attending.” 

Lead Image: Atlanta Public Schools board members and officials celebrate the opening of the district’s new Center for Equity and Social Justice. (Atlanta Public Schools)