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School board elections, 2023

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2023
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There areapproximately 83,000 school board members and 13,000 districts in the United States. Over 97% of local school board members are elected, while board members in a small number of districts are appointed. Approximately9,000 school districts across 35 states held regular school board elections in 2023.

In 2023, Ballotpedia covered elections in:

More than60% of 2023 local elections were uncontested, according to a Ballotpedia study of 10,000 local elections. In the sample of over 5,400 school board elections, about 53% were uncontested.

Ourcomprehensive analyses of school board elections in 10 states includes data on endorsements, partisan dynamics, open seats, incumbents defeated, and more.

In this article, you will find:




Ballotpedia's 2023 school board election coverage by state

In 2023, Ballotpedia is covering regular elections for approximately8,750 school board seats in3,211 school districts across28 states. This is 36% of all regular school board elections this year and includes comprehensive coverage in ten states:

Below are the districts holding elections in the top 100 largest cities or one of the top 200 largest school districts in the country. If you don't see your school district listed below, check oursample ballot lookup tool for your election information.

School board battleground elections 2023

Spring elections

The following election coverage was first featured inHall Pass, Ballotpedia's weekly education-related newsletters.

  • Newark Public Schools, New Jersey (click to expand)

    See also:Newark Public Schools, New Jersey, elections (2023)

    Three seats on theNewark Public Schools school board inNew Jersey were up for general election onApril 25, 2023. The filing deadline for this election wasMarch 6, 2023. Allison James-Frison and incumbents Hasani Council and Josephine Garcia won election. James-Frison won 22.1% of the vote, while Council and Garcia won 23.8% and 23.2%, respectively.

    Eight candidates were on the ballot.

    Council, Garcia, and James-Frison ran as part of the “Move Newark Schools Forward” slate. Newark MayorRas Baraka, who is affiliated with the Democratic Party, endorsed the slate. Baraka endorsed a slate of three candidates called the “Moving Newark Schools Forward” in the 2022 elections. All three candidates won election, receiving about the same percentage of votes as the “Move Newark Schools Forward” slate won this year.

    Thomas Luna, Tawana Johnson-Emory, and James Wright Jr. ran as part of the “Newark Kids Forward” slate. Johnson-Emory and Wright Jr. were both teachers at charter schools.

    Latoya Jackson, Allison James-Frison, and Ade’Kamil Kelly also ran, though not as part of a slate.

    Newark Public Schools is thelargest district in New Jersey, with an estimated enrollment of 42,000 students in 2021. The board consists of nine members elected to three-year terms. All members are elected at large.

  • Lincoln Public Schools, Nebraska (click to expand)

    See also:Lincoln Public Schools, Nebraska, elections (2023)

    Three seats on theLincoln Public Schools school board inNebraska were up for general election onMay 2, 2023. A primary was scheduled for April 4, 2023. The filing deadline for this election wasFebruary 15, 2023, for incumbents. For non-incumbents, the deadline was March 1, 2023.

    • District 2: Piyush Srivastav defeated Emily Pollen 60.1% to 39.9%.
    • District 4: Incumbent Annie Mumgaard defeated Alaina Brouillette 59.3% to 40.1%. Mumgaard was first elected in 2015.
    • District 6: Incumbent Bob Rauner defeated Richard Aldag IV 61.8% to 31.2%. Rauner was first elected in 2019. Both candidates completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey.

    According toThe Lincoln Journal Star’s Zach Hammack: “With Srivastav's election, there are now five Democrats and no Republicans on the seven-member school board. Connie Duncan, who was once a registered Republican, previously changed to independent. Current board member Lanny Boswell, a former Republican, is also an independent now.”[1]


November 7 elections

Ballotpedia provided in-depth coverage of 14 school board elections in November 2023. Click the links below to read about each of those elections. To read more election analysis across all school board elections in these states,click here.

Colorado:

Kansas:

Minnesota:

Ohio:

Pennsylvania:

Virginia:

Washington:

Endorsements in school board elections

See also:Endorsements in school board elections, 2023

Ballotpedia covered every 2023 school board election in the following10 states: Colorado, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. These 10 states held 5,254 elections for 8,758 school board seats.

Most school board elections nationwide are nonpartisan, meaning candidates appear on the ballot without party labels. Endorsements provide voters with helpful information regarding candidates' stances and policy positions.

After each general election, Ballotpedia analyzed various electoral trends at the school board level in each of the 10 states included in this report. These analyses also examine election results through the lens of the endorsements made during the race and partisan affiliations of candidates, where that information is available.

Click the links below to view analyses by state:

Additionally, Ballotpedia tracked any state executive officeholder or candidate who endorsed a school board candidate in 2023. This included the following endorsers:

Overview of 2023 school board elections in the U.S.

There areapproximately 83,000 school board members and 13,000 districts across the country. Over 97% of local school board members are elected, while board members in a small number of districts are appointed.

Below is a survey of all districts holding school board elections in 2023, including those that fall outside of Ballotpedia's 2023 coverage scope. If you would like to help us expand our election coverage, please considersupporting Ballotpedia.

Districts holding 2023 elections

Approximately 9,000 school districts across 35 states had school board seats up for regular elections in 2023.

  • The approximately 9,000 school districts with regular elections in 2023 represented 69% of all districts in the country.
  • The approximately 9,000 school districts represented 88% of the 10,196 total districts within those 35 states.


School board elections are held on varying schedules depending on the district and state. In the 35 states that held school board elections in 2023, seats can be up for election on the following schedules:

  • Annually
  • Every two years in odd-numbered years
  • A combination of districts with annual or odd-year elections and districts with even-year elections.

In 25 states, more than 90% of school districts will held regular school board elections in 2023.

Board seats up for election in 2023

Approximately 24,100 school board seats in those 35 states (out of 66,831 total) were up for regular election in 2023.

  • Most school districts hold staggered elections, meaning that not all seats were up for election in any given year. Approximately 29% of all school board seats were up for election in 2023, while 71% were not.
  • The approximately 24,100 seats represented 36% of the 66,831 total school board seats in the 35 states holding elections in 2023.
  • Most districts had half or one-third of seats up for election in 2023, and others had a quarter or one-fifth of seats up.


School board election dates in 2023

Regular general school board elections in 2023 will take place on at least nine different dates. Some states will have school board elections on multiple dates. In some states, school board election dates can vary by district. School districts in at least 12 states could also hold primary elections.

  • April 4 - five states
  • April 18 - one state
  • May 2 - two states
  • May 6 - one state
  • May 9 - two states
  • May 16 - two states
  • October 3 - one state
  • November 7 - 16 states
  • November 14 - one state

Turnout for off-cycle school board elections such as these is very low compared to elections in November of even-numbered years. This means that voters who do participate have a higher portion of control over who wins.

Party labels in school board elections

Most school board elections in the U.S. are nonpartisan, which means the party labels of candidates do not appear on the ballot.In two states with 2023 school board elections, school board candidates appear on the ballot with party labels identifying their partisan affiliation:

  • Pennsylvania
  • Connecticut

In four states with 2023 school board elections, state law allows both partisan and nonpartisan elections for school board members.

  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • North Carolina
  • Tennessee

In the other 29 states with 2023 school board elections, school board elections are nonpartisan.

Methodology note:These estimates are based on state rules governing school board election dates in each state cross-referenced with district-specific school board member data. The estimates only count regular elections to fill expired terms. Estimates in some states are based on extrapolation from a sample of district-specific data. Some estimates assume random distribution across cycles of staggered school board seats. Estimates are rounded. It does not count any special elections to fill unexpired terms. There could be exceptions to the state-level rules used for these estimates for individual districts.

Historical election data

See also:School board election data analysis, 2024

Methodology note: This report does not include write-in candidates unless an incumbent ran as a write-in.

From 2018 to 2024, Ballotpedia covered elections for 6,060 school board seats in 2,070 districts. Ballotpedia normally covers school board elections in the 200 largest school districts by student enrollment and the school districts that overlap the 100 largest cities by population. However, in 2019, we also covered all school districts up for election in the state of North Carolina. Those districts are included in this data.

We found that between 24% and 40% of elections were unopposed each year, that incumbents won between 51% and 61% of seats each year, and that between 79% and 89% of incumbents who sought re-election won each year.

Details on each year's election statistics can be found in the table below.

Seats won by incumbents and newcomers

Incumbents won a larger percentage of seats in the2018 school board elections compared to the2019,2020,2021,2022 elections,2023, and2024.

Incumbency success rates

Incumbents who ran against challengers in 2019 had a higher contested success rate than those who ran against challengers in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Incumbents in 2019 also had a higher overall success rate compared to the other four years.

Sample Ballot Lookup

Be an informed voter.
View the school board elections you will be voting in with this sample ballot lookup tool.


Here's how it works:

  • Enter your address. Enter your email if you would like to receive Ballotpedia's election news updates in your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we will never share your information.
  • Select an upcoming election date, if there is more than one coming up in your area.
  • View the list of candidates that will be on your ballot. Ballotpedia includes comprehensive election information for the largest 100 cities by population, as well as all state legislative, statewide, and congressional races across the nation. You can contact your state or local election administrator for an official sample ballot.
  • Click on your candidates to read their biography, view past election results, read their campaign themes and responses to our candidate survey, and more. We also provide race overviews if you want additional background information. Where the office names are linked, you can click to learn more about the race in general.


Analysis of local elections

Local-politics-square.png
See also:United States municipal elections, 2023

Ballotpedia covered municipal elections in 32 counties and 77 cities, including40 mayoral elections, in 2023. As of 2023, Ballotpedia's coverage scope for local elections included elections on the ballot in the100 largest U.S. cities by population, as well as elections for mayors, city council members, and district attorneys ineach state capital.

Analysis


See also

Local Politics2023 Election Analysis
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Municipal government
Local courts
School boards
Local ballot measures
Local recalls

Municipal elections, 2023
Mayoral elections, 2023
Local court elections, 2023
School board elections, 2023
Local ballot measure elections, 2023
Political recall efforts, 2023

External links

Footnotes

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