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2018 School Board Elections

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In 2018, Ballotpedia covered school board elections in 402 of America's school districts. There were 945 school board seats up for grabs across 26 states. Collectively, these districts served 12,128,279 students during the 2015-2016 school year—approximately 24.6 percent of all public school students in the U.S.^[1][2]

Click here for a list of school board elections by state.

Battleground 2018 school board elections[edit]

The election in Detroit Public Schools Community School District was held in the midst of elevated levels of lead and copper being found in the district's water supply. The district switched to bottled water instead of water fountains at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, and the school's board and superintendent faced long-term decisions about how to cover the increased cost of this method of water supply.^[3] Incumbent Deborah Hunter-Harvill and retired nurse Corletta Vaughn won the two seats up for election.

Broward County Public Schools in Florida also held elections for five of nine seats on its school board.^[4] Among the 15 candidates who made the ballot were two parents—Lori Alhadeff and Ryan Petty—who each lost a child in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February.^[5] In the wake of the shooting, school safety and the intervention-based program PROMISE became critical issues in the race.^[4] Incumbent Ann Murray, Alhadeff, Laurie Rich Levinson, incumbent Nora Rupert, and incumbent Donna Pilger Korn won the five seats on the board.

In Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland, chief executive officer Kevin Maxwell announced he was stepping down from that role in May 2018, leaving the school board to approve of the CEO appointed by the county executive.^[6] Parents expressed concern with the transparency of the school board, distribution of resources, failing facilities, and alleged grade fixing.^[6][7] Joshua Thomas defeated incumbent Lupi Grady in District 2. Newcomer Pamela Boozer-Strother won the open District 3 seat. Belinda Queen defeated incumbent Carolyn Boston in District 6, while incumbent Sonya Williams won re-election to District 9.

The races for four seats on the District of Columbia State Board of Education were called "symbolic battlegrounds over the future of public education" by the Washington Post. They saw over $150,000 poured into them. By August, the candidates had received more in contributions than candidates received in the full election cycle in the previous school board election. Although former D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty took away most of the board's power in 2007 and placed the appointment of most education positions in the hands of the mayor, the city council considered in 2018 whether to remove some of that authority from the mayor's office.^[8] Emily Gasoi won the open Ward 1 seat, incumbent Ruth Wattenberg won re-election to Ward 3, Zachary Parker won the open Ward 5 seat, and Jessica Sutter defeated incumbent Joe Weedon in Ward 6.

In Pinellas County Schools in Florida, 13 candidates filed for the four seats up in 2018, including three of the four incumbents whose terms were up in 2018. Incumbents Terry Krassner and Peggy O'Shea lost their bids for re-election to the At-Large District 2 and 3 seats to Jeff Larsen and Nicole Carr, respectively. Rene Flowers won re-election to her District 7 seat and Bill Dudley won the open seat in District 6. The school board was under critical examination after an investigation of the board and district was published in 2015. According to the report, five elementary schools in the district produced students who were failing standardized tests. The investigation tied these students' struggles to a 2007 decision the board made impacting the student composition at district schools.

Click here for information about school board recall elections.

School board elections by state[edit]

Ballotpedia provides in-depth coverage of school board elections in America's largest school districts by enrollment. Our coverage includes school board member and candidate profiles, notable election issues, campaign finances, election procedures, district data, and more. We publish election results and post-election news articles following each election. Ballotpedia also publishes The Tap, a weekly newsletter covering both recent and upcoming political news and elections.

In addition to the 200 largest school districts in the nation, Ballotpedia covers the additional districts that constitute Wisconsin's 50 largest school districts and the school districts that overlap with the 100 largest cities by population in the United States. For more information about those Wisconsin school board races outside of the top 200, click here.

Alabama[edit]

Alaska[edit]

Arizona[edit]

California[edit]

Florida[edit]

Georgia[edit]

*These Georgia school districts hold partisan elections. If necessary, partisan election districts may have held a primary on May 22, a primary runoff on July 24, and/or a general runoff election on December 4, 2018.

Idaho[edit]

Indiana[edit]

Ballotpedia covered general elections for 38 school board seats across 13 Indiana school districts in 2018.

Kentucky[edit]

Louisiana[edit]

Maryland[edit]

Michigan[edit]

Minnesota[edit]

Mississippi[edit]

Missouri[edit]

A total of 10 Missouri school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held elections in 2018 for 24 seats. General elections were held on April 3, 2018, except in St. Louis.

Here are two quick facts about Missouri's school board elections in 2018:

• The largest Missouri school district by enrollment with an election in 2018 was St. Louis Public Schools with 28,960 K-12 students in the 2015-2016 school year.
• The smallest Missouri school district within Ballotpedia's coverage with an election in 2018 was the Center School District with 2,679 K-12 students in the 2015-2016 school year.

The districts listed below served 111,049 K-12 students during the 2015-2016 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.^[9] Click on the district names for more information on each one and its school board elections.

Nebraska[edit]

Nevada[edit]

New Jersey[edit]

North Carolina[edit]

Oklahoma[edit]

*School districts in Oklahoma could have held a runoff election on April 3, 2018, if no candidate won a majority of the vote in the general election.

South Carolina[edit]

Tennessee[edit]

Texas[edit]

Utah[edit]

Virginia[edit]

Wisconsin[edit]

A total of 49 Wisconsin school districts among America's school districts held elections in 2018 for 127 seats. Primary elections were held on February 20, 2018, in three districts where more than two candidates filed for each available seat. General elections were scheduled on April 3, 2018.

Here are two quick facts about Wisconsin's school board elections in 2018:

• The largest Wisconsin school district by enrollment with an election in 2018 was the Madison Metropolitan School District with 27,112 K-12 students in the 2015-2016 school year.
• The smallest Wisconsin school district within Ballotpedia's coverage with an election in 2018 was the DeForest Area School District with 3,634 K-12 students in the 2015-2016 school year.

The districts listed below served 373,576 K-12 students during the 2015-2016 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.^[10] Click on the district names for more information on each one and its school board elections.

Footnotes[edit]

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