Hall Pass: Your Ticket to Understanding School Board Politics, Edition #133

By

Ballotpedia staff

Welcome to Hall Pass, a newsletter written to keep you plugged into the conversations driving  school board governance, the politics surrounding it, and education policy. 

Happy Halloween Eve!🎃 This is the final issue of Hall Pass before the Nov. 5 elections. On Nov. 6, instead of Hall Pass, you will receive one edition of our daily politics newsletter, the Daily Brew, which will be brimful of the most important election results up and down the ballot. Hall Pass will return to your inboxes on Nov. 13. Happy trick-or-treating—and happy voting!

In today’s edition, you’ll find:

  • On the issues: The debate over Florida Amendment 1
  • School board filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications
  • A look at school board elections in Los Angeles and Tift County, Georgia
  • Extracurricular: education news and numbers from around the web
  • Candidate Connection survey

Reply to this email to share reactions or story ideas!

On the issues: The debate over Florida Amendment 1

In this section, we curate reporting, analysis, and commentary on the issues school board members deliberate when they set out to offer the best education possible in their district. Missed an issue? Click here to see the previous education debates we’ve covered.

Florida is one of 41 states where school board candidates run in nonpartisan races. That could change come Nov. 5, when Florida voters will decide on Amendment 1. The amendment would make school board elections partisan beginning in 2026. Florida school board candidates ran in partisan elections until 1998, when voters approved Amendment 11 64-36%.  

We did a deep-dive into Amendment 1 earlier this year in this newsletter. 

Florida state Rep. Spencer Roach (R) writes that partisan school board elections give voters more information on candidates’ beliefs. Roach says all candidates have ideologies and political affiliations, and nonpartisan elections allow them to hide their beliefs from voters. He says there are major differences between party school board platforms.

The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board writes that school boards are already too divided, and making elections partisan will stop board members from cooperating to solve practical problems facing districts. The board says partisan campaign financing could also create conflicts of interest between the preferences of political donors and parents and educators. 

Florida Amendment 1 would implement partisan elections for district school boards | Florida state Rep. Spencer Roach, Reason Foundation

“I simply think as policymakers, we have an obligation to provide voters with as much information as possible about candidates to include party affiliation, and let the voters make their decisions based on that information. So I don’t think you should ever be allowed to use the power of the law to hide your ideology or to hide your affiliations, whether it’s with a political party or otherwise. I think it’s really a legal fiction that these races are nonpartisan, the candidates are nonpartisan actors. And I think there are real differences in the party platform. So I think that every race, including judicial races, should be partisan.”

Endorsements: Vote ‘no’ on partisan school boards races and public right to hunt and fish | The Editorial Board, Palm Beach Post

“But the last thing Florida’s 67 school boards need is an extra dose of partisanship, which left unchecked could wreak havoc in both school board campaigns and educational policies. … Florida’s public schools have enough challenges. Whether it’s aging infrastructure, declining enrollment, underpaid staff or undue state interference, the pressure on local school board members is intense and is growing. Political hacks hostile to public education need not apply. Partisan politics, including campaign contributions from corporations and political action committees that may be more interested in contracts and educational policies, fly in the face of what most parents, students and educators see as necessary for quality schools.”

School board update: filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications

This year, Ballotpedia will cover elections for over 11,000 school board seats across more than 30 states. We’re expanding our coverage each year with our eye on the country’s more 80,000 school board seats.  

Upcoming school board elections

We are bringing you previews of our Nov. 5 school board battleground elections—the ones we expect to have a meaningful effect on the balance of power or to be particularly competitive or compelling. Last week, we dove into the elections for Chicago Public Schools Board of Education. Today, we’re highlighting school board elections in Los Angeles, California, and Tift County, Ga. Overall on Nov. 5, we will cover more than 5,000 school board elections in 28 states. 

Los Angeles Unified School District

Six candidates are running in nonpartisan races to represent Districts 1, 3, and 5 on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) school board. The candidates advanced from the March 5 primaries because no candidate in their respective race won a majority of the vote. Incumbent Tanya Ortiz Franklin won her primary for District 7 outright with 55.9% of the vote.

LAUSD is the second-largest district in the country, with a more than 400,000 students. The district has faced declining enrollment since the early 2000s, when over 700,000 students attended its schools. 

Of the three races, candidates and PACs in District 3 have raised and spent the most money. Incumbent Scott Schmerelson, who was first elected in 2015, and Dan Chang are running. Schmerelson received 44.5% in the six-candidate primary, while Chang received 29%. Both candidates completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey.

Schmerelson worked in different positions in the LAUSD before joining the board, including as a teacher and a principal. Chang works as a mathematics teacher in a LAUSD middle school. He has also founded and ran education nonprofits and charter schools.

According to The 74‘s Ben Chapman, “With the teachers’ union struggling to defend its 4-3 majority on the board, Chang and Schmerelson’s race will decide whether the board tips in favor of charters and school reforms, versus more orthodox approaches to improving schools favored by the union.”

United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the local teachers union, endorsed Schmerelson. The California Charter Schools Association Advocates (CCSA) endorsed Chang. 

Debate over the role of charter schools in the school system has been a fixture in LAUSD school board elections. In 2017, in what remains the country’s most expensive school board election, candidates backed by charter school advocacy organizations won a majority on the board. UTLA-backed candidates regained a majority in 2022. According to information on the Los Angeles Unified School District’s website, more than 150,000 students attended 272 charter schools in 2024.

In February 2024, the LAUSD board voted 4-3 to limit charter schools from sharing space on district campuses targeted for academic improvement or that serve special needs and disadvantaged students through programs like the Black Student Achievement Program. As a result of Proposition 39, which voters approved 53-46% in 2000, districts in California must share public school facilities with charter schools.

Chang said that he would support repealing the policy. He also said that charters “are pioneering innovative educational practices. They are highly accountable, well-regulated and an integral part of L.A.’s public school system.” Schmerelson, who voted for the policy, said, “I do not believe the district’s tightened policies on sharing campuses with charter schools will be too restrictive for charters. I have long been a proponent of high-quality charter programs, but the board’s job is not to favor these privately managed programs over our district school programs.”

The candidates have agreed on several other issues that have divided the district, including on safety and the presence of police in schools. 

In his Candidate Connection survey, Schmerelson said, “School Safety is of paramount importance. I’m endorsed by School Police, School Nurses, and Los Angeles Police Officers.” In his survey responses Chang said improving “Student Safety and Well-Being” was a top priority. 

While the use of police officers in schools was a topic of national debate in 2020, the LAUSD voted 4-3 to cut $25 million from the district’s school police budget and reallocate that funding to the Black Student Achievement Plan. Schmerelson opposed the cuts. Chang said, “We need to have school police available for schools. We should bring back the budget, and we should have more school police protocols.”

Policing and safety have been central issues in the District 5 race between Graciela Ortiz and Karla Griego. Griego, whom the UTLA endorsed, said she opposed allowing police on campuses in non-emergency situations. Ortiz says she favors allowing individual schools to decide the level of policing on campus. The Los Angeles School Police Officers Association and the Los Angeles School Police Management Association both endorsed Ortiz. 

 Click here to learn more about the issues and candidates in all three districts. 

Tift County School System

Incumbent Marilyn Burks (D) and Ambrose King Jr. (D) are running in the Nov. 5 special election for Tift County School Board District 1. This is a rematch of the May 21 Democratic primary, in which Burks received 156 votes to King’s 154.

Three seats on the Tift County School Board were up for election this year. Republican primaries in Districts 3 and 7 were uncontested. The Democratic primary for District 1 was the only contested election.

Republicans hold a 5-2 majority on the board. Georgia is one of five states where the law allows candidates to run in partisan or nonpartisan school board elections.

Following the May 21 primary, King asked the county for an official recount. The county declined King’s request, so he filed a petition in court contesting the results, citing voting irregularities. King worked to investigate what he viewed as irregularities with True the Vote, an organization that says its mission is to “rebuild the trust that has been lost in our electoral system, which is fundamental to empowering all citizens and securing the foundation of our republic.” 

On Aug. 30, Tift County Superior Court Judge Howard McClain ruled “…that Casey’s Court Apartments was inadvertently and incorrectly designated in District 6, when it should have properly been designated in District 1, which thereby resulted in at least six voters receiving an irregular ballot.”

A new election was scheduled for Nov. 5.

Here’s a little about the candidates:

  • Burks is a retired English teacher who first joined the Tift County School Board in 2017. In an interview, Burks said, “I am running for re-election because I believe in the potential of every student who walks through our doors. I believe in the power of education to transform lives, build stronger communities, and create a brighter future for all of us. ” Burks said some of her priorities are improving student literacy, improving teachers’ and employees’ salaries and benefits, and addressing diversity and equity needs for all students.
  • King is a political strategist and campaign fundraiser, high school teacher, and lacrosse coach. King said he believes “students with disabilities deserves a graduation with their peers rather than a separate one (as of 2024 Tift County has engaged in a graduation for students with disabilities separate from the graduation ceremony with pomp and circumstance seen/streamed online).” He also said he believes “school systems do not have the right to display books on the shelves of primary, elementary, and middle school libraries that are considered ‘objective sensitive material’ about sexuality, lgbtq, sexual stimulation, etc.”

This year, Ballotpedia is covering all school board elections in Georgia. Click here to read our previous coverage of the upcoming election for Cobb County School District school board. 

Extracurricular: education news from around the web

This section contains links to recent education-related articles from around the internet. If you know of a story we should be reading, reply to this email to share it with us! 

Take our Candidate Connection survey to reach voters in your district

As we approach Election Day, we’re featuring responses from school board races in which all candidates have completed our Candidate Connection survey. We’ve previously shared responses from candidates running in general elections for Granite School District Precinct II, in Utah, and Poway Unified Board of Education Trustee Area A, in California. Other races that have recently had all candidates complete the survey include Canyons School District District 3, in Utah, and Alexandria Public Schools Position 7, in Virginia. Click here to listen to our roundtable podcast episode on the Candidate Connection survey, how it was developed, and a few of our favorite questions.

Today, we’re looking at survey responses from Robert Alvero and James Hughes, who are running in the Nov. 5 general election for Clay County District Schools school board District 2, in Florida. 

Clay County District Schools is located in the northeast corner of Florida. In Florida, each county is a school district. Clay County District schools enroll an estimated 39,200 students, making it the 23rd largest district in the state. 

Here’s an excerpt from Hughes’ answer to the question, “What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?”

  • “Clay County schools need to continue to prepare each of our students for graduation, whether that be preparation for college, enlistment in the military services, or to enter the job field with training and education via trade or career learning tracts. We must make sure that as students graduate from Clay County schools, they are prepared to be viable assets to our community.

Click here to read the rest of Hughes’ responses. 

Here’s how Alvero answered the question, “What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?”

  • “I will fight for our children well being and mental health, I will fight against indoctrination and sexualization of our children, have lived in Cuba for 26 years I experienced firsthand the methods of the communist regime to indoctrinate the children with communist Marxist ideas and I believe that is happening in this country too, I am committed to stop it.

Click here to read the rest of Alvero’s responses. 

If you’re a school board candidate or incumbent, click here to take the survey. If you’re not running for school board, but there is an election in your community this year, share the link with the candidates and urge them to take the survey!