Hall Pass: Your Ticket to Understanding School Board Politics, Edition #151

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. 

In today’s edition, you’ll find:

  • On the issues: The debate over summer vacation 
  • School board filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications
  • Ballotpedia launches new rural school choice portal 
  • Extracurricular: education news and numbers from around the web
  • Candidate Connection survey
  • School board candidates per seat up for election

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On the issues: The debate over summer vacation

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.

Should schools move away from the traditional calendar in favor of year-round models with shorter breaks and more instructional days?

What are the arguments?

Richard Boyum writes that public schools should implement year-round school schedules with more days and short breaks. He says it would prevent learning loss, help retain teachers, avoid wasting vacant school space, and reduce the need for working parents to find other childcare arrangements. 

Rick Hess writes schools shouldn’t replace the traditional summer break with a year-round schedule. Hess says the current calendar works well for many families and that kids shouldn’t be forced into classrooms during summer. He says optional summer programs would provide flexibility without mandating year-round attendance.

Read on

An argument for year-round schools | Richard Boyum, Mountain Xpress

“For numerous reasons, this is a model that should be followed by public schools in the United States. First and foremost is the increased quality and quantity of learning that would take place among American students. Second, because most public school students have working parents, it reduces the amount of time that parents need to find alternative supervision for their children. Third, the physical facilities, primarily in the form of classrooms, would be better utilized, as opposed to long periods of dormancy. Fourth, it would make the teaching profession a 12-month rather than a nine-month job and therefore significantly increase the remuneration rate for educators. … Our local public schools in Asheville and Buncombe County need to be at the front of the pack when it comes to best practices. Providing a new model of year-round schooling with more days of education and shorter breaks is a good place to start.”

Don’t Bewail Summer Vacation for Students, Rethink It | Rick Hess, EducationWeek

“As I suggest in The Great School Rethink, our approach should be to rethink summer in response to those diverse needs—rather than to swap out our current one-size-fits-all model for a new one. Summer vacations work well for many families, especially those with adequate child care, in which the parents have flexible jobs, or those of means. These families may find much value in a summer break that allows for camps, travel, and family time. And that’s a good thing. Attacks on summer vacation which dismiss that fact are misguided and tone-deaf. But there are also many families for whom the traditional summer is a poor fit, especially that lack resources or child care, have no parent at home during the day, or live in chaotic or unsafe neighborhoods. For these families, summer can be a time when kids are adrift, vulnerable, and restless. … But none of this should serve as an excuse to box a single child up for additional weeks of uninspired schoolwork. No one should imagine that locking kids in chaotic classrooms or lifeless schools during bright summer days is doing them any favors.”

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

In 2025, Ballotpedia will cover elections for more than 30,000 school board seats. We’re expanding our coverage each year with our eye on covering the country’s more than 80,000 school board seats.    

Upcoming school board elections

Click here for more information on upcoming elections in your state.

Newark Public Schools

Eleven candidates are running in the nonpartisan general election for three at-large seats on the Newark Public Schools school board on April 15, 2025. The three candidates who receive the most votes will serve three-year terms on the board. Only one incumbent, Kanileah Anderson, is running for re-election. 

This election will be the first since January 2024, when the Newark City Council voted to lower the voting age for local school board elections. According to NJ Spotlight News’ Hannah Gross, “All 16- and 17-year-olds who live in the city and who are U.S. citizens are eligible to vote, including hundreds who attend charter schools and private schools. Students who attend school in Newark but do not live in the city are not eligible.”

Chalkbeat Newark’s Jessie Gómez wrote that the move to lower the voting age came after Newark leaders had “raised concerns about voter turnout in the annual school board election that has historically seen around 3% to 4% of registered voters participating.” In 2023, 3.1% of the city’s 195,000 registered voters cast ballots in that year’s election. Each of the three winners won with fewer than 3,500 votes. As of March 21, 2025, 1,166 teenagers registered to vote in the election. Of those voters, 473 will be 16 years old by Election Day, and 693 will be 17.

Among the 11 candidates running in the election, there are two slates of three-candidates each.

Incumbent Kanileah Anderson, Louis Maisonave Jr., and David Daughety are running on the “Moving Newark Schools Forward” slate. This election is the first in which Maisonave and Daughety are running for the board. As of April 2, 2025, all nine current board members ran on the “Moving Newark Schools Forward” slate during their respective elections. Chalkbeat Newark wrote that the “slate garners support from state and local politicians, including Mayor Ras Baraka and state Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz, every year.”

Ade’Kamil Kelly, Shana Melius, and Nathanael Barthelemy are running on the “Prioritizing Newark’s Children” slate. Kelly previously ran for the board in 2023, while Melius and Barthelemy are running for the first time. 

The five candidates running independently are Elaine Asyah Aquil, DeWayne Bush, Latoya Jackson, Yolanda Johnson, and Jordy Nivar. Jackson and Johnson previously ran for the board, while Aquil, Bush, and Nivar are running for the first time.

Newark Public Schools is located in Essex County, New Jersey, and is the state’s largest school district with 63 schools and 41,672 students during the 2022-2023 school year. In December 2024, the ratings agency S&P Global Ratings raised the district’s bond rating from BBB+ to A-. In March 2025, the district’s board approved a $1.57 billion budget for the 2025-206 school year, up from $1.51 billion this year. 

Election results

Wrightstown Community School District

Ballotpedia covered all school board elections in Wisconsin on April 1. Here are the results of an election we covered in Hall Pass on March 19. 

Jonathan Curtis and incumbent Melinda Lemke defeated Amber Cox and incumbent Jeff Nelson for two seats on the seven-member Wrightstown Community School District Board of Education.

Election recap: Lemke received 28.7% of the vote, Curtis received 25.4%, Cox received 23.3%, and Nelson received 22.7%.

  • Curtis and Lemke ran a joint campaign with the slogan “TLC for WCSD,” meaning “Together for strong schools Lemke Curtis.” 
  • All four candidates were on the same ballot, and the two who received the most votes won.

Context: The school board race happened against the backdrop of a recall campaign against school board president Angela Hansen-Winker. School board member Rayn Warner filed the petition, which alleged that Hansen-Winker misused the board’s legal counsel and investigated former superintendent Andy Space without board approval.

  • Curtis and Lemke supported the recall against Hansen-Winker.

The winners: 

  • Curtis has worked in education for 25 years. He said, “The board needs a calm, steady voice to bridge viewpoints within the board while keeping what’s best for kids top of mind. I can look at the bigger picture and find real solutions.”
  • Lemke has worked in education for 25 years. Lemke said, “The top two issues that need to be addressed in the district are maintaining a focus on continuous improvement and finding ways to serve all students in order for them to reach their greatest potential.”

Go deeper: Ballotpedia covered all April 1 school board elections in Wisconsin—1,231 candidates running in 547 races. 

In the April 1 elections, 64% of school board races were uncontested.

Ballotpedia launches new portal on school choice in rural districts

Rural districts have been a focal point in the debate over the effects and politics of private school choice policies. Those policies provide taxpayer funding to families for private educational expenses, such as private school tuition or homeschooling textbooks. Since 2022, at least 15 states have adopted or expanded private school choice programs—many with universal or nearly universal eligibility. Click here to learn more about the basics of school choice.

Debates over how private school choice programs affect rural districts can be complex. To help cut through the noise, Ballotpedia just launched its new resource portal on the effect of school choice on rural school districts and communities. Whether you’re interested in state-by-state comparisons of school choice programs, in-depth data on school choice in rural districts, or the arguments for and against school choice, the portal can help you learn about and explore the topic. 

Key features of the portal include:

  • State-by-state comparisons of school choice programs
  • Data on school choice in rural districts, such as which states have it, legislative support and opposition across different states, and public opinion polling on universal school choice
  • Insights into universal and limited private school choice programs across the U.S. 
  • Research on how school choice affects rural schools
  • Arguments and perspectives from various stakeholders
  • Policy proposals and reform details
  • Real-life stories and case studies 

Let’s take a look at one aspect of the portal—an analysis of legislators representing rural school districts.

Rural legislators and school choice

Although states with Republican trifectas are the most likely to have school choice programs in place, some of the most high-profile legislative conflicts over such policies have occurred among Republican lawmakers. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), for example, has advocated for bringing school choice programs to the Lonestar State, but he’s faced opposition in previous years from Republican lawmakers representing rural districts. 

In 2023, 21 Texas Republican House members voted with Democrats to defeat a bill that would have implemented an Education Savings Account (ESA) program. In response, Abbott endorsed all the House members who voted for the ESA program and sought re-election. Abbott later backed 11 candidates running against House members who opposed the measure. Of the 16 incumbent lawmakers who voted against the school choice measure and ran for re-election, nine lost in the primaries or runoffs. Abbott endorsed the challenger who won in seven of those races. 

Following the 2024 primaries, Abbott said, “The Texas Legislature now has enough votes to pass school choice.” As of this writing, the Texas House is poised to vote for the first time in a regular session on a universal school choice bill. 

Similar dynamics played out within the Republican Party in 2024 primaries in Tennessee and Idaho.

Here’s what the portal shows us with respect to state lawmakers who represent districts with rural schools.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Census, 45% of school districts across the U.S. are classified as rural. These school districts are represented by legislators from 2,945 different legislative districts

  • Most of those legislative districts (1,936, 66%) were in states that did not have universal school choice.
  • 783 of those legislative districts were in Republican trifecta states without universal school choice.
  • 631 of those legislative districts were in Democratic trifecta states without universal school choice.
  • 589 of those legislative districts were in divided government states without universal school choice.

In states with a Republican trifecta and universal school choice, 53% of school districts, on average, were rural. Republican trifecta states without universal school choice had a higher proportion of rural districts at 64% on average.

Click here to access the rural school choice portal and learn more. 

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

Today, we’re looking at survey responses from two Texas school board candidates. 

J. Steven Smelley and David E. Lopez are running in the May 3 general election for Position 6 on the Spring Branch Independent School District. Walker Agnew Jr. is also running, though he had not completed the survey at the time of this writing. 

The Spring Branch Independent School District is located northwest of Houston. It enrolls roughly 33,600 students, making it the 37th-largest district in Texas.  

Ballotpedia is covering all school board elections in Texas on May 3. 

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

  • “Need balance in the classroom with Analog learning and Digital Learning
  • Board of Trustees needs senior leadership in times of financial crisis and work for the taxpayers
  • Huge need for students to have the curriculum focused on fundamental teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic.”

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

Here’s how Lopez answered the question, “What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?”

  • “I am passionate about public policy that strengthens our education system, prioritizes teacher retention, and fosters school-community partnerships. I believe in investing in policies that support the well-being of students, including mental health services and extracurricular programs. Additionally, I advocate for inclusive practices that ensure every student has access to the resources and opportunities they need to succeed. My goal is to contribute to policies that create supportive, innovative, and equitable learning environments, preparing students for success in school and life.”

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

Everyone deserves to know their candidates. However, we know it can be hard for voters to find information about their candidates, especially for local offices such as school boards. That’s why we created Candidate Connection — a survey designed to help candidates tell voters about their campaigns, their issues, and so much more. 

In the 2024 election cycle, 6,539 candidates completed the survey, including more than 500 school board candidates. 

If you’re a school board candidate or incumbent, click here to take the survey.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed the winners of the Wrightstown Community School District election. The error has been corrected.