School Boards

Read more about the local officials who work with the district superintendent to run their school district
092026 BIG IDEAS Building bridges
Vanessa Solis/Education Week + Getty
School & District Management From Our Research Center Misinformation Drives Communities Apart. Here’s How School Boards Are Responding
Both national and local issues can force leaders to confront challenges within their districts.
Caitlynn Peetz Stephens & Vanessa Solis, September 8, 2026
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4 min read
big ideas jones
School & District Management Opinion The Question That Guided This School District Through an Impossible Decision
Declining enrollment reshaped her district. This school board member has lessons for other leaders.
Chelsey Jones, September 8, 2026
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5 min read
big ideas qual v3
School & District Management Opinion For This School Board President, Leadership Starts With Humility
Amid a big transition, active communication helped this leader hold the community together.
Mark Qual, September 8, 2026
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4 min read
Members of the school board sit on stage in the school auditorium to respond to questions from residents during the annual Town Meeting, on March 5, 2024, in Stowe, Vt. Town Meeting is a tradition that, in Vermont, dates back more than 250 years, to before the founding of the republic. But it is under threat. Many people feel they no longer have the time or ability to attend such meetings. Last year, residents of neighboring Morristown voted to switch to a secret ballot system, ending their town meeting tradition.
Members of the school board sit on stage in the school auditorium to respond to questions from residents during the annual Town Meeting, on March 5, 2024, in Stowe, Vt. A new survey suggests that political conflict that rose during the pandemic has remained relatively high for many school boards across the country.
Robert F. Bukaty/AP
School & District Management How School Board Members Really Feel About Political Conflict
Political tensions remain high for many school boards across the country, new survey data show.
Evie Blad, June 25, 2026
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3 min read
Seminole County, Fla., deputies remove parent Chris Mink of Apopka from an emergency meeting of the Seminole County School Board in Sanford, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021. Mink, the parent of a Bear Lake Elementary School student, opposes a call for mask mandates for Seminole schools and was escorted out for shouting during the standing-room only meeting.
Seminole County, Fla., deputies remove parent Chris Mink of Apopka from an emergency meeting of the county school board in Sanford, Fla., Sept. 2, 2021, after he opposed a call for mask mandates and shouted. A new report gives a national picture of how school board conflict, including between boards and their communities, rose during the pandemic.
Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP
School & District Management School Board Conflict Surged During the Pandemic. Has It Gone Away?
New research reveals how school boards navigated heightened levels of conflict in recent years.
Evie Blad, June 8, 2026
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5 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week
School & District Management Opinion Have Politics Hijacked Education Policy?
School boards should be held more accountable to student learning, says this scholar.
Rick Hess, December 2, 2025
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8 min read
Democrat Jay Jones speaks on stage at an election night watch party for Democrat Abigail Spanberger after Jones was declared the winner of the Virginia attorney general's race Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Richmond, Va.
Democrat Jay Jones speaks on stage after he was declared the winner of the Virginia attorney general's race Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Richmond, Va. As attorney general, Jones could join multistate coalitions of Democratic state attorneys general suing the Trump administration over its education policies.
AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough
States 4 Education-Related Takeaways From This Week's Elections
How results from Tuesday could affect K-12 schools, and the trajectory of Trump's education policies.
Brooke Schultz, November 5, 2025
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5 min read
Illustration of silhouetted businessman and businesswoman shaking hands as a part of a speech bubble is broken down to suggest better communication
iStock/Getty
School & District Management What Helps—and Hurts—Relationships Between School Boards and Superintendents
Clear roles and frequent communication can strengthen relationships between school boards and superintendents.
Evie Blad, September 8, 2025
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3 min read
A Midland ISD employee walks past the front of Legacy High School on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Midland.
A Midland ISD employee walks past the front of Legacy High School on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Midland, Texas. The district's board voted to restore a Confederate general's name to two of its schools.
Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune
Equity & Diversity Another District Restores a Confederate Name to Its Schools
The district dropped Robert E. Lee's name from two buildings in 2020. The Lee name will be back for the 2026-27 year.
Brooke Schultz, August 13, 2025
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5 min read
Houston ISD's appointed school board votes on the "District of Innovation" status during their monthly work session meeting at HISD Central Office on Sept. 7, 2023 in Houston.
Houston's appointed school board takes a vote during a meeting on Sept. 7, 2023 in the district's central office. A number of studies from recent years have answered questions about school boards' makeup, how competitive board elections are, whether conflict is on the rise, and more.
Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via AP
School & District Management What the Research Says About School Boards: How Much Conflict Really Is There?
Plus, how competitive are board elections? How much do teachers' union endorsements matter?
Caitlynn Peetz Stephens, July 3, 2025
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7 min read
Kimberly Thompson, center, listens as Francis Howell School Board members talk in favor of rescinding all previously passed resolutions, including an anti-racism resolution, during a meeting on July 20, 2023 in O'Fallon, Mo. The Francis Howell School Board on Dec. 21, 2023, voted to drop elective Black history and literature courses at the district's high schools. Researchers found an uptick in conflict in school board meetings since 2020, but determined it was most concentrated in large urban and suburban districts.
Kimberly Thompson, center, listens as the school board of the Francis Howell district speak in favor of rescinding all previously passed resolutions, including an anti-racism resolution, on July 20, 2023, in O'Fallon, Mo. New research confirms an uptick in school board conflict in recent years, which peaked during claims beginning in 2021 that schools were teaching critical race theory.
David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP
School & District Management Are School Board Meetings Really Getting More Heated? What a New Study Says
Researchers analyzed video of 100,000 school board meetings to track conflict in education politics.
Evie Blad, June 30, 2025
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4 min read
A man walks to submit his ballot for the 2021 school board elections at Canyon Lake Senior Center Tuesday morning in Rapid City.
A man walks to submit his ballot for the 2021 school board elections at Canyon Lake Senior Center on June 8, 2021 in Rapid City. New research shows that incumbents in local school board races run for reelection in uncontested races most of the time.
Grace Pritchett/Rapid City Journal via AP
School & District Management Few School Board Races Are Competitive. Here’s Why
Most school board turnover is caused by incumbent members resigning.
Caitlynn Peetz Stephens, June 27, 2025
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3 min read
Eye of the hacker in a keyhole . Spyware, hacking, cybercrime concept. Vector illustration.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Tech Glitch Could Have Exposed Thousands of School Districts' Confidential Files
The incident shows the challenges school districts and education companies face in protecting sensitive data.
Lauraine Langreo, June 18, 2025
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3 min read
Image of a board room.
Collage by Laura Baker/Education Week (Images: DigitalVision Vectors; E+; iStock/Getty)
States In Deep-Red Florida, Voters Reject Partisan School Board Races
Florida voters rejected a constitutional amendment to make school board races partisan.
Evie Blad, November 6, 2024
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2 min read