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Clayton County Public Schools Elections
Primary election date:
May 24, 2016
General election date:
November 8, 2016
Enrollment (13–14):
52,296 students
Five of the nine seats on the Clayton County Board of Education were up for general election on November 8, 2016. A primary election was held on May 24, 2016. District 5 incumbent Ophelia Burroughs defeated Christina Cummings and Deatrice Haney in the Democratic primary. District 6 incumbent Mary Baker advanced past Democratic primary opponents Cephus Jackson, Germaine Duncan, and Tom Huynh. District 7 incumbent Judy Johnson won the Democratic nomination against Sabrina Hill, C. Synamon Baldwin, and James Bishop. Burroughs, Baker, Johnson, District 2 incumbent Mark Christmas (D), and District 3 incumbent Jessie Goree (D) won without opposition in the general election.[1]

In September 2016, Clayton County's school board joined other Georgia school districts in opposing a state constitutional amendment dealing with state oversight of failing schools. Learn more about the amendment and school board responses to the amendment here.

Contents

Elections[edit]

Voter and candidate information[edit]

The candidate filing period for Georgia school board candidates lasted from March 7, 2016, to March 11, 2016. Prospective candidates for partisan office submitted declarations of candidacy with their county parties. The voter registration deadline for the primary election was April 26, 2016. County residents were able to register to vote in the general election through October 11, 2016.[2]

The following dates were key deadlines for Georgia's partisan school board elections in 2016:[3]

Deadline Event
March 7, 2016 First day of candidate filing period
March 11, 2016 Candidate filing deadline
April 26, 2016 Voter registration deadline for primary election
May 24, 2016 Primary election
July 26, 2016 Primary runoff election (if necessary)
October 11, 2016 Voter registration deadline for general election
November 8, 2016 General election

Candidates and results[edit]

District 2[edit]

Results[edit]

Clayton County Public Schools,
District 2 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Mark Christmas Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 9,957
Total Votes 9,957
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Election November 8, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016
Clayton County Public Schools,
District 2 Democratic Primary Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Mark Christmas Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 2,050
Total Votes 2,050
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election May 24, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016

Candidates[edit]

Mark Christmas Democratic Party Green check mark transparent.png

Placeholder image.png

  • Incumbent

District 3[edit]

Results[edit]

Clayton County Public Schools,
District 3 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Jessie Goree Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 9,630
Total Votes 9,630
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Election November 8, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016
Clayton County Public Schools,
District 3 Democratic Primary Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Jessie Goree Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 2,163
Total Votes 2,163
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election May 24, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016

Candidates[edit]

Jessie Goree Democratic Party Green check mark transparent.png

Placeholder image.png

  • Incumbent

District 5[edit]

Results[edit]

Clayton County Public Schools,
District 5 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Ophelia Burroughs Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 9,130
Total Votes 9,130
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Election November 8, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016
Clayton County Public Schools,
District 5 Democratic Primary Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Ophelia Burroughs Incumbent 53.63% 1,094
Christina Cummings 25.39% 518
Deatrice Haney 20.98% 428
Total Votes 2,040
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election May 24, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016

Candidates[edit]

Ophelia Burroughs Democratic Party Green check mark transparent.png

Placeholder image.png

  • Incumbent

Defeated in the primary[edit]

Christina Cummings Democratic Party Deatrice Haney Democratic Party

Placeholder image.png

Placeholder image.png

District 6[edit]

Results[edit]

Clayton County Public Schools,
District 6 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Mary Baker Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 10,994
Total Votes 10,994
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Election November 8, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016
Clayton County Public Schools,
District 6 Democratic Primary Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Mary Baker Incumbent 67.66% 2,326
Cephus Jackson 17.89% 615
Germaine Duncan 7.24% 249
Tom Huynh 7.21% 248
Total Votes 3,438
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election May 24, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016

Candidates[edit]

Mary Baker Democratic Party Green check mark transparent.png

Placeholder image.png

  • Incumbent

Defeated in the primary[edit]

Cephus Jackson Democratic Party Germaine Duncan Democratic Party Tom Huynh Democratic Party

Placeholder image.png

Placeholder image.png

Placeholder image.png

District 7[edit]

Results[edit]

Clayton County Public Schools,
District 7 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Judy Johnson Incumbent (unopposed) 100.00% 6,021
Total Votes 6,021
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Election November 8, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016
Clayton County Public Schools,
District 7 Democratic Primary Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Judy Johnson Incumbent 50.44% 514
Sabrina Hill 20.41% 208
C. Synamon Baldwin 15.21% 155
James Bishop 13.94% 142
Total Votes 1,019
Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election May 24, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016

Candidates[edit]

Judy Johnson Democratic Party Green check mark transparent.png

Placeholder image.png

  • Incumbent

Defeated in the primary[edit]

Sabrina Hill Democratic Party C. Synamon Baldwin Democratic Party James Bishop Democratic Party

Placeholder image.png

Placeholder image.png

Placeholder image.png

Additional elections on the ballot[edit]

See also: Georgia elections, 2016

Georgia's general election ballot featured races for U.S. president, U.S. House and U.S. Senate. This ballot included races for the Georgia State Senate, Georgia House of Representatives, state courts, and county courts.

The May 24 school board election shared the ballot with Georgia's statewide primary. This primary included races for Georgia State Senate, Georgia House of Representatives, and local court seats. Primaries for U.S. House and U.S. Senate seats were on the ballot.

Endorsements[edit]

Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at elections@ballotpedia.org.

Past elections[edit]

What was at stake?[edit]

School board opposition to Amendment 1[edit]

School boards throughout Georgia passed resolutions opposing a state constitutional amendment that would have changed how failing schools are governed in the state. Amendment 1, which was up for a yes/no vote on November 8, 2016, would have allowed the state to create an Opportunity School District (OSD) to govern schools given a rating of chronically failing. If approved, the OSD would have been run by a governor-appointed superintendent with the power to directly manage districts, share governance with school boards, or change schools into charter schools. Gov. Nathan Deal (R) and StudentsFirst Georgia supported the measure, while the Georgia Association of Educators and the Georgia Parent-Teacher Association opposed Amendment 1. The measure was defeated on November 8, 2016.

A "yes" vote supported authorizing the state to form an Opportunity School District that would govern certain elementary and secondary schools determined to be "chronically failing."[4]
A "no" vote opposed authorizing the state to form an Opportunity School District that would govern certain elementary and secondary schools determined to be "chronically failing," thereby continuing to have school boards/districts supervise respective schools.[4]

Board members expressed concerns about state intervention in school administration after approving resolutions of opposition. "All this does is take authority away from, not just local school systems, but from local taxpayers and parents," said Barrow County board member Lynn Stevens (R).[5] Cherokee County board chair Kyla Cromer (R) said, "The big part of this in my mind is that as a member of this school board our job is to protect the children of Cherokee County, and I see no benefit in this to them."[6] "Why doesn’t the state give local boards the finances to be able to do the things that they’re saying they can do?" said Newton County board member Almond Turner (D).[6] Richmond County board president Helen Minchew expressed concern about allowing the state to take control over local schools, saying "we have a way of communicating, we visit our schools, we stay in touch, and it's the essence of local control."[7]

The following table lists basic information on resolutions of opposition approved by school boards with November 2016 elections covered by Ballotpedia:

District Resolution date Vote
Barrow County September 13, 2016 7-1[8]
Cherokee County September 1, 2016 7-0[9]
Clayton County September 6, 2016 9-0[10]
Dougherty County September 28, 2016 7-0[11]
Fayette County August 19, 2016 5-0[12]
Newton County June 21, 2016 5-0[13]
Richmond County August 18, 2016 9-0[7]

Proponents of the amendment argued that new solutions were needed for the district's low-performing schools. According to Georgia Leads on Education, 127 Georgia schools were considered to be failing by the Governor's Office of Student Achievement in September 2016. Schools are marked as failing if they received a College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) score that was below 60 in 2013, 2014, and 2015. The state had 181 school districts with over 2,200 schools in the September 2016 report. Dougherty County School System (4) and Richmond County School System (19) were two districts with November 2016 elections that had schools on the list and opposed the amendment. Below is a table showing the official failing schools and their respective districts from September 2016:[14][15][16]

Candidate survey[edit]

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Click here to view or fill out the survey.

About the district[edit]

See also: Clayton County Public Schools, Georgia
Clayton County Public Schools is located in Clayton County, Georgia
Clayton County Public Schools is located in Clayton County, Georgia. The county seat of Clayton County is Jonesboro. Clayton County was home to 259,424 residents in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau.[17] The district was the fifth-largest school district in the state in the 2013–2014 school year and served 52,296 students.[18]

Demographics[edit]

Clayton County underperformed in comparison to the state of Georgia in terms of higher education achievement and median household income in 2012. The United States Census Bureau found that 17.5 percent of Clayton County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 27.8 percent for Georgia as a whole. The median household income in Clayton County was $42,569, compared to $49,604 for the state of Georgia. The poverty rate in Clayton County was 21.5 percent, compared to 17.4 percent for the entire state.[17]

Racial Demographics, 2013[17]
Race Clayton County (%) Georgia (%)
White 25.1 62.8
Black or African American 67.0 31.2
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.6 0.5
Asian 5.1 3.5
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.1 0.1
Two or More Races 2.1 1.8
Hispanic or Latino 13.4 9.2

Presidential Voting Pattern, Clayton County[19]
Year Democratic Vote (%) Republican Vote (%) Other Vote (%)
2012 84.8 14.7 0.5
2008 83.0 16.6 0.4
2004 70.5 29.0 0.5
2000 65.4 32.6 2.0

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Recent news[edit]

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Clayton County Public Schools' 'Georgia'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Clayton County Public Schools elections (2016) - Google News

See also[edit]

Clayton County Public Schools Georgia School Boards
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Seal of Georgia.png
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External links[edit]

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 		Suggest a link

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "Qualifying Candidate Information," accessed April 18, 2016
  2. ↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "2016 Qualifying: Reference Calendar & Documents," accessed March 11, 2016
  3. ↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "2016 Elections and Voter Registration Calendar," accessed March 11, 2016
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Open States, "Senate Resolution 287," accessed April 11, 2016
  5. ↑ Barrow Journal, "BOE joins OSD opposition," September 14, 2016
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Columbia County News-Times, "School boards speak out against OSD amendment," September 18, 2016
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 WorldNow, "Richmond County School Board members call for defeat of "Opportunity School District" bill," August 23, 2016
  8. ↑ Barrow County School System, "Called Board Meeting 9/13/2016 - 6:00 PM," September 13, 2016
  9. ↑ Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Cherokee County Board moves to oppose Deal’s Opportunity Schools," September 26, 2016
  10. ↑ Clayton County Public Schools, "Board Meeting-Tuesday, September 6, 2016," September 6, 2016
  11. ↑ NBC 12, "Dougherty Co. School Board openly opposes OSD," September 28, 2016
  12. ↑ Griffin Journal, "Fayette County opposes schools amendment," August 19, 2016
  13. ↑ Newton County Schools, "Newton Board of Education Adopts Resolution Opposing Governor’s Opportunity School District," June 23, 2016
  14. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named List
  15. ↑ Georgia Department of Education, "Schools and Districts," accessed September 29, 2016
  16. ↑ Georgia Department of Education, "College and Career Ready Performance Index," accessed September 29, 2016
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 United States Census Bureau, "Clayton County, Georgia," accessed May 14, 2014
  18. ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed November 16, 2015
  19. ↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "Current and Past Election Results," accessed July 1, 2014
2016 Clayton County Public Schools Elections
Clayton County, Georgia
Election date:November 8, 2016
Candidates:District 2: Incumbent, Mark Christmas (D)

District 3: Incumbent, Jessie Goree (D)
District 5: Incumbent, Ophelia Burroughs (D) • Christina Cummings (D) • Deatrice Haney (D)
District 6: Incumbent, Mary Baker (D) • Cephus Jackson (D) • Germaine Duncan (D) • Tom Huynh (D)

District 7: Incumbent, Judy Johnson (D) • Sabrina Hill (D) • C. Synamon Baldwin (D) • James Bishop (D)
Important information:What was at stake?
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