Running For Election
Running for School Board?
Local school boards are a uniquely American institution and at the heart of this country’s public education system. A board’s existence is based on the belief that lay control of public education makes schools flexible and responsive to the needs of the local community. #KeepEducationLocal
Running For Election
Additional Information
- Pick up or request an information packet from your county superintendent of schools.
- File a political committee statement of organization with your county elections department or county superintendent of schools once you have reached a combined total of $1200.00 in contributions and expenses.
- Collect signatures on your nominating petitions. (You can collect signatures without filing a political committee statement of organization)
- File signatures pages with the county superintendent of schools between the identified candidate filing period.
- Run your campaign.
- Obtain nominating petition forms from the county superintendent of schools.
- Ask the county superintendent how many signatures of qualified electors residing in the school district are required.
- Obtain necessary signatures, being very careful to follow the legal requirements for valid signatures.
- File the petitions no sooner than 150 days nor later than 120 days before the election date. In 2020, those dates are after June 6 and before July 6. (A.R.S. §16-311B)
- After the nomination signatures filing date deadline (July 6), there is a ten-day period for contesting petitions (July 7-July 20). Also, there may be candidates filing as write-in candidates until August 19 (those that do so won’t have their name on the ballot but will be eligible to have any votes for those candidates counted in the general election). If there are less than the number or an equal number of eligible candidates running for the number of seats available after August 19, the county board of supervisors may decide to cancel the election and will issue certificates of election following the election date to all candidates running.
Additional Information
Becoming a Board Member
The Arizona School Boards Association is solely responsible for this advertisement. The Arizona School Boards Association is an association of school districts authorized under Arizona Revised Statutes section 15-342 and a non-profit organization organized under section 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code. The Arizona School Boards Association is non-partisan and seeks to promote public education, local control of education and school board governance. School board members, whose school districts make up the Arizona School Boards Association’s membership, are elected or appointed, non-partisan and serve for no remuneration.
ASBA School Board Service Booklet
Download our School Board Service Booklet.
Request an ASBA Representative
Your organization or community group can learn more about school board service and how to become a board member by requesting an ASBA representative to speak at your event or meeting.