School Board Elections
2025 Ohio Election
General Election: Tuesday, November 4th
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Voter Registration Deadline — October 6, 2025
Military & Overseas Voting — September 19 - November 3
Early In-Person Voting — October 7 - November 2, at local Boards of Elections (BOE)
Absentee Mail-In Voting — October 7 - November 3, postmark ballot by November 4
Absentee Drop-Off Voting — October 7 - November 5, drop off ballot at board of elections by Nov 5, 7:30pm
Election Day — Tuesday, November 4, 2025 -- Polls Open from 6:30am-7:30pm
Why School Board Elections Matter
"Ohio’s public school board members, one of the largest groups of elected officials in the state, are charged with one of the major responsibilities in government—to provide the best educational opportunities possible for the youth of Ohio and to manage and control the political subdivision of the school district." - Ohio School Boards Association
Local boards of education have the awesome responsibility of setting the policies and priorities that determine how a district will function: campus safety, student wellness, curriculum, operating budget, staffing, facilities, transportation, and more.
School boards supervise, hire, and dismiss the superintendent, and serve as a conduit for community sentiment.
School boards help decide how education funding is allocated and spent in the district.
School board members can protect the freedom to learn or censor education and enforce book bans.
School board members can set policies embracing all races, cultures, genders, sexual orientations, and faiths — or policies that harm vulnerable children and marginalized communities.
School board members can set policies that value and support hardworking teachers and staff, or policies that attack, villainize, and drive quality educators away.
Bottom Line — If you care about public education in your community and your state, you need to vote in local school board elections!
Read a recent study highlighting the most controversial issues facing school boards today.
2025 School Board Election Toolkit
There are over 1800 school board seats on the ballot across Ohio this November. Those who win will oversee billions of taxpayer dollars, create policy that will impact millions of students, and serve as the last line of defense against the attacks on public education coming from national and state levels. With our partners at School Board School, Red Wine & Blue Ohio, and the Columbus Education Justice Coalition (CEJC), we’ve developed resources to help you cast your vote this November.
Learn the basics of how school boards operate:
Check out this one-pager about school boards
Video recording from Let's Talk About School Boards event
Slide deck from Let's Talk About School Boards event
Get to know your candidates
Find your candidates with this school board tracking spreadsheet. You can also find your candidates through your county board of elections office.
Research your candidates. Learn how and find additional tips
Connect with your candidates and ask questions
Compare candidates with this candidate organizer and comparison chart
Take Action
Get involved with your school district
Learn how to help candidates you support
Additional Resources
School Board Candidate Guide
How to research school board candidates in 5 easy steps
Candidate Questions
Provided by League of Women Voters Ohio
Honesty for Ohio Education is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and, as such, does not endorse or support candidates in any election. The following list includes organizations and consultants who have requested to be featured on this resource page. While some of these resources are affiliated with Honesty’s formal partners, Honesty does not evaluate, approve, or endorse any of the listed programs.
LEAD Ohio
LEAD Ohio fills a unique need in Ohio’s progressive infrastructure. We are the only organization that conducts year round recruiting, training, connecting, and supporting of potential candidates and their staff no matter what level of office they may seek in Ohio. We are proud to have graduated more than 450 "LEADers" from our flagship Campaign Academy training program, many of whom have gone on to run for and win election to everything from State Legislature to Township Trustee. We have also provided training and support to thousands more candidates, staffers, and activists through virtual webinars, weekend campaign bootcamps, and programming specially designed for women interested in civic leadership. We are a 501(c)(4) nonpartisan non-profit organization based out of Columbus, Ohio, and our sister organization, LEAD Ohio Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization also runs programming. We do not charge for our training and support programs in an effort to make this space as inclusive as possible. Although our Campaign Academy is full for this year, we are planning to offer the following programs in the coming months:
Women LEADing Ohio "Pow-Her to Launch" virtual program for women candidates starting their campaigns for elected office. Sessions will likely be held in late March and April.
Women's Progressive LEADership Circles support programs for women actively running for office this year. Applications will open in April and program will meet once a month in a hybrid in-person and virtual model from June-November. Cohorts are small, a dozen women or less.
LEAD Ohio Campaign Skills Bootcamp, which will be a full day weekend program providing essential skills and tools for building an effective campaign. Bootcamps will likely be held in May and June.
Additional virtual webinars on topics of interest will be announced as they are built
LEAD newsletters include a Candidate Corner with additional information on endorsements and trainings
General candidate support available through early summer; August and September “Hot Topics” trainings on school board races
To sign up for our mailing list to get all the information about LEAD Ohio programs, visit us at https://www.leadohio.org/contact and complete the form.