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Every election cycle, school boards face a quiet crisis: institutional amnesia.

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The research is clear and it's damning.

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Ihrke and Ford at UW-Milwaukee tracked over 2,000 school board members across a decade.

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The average turnover rate?

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43 percent per election.

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Almost half of every board replaced each time.

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That means your long-term strategy doesn't survive your first full term.

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Here's what that looks like on the ground.

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Cy-Fair ISD in Texas.

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One of the state's largest districts.

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Three election cycles, six new board members, and suddenly nobody in the room remembers why the policy was passed in the first place.

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Institutional memory doesn't just fade — it evaporates.

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And who suffers?

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The students waiting for that multi-year improvement plan to actually land.

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Your board needs a governance continuity plan before the next election — not after.

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Not "we'll figure it out when the new members arrive." Before.

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Sources: Ihrke & Ford, "School Board Member Turnover" (UW-Milwaukee) · Cy-Fair ISD Board Election History (2018-2024) · Ford & Ihrke, "Governance Disruption in School Districts"