PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — In Pinellas County, four school board seats are up for grabs in the upcoming primary election, and the candidates could have a huge impact on the more than 100,000 kids in the district.
St. Petersburg parent Christie Bruner has three big reasons to care about who is elected to the Pinellas County School Board: her daughters Grace, Jocelyn and Audrey. All three attend schools in Pinellas County.
“These elections will have future implications for our workforce of the communities we live in. The students in school right now will be our doctors, our nurses, our lawyers, our teachers,” she elaborated.
At the top of her mind is retaining teachers and recruiting reliable bus drivers.
“I had a middle schooler, and probably half of the school year, she did not make it to school on time, did not make it to first period, had to find a carpool. It was a lot of stress on us parents, stress on kids,” Bruner added.
Nancy Velardi at the Pinellas Classroom Teacher’s Association also said those are her top issues as Florida grapples with thousands of teacher vacancies.
“The teacher shortage is one of the biggest issues we are dealing with right now. It’s affecting all of Florida, and Pinellas is not exempt. We need to get teachers into those positions because the classes are going to be overcrowded if they’re not,” Velardi added.
The Pinellas County School Board is likely to play a major role in the upcoming years — not only in the retention of school staff but in addressing safety, security, and pandemic learning losses.
“They are actually the head bosses even over the superintendent. The superintendent may submit plans to them, but it’s their approval that is required for anything to move forward,” Velardi added.
Four seats are up for grabs, 11 people are vying for them and only two are running for re-election.
The seven-member board oversees a $1.6 billion budget. Many of the candidates are parents and some are long time educators.
Bruner hopes everyone will spend time researching the candidates and watching recent debates to see which ones align with the school system they want to see.
Any candidate that gets more than 50% of the vote in a district wins the seat.
If any candidate doesn’t get more than 50%, the top two vote-getters move on to the November general election.
“Most people think of the primaries as not that important because the big race will be in November. But for the school board seats, especially one of them, it will be decided in this primary, so this is important that people turn out and back the people that they believe have the interest of the students at heart,” Velardi explained.
Here’s a look at who is running:
In District 2 (which is a countywide seat) Lisa Cane is running for reelection. The 35-year-old Palm Harbor mom of four is the founder and creative director of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Academy.
Other candidates for the seat are Brad DeCorte, a 65-year-old first time candidate who has spent 22 years teaching English at Tarpon Springs Middle School.
Bronson Oudshoff, 44, is also running for the school board seat. He has served in various roles in the Pinellas County School System, including PTA President and Captain of the All-Pro Dad team. He currently works in healthcare.
District 3 (another countywide seat) will welcome a new school board member after incumbent Nicole Carr dropped her reelection bid in December.
One candidate is Keesha Benson. The 41-year-old is a mom of three and attended Pinellas County Schools all the way from Kindergarten to grade 12. She works as a college professor and has also worked as the chief learning and evaluation officer for the Foundation for a Healthy St. Pete and director of Thrive by Five, an early learning program in Pinellas County.
Carl Zimmermann, age 71, is also running for the seat. He has spent 34 years in education, mostly at Countryside High School. He chose to retire last year. He also spent two years as a Democratic state House representative from 2012-2014.
Dawn Peters, age 48, is also running for the school board seat. She wants parents to have more of a say in education and was an officer with her local parent-teacher association when her two now college-age daughters were in school.
District 6 will also see a new school board member after the elections are over. Three candidates are running to replace retiring School Board member Bill Dudley.
One person running is 37-year-old Brian Martin. He works as a chemical engineer and has four children in public schools.
Stephanie Meyer, age 40, is also running. Meyer teaches history part-time at Keswick Christian School and at Hillsborough Community College. She has three children.
Kimberly Works, age 51, is also in the running. She works as a Medicare case manager. She spent several years volunteering in schools while her three now-adult children grew up.
In District 7, Caprice Edmond is running for re-election. Edmond is a 34-year-old mother with three degrees from the University of South Florida, including a master’s in elementary education. Edmond is also a science coach at Fairmount Park Elementary.
There is only one challenger for this seat. Maria Solanki, age 37, has worked for nearly 20 years with children, including those with special needs and traumas. She is also a business owner. She hopes to tackle issues including school choice.
Bottom (L-R): Maria Solanki; Caprice Edmond; Brian Martin; Stephanie Meyer; Kimberly Works
The primary election is August 23. Early voting and mail-in voting have already begun.
