Seven Pinellas County School Board candidates across three districts are stepping up to tackle teacher retention, low enrollment and budget issues with fresh perspectives, ideas and experience.
Pinellas County has 153 schools and more than 91,000 students.
Districts 2, 3 and 6 are in the race this year, with Districts 1, 4, 5 and 7 set for an election in 2028.
Districts 2 and 3 are at-large, while District 6 is a single-member district, meaning only residents registered to vote in the district can vote for candidates in the race.
All candidates are presented in alphabetical order.
District 2
Lisa Cane, the incumbent, and Nancy Velardi are running for the Pinellas County District 2 At-Large position, which covers Tarpon Springs through Largo.
Cane has $16,850 in monetary donations, while Velardi has $7,579, according to campaign finance information.
Cane said she has received endorsements from U.S. Congressman Gus Bilirakis alongside Pinellas County Tax Collector Adam Ross, Pinellas County Property Appraiser Mike Twitty, Pinellas County Commissioners and the Clearwater Mayor, according to her response in the Florida Public Media Voter Guide.
She is a registered Republican, while Velardi is a registered Democrat.
Former school board members Linda Lerner and Terry Krassner and St. Petersburg City Council member Richie Floyd have endorsed Velardi, according to campaign finance information.
Ruth’s List Florida, a nonprofit democratic advocacy group, the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association (PCTA) and Pinellas Educational Support Professionals Association (PESPA) and the Greater Democratic Club have also endorsed Velardi’s campaign.
Lisa Cane
Cane, 39, is the sitting school board member in District 2 and the owner of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Academy, a nonprofit theatre school.
She said the arts and humanities are an integral part of education because they teach students life skills and increase brain function in growing students.
“Arts is a lot more than an extracurricular, and that's why it's such an important platform for me in making sure that public school is not putting that lower on the agenda than it needs to be,” Cane said.
Cane said she brings a unique perspective to the school board as a community teacher, board member and mother.
“I sit in a very unique position to hear all those different perspectives before and whilst making policy decisions for the district,” she said.
Cane said the biggest challenge of being a school board member has been navigating how to apply federal and state policies and legislation — which she said is one of the reasons she ran in 2018.
“Some of the biggest obstacles are the areas that we think that local government has control over, but in actuality, some of these guardrails and some of these laws are actually implemented in Tallahassee,” Cane said.
She said some of the main challenges are keeping education equal across 140 different schools, communication and budget constraints.
Cane said there should be consistent, clear paths for education, discipline and career tracks.
She toured schools to hear parents’ and teachers’ opinions on the curriculum, resulting in a lesson plan to guide teachers through it.
“People, parents, more so, we're talking about how we're not consistent throughout the district, so that kind of the hard thing is like you may have a really amazing teacher doing amazing things in one school and in the other school they're not doing that,” Cane said.
The guide is meant to “help to facilitate that we are providing a certain level of education, regardless of your school choice.”
“We're now seeing education become more individualized, and as we do that, we have to make sure that Pinellas County Schools is competitive with our private charter options for students,” Cane said.
Nancy Velardi
Nancy Velardi, 69, was an English teacher in Pinellas County schools for more than 20 years and has seen the evolution of public schools as they were integrated.
Velardi said the biggest change in schools has been the move
from personalized, experiential lesson plans to testing-focused lessons, which means students are memorizing information rather than absorbing it.
“They were on a schedule, and they had to teach certain things on certain days, which, if you're in education, you understand that's not how children learn,” Velardi said. “That means we're not setting them up for a successful future, and that's what we're supposed to be doing.”
She said these curriculum changes and the loss of teacher autonomy, alongside budget constraints, are among the biggest challenges facing District 2 and Pinellas County as a whole.
She said these issues inspired her to run for school board to advocate for policy changes and new approaches to challenges.
“Teachers, just like kids, they need to feel like they're valued, and that what they're doing is making a difference,” she said. “And I don't think they're feeling that as much as they should, because they're being told how to do everything and being criticized if they do something different, and it's very disheartening.”
Velardi said state testing should not start as early as it does, and should allow teachers to determine when a child needs more help.
“We have to abide by the state's rules, but school board members do have some influence, and they do have a legislative agenda, and they usually meet with the legislators throughout the year,” Velardi said. “I would definitely be asking those questions and making these points with the legislators to ease up on the testing.”
State testing starts in third grade, though it can start earlier if students are enrolled in Voluntary Prekindergarten programs, according to the statewide assessment schedule. It shows Florida requires two to three state tests per semester.
If elected, Velardi said she would look into changing teaching policies to bring more autonomy into classrooms through lessons and hands-on work.
She said it’s important to find budget inefficiencies to recycle into the system while working to increase teacher retention and support through creating or reinforcing programs for teaching assistants.
Teaching assistant positions offer support in the classroom while teaching prospective teachers about the career, including how to build curriculum and engage a class.
“They aren't going to wait until they're a teacher and then say, ‘this is hard, I don't want to do it, I'm out of here,’ which happens a lot, but if they discover this isn't for them, they will discover it while they're in training,” Velardi said. “It is far less expensive for the district.”
District 3
Incumbent Dawn Peters, Curtis Campogni and Dawn Douglas are running for the District 3 At-Large position, which runs from Gandy to Fort de Soto.
Peters is a registered Republican, Campogni is non-party affiliated and Douglas is a Democrat.
Peters has $11,250 in monetary donations, Campogni has $11,207 and Douglas has $4,460, according to campaign finance information.
Pinellas County Clerk of the Court Ken Burke, Pinellas County Tax Collector Adam Ross and Pinellas County Property Appraiser Mike Twitty have endorsed Peters’ campaign.
She has also been endorsed by Pinellas County Commissioners, local mayors and state representatives, according to her website.
PCTA-PESPA endorsed Campogni and Douglas.
Curtis Campogni
Curtis Campogni, 41, and his wife adopted two kids, ages four and six, through the Florida foster care system.
“My wife is a social worker, and my mom is a public school
teacher,” Campogni said. “So, I’m deeply invested on an emotional level in our schools, and just helping young people in general.”
Professionally, Campogni has worked with at-risk youth in Pinellas and across central Florida for the last 15 years, moving from working in a group home to being a case manager helping guide people to jobs, education and mentors.
He said that work inspired him to found Speak4MC in 2021. It trains youth and family agencies on how to engage people in need and better serve those populations nationwide.
And now as his children move into the school system, Campogni said he has a personal investment and drive to help them, and every other student in Pinellas, succeed.
“I believe the person that sits in the seat should represent everyone in Pinellas, not just one district,” he said.
In an Instagram post announcing his campaign last August, Campogni said he wanted to “disrupt the status quo” with his candidacy, which he said is creating change through discomfort.
“The mentality of ‘it is what it is,’ or ‘if it's not broke, don't fix it,’ or ‘don't shed light on our weaknesses,’ I don’t believe in any of that,” Campogni said. “I truly believe that resting on your laurels or just being comfortable leads to thinking that results in inaction.”
He said he plans to bring this mentality to the school board.
Campogni said low enrollment trickles down to both teacher burnout and community trust. He said enrollment determines funding, meaning costs can outweigh revenue depending on school capacity.
He said one example of this is a school in St. Pete cutting a guidance counselor over a science teacher, a responsibility then placed on teachers and other support staff.
“It all connects to teacher engagement and retention. If your teachers are unhappy, or they don't feel supported, or they are existing in a culture that does not empower them and help them, that is just going to trickle down to the students,” he said. “It's going to affect the communication with parents, and then the parents are going to have a negative perception of the school, and then that contributes to the narrative in the community, and then that contributes to a decline in enrollment.”
Campogni added teacher retention is a complex issue he handles through hearing, empowering and paying teachers.
“It’s one thing just to listen to them and nod your head and say, all right, I was here for you to hear you,” Campogni said. “It's another thing then to act on what you're hearing, and teachers are really tired of performative listening, where you set this stage where you listen to me, and you answer my questions, but you don't do anything about it, so we have to really act on it and involve their input on these decisions.”
Dawn Douglas
Dawn Douglas, 74, has lived in Pinellas for more than 60 years and has raised her kids in Pinellas County Schools for the majority of their education.
Douglas began teaching in Pinellas middle schools in 2002 after turning her English degree into a teaching certificate through the county’s Transition to Teaching program.
The main issues she sees are schools’ curriculum shifts toward state testing requirements, teacher pay and retention and student behavior and attendance.
“We need to be aware of what we're actually putting kids through and what is best for the kids and today’s schools,” Douglas said.
As an intensive reading teacher, Douglas said she has seen firsthand how challenging state tests can be for young students. She added that this teaching method also contributes to less understanding and lower test scores.
Personally, she said she often felt left behind in lessons when things were not clarified, and she has also seen this in her own students.
“As a child, I did not learn that about myself, so I struggled to keep up. It was just because I was missing a step,” Douglas said. “This is something I work with my students very closely, because it's personal to me.”
She added lesson plans do not leave room for students to miss a day, which she said should be solved through enforcing new attendance standards and giving teachers more flexibility in the classroom.
“If some students miss Tuesday, you don't have a chance to really go back and make up, because you're already on Wednesday, and the fun's going out of classrooms,” she said. “We need to bring in joy, games, learning games, things like that that teachers can do, back into classrooms.”
Douglas said student behavior also requires new standards and stricter enforcement. While a small percentage of students cause trouble in class, Douglas said they often do not face consequences due to a lack of administrative support.
“There’s so many things going upside down,” Douglas said. “We shouldn't bow down to this because this puts the schools in a very weak position to not be able to hold them accountable for the behavior.”
Douglas said schools and administrators need to be more consistent in how they set and enforce rules to show students consequences and curb the behavior.
She said it’s important to value teaching and retain teachers to maintain a sense of structure and work balance.
“If teachers aren't able to function and do their best, if teachers are overly stressed, if teachers are under pressure, is that good for students? No, we all know when something's going on in a household, if someone's stressed in the household, it's not good for the house. This is the school's like a big house. Everybody there should feel comfortable doing what they're doing if they're confident and have a lot of support,” she said.
Douglas said Florida ranking last in the nation for teacher pay means teachers are suffering financially as prices continue to rise, making the mix of work, pressure and cost unsustainable.
She said finding inefficiencies in the budget to allocate to teacher wages and student success while developing new partnerships in the community will also alleviate some budget constraints.
“We're not doing our best job with that right now, and I think we can improve on it,” she said. “We need to speak up for students, because this is not about teachers, this is about students.”
Dawn Peters
Dawn Peters, 51, was elected to the school board in November 2022. Before taking office, Peters was a self-employed personal trainer, according to her personal LinkedIn.
Additionally, on her website, Peters said she built a career in property management.
Peters declined to interview for this story.
However, in her response to a candidate survey for the Florida Public Media Voter Guide, she said it’s important to support students in their academic growth, maintain stability and increase teacher and staff pay and support through the budget and advocacy.
Peters also said she has a better understanding of the job and school system as the incumbent, where she has developed professional relationships and connections to leverage for the county’s public school systems.
“Now, as a seasoned and experienced school board member, I will continue into the next term with focus and without disruption,” she said in the survey.
On her website, Peters said she believes in meaningful progress through collaboration and communication.
She also said education is fundamental to the constitutional republic, adding she is committed to transparency, accountability and responsible governance.
“Our schools do more than teach academics — they help instill civic responsibility, critical thinking and respect for the freedoms and responsibilities outlined in our Constitution,” Peters wrote. “Our young people are the future of our nation, and the education they receive today will shape America’s workforce, leadership, and strength tomorrow.”
District 6
Nancy Bostock and Amanda Lord are running in District 6, a single-member district that includes Pinellas Park, Seminole and the coastline from Indian Shores to Fort de Soto.
Only residents in the district can vote for single-member district elections.
Stephanie Meyer, the sitting District 6 School Board member, is not running for reelection.
Bostock and Lord are both registered Republicans.
Bostock has $38,752 in monetary donations while Lord has received $33,825, according to campaign finance information.
U.S. Congressman Bilirakis, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, Pinellas County Clerk of Court Ken Burke, Pinellas County Tax Collector Adam Ross, Pinellas County Property Appraiser Mike Twitty and Pinellas County Commissioners have endorsed Bostock.
Laura Hine, the Pinellas County District 1 School Board member, former school board members Krassner and Lerner, Pinellas County Commissioner Rene Flowers, the SEIU, a healthcare union, and the PTCA-PESPA have endorsed Lord’s campaign, according to campaign finance information.
Nancy Bostock
Nancy Bostock, 57, is the chief executive officer of Chemical Standards Laboratory, and she served as a Pinellas County School Board Member from 1998 to 2008.
Bostock said her previous experience as a school board member means she is familiar with the role, working hard and
listening to the community, adding that her inspiration to run this year was seeing emergency responses to Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024.
“I saw some of our city councils really, really struggling, and it just was a moment in time for me to look at local government and be reminded of how important our local government is, and think about what kind of role I could play if there was a role for me to play in the future,” she said.
She said the biggest challenges in District 6 are low enrollment, budget constraints, student behavior issues and communication between schools, parents and the community.
If elected, Bostock said she plans to focus on understanding enrollment issues and maximizing budget allocations.
She said low enrollment is the result of a mix of lower birth rates in the county, a higher cost of living in Pinellas compared to neighboring counties and school choice.
Bostock said this mix translates to a need to advertise and communicate with the community and find new ways to attract and retain students.
Additionally, as a business owner and school board member during the Great Recession, she said handling budget issues falls within her area of expertise.
“It's really important to put first things first, and for the school, this school district, that's student achievement, and we'll have to work together and make a budget that does the best for the most kids,” she said.
Beyond enrollment and the budget, Bostock said student behavior directly impacts the classroom and learning environment. She said handling this with a more consistent process of discipline and support can help reduce bad behavior and reinforce student engagement.
“We just need to align our resources, align our attention, and do everything we can to support our teachers, because once we do that, there will be student learning in the classroom, both from the disrupting kids who we should be putting forth those interventions for, but also all the other kids in the class who will then have an improved learning environment,” Bostock said.
Bostock said difficult decision-making is in store for the next term, though students should always be at the forefront of any discussion.
“There are immeasurable challenges out there, but I know with the right leaders on the school board, we will do well by our students in our community,” she said.
Amanda Lord
Amanda Lord, 45, is a project manager with Franklin Templeton Investments, one of the world’s largest asset managers.
“I run large-scale projects that typically are multi-million-dollar budgets and focus on supporting strategic initiatives at our company,” Lord said.
She also worked as an adjunct professor teaching business management, entrepreneurship and international business at St. Pete College from 2009 to 2021, when she left to become more involved with her two children’s education.
From 2021 to 2025, Lord was a PTA treasurer turned PTA president, and managed budgets, fundraised for the school and advocated for student success through COVID-19 and Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Lord said while she was PTA president in 2025, the school moved from a C-rating to an A-rating for the first time in 14 years.
“I learned that these schools that are trying to turn around and become stronger, it doesn't happen by accident,” she said. “It really happens when the families and the teachers and the community, that when they all work together and they're focused on the student.”
She said those successes and her desire to become more involved led her to run for school board.
“My common sense solutions are very simple, just making sure that we're inclusive of everybody, and that we're listening to people who are actually in our schools and really taking what they say to heart, and then translating that into how can we potentially change or develop our policies to revolve around the things that are happening with the people in the schools,” she said.
Lord said the biggest challenges facing the district now are teacher retention, student enrollment and attendance, budget constraints and communication.
She said teacher turnover affects classrooms as more money is spent to recruit and train new teachers, making retaining them more important to student success and school efficiency.
“Our teachers need more support. They need more support financially. They need more support with volunteering. They need more support from their communities, and so I think that the combination of having provided for the students and having provided for the teachers, that's my inspiration.”
She said building teacher salary increases into the budget or adding tenure can help give more value to teachers and incentivize newer ones to stay.
“I really want to see teaching be a valued profession that is compensated like it is, and we can do better,” she said.
She said improving messaging systems between public schools and the community will help rebuild trust, momentum and understanding to retain students. Low enrollment, Lord said, is the result of a combination of factors, including high cost of living in the area, declining birth rates and school choice.
She said schools are struggling to recover from post-COVID-19 impacts, including student attendance.
“I really think that the next step we need to do to keep that momentum going is to really hone in on our attendance and making sure parents understand you have to be in school. The teachers have such little time in front of these students…a lot of learning that's done is the hands-on stuff in the class — moving around the class, doing the different labs, working in small groups, talking to the other students, asking questions, doing the work in class. You can't give that as makeup work.”
Lord plans to create and enforce an attendance policy to reiterate the need for students to be in class.
During the 2024–25 school year, Pinellas County schools recorded a 91% attendance rate, compared to 92% in Pasco County, nearly 92% in Manatee County and nearly 94% in Hillsborough County, according to the Florida Department of Education.
She said the budget needs to be addressed from a student-first standpoint, meaning classrooms and the student experience are protected while maintaining teachers and critical resources.
“You have to look at ways to improve efficiencies,” she said.
Lord said her experience as a project manager equips her to find inefficiencies, test new policies before committing to an idea and find new, innovative ways to solve problems.
“I'm really excited to be running this race, and it's been quite an experience running for public office,” Lord said. “School board is so important because we're educating the future of our society.”
This story is part of a statewide partnership of 27 nonpartisan newsrooms and universities working to help Florida voters make informed decisions in the 2026 school board elections. Learn more about the Florida Election Reporting Partnership at floridaelections.org.
For more information on candidates running in the Florida primaries, check out the Florida Public Media Voter Guide.
