School Boards

This week on "The Florida Roundup," we spoke with Lt. Gov. Jay Collins about his run to become Florida’s next governor. Then, we looked at the lack of competition for school board seats in this election cycle with Trinity Webster-Bass, who covers education for the Florida Trib and more.

Hillsborough County is the seventh-largest district in Florida, with 305 schools and more than 224,000 students.

With two departing incumbents, a crowded race is heating up to fill three Pasco County School Board seats. Some are veteran teachers, and others have business or political commentator backgrounds.

Three candidates are running for District 5, which has performed well academically and is building new schools due to population growth.

Hernando County voters will get to elect school board members for districts 1, 3 and 5.

Candidates in Districts 2, 3 and 6 discuss the challenges facing Pinellas County schools and their possible solutions.

An incumbent, attorney, media personality, retired communication specialist and a teacher are running in the District 2 race

Moms for Liberty Florida has not made any contributions to local school board candidates across Florida.

WUSF is part of the Florida Election Reporting Partnership, which will cover every school board election in the state in the Aug. 18 primary.

The school board, which faces a $77 million shortfall. planned to house about 75 staff members in the rented space of an affiliated nonprofit. Instead, those employees will move into vacant district space.

The superintendent says school board officials are meeting with members of the their local legislative delegation and will travel to Tallahasse to talk privately. "We’re hopeful that they’ll listen,” he said.

Among other measures, Florida voters rejected ballot measures that would have enshrined abortion rights, legalized recreational marijuana, and established partisan school board elections.