Candidate Profile: Chantel Wilford

Chantel Wilford is one of three candidates running for the Manatee School Board District 5 seat currently held by James Golden. The non-partisan race will be on August's primary ballot.

Wilford went to a public high school in the U.S. before studying abroad. She studied pedagogy for two years in the Netherlands, then earned a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in French, Russian, and Linguistics from the University of Durham in England. She also earned a certificate to teach English as a Foreign Language to Adults (TEFLA) in France, where she taught for two years at businesses and a university in and around Paris before returning to the US for a year of post-graduate training as a translator and interpreter at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California.

After grad school, Wilford found work translating legal, academic and medical/pharmaceutical texts from Dutch and French into English. In 2005, she relocated to Manatee County, where she became certified as a childbirth educator and birth doula, having provided birth preparation classes and labor support services to hundreds of families in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

Wilford and her husband have four children who were all home educated until 5th grade before transitioning to Manatee County public schools, all in District 5. She has volunteered raising puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind, visiting a hospital weekly with a certified "dogtor" to cheer up patients, serving on an HOA Board, volunteering at All Faiths Food Bank, fostering for Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue, and serving as a leader of our local Sarasota chapter of the Holistic Moms Network.

"I aim to offer a new, positive and balanced perspective to the School Board of Manatee County for District 5," says Wilford. "As a trained teacher and a mother of four children who have both homeschooled and enjoyed public education in Manatee County, education in some form or another has been a focus of my life for many years. I have a vested interest in doing my part to help ensure the excellence of academic rigor and provision of exceptional educational and extracurricular opportunities and supports for students at all levels in Manatee County."

Wilford describes herself as "supportive, collaborative, and transparent." She says that, if elected, she will "work to support both the academic growth and the emotional and mental well-being of each and every student"; "listen to parent, teacher and community concerns and work toward collaborative solutions and effective board processes"; and "encourage the continued transparency of educational materials, financial oversight, and board decision-making processes while working to improve public communication and understanding."

In addition to Golden, Wilford faces Richard Tatem. She is running a grassroots campaign that has mostly been self-funded and will be up against a significant campaign cash disadvantage to her opponents. School board races are conducted on the August ballot. If no candidate receives a simple majority (50% + 1) of votes in the August race, the top two vote-getters go to a runoff election on the November ballot.