How School Board Elections Work in Manatee County

Candidates aside, here is all you need to know about how School Board elections work.

Manatee County’s School Board has five district seats. Elections for School Board seats are staggered. Three seats are up for election in 2026: Districts 2, 4, and 5. Two will be up for election in 2028: Districts 1 and 3. School Board members serve four-year terms.

School Board elections will be on the PRIMARY election ballots on August 18, 2026.

Note the Voter Registration deadline: Monday, July 20, 2026. Check to see if you’re still registered to vote here.

You can only vote for a School Board candidate who would represent your district. Previously, voters throughout the county could vote for all members of the School Board but, in 2018, voters narrowly approved a referendum by 51.4% to change to single-member representation. However, School Board members should still be advocates for and willing to help constituents across the county.

Effective December 1, 2024, the maps used for School Board districts were changed to align with those used by Manatee’s Board of County Commissioners. These redrawn lines have consequences: for example, a former District 5 candidate is now running in District 2, and some voters who were moved to another district missed the opportunity to participate in an election cycle.

Find current and detailed School Board District Maps here.

School Board races are non-partisan

This means candidates’ political parties will NOT be printed on the ballots. They will appear in alphabetical order, by first letter of the last name, unlike partisan offices where candidates of the party currently in the governor’s seat are listed first and minor party candidates appear in the order in which they qualified. All School Board candidates will have NP after their names. Every registered voter in a district can vote for School Board regardless of political affiliation.

Florida voters have continued to support keeping School Board elections non-partisan since 1998. There have been efforts to make these races partisan, most recently in 2024, but that amendment failed to pass. The League of Women Voters explained the arguments for and against partisan School Board races here. After careful study, the League recommended school board elections remain nonpartisan. A major reason is that “Nearly 4,000,000 NPA voters in Florida would be excluded from voting for school board candidates in primaries if school board elections become partisan. In some circumstances, only voters of one party would have a say in selecting candidates.”

Be An Informed Voter

The non-partisan nature of School Board elections encourages informed voters to assess a candidate’s platform and look further than a candidate’s party affiliation on a ballot. Candidates do not typically try to hide this information anyway, as they often seek support from their parties, attend fundraising events, and share endorsements. It is state law that prevents their political affiliation from being listed on the ballot, not candidate choice.

How a Candidate Wins

If a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the August primary, that candidate will be declared the winner and take office in November.

If no candidate receives at least 50%, then the top two candidates will advance to the general election ballot on November 3, 2026.

Winners will take office on November 17, 2026, and serve for four years.

Recent History of Manatee School Board Elections

Some voters tend to overlook the primaries, but that’s when School Board elections may be decided. Current School Board Members’ elections unfolded as follows:

In 2022, candidates in two of three districts won their seats in the August primary without having to advance to the general election: Chad Choate (District 4) with 55.3% of the vote and Richard Tatem (District 5) with 50.5%. Two candidates in District 2 advanced to the general election in November, which Cindy Spray won with 53.1%.

In 2024, both school board seats up for election had three candidates on the August ballots, and no candidate received more than 50%, so the two candidates with the most votes in each district moved on to the November ballot. These seats were ultimately won by Heather Felton (District 1) with 57.7% and Charlie Kennedy (District 3) also with 57.7%.

Becoming a Candidate

Candidates must reside in the district for which they are qualifying at the time of assuming office.

To appear on the ballot, candidates must qualify by June 12th at noon. They can do so either by fee or petition. The qualifying fee is four percent of the salary of the office sought, and a School Board Member’s salary is $52,303.00, making the fee $2,092.12.

For petitions, the candidate must obtain a number of signatures equal to at least 1% of the total number of registered voters of that geographical area as of the last General Election. District 2 requires 388 signatures, District 4 requires 394 signatures, and District 5 requires 786 signatures. The candidate must pay ten cents for each petition they wish to have validated by the Supervisor of Elections office. It is recommended that candidates collect extra petitions to account for any errors. Petitions are due by noon on May 11, 2026. See pages 16 and 17 of the 2026 Candidate Qualifying Handbook for more information.

Write-in Candidates

There is a common misconception that voters can write down the name of their own favored candidate. No. That’s not how that works.

Write-in candidates MUST be qualified by the Supervisor of Elections office to run for that office. Voters cannot simply ‘write in’ the name of just anyone they want in that office if there is a line for a write-in candidate -- it has to be that of a person who qualified. No fee or petitions are required to qualify as a write-in candidate. There are currently no write-in candidates for the School Board.

Campaign Funding

How much money does it take to run for a seat on the School Board?

Candidates submit detailed financial reports to the Supervisor of Elections on a regular basis so anyone can see who has donated to their campaign (developers, political action committees, individuals), how they spent their funds, etc.

The amount raised does not necessarily indicate who is more likely to win. In 2024, for example, campaign funding ranged from around $17,000 to $50,000, and the two candidates who were out-funded by $20,000 to $30,000 still won their races.

So far in Manatee, no candidate shows more than about $1,600 in campaign funds as of December 31, 2025 and most show zero. Meanwhile in Sarasota, two of the candidates vying for the District 1 School Board seat currently held by Bridget Ziegler had more than $45,000 and $36,000 respectively (including $25k and $11k loans from the candidates themselves to their campaigns) for their financial reports ending December 31, 2025. The quarterly reports for candidates in both counties will be available soon.

Who are the candidates?

So far, there are four School Board candidates for District 2, one for District 4, and two for District 5.

Some candidates have filed to run as late as May of an election year and won the seat. More candidates may still be coming forward.

Detailed posts on each candidate will be shared after qualifying so subscribe now for free to stay up to date on School Board elections.

Check out all the current candidates on the Supervisor of Elections website here.

Interested in becoming a candidate? It’s not too late! Find out how to do so here.

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