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The candidates<\/p>\n
In recent years, Florida school board elections have garnered attention from high-level political players like Gov. Ron DeSantis and the conservative parental-rights advocacy group Moms for Liberty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2022, more than 80% of the 30 candidates DeSantis endorsed won<\/a>, including Duval County District 2\u2019s April Carney. In 2024, his success rate fell to about 50% statewide<\/a> \u2014\u00a0though all but one of his Jacksonville picks won<\/a> their races.<\/p>\n Their wins gave Duval\u2019s School Board a strong conservative majority<\/a> and a voting bloc that mostly sticks together<\/a> on culture-war issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n This year, unlike the two previous election cycles, DeSantis has not endorsed any school board candidates statewide. Moms for Liberty has endorsed a handful of candidates<\/a>, but none in Duval County.\u00a0<\/p>\n In District 6, though, three of the five candidates are registered Republicans and are leaning into their conservatism.<\/p>\n \u2018The trust has just been broken\u2019: Lindsey Denmark<\/p>\n Lindsey Denmark, 41, is a real estate agent. She says she\u2019s \u201cwatched lots of families choose other school districts over Duval\u201d over the years and thinks violence in schools is negatively impacting public perception of the district.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever we have strong schools, we have strong community for sure,\u201d Denmark says. \u201cThat\u2019s really why I decided to run.\u201d<\/p>\n Anecdotally, she says fights and other incidents make her hesitant to send her own child to the district\u2019s schools. She and her husband homeschool their child.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would love my student, my son, to be able to go back into public school, and just hearing from a lot of families, they want their kids to be able to go back into public school. A lot of times it\u2019s easier. The transportation\u2019s easier. \u2029It\u2019s closer,\u201d Denmark says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of benefits there, but the trust has just been broken.\u201d<\/p>\n She says with \u201cstronger discipline, consistent consequences and some curriculum changes,\u201d parents will feel more confident choosing DCPS.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI want to make sure that our families can trust the district, and I want to be a voice for those families that maybe have pulled their kids or are considering pulling their kids,\u201d she says. \u201cReally just stand for those families and build that bridge back \u2014 hold our teachers, our administrators accountable, stand on our code of conduct to make sure there\u2019s consistency in our discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n While acknowledging that the state Board of Education sets curriculum, Denmark says she would lobby for a curriculum that includes \u201ccharacter and virtue\u201d lessons akin to the classical education approach<\/a> often championed by conservatives.<\/p>\n \u201cI think all of that could be woven into our curriculum a lot more,\u201d Denmark says. \u201cI just think that we need to be sure that we\u2019re not getting personal opinions and ideologies from our teachers \u2014 or from other students \u2014 that are being brought out into the classroom and being taught in that way. I think we need to stick to the basics \u2014 make sure we\u2019re sticking to the curriculum and teaching the basics of what our students need to be learning.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018We gotta do a better job of keeping our kids safe\u2019: Clarence James<\/p>\n Clarence \u201cCJ\u201d James, 54, is a sergeant with the Duval County School Police and a retired Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office lieutenant. School safety is at the top of his list of priorities.<\/p>\n \u201cI deal with the critical incidents in the schools every day,\u201d James says. \u201c\u2029I see what goes on in our schools. And we\u2019ve got to do a better job in getting the disruptive behavior and violence out of our schools.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He believes private schools and charter schools do a better job of curbing violence.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople know what goes on in the public schools\u2026but they don\u2019t know how to address it,\u201d James says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why they\u2019re snatching their kids out of public schools to send them to private and charter schools now that you have school choice and you can use vouchers and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n James says private and charter schools have fewer incidents \u201cbecause they don\u2019t tolerate that type of behavior, they\u2019ll send them back to their regular schools.\u201d<\/p>\n As privately operated public schools, charters are included in districts\u2019 tallies of incidents. However, charters are not required to allow all students to enroll \u2014\u00a0unlike traditional public schools. Private schools are not required to report these kinds of statistics, and they\u2019re also not required to offer enrollment to all students.<\/p>\n James, who has faced criticism in recent weeks for his campaign\u2019s use of AI-generated images<\/a>, blames social media and \u201cfatherless homes\u201d as driving factors behind student discipline problems. He says most violent incidents at schools have some kind of social media component.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re on social media, they\u2019re boosting it up, creating conflict,\u201d James says. \u201c\u2029I mean, kids are glued to those cell phones.\u201d<\/p>\n The violence makes it harder to retain teachers, he says, especially when surrounding districts don\u2019t have the same problem. He says he supports \u201cputting discipline back in the classrooms\u201d and accountability for students and parents.<\/p>\n James, a Riverside High School graduate, has children who graduated from \u2014 or still attend \u2014\u00a0the district\u2019s traditional schools. Joining the School Board and leaving the district\u2019s police force would net him a pay cut of $30,000, he says, but he \u201chas a passion for it\u201d and is \u201cable to do it.\u201d His campaign filings show he receives a pension from JSO.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat inspired me is that we gotta do a better job of keeping our kids safe,\u201d James says. \u201cAnd then we also need to do a better job of spending our taxpayers\u2019 dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Step up and fight\u2019: Michelle Petty<\/p>\n Michelle Petty, 46, is the only candidate in the District 6 race to have qualified through petitions instead of writing a check. She\u2019s a paralegal and a notary, and a long-time volunteer at the traditional public schools her children attend.\u00a0<\/p>\n She says she decided to run after current District 6 rep Charlotte Joyce approached her with the idea. (Joyce later gave her official endorsement to Denmark.)<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I can make a big difference in our schools,\u201d Petty says. \u201cI\u2019ve seen things that work and that don\u2019t work. And I am willing to step up and fight and help improve our schools and make them better.\u201d<\/p>\n In responses Petty submitted for a Jacksonville Today voter guide survey<\/a>, she said \u201cpublic schools remain the backbone of our community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI support parents\u2019 right to choose the educational setting that best fits their child,\u201d Petty wrote. \u201cAs choice expands, DCPS must adapt by improving student achievement, partnering with parents, ensuring safe schools and using taxpayer dollars wisely.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2021, Petty and several other parents sued Duval Schools over its COVID-19 mask mandate<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n DCPS officials said they issued the mask requirement<\/a> because 11 district employees had died and COVID cases surged as school started. Petty says she sued because her daughters\u2019 health was impacted adversely by wearing masks.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not want to be that person that causes division, and that was not my intent with that lawsuit,\u201d Petty says. \u201c\u2029It was just me, standing up and fighting for what I thought was an injustice against our children.\u201d<\/p>\n As a board member, she says she would work to represent everyone fairly, even those who don\u2019t agree with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI am really good about soaking in as much information as I can, and I want to know what both sides think and feel about everything,\u201d Petty says. \u201cI try to make my decision not based off my own thoughts and feelings and perceptions, but the gathering of all of that information and data and looking at it from all different sides and perspectives to see what would be in the best interest of everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I want to come in with the solutions\u2019: Robert Stafford<\/p>\n Robert Stafford, 72, is a retired logistics engineer who already spends much of his free time in service of the school district.\u00a0<\/p>\n Professionally, he specialized in \u201cacquisition logistics\u201d for the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of the Navy, and so planned sophisticated systems and complex projects. He sees that as an asset on the School Board.<\/p>\n \u201cI have expertise that current board members don\u2019t have,\u201d Stafford says.\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019s currently the NAACP\u2019s representative on the district\u2019s Citizen Oversight Committee<\/a> \u2014\u00a0the body that monitors how DCPS spends its revenue from a half-penny sales tax. In that role, he says he\u2019s pushed district leaders to more carefully evaluate construction projects. (\u201cWe were paying too much,\u201d he says.)<\/p>\n He points to the newly rebuilt Ribault High School \u2014\u00a0which opened last year and cost more than $500 a square foot to build \u2014\u00a0and says the district overpaid by $50 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s why I\u2019m running for school board,\u201d he says. \u201cI mean, we just need that \u2014 I won\u2019t say expertise \u2014 but we need someone with that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n A Raines High School grad, Stafford went to Florida A&M University. After graduating with a degree in biology, he was commissioned as an officer in the Navy. Stafford\u2019s wife spent 43 years as a teacher, most of it in Duval.<\/p>\n He wants the district to invest in its teachers through creating more opportunities for professional development and more effectively engaging nonprofits.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019I\u2019m very passionate about this,\u201d Stafford says. \u201cI\u2019m not coming in with an agenda. I want to come in with the solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n Tammyette Thomas<\/p>\n Tammyette Thomas, 50, is also running. She didn\u2019t respond to Jacksonville Today\u2019s interview invitations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Who can vote<\/p>\n Because Florida school board elections are nonpartisan, the winner could be named on Aug. 18 \u2014 if one of the five gets more than 50% of the total vote. Otherwise, the two candidates with the most votes will continue on to a runoff in November\u2019s general election.\u00a0<\/p>\n Also because the elections are nonpartisan, all registered voters in districts 2, 4 and 6 can vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Early voting in Duval County starts Friday, Aug. 7.<\/p>\n This story was produced in partnership with nonpartisan news organizations and universities across the state working to provide information about the 2026 elections. Learn more about the Florida Elections Reporting Partnership at floridaelections.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five candidates are vying for the opportunity to represent Jacksonville\u2019s far Westside on the Duval County School Board.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[43323,1038,113,8184,2715,88005,116,118,117,99028,115,4043],"class_list":["post-361260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-distribute","tag-duval-county-public-schools","tag-education","tag-election-2026","tag-elections","tag-government-politics","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jaxtdy1","tag-news","tag-school-board"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/denmark.png\")
Lindsey Denmark | submitted<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/james.jpg\")
Clarence \u201cCJ\u201d James | submitted<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/petty.jpg\")
Michelle Petty | submitted<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/stafford.png\")
Robert Stafford | submitted<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/thomas.png\")
Tammyette Thomas | submitted<\/p>\n