All three Seminole County school board election races contested in 2026

Seminole County’s school board has three seats up for election in 2026, enough to potentially form a new majority bloc for the school district – and all three races are competitive. 

That includes a race where the incumbent has not filed for reelection.

Seminole County Public Schools has a $1.5 billion budget. With more than 7,000 employees, SCPS is the largest employer in the county. Each seat on the school board has outsized influence within a suburban county full of young families. 

Aubrey Jewett, associate professor and associate school director at the University of Central Florida’s School of Politics, Security and International Affairs, said in Florida there are plenty of major issues at play for school boards: declining enrollments from students switching to charter and private schools through state policies incentivizing them, and school closures in neighboring counties, to name a few. 

And what happens at the school district matters to the local economy as well, Jewett said, as high-performing schools are frequently touted as an economic driver to bring companies to the area.

“For many, many years a strong point for Seminole County is the A-rated school system, and how that impacts property values,” said Jewett, who lives in Oviedo. “It doesn’t surprise me that the school board races are competitive, because there are a number of issues where there’s disagreement.”

School board races can fly under the radar for voters as well. That’s because school board races are nonpartisan – meaning all voters in the county can vote – but the elections happen during the primary election on Aug. 18. If one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the election will be over. If not, the top two candidates move on to the Nov. 3 general election. Elections are at large, so voters will have the chance to vote for all three candidates.

  The three Seminole County school board seats up for election in 2026 are: 

• District 1, with incumbent Kristine Kraus against Antonio Pizza. 
• District 2, currently with two challengers: Joshua Memminger and Holton Mills. Incumbent Kelley Davis has not yet filed to run.
• District 5, with incumbent Autumn Garick against Brian Newsome. 

Some school board meetings have been contentious in the last year. In October, parents demanded the resignation of SCPS Superintendent Serita Beamon after a security incident at Sabal Point Elementary, where a staff member told police he was having thoughts of harming students. An online petition calling for Beamon’s resignation got more than 1,800 signatures.

And angry parents flooded the school board meeting last week after SCPS began denying out-of-state and overnight student travel requests, citing budget concerns. Parents, students and teachers were angry, saying the field trips didn’t cost the school district; the school district has since reversed the policy and is reevaluating field trips. 

See below for a breakdown of school board races in 2026. And check here for Oviedo Community News’ candidate guide for the 2026 election. 

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District 2 incumbent Kelley Davis hasn’t filed for reelection, and previous candidates drop out

The race generating the most interest in Seminole County is for Kelley Davis’ District 2 seat. 

That seat already had four challengers file to run, but two have dropped out. Incumbent Davis has not filed for reelection. Oviedo Community News has asked Davis for an interview three times this year, with no response to emails and text messages. 

At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Davis declined to do an interview about whether she was running. She said she hoped to make a decision by the weekend, but didn’t respond to multiple phone calls, text messages and emails for comment afterwards.

Davis is an attorney, and a complaint was filed with the Florida Bar after two clients alleged she didn’t properly represent them, including missing court hearings. 

The matter is still considered pending before the Florida Supreme Court for review, and a final discipline order from the Florida Supreme Court has not been made. But the court is recommending that her license be suspended for one year, and that she will have to pay $3,481 in fines and fees, in addition to paying $3,000 in restitution to a client. Davis entered a conditional guilty plea to the complaints, meaning she didn’t dispute them. 

There are currently two candidates who have filed for Davis’ seat: Joshua Memminger and Holton Mills.

“I think it gives people really almost a clean slate,” Memminger said about Davis potentially staying out of the race. “So there’s not the incumbency rule kind of playing into this, where they now get to examine two challengers and kind of see who they feel best will represent this district. And so I think that actually makes it a level playing field.”

Memminger, a police officer, previously ran for school board in 2022. He was appointed to serve on the Seminole Parks and Preservation Committee by County Commissioner Jay Zembower this year. He said his campaign is focused on school safety, increasing school scores at lower-performing schools and reducing pay compression for teachers – when salaries for new hires rise faster than for experienced teachers. 

He said he wants to take a more active role in Tallahassee politics, which in recent years has increasingly played a role in local education policy. 

“I’d like to spend a lot of time in Tallahassee, if I can,” Memminger said. “I think there’s a lot that needs to be advocated for up there, and our voices have to be in the room. You have to be in the room where things are happening, where decisions are made, and getting with our legislators and trying to work through getting Tallahassee and Seminole County on the same sheet of music.”

Holton Mills is the other candidate for the open seat. Mills said he was “born and raised” in Seminole County. Mills is the current chairman of the Foundation for Seminole County Public Schools, which raises money for scholarships and student needs.

Professionally, he works in advertising, and said he wants to see more options for students to go straight from schools into the workforce.  

“We need to get the biggest industries and employers in the room, so students can look at the programs and know there’s a potential where they get a job with a local industry,” Mills said. “That way we can keep the talent local.” 

Memminger has raised $1,100 in campaign funding so far, while Mills has raised $9,619. 

James Evans had also filed for the school board race, but has withdrawn. Another candidate, David White II, has also withdrawn. Seminole County had previously filed a lawsuit against White, a parent of a child with special needs who was asking for one-on-one nursing care for his child. 

Recent Hagerty graduate files to run against Kraus

For Antonio Pizza, it feels like his recent time as an SCPS student puts him in a unique position to be on the school board. 

Pizza is a recent Hagerty High School graduate, and a political science major at the University of Central Florida. He said as a recent graduate he has firsthand knowledge of what the district is like. 

“I decided it was time to stop complaining and do some action,” Pizza said. 

Pizza said he wants to see students have to turn in their phones to be marked as present for a class, and wants to see a return to more paper learning versus online. 

“We want to get students back in school in front of teachers learning,” Pizza said. 

Pizza is running against incumbent Kristine Kraus, who was first elected to the school board in 2018, and had four children attend SCPS schools. Kraus donated $50,000 to her own campaign, according to reports that became public recently. In her last campaign she contributed about half of that. 

She said she’s been able to save about $1,000 out of every $1,300 paycheck for her work on the school board to have money to run again. 

“I know running a campaign you have to have money to start,” Kraus said. “Quite honestly, I’m more focused on my job and the difficult decisions I’m focused on in my work.”

Kraus said she has continued to focus on issues around enrollment and budget issues in the school. She also is focused on school safety as a school-shooting survivor. 

“That was decades ago, and yet I can relive it every single day,” Kraus said. “So school safety is a primary issue for me.”

Mostly self-funded Brian Newsome challenges Autumn Garick

For incumbent Autumn Garick, she views Seminole County Public Schools as the county’s biggest economic driver. 

“We don’t have theme parks,” Garick said. “We don’t have NASA. We don’t have UCF. What we have is our schools.”

Garick said the greatest endorsement she gets is from parents and families who regularly call and text and stop her on walks with her dog. 

“Our main job is to work on policy and governance, being a bridge between the community and the district,” Garick said. “I’m certainly at a point where I can make the connections to solve the problems.”

Garick is facing Brian Newsome, who currently works as a regional sales manager for Vantage Specialty Chemicals. Newsome has three children under five years old and two older children in Seminole County Public Schools.

Newsome said SCPS has A-rated schools, but there are still pockets where student achievement can be improved.

“I think there’s still room for improvement,” Newsome said. “So my goal is to set high standards. I hear a lot about safety. … There’s always a concern about safety and security.”

Newsome said he has also seen issues with children with special needs in Seminole County. 

“I have a daughter who graduated from Lake Mary High School,” Newsome said. “She has cerebral palsy, and I saw firsthand some of the resources that were not available for kids like that. So that’s also a passion of mine.”

Garick has so far raised more than $17,000 in cash, mostly from small contributions, and reported an additional $1,488 worth of in-kind contributions from herself and her husband. Newsome is mostly self-funding his campaign. Newsome has raised $3,189, and all but $50 was from the candidate. 

The week to qualify for candidacy for election to the school board is June 8 at noon to June 12 at noon. That’s the same time as qualifying for governor, cabinet and special district seats.  That means more candidates could come into the race in the next few weeks. 

Candidates would also need to pay the fee to run for office in Seminole County, which for the school board is $2,104. Candidates can also qualify by getting 3,510 voter petitions signed and verified by the end of the qualifying period. 

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America Corps Member