While we wait for the school district (Duval County Public Schools, Jacksonville, FL) to post submitted responses from the six superintendent semi-finalists, let’s take a look at the school board races. These races will appear on the August primary ballot and, if no one wins 50% + 1 of the vote, the top two finishers move to a run-off contest for the November ballot.

From the Supervisor of Elections office as of today, May 2, 2024:

The only active race I’m aware of is District 7, with Travis Akers actively campaigning and the others occasionally responding on social media. The current board member, Lori Hershey, is term-limited and unable to run for re-election.

The same is true of District 5. Warren Jones is term-limited. The two active candidates have names that are well known in the city. Reginald Blount has tried several times to become a city councilman. Hank Rogers ran in 2016, but Jones edged him out.

Here’s an interesting tidbit. The link to Rogers starts out describing the 2016 race for District 7 and whose name appears? Melody Bolduc, that’s who, now trying again in 2024.

Cindy Pearson, District 3, is the incumbent running for a second term. Rebecca Nathanson is a newcomer. I’ll do a deeper dive in the summer, but what catches my eye is not that she identifies with the group Moms for Liberty but that she designates herself a School Board Watchdog (capitals are hers.) There’s no such thing.

The other candidate, Justin Almond Williams, has an interesting history and we’ll let it go at that (for now.)

In District 1, the incumbent is Kelly Coker, a former high-ranking employee of the school system and now a board member. She has not yet filed to appear in the ballot although the Supervisor of Elections office advises me the deadline is Friday, June 14 at 12:00 Noon.

Of the other two candidates, Nadine Ebri and Tony Ricardo, the former is a teacher and previous finalist for TOY (Teacher of the Year) and the latter a commercial artist and business owner who cites previous experience as a public school teacher then a private school teacher.

I’ll take a closer look at their candidacies as the summer comes in and (maybe) we have a new superintendent. For now, these are the names to keep an eye on.