Three seats are open on the Alachua County School Board this election season, with two incumbents running.
Following the qualification period, Jancie Vinson has secured a seat on the board. The remaining two seats are contested, with new candidates running against current board members.
District 1
Three candidates are running for the District 1 seat, which encompasses Newberry.
Board member Tina Certain, who currently holds the District 1 seat, is vacating her position to run for the Alachua County Commission.
Janine Plavac, who currently fills the District 5 seat after being appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April 2025, is running for re-election. She will face Gabriel Lopez and Hunter Miller at the polls.
Plavac was previously interviewed by The Alligator for a story published in March.
Plavac, a 73-year-old teacher at Saint Francis Catholic Academy, said the application process strengthened her commitment to the board.
“To apply for that, I had to go through a pretty rigorous process,” she said. “When I did that, I was committed to making sure that all parties and all stakeholders in this community have an equal serve and a voice in what goes on.”
Plavac describes her stance as conservative but open-minded. School board positions are nonpartisan, meaning candidates run without party affiliations listed on the ballot.
One of Plavac’s main goals is finding a permanent superintendent.
Kamela Patton was named interim superintendent in November 2024 following the firing of previous superintendent Shane Andrew. A year later, the board extended Patton’s contract until 2027.
In April, the board started looking for a search firm to find a superintendent. The search firm will be selected by early August.
Plavac also hopes to enhance student performance and literacy rates by promoting old-school teaching methods like paper-based assessments and enforcing no-phone policies put in place by the governor in 2025.
According to standardized language arts test results for the 2024-25 school year, 55% of students in Alachua County passed with a three or higher. That’s just below the state’s 57% achievement rate.
In addition to enhancing literacy rates, Plavac also hopes to adjust disciplinary measures and student behavior to retain teachers.
“My goal is to be a support mechanism for them [teachers] but also let them be in charge of their classroom,” she said. “Let them decide what programs work for them and their teaching environment. They know better than any administrator.”
Plavac’s stance on administrative support comes from her experience working as a teacher in the district.
She taught at Gainesville High School for 17 years before moving to Saint Francis Catholic Academy, a private school in Gainesville.
“I was in public school education, and now I'm in private school education,” Plavac said. “So I see both sides of what's going on.”
Plavac will run against Gabriel Lopez, a former kindergarten teacher at Terwilliger Elementary School.
Lopez had been teaching for three years when his contract was nonrenewed at the end of the 2025-26 school year.
Lopez, who had positive evaluations the previous two school years, said he hasn’t heard back from administration about why he’s been nonrenewed. He said he believes he raised too many concerns about the district’s “behavior crisis.”
“I have a primary income that supports most of my life, which is outside of teaching,” Lopez said. “So, I have not been afraid to challenge a few things and speak up.”
Lopez, who’s experienced students’ behavioral challenges firsthand, said he hopes to change existing policies to better manage the issues.
Lopez said he’s dealt with violent students and frequent misbehavior. Rather than offering support or a clear process to handle misbehavior, he said, teachers are just told to document offenses.
Students with behavioral issues need separate classrooms designed for their success, he said. This keeps other students safe and focused, he added.
Apart from teaching, Lopez has an array of professional experiences he said make him a suitable candidate for the school board.
Lopez has worked as an airport car rental manager, which he said taught him how to collaborate and manage a team. He tutors students and teaches bible school, roles he said made him fit to be a teacher — and now a school board member.
Lopez also runs a vending machine business, which serves as his primary income without taking up too much of his schedule.
“I've managed to work a full-time teaching job and still run my business effectively,” he said. “So, as a board member, I would absolutely dedicate my life to this role."
Further solidifying his commitment to the board, he said, is the lack of bias in his approach to district concerns.
Lopez, the son of immigrants, said he is familiar with diversity and comfortable working with people from different backgrounds.
“I have no ulterior motives, and I have no agenda,” Lopez said. “My concerns are let's help these kids, let's help the teachers and let's focus on what's important.”
Plavac and Lopez face another candidate who has taught for the district: Hunter Miller.
Miller, a 27-year-old teacher at Bishop Middle School, said he’s running for election because he hopes to make the necessary policy changes to benefit teachers.
“Many teachers are feeling a lack of support coming from the district — and in some cases, administration,” Miller said.
Teacher training is “ineffective,” he added. Communication among teachers and district personnel is often drawn out and watered down, he said.
Miller said he hopes to make teacher discipline, like nonrenewals, more reasonable. He also hopes to give teachers more leeway with instructional techniques. This would allow teachers to choose between traditional pen-to-paper teaching methods and online programs.
Miller said he hopes to make policy changes that impact both teachers and students. Other goals include offering increased student support and safety.
Miller teaches at a Title 1 school, which receives additional federal funding due to high concentrations of low-income students.
“I believe we need a lot of support happening at the early grades,” Miller said. ”I want to make sure we can get that early signs of remediation needed at the grade level.”
This election season is incredibly important, Miller said. With the board starting the search for a permanent superintendent, there’s a lot on the line.
Miller said he hopes to aid in the search process by looking for a superintendent who can handle the district’s achievement gap, manage a large budget and support teachers.
In 2025, Alachua County had the second-highest achievement gap between white and Black students in ELA achievement and tied for the second-highest in math in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Education.
“We'll make sure we hire somebody who'd be in it for the long haul,” Miller said. “I'm not looking for any more temporary superintendents.”
District 3
The District 3 seat, which includes the city of Alachua and some of northwest Gainesville, is also up for grabs — with Gregory Pelham running against current board member Sarah Rockwell.
Rockwell was previously interviewed by The Alligator for an article published in March.
Rockwell, a 44-year-old who studied and taught special education throughout Florida, is running for reelection. If elected for a second term, Rockwell said she hopes to continue working toward improving academic achievement, strategic operations and fiscal responsibility.
When Rockwell started on the school board in 2022, the district had seven D and F schools, according to the Florida Department of Education’s grading of schools throughout the state. In 2025, the amount decreased to four D schools and no F schools. Her goal is to continue to work toward having zero schools rated D or F.
She also hopes to improve the district’s rating from a B to an A.
Her other goals include improving transportation and better managing the district’s budget.
The district’s budget fell from $612 million in 2024-25 to $604 million during the 2025-26 school year, according to previous Alligator reporting. A decrease in federal and state funding, as well as declining enrollment, drove the budget changes.
“We need people on the board who are willing to ask … ‘Where is the money for this coming from?’” she said. “I understand the desire to implement all the good ideas in the world, but we have to be able to pay for those. … That is a huge reason that I'm running again.”
Rockwell’s first term didn’t come without its challenges.
In August 2025, Rockwell faced backlash from parents and state officials for her comments on the death of Hulk Hogan, a professional wrestler known for his conservative views.
In September 2025, board member Tina Certain faced similar pushback for her comments surrounding the death of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist.
“What occurred with myself, with Mrs. Certain and with some board members in other districts is intimidation, fear tactics, bullying — and it's entirely performative,” Rockwell said. “My focus is, has always been and will continue to be doing my job to the best of my ability, and I will not let anything distract me from that.”
Rockwell will face Gregory Pelham at the polls this year. Pelham, a 69-year-old Teen Court case manager, currently works for the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office.
Pelham was previously interviewed by The Alligator for an article published in March.
His experience working in the school system for roughly 40 years, he said, makes him more aware of community opinions. Teen Court, a national program used in Alachua County, offers nonviolent first-time teen offenders a second chance.
“That, for me, greatly opens up lines of communications at many different levels,” Pelham said. “Whether it be with the parents, whether it be with the students or whether it be with their staff and administrators at the schools or even … in the faith-based community.”
Decisions and community concerns should be met with unity and compassion, he added. If elected, he said he hopes to bring these qualities to the board.
“There needs to be a little bit more unity on the board,” Pelham said, “with a clear-set vision for our children and our communities and our schools.”
In February, the board tried to schedule a “Way of Work” training meant to improve communication issues among board members. The plans, however, fell through after two members refused to attend the training.
In addition to improving unity, Pelham said he hopes to work on improving teacher salaries.
Teachers deserve support given their working environment, he said.
For the 2024-25 school year, the median teacher salary in Alachua County was a little under $50,400, which is nearly $4,000 less than the state’s median salary, according to the Florida Department of Education.
In 2024, Florida ranked the second-lowest state in the country for teacher pay. Mississippi was the only state with a lower average teacher salary that year, according to the World Population Review.
“That’s big for me, paying teachers what they’re worth,” Pelham said. “I know what they’re dealing with in the schools.”
Overall, he said the importance of the election stems from building a strong future. The school board is responsible for the children who shape the future, he added.
The election’s outcome has the power to create change throughout the county, Pelham said.
“Voting for me and helping me to become the next board member will effect change,” he said. “It will effect unity, and it will bring a fresh look [at] what our students and what our teachers … and what our parents are experiencing.”
District 5
Jancie Vinson is running uncontested for District 5, located within southwest Alachua County.
Vinson was previously interviewed by The Alligator for an article published in March.
Vinson, a 67-year-old retired correctional probation specialist at the Florida Department of Corrections, said she hopes to improve student behavior, increase staff employment and benefits, reduce the district’s debt and add more magnet programs to schools in East Gainesville, which is home to several historically Black neighborhoods.
“I will fight as a candidate to undo the wrongness, unfairness, disparity,” Vinson said. “This is not the west versus the east.”
Vinson’s concerns follow the district’s “Our Schools — Future Ready” plan, which sought to rightsize schools, closing some and rezoning others to allow schools to operate at capacity.
During this process, the board proposed the closure of three East Gainesville schools: Duval Early Learning Academy and Williams and Rawlings Elementary Schools. A fourth school proposed for closure, Foster Elementary School, is located on Northwest Sixth Street, which is often considered greater East Gainesville.
The school board voted March 12 to close Williams and Foster, sparking debate over disproportionate closures on the east side of the city.
Vinson said it’s important for board members to be involved in their community to see what residents’ concerns are.
“You should be visible … and see what's really going on out there,” Vinson said.
Outside of attending school board meetings and running for office two prior times — in 2010 and 2014 — Vinson has been heavily involved in the community herself.
Vinson is an active member of organizations like Alachua County’s NAACP branch and the American Association of University Women, which promote equality in the county.
The school board election will be held Aug. 18. Residents can vote across more than 60 polling locations throughout the county.
Contact Grace Larson at glarson@alligator.org. Follow her on X @graceellarson.
Grace Larson is a second-year journalism student and this summer's metro editor. She previously worked as city/county commission reporter and K-12 education reporter for The Alligator. When she's not editing stories, Grace enjoys running, weightlifting and going on random side quests. If she's not at her desk, you can find her at any place offering free food and crafts.
