Clay County School Board Challengers Pitch Change as Incumbents Skip Forum

Four challengers seeking seats on the Clay County School Board made their case to voters at a standing-room-only candidate forum Monday night, but the three incumbents they're trying to unseat were nowhere to be seen.

The League of Women Voters hosted the forum ahead of the Aug. 18 primary election, where school board races for Districts 1, 4, and 5 will appear on the ballot. All three races could be decided in the primary without advancing to a November general election. Board Chair Erin Skipper (District 1), Board Member Michele Hanson (District 4), and Board Member Ashley Gilhousen (District 5) were invited but did not attend. Hanson told News4Jax she had a scheduling conflict; Skipper and Gilhousen did not respond to requests for comment.

Who's running

District 1 challenger Lara Libretto, a former school leader and teacher, is running against Skipper. Libretto told the forum audience that her classroom and administrative experience positions her to support teachers and maintain student achievement while keeping parents engaged.

In District 4, Michael Rathjen — a business professional and parent of three daughters — is challenging Hanson. Rathjen said budgetary shortfalls and changes in school funding prompted him to enter the race. His family has homeschooled their daughters at various points before enrolling them in Clay County schools.

District 5 has three candidates total. Two challengers — Veronica Powell-Faison and Gerald Beasley — attended Monday's forum. Powell-Faison said she is running to advocate for students, families, and educators, citing a clear need for someone focused on children's best interests. Beasley, who works on the operations side of the school district and visits schools and offices regularly, argued the district needs change from within.

Teacher pay takes center stage

All four candidates who attended the forum addressed teacher compensation, a perennial concern in Florida districts that have struggled to compete with higher-paying states and private-sector jobs.

Libretto pointed to administrative spending as a place to find savings for teacher raises. "We need to look at the top administrative level — we've got bloat," she said. "We need to ask ourselves with our money: is it essential? Is it tied to student success? Is it a redundant position? Because we're always asked at a school level to do more with less."

Rathjen proposed a longer-term financial strategy involving the district's education foundation. "Once our education foundation becomes the direct support organization for our district, we start an endowment — that could help offset some of the costs in the future for teacher pay," he said. He also pledged not to accept a pay raise if elected to the school board.

Powell-Faison said she would prioritize newer educators. "I would try to find common ground where the new teachers — anybody under, I guess, 10 years — would be able to see some type of pay increase," she said.

Beasley echoed concerns about spending priorities and alleged double standards in how raises are distributed. "I think if we can stop the waste and change some other things that are going on, I think that there could be funds for raises," he said. "They turned around and created more upper-level positions and promoted people — they got raises. I see a lot of double standards in the school district."

What school board races mean for Clay County

School board elections in Clay County have taken on heightened significance as the district navigates rapid enrollment growth. Clay is among the fastest-growing counties in Florida, with residential development concentrated along the First Coast Expressway loop through Middleburg, Green Cove Springs, and Lake Asbury converting rural land to subdivisions. That growth puts consistent pressure on school capacity, forcing the district to balance opening new schools with maintaining competitive teacher compensation.

Florida school board members serve four-year terms and set district policy, approve budgets, and hire superintendents. Under Florida law, school board elections are nonpartisan, meaning candidates do not run with party labels on the ballot. If one candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the Aug. 18 primary, that candidate wins outright without a November runoff.

The dynamic at Monday's forum — challengers present, incumbents absent — is unusual for competitive races. Candidate forums typically give voters a side-by-side comparison of positions on issues like curriculum, facilities, and budgets. The absence of the three sitting board members meant voters heard only the challengers' critiques of current district operations and spending priorities, without the incumbents' responses or defenses of their records.

What's at stake in the budget debate

The candidates' focus on administrative spending and teacher pay reflects broader tensions in Florida school finance. Districts across the state have faced funding challenges as enrollment climbs and the legislature debates per-pupil allocations. Teacher salaries in Florida lag the national average, contributing to recruitment and retention struggles that districts address through sign-on bonuses, salary schedule adjustments, and efforts to reclassify veteran teachers into higher pay tiers.

Clay County's operating budget is funded primarily through the Florida Education Finance Program — a state allocation formula based on enrollment — plus local property taxes. The school board approves the annual budget, typically in July or August, after the legislature sets statewide education funding levels in the spring. Any significant shift in spending priorities, such as reallocating administrative positions to classroom teacher raises, would require board action on the budget and potentially on staffing structures.

The candidates' proposals raise questions the next board will have to answer: How many central-office positions does the district require as enrollment grows? What is the appropriate balance between administrative support and direct classroom spending? And how can the district compete for teachers in a regional labor market that includes Duval and St. Johns counties, where pay scales and working conditions vary?

Direct-support organizations and education foundations, which Rathjen mentioned, are separate nonprofit entities that raise private funds for schools. Converting a foundation to a direct-support organization under Florida statute allows it to more closely coordinate with the district, but endowments take years to build and generate investment income. That approach would be a long-term revenue supplement, not an immediate fix for teacher pay.

What happens next

Clay County voters will decide the three school board races in the Aug. 18 primary. Early voting and vote-by-mail are underway. If no candidate in a race receives more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters advance to a runoff in the Nov. 3 general election.

School board meetings are open to the public and typically held at the district administrative office in Green Cove Springs. Budget workshops and hearings occur in the summer, with the final budget adoption usually in September. Residents can address the board during public-comment periods, which are part of the regular meeting agendas posted on the district website.

The forum was part of a statewide partnership of 27 nonpartisan newsrooms and universities working to help Florida voters make informed decisions in the 2026 school board elections, reflecting the elevated attention to local education governance across the state.

The outcome of Clay County's three races will shape the board's approach to managing growth-driven enrollment increases, teacher retention, and budget priorities — decisions that ripple through a district serving thousands of students in one of Northeast Florida's fastest-changing communities. Whether voters reward or replace the incumbents will hinge in part on whether those incumbents make their case in the final days before the primary, and whether the challengers' critique of district spending and leadership resonates with an electorate balancing quality schools with the costs of explosive growth.