Primary voting ended with contests for all three open Duval County School Board seats on the ballot headed toward November runoffs.
Balloting in the Beaches/Southside District 2 nearly gave 26-year-old Donovan Bradley
the majority he needed to win outright. Instead, the Fletcher High School graduate will face Donna Mae Westrich, a 20-year-educator who taught marine science at Fletcher before resigning to run for office.In July, Bradley tweeted a group endorsement by five of the current board’s seven members, three of whom are scheduled to remain until at least 2028.
“We are confident Donovan will be a principled leader who will always put students, parents and teachers
first,” read a statement from the group, whose makeup included members the Duval County Republican Party celebrated in 2024 as a “culmination of the Duval GOP's six-year strategy to remake the Duval County School Board." Bradley was the party's executive director from 2021 to 2023.
Westrich’s campaign promised “practical leadership focused on students, teachers, and strong public schools.”
Voters in District 4 on the city's Northside and Northwest neighborhoods split betweenJames "Coach" Jacobs and Rhodesia "Rho" Butler, both of whom have worked in Duval County Public Schools as well as charter school settings. Alfreda Denson Butler finished third.
Jacobs is currently dean of students at a Westside charter school and had previously run for School Board and City Council seats. Butler was a school district employee for about 20 years, holding posts including teacher, dean of students, assistant principal at individual DCPS schools and region assistant principal working with several at a time, as well as time as principal of a charter school. She works now as an area director for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida and framed her election bid as a continuation of a career helping children and families.
In Jacksonville's Westside and Baldwin, the five-person race in District 6 became a two-way contest between Realtor Lindsey Denmark and Clarence "CJ" James, a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office retiree who is now a sergeant with the Duval County School Police.
Each took distinctive paths on their campaign messages.
Denmark, whose teenage son is home-schooled, saying she "would like to see more character and virtue" incorporated into district curriculum and saying she hoped to "bridge that gap and bring the confidence back” that families who have withdrawn from district schools can return.
James, who has children and a grandchild in district schools, has emphasized maintaining order in schools so teachers can connect with their students. He has labeled himself a “bipartisan, bridge-building candidate” with endorsements including Republican State Attorney Melissa Nelson and Democratic former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Duval School Board candidates split vote, force runoffs in 3 districts
