The five-person Pasco County school board will swear in two new members at the same time after the November election for the first time since 2010.
The newcomers who replace retiring members Al Hernandez in District 1 and Cynthia Armstrong in District 3 will take office as county schools face issues they have not contended with in even longer.
Student enrollment, which boomed for most of the 2000s, has declined two consecutive years even as the county’s population continues to grow. Charter schools have taken up much of the slack, with many families also choosing to use vouchers for private or home schooling.
Officials will need to seek solutions to the shrinking numbers, and the resulting decrease in per-student funding, as they work to build upon improved academic outcomes that brought Pasco its first A state grade since 2008.
The two nonpartisan races, to be determined by all voters countywide, feature candidates who would bring different priorities and approaches to the job.
Natives aiming to leave a mark
In District 1, representing much of east Pasco, hopefuls Gino Collura and Kimberly Coward are county natives who attended district schools and worked in them for a couple of years after college.
They each have multiple post-secondary degrees and spend much of their professional lives focusing on education issues.
Their priorities, however, differ beyond continued gains in student achievement.
Collura, 40, a security consultant who also serves on the Pasco-Hernando State College board of trustees, said it’s critical that the district implement more measures aimed at increased safety and classroom order.
“Students cannot learn when classrooms are disrupted, teachers cannot maintain order, or parents do not feel confident that their children are safe,” said Collura, who placed second in the four-person primary. “I support proactive school safety rather than simply responding after something happens.”
The schools must collaborate with the wider community to achieve this goal, he said, stressing the importance of parents in the process. Endorsed by the Republican Party, Collura’s campaign has touched on parental rights and other themes that Gov. Ron DeSantis has advanced.
He has called for a greater focus on fundamentals, for instance, moving away from technology to help students enhance their ability to think and make decisions. He called himself a “huge proponent” of ensuring age-appropriate materials are in schools, saying any item that pushes an agenda should be up for review.
He also recently praised the state’s science standards revisions, sharing Education Commissioner Henry Mack’s statement that children should not be “indoctrinated in leftist, woke ideology.”
Coward, 51, a lawyer, put student mental health at the top of her list. If children are not well situated with their basic needs, she said, they can’t be productive in the classroom.
“Of course we’ve got to keep the weapons out. But it goes deeper,” Coward said, suggesting the schools must be both safe and supportive.
At a recent candidate forum, she said she would call on state leaders to provide funding for more guidance counselors, a job she once held. In that role and as a founder of One Voice Children’s Law Center, Coward said academics and health are not competing goals.
“When I make a decision, I’m going to be thinking about whether it’s in the best interest of the children, whether it’s providing access and opportunity to all children,” she said.
Coward made a 2024 bid for school board in Broward County, where her law firm also helped review district policies. She said she focused her entire career, including time as a military attorney, toward the goal of bettering children’s education from the policy perch. She largely steered clear of political themes.
District 3
In District 3, representing south-central Pasco, private school administrator Matt Geiger faces real estate agent Mollyana Ward. Geiger, 54, who also ran for the seat four years ago, led Ward, 50, in the five-person primary by more than 6,000 votes of 77,552 cast.
Geiger — not the former NBA player — said he has seen the district struggle with issues including enrollment declines, student truancy and teacher retention.
He has written lengthy position papers on several concepts, differentiating him from the talking points of most campaigns. They include providing more career education opportunities for middle school students and using half-empty buildings as hubs for community education programs.
He’s devised plans for designing a new teacher pay scale and establishing affordable housing for district employees. The latter got panned when he shared it on social media. Ward took a shot at it, saying a rent-controlled teacher village would not work in Pasco and calling instead for some type of down payment assistance.
“After reading all the comments, I pulled the concept down,” Geiger said. “The silver lining is, I got all sorts of people to talk about education.”
He said he wouldn’t bring a criticism to the board without a proposed solution, and he’d either win support or not. The goal, he said, will always be to get kids to love their schools so they stay and learn how to support the lifestyle they dream of.
“If at the end of the day we can do that, then we’ve done our job,” Geiger said.
Ward said she decided to run for school board after serving in other organizations and advisory panels.
While raising her own children, she worked in a day care and as a nanny, eventually owning her own child care business. When her oldest son struggled in school, Ward homeschooled him after their Volusia County district did not provide all the special education services they needed.
Those experiences, along with her work in real estate, prompted her to think about running for the school board. She said problems such as long school bus rides and students spending too much time in front of screens need to be resolved.
“I want to effect positive change,” Ward said. “I want these kids to go back to the foundations of education.”
Ward has been targeted by critics who say her past extramarital affairs made her unsuitable for setting policies for other peoples’ children. Some people also have said they don’t like her ties to real estate and development.
She has downplayed the criticisms, saying she aims to make a positive impact on the school system.
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