Incumbent Citrus County District 2 school board member Ginger Bryant is the board’s longest-serving member in its history.
Bryant will retire at the end of her current term after 24 years in office, leaving the seat open for the first time since her initial election in 2000.
Two candidates are vying for the spot, hoping to follow Bryant: Victoria Lynne Smith and Ken Frink.
During the primary election, Frink received 45.65% of the vote, and Smith received 24.18%, according to the Citrus County Supervisor of Elections.
The other candidates who ran, Laura Gatling-Wright and Dale Marie Merrill, received 21.27% and 8.90% of the vote, respectively.
Because none of the candidates crossed the 50% threshold to win the race altogether, the top two candidates – Frink and Smith – will face off in the general election.
Here’s what Citrus County voters should know about each candidate before casting their ballots.
Ken Frink
Frink, 58, is an executive manager and professional engineer, according to his campaign website. A Citrus County resident for nearly 50 years, he has previously served as public works director, assistant county administrator and a division director at the Southwest Florida Water Management District, among other roles.
He has raised just over $70,000 in cash to fund his campaign, and as of Wednesday spent nearly $62,000 of it, according to the county supervisor of elections office.
During a candidate forum hosted by the Citrus County Chronicle Oct. 3, Frink said serving on a school board is important to him because of the students.
“It’s about our kids; it’s about their future, and, most importantly, it’s about our future because they’re going to be taking care of us one day,” Frink said.
Frink said during the forum that two of the school board’s main challenges are classroom discipline and teacher retention.
Frink noted that Citrus County loses over 10% of its teachers each year due to discipline issues.
“We need to support the teachers in their classroom and give them more ability to manage their classroom,” Frink said.
Another of Frink's priorities, according to his campaign website, is alleviating Citrus County's skills gap.
If elected, Frink intends to challenge the bureaucracy and push for curriculum and training that will better set up students for success after graduation, a topic he also addressed during the forum.
“I think there’s a huge opportunity to connect the business community and our school systems, so we can get these kids employable and ready as they leave school,” Frink said.
Frink was unable to agree on a time for an interview with WUFT, due in part to the two hurricanes that affected the county this fall.
Victoria Lynne Smith
Smith, 57, has been an educator in the Citrus and Hernando school systems for the past 26 years. A teacher at Citrus High School, Smith has led professional learning in Citrus and Hernando counties and previously served as president of the Citrus County Education Association for 10 years.
Smith said she has always advocated for both teachers and students for all of her years of teaching.
“When the opening came… I felt it was my opportunity to say, ‘OK, now is the time to step up,’ because there’s a lot of change in policy that could be done,” Smith said.
She has raised around $35,000 so far for her campaign and spent roughly $32,000 as of Wednesday, according to the elections office.
One of Smith’s priorities is ensuring that the policies implemented will be helpful.
“Rather than to put the policy in and then go, ‘Oh, that was not a really good policy,’ I want to make sure that we are looking at it through the eyes of our staff members and our students,” Smith said. “I want to make sure that is number one.”
Smith said she also wants to make sure that teachers and staff are properly compensated.
When Smith initially began campaigning, she said, she noticed that Citrus County was very top heavy.
As a school board member, Smith said she would not advocate for firing people. Rather, she said she wants to make sure that jobs are not filled solely to advance another individual.
“Instead, we need to make sure that [jobs] are being filled because there really is a need for it, because that money, a lot of that money, can be distributed down,” Smith said.
If elected, Smith said she intends to stay as involved as possible with staff members in order to “not lose sight of what’s going on” and ensure they are receiving the best practices available to serve students.
“I want to go into the classroom still,” Smith said. “I want to go and ride the bus with the bus drivers. I want to get in there with the cafeteria workers. I want to always be a part, so I don’t forget what’s happening in our classes.”