Alachua County School Board, District 1
School board members set the district budget and school-tax rate, hire the superintendent (where appointed), approve school boundaries, curriculum policy and construction, and set district policies. Nonpartisan. Term: 4 years.
Partly verified. Either the November opponent could not be confirmed from available sources, or only a few positions are documented. Confirm the full candidate list on your county sample ballot; unknown positions are shown as such.
How we verified who is on the ballot
Candidate list taken from the Florida Division of Elections, 2026 general election candidate list on 2026-09-18 ; both candidates are marked Qualified, which for a nonpartisan seat means the August vote did not produce a majority winner (or the seat is decided only in November). Check the county Supervisor of Elections sample ballot.
Candidates
Report an error ↗Hunter Miller
Hunter Miller, 27, teaches math at Howard W. Bishop Middle School, a Title I school in Gainesville, and holds a bachelor's degree in middle grades math education from Indian River State College. He is a first-generation American and has not held elected office before. He led the August 2026 primary with about 46% of t…
Janine Plavac
Janine Plavac, 73, is a registered nurse who taught in Alachua County public schools for 17 years, including as director of the Academy of Health Professions at Gainesville High School until 2021. She now teaches at Saint Francis Catholic Academy. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed her to the School Board of Alachua County's…
Side-by-side on the major issues
Each row is a statement. The chips show how each candidate's stated positions or record relate to that statement. Expand a row to read the evidence and sources. "No public position found" means we could not find a statement or record on the topic, not that the candidate has none.
| Issue | Hunter Miller Nonpartisan | Janine Plavac Nonpartisan |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | No public position found | Leans disagree· based on record As a sitting board member Plavac joined a unanimous School Board of Alachua County vote on Sept. 15, 2026 adopting a $623 million FY2027 budget and a property tax rate of 6.3270 mills, about 5.38% above the rolled-back rate. On her campaign site she describes her fiscal approach as stewardship rather than tax cutting. |
| Property taxesFlorida should eliminate or sharply reduce homestead property taxes, even if local governments must cut services or find other revenue. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Education & school choicePublic money should follow students to private, charter or home schools (universal school vouchers). | No public position found | No public position found |
| Gender identity lawsFlorida's laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors and classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity should remain in place. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Library and classroom materialsParents' objections should be enough to pull a book or lesson from a school, even when other families want it kept. | Strongly disagrees· stated position Miller says trained media specialists should decide what their age group can read and that a parent can keep their own student from checking out a book, but not decide for others. | No public position found |
| Teacher and staff payRaising teacher and staff pay should be the district's top budget priority, even if other spending has to be cut. | Leans agree· stated position Miller's campaign platform lists increasing teacher pay as one of several steps to reduce teacher turnover, alongside a more supportive district culture and using test scores to target support. He does not say pay should outrank all other spending. | No public position found |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Leans disagree· stated position In the district's candidate questionnaire Miller listed school safety among his top three issues and described his approach as effective staff training and adequate staffing of guidance counselors, rather than added police presence or tougher discipline. | No public position found |
Where they sit on the map
Each candidate is placed by the average of their documented stances. It is a summary of the table above, not an extra judgment.
How the axes are computed
Each axis is the average of a candidate's coded stances (+2 to −2) on a fixed set of statements, so it comes straight from the documented positions and nothing else. A candidate needs at least three documented statements on an axis to be placed.
Economic issues (toward "Smaller government (lower taxes, less spending)"): Taxes & spending (agree), Property taxes (agree), Health care (disagree), Housing affordability (disagree), Property insurance (disagree), Energy & utilities (disagree), Social Security & Medicare (disagree), Teacher and staff pay (disagree).
Social & legal issues (toward "Conservative side of the statements"): Immigration (agree), Abortion (disagree), Guns (disagree), Education & school choice (agree), Elections & voting (disagree), Crime & policing (agree), Gender identity laws (agree), Marijuana (disagree), Environment & water (disagree), Trump administration (agree), Library and classroom materials (agree), School safety approach (agree).
| Candidate | Economic issues | Social & legal issues |
|---|---|---|
| Hunter Miller | not enough data | not enough data |
| Janine Plavac | not enough data | not enough data |
Other issues the candidates have raised
Priorities each candidate has brought up on their own, beyond the major-issue list above.
Hunter Miller
- Teacher support and classroom autonomy — Miller says teachers feel unsupported by the district and wants more reasonable teacher-discipline procedures and greater instructional flexibility for educators.
- Literacy and early intervention — Miller says the district should 'embrace the science of reading,' focus on K-2 literacy and identify students needing remediation earlier.
- Permanent superintendent — Miller says the district needs a permanent superintendent who can close achievement gaps, manage the budget and support teachers: 'I'm not looking for any more temporary superintendents.'
Janine Plavac
- Teaching methods and classroom autonomy — Plavac favors traditional instruction, including paper-based assessments and enforcement of the state's school phone restrictions, and says teachers should choose their own programs: 'Let them decide what programs work for them and their teaching environment.'
- Permanent superintendent and literacy — Plavac names hiring a permanent superintendent and raising literacy rates as her main priorities, and lists accountability, unity and progress as her top three issues.
- Superintendent contract and district borrowing — In a May 2026 op-ed, Plavac objected that Superintendent Kamela Patton's extended contract still includes a $2,000-a-month temporary housing allowance, questioned a $200 million borrowing resolution adopted before school-expansion costs were known, and said proceeding with redistricting without full financial details was a mistake.