Brevard County School Board, District 2
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
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Kyle Savage
Kyle Savage served in the U.S. Army as a military police officer, including protective security work for senior commanders. He holds a Florida K-6 teaching certificate and taught fifth- and sixth-grade math and science at Cape View Elementary School in Cape Canaveral. He is a father of three and finished second in the…
Gene Trent
Gene Trent was elected to the Brevard County School Board's District 2 seat in 2022 and served as board vice chair. He describes more than 20 years as a classroom educator. He led the August 2026 primary with about 42% of the vote and faces Kyle Savage in the November runoff.
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 | Kyle Savage Nonpartisan | Gene Trent Nonpartisan |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | Leans disagree· stated position Rather than further cuts, Savage proposes growing enrollment and revenue by expanding VPK to every elementary school, building a vocational-technical center and moving district staff into underused buildings instead of closing schools. He also wants a plain-language budget breakdown published every year. | Leans agree· stated position In an August 2025 video Trent questioned whether the district needed about $7 million in federal funding, saying money alone does not solve problems, and has described cutting open positions and returning resource teachers to classrooms as his budget approach. |
| 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). | Leans disagree· stated position Says Brevard's falling enrollment and school closures are driven largely by the state voucher program; wants the district to compete by expanding VPK and building a vocational-technical center. | 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 Savage opposed the board's attempt to remove about 298 books in a single motion and says each challenge should be reviewed individually by a committee that includes both parents and educators, with no blanket bans. | Strongly agrees· based on record As board vice chair in November 2023 Trent moved, without the item being on the agenda, to remove about 298 books from Brevard classrooms and libraries based on a state list of titles pulled in other districts, bypassing individual review. The motion failed 3-2 and Trent said he would bring it back. |
| Teacher and staff payRaising teacher and staff pay should be the district's top budget priority, even if other spending has to be cut. | Strongly agrees· stated position Savage says Brevard teachers are paid more than $2,500 below the state average and pledges to make compensation a priority in every budget cycle. | No public position found |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Savage would put a school resource officer in every school and two in larger schools, and also calls for consistent discipline policy and mental-health resources, saying safety depends on trained people, clear protocols and no gaps. | Leans agree· based on record Trent has supported metal detectors in schools and expansion of the Guardian Program, which arms and trains designated school staff to respond to threats. |
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.
Kyle SavageGene TrentHow 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kyle Savage | not enough data | -1.00 (3 statements) |
| Gene Trent | 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.
Kyle Savage
- Cape View Elementary closure and budget transparency — Florida Today reported that Savage, a former Cape View Elementary teacher, has made the board's January vote to close the school a campaign issue, and said the board must be more transparent about finances, criticizing discussion of a $100 million tax anticipation note at an off-site work session.
Gene Trent
- Teacher pay and retention — Trent's campaign site lists 'competitive pay, professional growth' among his priorities and claims improved teacher retention as a result of his term. He did not return the 2026 voter-guide questionnaire.