Brevard County School Board, District 5
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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Tammy Dennis
Tammy Dennis, 65, holds a bachelor's degree in music education from Bob Jones University. She has served about four years on the Brevard school district's Independent Citizen Oversight Committee, which reviews the voter-approved surtax, and on the district's Audit Committee. This is her first run for office.
Michele McCormack
Michele McCormack, 50, is a Brevard County educator with more than 20 years of classroom experience. She is running for the District 5 seat saying she wants classroom experience represented on the board, and campaigns on supporting teachers and paraprofessionals and strengthening services for students with disabilitie…
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 | Tammy Dennis Nonpartisan | Michele McCormack Nonpartisan |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | Leans agree· stated position Dennis says she would be the fiscally responsible voice on the board, streamline processes and tighten spending, particularly on administration, drawing on her budget-oversight committee work. | No public position found |
| 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. | Leans agree· stated position Dennis says she opposes boys using girls' bathrooms and stresses parents' right to be fully informed and involved in decisions about their children, though she has not commented directly on the state laws on gender-affirming care or classroom instruction. | 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 agrees· stated position Dennis says no material with sexually explicit content should be accessible in school libraries and frames curriculum and library decisions around parents' right to be informed and to decide what their children see. | Leans disagree· stated position McCormack says book challenges and library removals should go through a clear, consistent and transparent review process rather than being decided case by case on objection alone. |
| Teacher and staff payRaising teacher and staff pay should be the district's top budget priority, even if other spending has to be cut. | No public position found | Leans agree· stated position McCormack says strong schools begin with teachers and paraprofessionals who feel supported and that Brevard should be a place educators want to stay, through competitive compensation and fewer administrative burdens. |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Strongly agrees· stated position Dennis supports arming trained adults on campus and building modifications, and says she would back a new discipline plan that enforces consequences for bad behavior. | Leans disagree· stated position On safety McCormack emphasizes bus reliability and making the district's existing security infrastructure work, rather than expanding the number of armed staff on campus. |
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.
Tammy DennisMichele McCormackHow 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tammy Dennis | not enough data | 1.67 (3 statements) |
| Michele McCormack | 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.
Tammy Dennis
- Teacher compensation — Dennis has spoken generally in favor of fair and merit-based pay for teachers without naming an amount or a funding source.
- District budget cuts — Asked about the district's nearly $79 million in budget cuts, Dennis told Florida Today she can find money for classrooms; she cites her service on the oversight committee for the school sales surtax. Quote: "I believe that I can find the dollars to support our teachers, our classrooms, and our students."
Michele McCormack
- Politics in the classroom — McCormack says her focus is student growth and learning rather than political agendas: 'our schools should be about education, not agendas.'
- Students with disabilities — McCormack lists strengthening services for students with disabilities among her three campaign priorities.