Duval 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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Donovan Bradley
Donovan Bradley, 26, is a Jacksonville native and Duval County Public Schools graduate whose mother has taught in the district for more than 30 years. He holds a political science degree from the University of North Florida and has worked as a legislative aide in the Florida Legislature and as a policy analyst for loc…
Donna Westrich
Donna Mae Westrich, 53, teaches marine science at Fletcher High School and has more than 20 years of classroom experience, including middle and high school science in Utah and New Mexico. She holds a degree in environmental science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an education degree from Fort Lewis Colleg…
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 | Donovan Bradley Nonpartisan | Donna Westrich Nonpartisan |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | No public position found | Leans disagree· stated position Westrich says she supports the district's 1-mill property tax referendum to pay for competitive teacher salaries, and calls for working with local and state government to fully fund public schools. She pairs this with transparent budgeting and classroom-first spending. |
| 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 | Leans disagree· stated position Westrich says she supports the Duval County schools 1-mill property tax referendum, a local property tax levy for school operations, as part of her plan to pay for competitive teacher salaries. |
| Education & school choicePublic money should follow students to private, charter or home schools (universal school vouchers). | Leans agree· stated position Bradley's campaign website lists "Champion School Choice" as a priority and says he will work to make sure parents have options for their child's education, citing his own experience attending schools outside his zoned area. The site does not specifically address public funding for private schools. | Leans disagree· stated position Westrich's survey says public schools should be fully funded as a budget line separate from the Family Empowerment Scholarship, and that every school receiving public money should be held to the same accountability standards as public schools. |
| 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. | No public position found | 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 Bradley lists teacher retention among his top three issues and says the district should stay competitive on compensation while reducing administrative burdens and streamlining lesson planning. | Strongly agrees· stated position In her Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey, Westrich lists supporting teachers and strengthening schools as her first campaign priority. She says she will advocate for competitive pay, including supporting the district's 1-mill referendum, and for sustainable workloads and funded support staff to improve retention. |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Leans agree· stated position Bradley's campaign website lists increasing school safety as a top priority and describes working with school resource officers, local law enforcement and crossing guards. It does not mention counselors or mental-health staffing. | 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.
Donovan BradleyDonna WestrichHow 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Donovan Bradley | not enough data | not enough data |
| Donna Westrich | -1.33 (3 statements) | not enough data |
Other issues the candidates have raised
Priorities each candidate has brought up on their own, beyond the major-issue list above.
Donovan Bradley
- Career pathways — Bradley wants to strengthen core reading, math and science instruction and expand career and technical education: 'One of the things that I'd like to see an increase on is better, stronger classroom-to-career pipelines.'
- Career and technical education — Bradley says he will advocate for and expand the Advanced Internship Program, which lets juniors and seniors take paid, credit-bearing internships that count toward career and technical education coursework.
- Teacher retention — Bradley says teacher retention depends on respect, support and opportunities for growth, and that he would focus on eliminating bureaucracy and giving teachers more resources and classroom freedom.
Donna Westrich
- Budget, enrollment and teacher loss — Westrich describes budget shortfalls, declining enrollment and the loss of teachers as one interconnected problem and campaigns on fiscal accountability and transparency.
- Community access — Westrich has pledged monthly public community meetings if elected: 'I want my community to feel like they have a voice at the table.'
- Budget transparency — Westrich lists transparency, accountability and smart spending as a campaign priority, saying she would protect public education funding through transparent budgeting, oversight and classroom-first spending.
- Parent and community engagement — Westrich says she would increase community partnerships and hold open public workshops so parents can take part in district decisions.