Duval County School Board, District 4
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 ↗One candidate in this race is a write-in. Florida does not print a qualified write-in candidate's name on the ballot. To vote for one you must write the name on the write-in line for this race; a blank or misspelled line may not be counted.
Rhodesia Butler
Rhodesia Butler, 55, spent more than 21 years in Duval County Public Schools as a teacher, specialist, Early College coordinator, dean, assistant principal, principal and area director. She graduated from Stanton College Preparatory School and holds a master's in educational leadership from Jacksonville University, an…
James Jacobs
James 'Coach' Jacobs, 44, is dean of students, athletic director and a coach at a Jacksonville charter school, with earlier work as a paraprofessional, truancy officer, ESE assistant and physical education teacher. He holds a bachelor's in public safety management from Florida State College at Jacksonville and a maste…
Gracie Kearse-McCastler
Gracie Bell Kearse-McCastler is a Jacksonville native who spent 33 years in Duval County Public Schools as a teacher and assistant principal. She and her three children attended District 4 public schools. She is running as a write-in candidate, so her name does not appear printed on the ballot.
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 | Rhodesia Butler Nonpartisan | James Jacobs Nonpartisan | Gracie Kearse-McCastler Write-in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | Leans disagree· stated position Butler supports renewing Duval schools' voter-approved 1-mill property tax on the November ballot, saying it has funded teacher raises and that failing to renew it would have an impact. | No public position found | Leans disagree· stated position Asked about renewal of the district's one-mill local property tax for schools, Kearse-McCastler said she would support it fully rather than let the levy lapse. |
| 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 Butler lists teacher and staff retention among her top three issues and says she would advocate for competitive salaries and meaningful professional development. | Strongly agrees· stated position Jacobs' campaign website lists teacher pay as the first of three top priorities, calling for making competitive teacher pay a district priority and supporting a living wage for teachers and staff. He also lists higher stipends for part-time coaches and support for facilities and cafeteria employees. | Strongly agrees· stated position Kearse-McCastler says teachers are overworked and underpaid and backs renewal of the district's one-mill property tax, which funds salaries, saying she would support it fully. |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Leans disagree· stated position Butler names school safety and student behavior as her top issue but says she would address it through stronger behavior-intervention systems and more mentoring and student-support programs rather than added policing. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Jacobs' campaign website calls for professional school-security solutions so that security staff handle safety and teachers can teach. It separately lists mental health as a priority, including more mental-health training and suicide-awareness education. | Leans disagree· stated position Kearse-McCastler raises the school-to-prison pipeline and high disciplinary referral rates among minority students as concerns, framing discipline as something to reduce rather than tighten. |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Rhodesia Butler | not enough data | not enough data |
| James Jacobs | not enough data | not enough data |
| Gracie Kearse-McCastler | 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.
Rhodesia Butler
- Staffing and enrollment — Butler frames staffing as a fiscal-stewardship question tied to enrollment: 'you have to place teachers and principals where they need to be, but if you only have a certain amount of students, it just makes sense.'
- College and career readiness — Butler says every student should graduate with a clear pathway to college, technical education, military service, entrepreneurship or the workforce.
James Jacobs
- Teacher retention and school culture — Jacobs says retention depends on creating a culture where teachers feel respected, supported and heard, with access to meaningful professional development.
- Accessibility — Jacobs' campaign site commits him to being 'present, accessible, and accountable to the families of District 4.'
- School construction and closures — Jacobs says the district should be building schools rather than closing them, and lists renovating older schools to improve learning environments.
- Student meals and programming — Jacobs says he would protect free breakfast and lunch, expand after-school and summer programs for students with emotional-behavioral disabilities, and reinstate middle school sports teams.
- School closures — Jacobs said the district should rebuild and upgrade schools in District 4 before closing them, calling the schools the heart of the community; his campaign site says "We should be building schools, not closing them."
Gracie Kearse-McCastler
- Distribution of experienced teachers — Kearse-McCastler advocates a more equitable distribution of experienced educators across District 4 schools and says schools should keep showcasing their accomplishments to attract families.