Marion 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
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Mike Mills
Mills is a U.S. Navy veteran who served as a nuclear machinist mate on submarines from 2010 to 2017. He owns Symmetry Coffee Company in Ocala, works as chief storyteller for a large restaurant franchisee and teaches as an adjunct professor at the College of Central Florida. A Take Stock in Children alumnus and mentor,…
Brigitte Smith
Smith is a registered nurse with about 35 years in the operating room and a U.S. Army Nurse Corps veteran who has volunteered as a medical missionary and serves as board secretary of the Paul Chester Children's Hope Foundation. She has two daughters who graduated from Marion County schools and a granddaughter at Dunne…
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 | Mike Mills Nonpartisan | Brigitte Smith Nonpartisan |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Mills campaigns on business experience with budgets and appropriate spending and says fiscal responsibility is how the district equips and supports teachers; he has not proposed cutting taxes or the school millage. | 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. | 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. | Mixed / neutral· stated position In a Keep Florida Reading questionnaire, Mills said he balances parental rights by consistently auditing the library and telling families where else they can find certain books, such as the public library, and that he trusts certified media specialists to make collection decisions subject to benchmarks and performance auditing. He also said book-removal attempts should be fully explained publicly. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Smith said she would follow Florida's book-challenge statute exactly: material objected to as sexually explicit is pulled within five school days pending review, while other challenges go to a hearing and a board decision. She said she once took part in a challenge herself and that the current policy works. |
| 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 Asked which of teacher pay, employee insurance or class size he would refuse to cut, Mills said he would refuse to cut any of them and that teachers are the last place to take money from. | Leans agree· stated position In the News 6 voter's guide questionnaire, Smith said the district should address waste in construction contracts and redirect the savings toward teacher retention through competitive benefits packages. |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Mills supports zero tolerance for weapons, fighting and drugs and favors removing a repeatedly disruptive student from class sooner, but calls discipline a community problem and pairs removal with mentoring and more help for parents. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Smith named student discipline one of her main concerns and called for a balanced approach, without specifying more police officers or more counselors. |
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.
Mike MillsBrigitte SmithHow 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mike Mills | not enough data | not enough data |
| Brigitte Smith | 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.
Mike Mills
- Career and technical education — Mills strongly backs expanding career and technical education and trade programs so students graduate with certifications and skills, and describes military enlistment as an honorable pathway.
- Did not answer local questionnaire — News 6's 2026 voter's guide notes that Mills did not respond to its requests to complete the candidate questionnaire.
- District budget management — In his Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey Mills says the board needs a business-savvy voice to manage a roughly $1.3 billion budget, citing his experience with logistics, construction, accounting, labor, insurance, vendor relations and city contracts. His campaign website lists board efficiency and fiscal responsibility as a goal.
- Career and post-secondary pathways — Mills says he would grow post-high school programs including career and technical education, trade schools, college and military service, and that he teaches students leaving the district at the college level.
- Policy areas of interest — Asked what areas of public policy he is passionate about, Mills listed policies affecting funding, growth management, labor, transportation, curriculum and nutrition.
Brigitte Smith
- Reading proficiency and overcrowding — Smith's stated top concerns are third-grade reading proficiency, which she puts at 46% at grade level, school overcrowding and bus driver shortages.