Orange County School Board, District 3
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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Diana Moore
Moore is a candidate for the Orange County School Board District 3 seat on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot. In the 2026 News Collaborative/ClickOrlando voters guide she listed parental choice among district learning options, teacher compensation and student discipline as her top three issues, and said she would press the dist…
Susanne Peña
Pena is an educator with more than 20 years of experience teaching at the K-12 and college levels, and is the parent of an Orange County Public Schools student. She is a candidate for the District 3 seat on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot and answered the 2026 News Collaborative/ClickOrlando voters guide questionnaire.
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 | Diana Moore Nonpartisan | Susanne Peña Nonpartisan |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | No public position found | 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 | Leans disagree· stated position Pena listed protecting public schools among her top three issues, calling for responsible funding, proactive planning for enrollment decline, and greater accountability for schools that receive public dollars. |
| 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 Asked about book challenges, Moore said parents should be able to review materials and decide what their own children read. She described a per-family opt-out rather than a process for removing a title for all students. | Leans disagree· stated position Asked about book challenges and library removals, Pena said decisions should be made by qualified educators, librarians and appropriate review committees, and judged on educational value, age appropriateness and established academic standards. |
| 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 Moore named teacher compensation one of her top three issues, said Florida ranks last in the country on teacher pay, and proposed finding money for raises by reviewing the budget, changing the district's health-insurance approach, and moving staff out of downtown offices into closed schools to generate rental income. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Pena calls for competitive salaries as part of recruiting and retaining educators, but said pay alone is not the answer and stressed professional development, mentorship, career growth and supportive working conditions. She did not name budget tradeoffs. |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Leans agree· stated position Moore listed discipline among her top three issues, calling for stricter policies that place students in the district's PASS program or suspend them on first violations for vaping and classroom disruption. Her school-safety answer supports school resource officers with training to build student trust; she did not discuss counselors or mental-health staffing. | Leans disagree· stated position Pena's school-safety answer called for regularly reviewing and strengthening safety protocols and combining prevention, early intervention and a positive school climate. She did not propose additional police presence or tougher discipline. |
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.
Diana MooreSusanne PeñaHow 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Diana Moore | not enough data | not enough data |
| Susanne Peña | not enough data | -1.00 (3 statements) |
Other issues the candidates have raised
Priorities each candidate has brought up on their own, beyond the major-issue list above.
Diana Moore
- School choice within the district — Moore's first listed issue is parental choice among district options - virtual, traditional and magnet schools. She proposed exit surveys for families who leave Orange County Public Schools and said the district should look harder at why enrollment is declining.
- School choice within the district — Moore's first listed issue is parental choice among district options - virtual, traditional and magnet schools. She proposed exit surveys for families who leave Orange County Public Schools and said the district should look harder at why enrollment is declining.
Susanne Peña
- Response to reporting on opponent — Asked about the reporting on Moore's personnel file, Peña said public leaders should meet 'high standards of professionalism, accountability, and respectful treatment.'