Pasco County School Board, District 1
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 ↗Gino Collura
Collura is a Pasco County business consultant and behavioral scientist educated at the University of South Florida, and a former teacher. He was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to the Pasco-Hernando State College district board of trustees. He is a candidate for the District 1 seat on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot.
Kimberly Coward
Coward is an attorney who previously worked as a guidance counselor in Dade City and served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps. She holds a doctorate in education and a law degree from the University of Florida. She is a candidate for the District 1 seat on the Nov. 3, 2026 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 | Gino Collura Nonpartisan | Kimberly Coward 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). | Leans agree· stated position Collura describes himself as a supporter of school choice. On a 2026 questionnaire he strongly agreed that school choice creates competition that pushes public schools to improve. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Coward says she supports school and parent choice when it helps students, but she is concerned about falling enrollment at lower-performing schools. She wants every public school strong enough, and teachers paid better, so that families do not feel they have to leave. |
| Gender identity lawsFlorida's laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors and classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity should remain in place. | Strongly agrees· stated position On a 2026 questionnaire Collura strongly agreed that gender dysphoria should be treated, not affirmed, and strongly disagreed that gender-affirming providers should be a school resource. He said he does not support gender-identity instruction in K-12 schools. | 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. | Leans agree· stated position Collura strongly disagreed that library books with literary value should be exempt from obscenity laws. He said literary merit should not override age-appropriateness and that parents can expect materials to suit children's development. | 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 Collura said he intends to prioritize offering competitive teacher pay packages, along with mentorship for teachers. He has not named spending he would cut to pay for it. | Leans agree· stated position Coward's website says supporting students requires investing in teachers, counselors, bus drivers, paraprofessionals, cafeteria workers and support staff through competitive pay, improved retention and better working conditions. She does not say pay should come ahead of other district spending. |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Collura's stated school-safety approach is to use threat-management technology and to curb excessive personal-device use by students. He did not frame safety as a choice between police and discipline on one side and counselors and mental-health staff on the other. | Leans disagree· stated position Coward's campaign website, quoted on Ballotpedia, says true school safety requires addressing students' emotional, mental and social well-being alongside secure facilities and safety protocols. A former guidance counselor, she calls for improving the student-to-counselor ratio as youth anxiety, depression and suicide attempts rise. |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gino Collura | not enough data | 1.00 (4 statements) |
| Kimberly Coward | 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.
Gino Collura
- Science standards and classroom order — Calls for more safety and classroom-order measures and a move away from classroom technology; recently praised the state's science-standards revisions.
Kimberly Coward
- Safe and supportive schools — Coward's campaign site lists 'Safe & Supportive Schools' as a priority, described as ensuring every student learns in a safe, respectful and supportive environment. She has not detailed specific safety or discipline proposals.
- Safe and supportive schools — Coward's campaign site lists 'Safe & Supportive Schools' as a priority, described as ensuring every student learns in a safe, respectful and supportive environment. She has not detailed specific safety or discipline proposals.
- Equitable access and academic achievement — Coward's website says educational inequities compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic left underserved children behind, and that she is committed to improving academic achievement, supporting student mental health, sustaining enrollment and ensuring equitable access to schools, programs and transportation.
- Counselors and student mental health — Puts student mental health at the top of her list; said at a recent forum she would ask state leaders to fund more guidance counselors.