Pasco 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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Matt Geiger
Geiger has spent roughly 20 to 30 years in education as a teacher, counselor and administrator in public, private, charter and parochial schools, and more recently directed a soccer academy. He is a Pasco County parent and a candidate for the District 3 seat on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot.
Mollyana Ward
Ward is a Pasco County real estate agent who describes herself as a business leader, mother and grandmother with experience in early childhood education and family services. She is a candidate for the District 3 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 | Matt Geiger Nonpartisan | Mollyana Ward Nonpartisan |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | No public position found | Mixed / neutral· stated position Ward says she would protect and respect every dollar in the budget by demanding efficiency, transparency and accountability, and would expand opportunities without increasing taxes. She has not called for cutting taxes or named services she would reduce. |
| Property taxesFlorida should eliminate or sharply reduce homestead property taxes, even if local governments must cut services or find other revenue. | Leans disagree· stated position Geiger said he supports Pasco County's local property-tax referendum for schools, while calling it an incomplete answer to teacher retention because teachers also feel undervalued over discipline and bureaucracy. | 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. | No public position found | Mixed / neutral· stated position Ward said book challenges should be handled through a clear, lawful process that respects both parents' rights and age-appropriate standards. She described a process rather than saying a parent's objection should by itself remove a title. |
| 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 Geiger makes increasing teacher salaries a top campaign priority and says he would pay for it by cutting central-office waste and directing more funding to classrooms and salaries. He has also proposed district-owned affordable teacher housing modeled on a Chicago program. | No public position found |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Leans agree· stated position Geiger lists improving classroom behavior as a priority and says discipline should be restored so teachers can teach. He has proposed school safety officers who issue citations to students for chronic misbehavior. He has not proposed added counseling or mental-health staffing. | Leans agree· stated position Ward lists artificial-intelligence threat detection among her safety priorities and supports limiting cell-phone use during instruction. Her campaign site highlights the Sheriff's Office endorsement and the partnership between the Sheriff's Office and the school district. She has not proposed added counseling or mental-health staffing. |
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.
Matt GeigerMollyana WardHow 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Matt Geiger | not enough data | not enough data |
| Mollyana Ward | 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.
Matt Geiger
- Curriculum content — Geiger says schools should teach free from ideological indoctrination, emphasizing phonics-based reading, basic math proficiency and American exceptionalism, and opposes what he calls divisive social theories in the curriculum. He has not described how he would handle an individual parent's objection to a specific book.
- Career and technical education — Geiger proposes expanding career and technical education and building career-cluster programs with local businesses to prepare students for work after high school.
- Curriculum content — Geiger says schools should teach free from ideological indoctrination, emphasizing phonics-based reading, basic math proficiency and American exceptionalism, and opposes what he calls divisive social theories in the curriculum. He has not described how he would handle an individual parent's objection to a specific book.
- Career and technical education — Geiger proposes expanding career and technical education and building career-cluster programs with local businesses to prepare students for work after high school.
- Teacher housing proposal — Has published position papers including a new teacher pay scale and district employee housing; withdrew the housing concept after public criticism.
Mollyana Ward
- Teacher pipeline — Ward says she would strengthen local teacher pipelines through partnerships with universities, rather than focusing on pay changes.
- Teacher pipeline — Ward says she would strengthen local teacher pipelines through partnerships with universities, rather than focusing on pay changes.
- Teacher housing — Said a rent-controlled teacher village would not work in Pasco and called instead for down-payment assistance.