Pinellas 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
Report an error ↗Curtis Campogni
Campogni, 41, has worked with at-risk youth in Pinellas and central Florida for about 15 years, moving from work in a group home to case management. He founded Speak4MC in 2021 to train youth and family agencies nationally. He and his wife adopted two children through Florida's foster care system. He is a candidate fo…
Dawn Peters
Peters, 51, was elected to the Pinellas County School Board in November 2022 and serves as vice chair. Before taking office she worked in property management and as a self-employed personal trainer, and she has been a certified substitute preschool teacher, a school mentor and a PTA officer. She is seeking the Distric…
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 | Curtis Campogni Nonpartisan | Dawn Peters 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 Peters's campaign site emphasizes responsible governance, making sure families have a voice and that tax dollars are used wisely. 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. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Education & school choicePublic money should follow students to private, charter or home schools (universal school vouchers). | Strongly disagrees· stated position Campogni's campaign website, quoted on Ballotpedia, lists "Vouchers" among his core priorities and says he supports keeping tax dollars in public schools. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Peters agreed that school choice creates healthy competition and said tax dollars should follow a family's choice. She also said current voucher funding for private education is excessive and should not be prioritized over public schools. |
| 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 | Leans agree· stated position Peters strongly agreed that gender dysphoria should be treated, not affirmed, and strongly disagreed that gender-affirming providers should be a school resource. She said health decisions for minors belong to parents, as state law requires. |
| Library and classroom materialsParents' objections should be enough to pull a book or lesson from a school, even when other families want it kept. | Strongly disagrees· stated position Campogni says he supports his district's current review policy because it does not let one person remove material district-wide, requiring community input, professional review and verifiable justification first, while parents keep the right to decide for their own children. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Peters strongly disagreed that library books with literary value should be exempt from obscenity laws. She said books should be judged against the laws on minors, not removed on a parent's objection alone. |
| 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 Campogni's website lists teacher support and teacher retention among his priorities and says he supports listening to teachers and paying them competitively. He does not say pay should come ahead of other district spending. | Leans agree· stated position Peters declined an interview but wrote in a candidate survey that she supports academic growth, maintaining stability and increasing teacher and staff pay. 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 disagree· stated position Campogni's website says he supports making safety a top priority both physically and emotionally, more counselors and support systems for students, and weapon detection as one part of a broader safety strategy. He also lists accountability and intervention on student behavior. | Leans agree· stated position Peters strongly agreed that consequences for bad behavior make schools safe and orderly. She said parents should take more responsibility for discipline, called for reform of federal special-education discipline rules, and said trained officers and school guardians are qualified to carry firearms on campus. |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Curtis Campogni | not enough data | -1.67 (3 statements) |
| Dawn Peters | not enough data | 0.50 (4 statements) |
Other issues the candidates have raised
Priorities each candidate has brought up on their own, beyond the major-issue list above.
Curtis Campogni
- Declining enrollment and school closures — Campogni links falling enrollment to teacher burnout and lost community trust, and argues enrollment drives funding. He says school-closure recommendations deserve scrutiny and that board decisions should be judged by whether they improve student success.
- Declining enrollment and school closures — Campogni links falling enrollment to teacher burnout and lost community trust, and argues enrollment drives funding. He says school-closure recommendations deserve scrutiny and that board decisions should be judged by whether they improve student success.
- School closures and classroom technology — Says the board did not question the superintendent enough on closure recommendations; would reduce screen time and some ed-tech in grades K-8 and audit district software.
- Fundraising — Nearly $7,500 on hand as of Oct. 2 after raising just over $7,000 since the primary, including from the FEA Advocacy Fund and Pinellas Coalition for Public Schools.
Dawn Peters
- Post-graduation pathways — Peters says public education should prepare students for college, career and technical education, skilled trades, military service or direct entry into the workforce, and should instill civic responsibility and critical thinking.
- Post-graduation pathways — Peters says public education should prepare students for college, career and technical education, skilled trades, military service or direct entry into the workforce, and should instill civic responsibility and critical thinking.
- School closures — Says consolidation of under-enrolled campuses is unavoidable to use money efficiently and can free money for employee pay; says Moms for Liberty is not endorsing her this year and she did not seek it.
- Fundraising — About $1,600 on hand as of Oct. 2 after raising about $3,500 since the primary.