Sarasota 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
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Heidi Brandt
Brandt is the president of the parent-teacher council at Southside Elementary School and the parent of an elementary-school student in Sarasota County. She finished second in the August 2026 District 1 primary and advanced to the Nov. 3 runoff. She is endorsed by the Republican Party of Sarasota County.
Jimmy Glover
Glover has more than 30 years with United Airlines and chairs the board of Star Lab, a small K-3 school in Sarasota. He is the father of four children educated in Sarasota County public schools and his wife is a former district teacher. He serves as vice chair of the City of Sarasota's Parks, Recreation and Environmen…
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 | Heidi Brandt Nonpartisan | Jimmy Glover Nonpartisan |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Brandt said she is fiscally conservative and would treat every taxpayer dollar carefully, while also calling for investment in classrooms, teachers and school safety. She did not say cutting taxes should be a priority. | 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). | Mixed / neutral· stated position Brandt says she supports the use of vouchers but calls Florida's system broken, favoring a sliding scale tied to family income rather than full scholarships regardless of income. | Leans disagree· stated position Glover said vouchers can coexist with public education, but objected to access that is not restricted by income, criticizing families who already had their children in private school and now use vouchers as a subsidy. |
| 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 | Leans disagree· stated position Glover says he did not vote for book bans or culture wars and that his family's values were not represented by the current board's direction. He frames his campaign as returning the board's focus to students rather than politics. |
| Teacher and staff payRaising teacher and staff pay should be the district's top budget priority, even if other spending has to be cut. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Brandt lists supporting and retaining great teachers among her priorities, and her campaign website lists "Employ & Invest in High-Quality Teachers." She framed budgeting broadly around classrooms, teachers and safety and did not say teacher pay should come ahead of other district spending. | Leans agree· stated position Glover's platform includes supporting teachers with competitive pay and respect for their expertise. He has not proposed a specific raise or named spending he would cut. |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Leans disagree· stated position Brandt said she would not have voted for the school board's resolution penalizing student protesters, saying she asked a number of people about it and was told it was pointless, and raising concern that it would be applied unevenly. | Leans disagree· stated position Glover lists mental health together with school safety as a campaign pillar, and his approach emphasizes mentorship and college and career readiness rather than 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.
Heidi BrandtJimmy GloverHow 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Heidi Brandt | not enough data | not enough data |
| Jimmy Glover | 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.
Heidi Brandt
- Board resolution on immigration enforcement — Brandt said she opposed the board's resolution on federal immigration enforcement, saying it drew up a lot of fear and was not necessary.
- Keeping politics out of school board decisions — Brandt said the board should focus on student achievement, teacher retention, safe schools and responsible spending, and that political agendas should not drive decisions in classrooms or the boardroom.
- Literacy and academic improvement — Brandt said Sarasota is an A-rated district with third-grade literacy rates near 70 percent but that nearly 30 percent of students still read below grade level, and she would focus on strengthening academics and expanding arts, STEM and career training.
- Parent involvement — Brandt's campaign website lists "Empower Parents" first among her priorities, alongside school safety, workforce training and investing in high-quality teachers.
Jimmy Glover
No additional issues found in public statements as of the last data review.