St. Johns County School Board, District 4
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 ↗Tammie McClafferty
McClafferty is a career educator who has taught, founded schools and served as a principal, and who previously ran a private preschool and childcare business with her husband. She is an assistant professor of education at Trinity College Jacksonville and runs Lifework First Coast, a faith-based leadership development …
Jillian Tozer
Tozer moved to St. Johns County in 2020, citing school quality, and owns a travel agency. She studied community and regional planning after a career in the culinary field and previously ran nonprofits providing food assistance. She has two children in district schools and advanced to the November runoff after the Augu…
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 | Tammie McClafferty Nonpartisan | Jillian Tozer Nonpartisan |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | Mixed / neutral· stated position McClafferty campaigns on responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars and says she would bring in a forensic accountant for a deep dive into district spending, noting the district remains in financial difficulty after receiving new millage funding. She has not called for cutting taxes. | 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 McClafferty says she supports school choice but not an extensive expansion of vouchers, saying people have not thought through the long-term consequences. She describes vouchers and charter schools as state decisions and says the district needs a stronger voice in Tallahassee on their effect on district funding. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Tozer says she supports parental choice but wants private schools that receive public dollars held to the same scrutiny, budget checks and testing as 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. | Leans agree· stated position McClafferty agreed that gender dysphoria should be treated, not affirmed, and strongly disagreed that schools should partner with gender-transition providers. She said gender-identity instruction should be left to families. | 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 McClafferty agreed that library books with literary value should be distinguished from obscene material. She also said K-12 library content should be age-appropriate and that parents should have a meaningful voice in what is available. | Leans disagree· stated position Tozer said schools should stay apolitical and that debates over library materials have calmed down. She supports parents guiding their own children's reading but said she is concerned about restrictions at higher grade levels. |
| Teacher and staff payRaising teacher and staff pay should be the district's top budget priority, even if other spending has to be cut. | No public position found | Leans agree· stated position Tozer said she decided to run after seeing layoffs at her children's school and that the district must find a way in its budget to raise teacher pay and keep teachers. She treats teacher turnover as a priority but has not named other spending she would cut. |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Leans agree· stated position McClafferty agreed that consequences for bad behavior are essential to a safe learning environment. She strongly agreed that trained, licensed staff could carry guns to respond to an active shooter, as one of several safety measures. | No public position found |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tammie McClafferty | not enough data | 0.50 (4 statements) |
| Jillian Tozer | 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.
Tammie McClafferty
- Parental involvement — McClafferty's campaign site says parents deserve a voice in their child's education and that she would ensure families are respected partners in every classroom. She did not describe how she would handle an objection to a specific book or lesson.
- Parental involvement — McClafferty's campaign site says parents deserve a voice in their child's education and that she would ensure families are respected partners in every classroom. She did not describe how she would handle an objection to a specific book or lesson.
- District priorities — In a campaign survey McClafferty named special-needs programs, trade and industry programs, bullying, teacher turnover and the budget as her five priority concerns.
Jillian Tozer
- District finances — Tozer says her first step would be an independent audit of the district's finances, and proposes expanding Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and dual enrollment to attract students and revenue. She has pledged to donate half her board salary back to the community.
- District finances — Tozer says her first step would be an independent audit of the district's finances, and proposes expanding Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and dual enrollment to attract students and revenue. She has pledged to donate half her board salary back to the community.