St. Lucie 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 ↗One candidate in this race is a write-in. Florida does not print a qualified write-in candidate's name on the ballot. To vote for one you must write the name on the write-in line for this race; a blank or misspelled line may not be counted.
Donna Mills
Mills is the sitting St. Lucie County School Board member for District 3, listed on the district's board roster as Dr. Donna Mills. Little campaign material for her 2026 race could be verified; her campaign presence is a Facebook page rather than a campaign website.
Ben Zagrobelny
Zagrobelny describes a career that moved from entry-level work to board-certified international security leadership, and presents himself as a father rooted in St. Lucie County who did not take a traditional path into public life. He is a qualified write-in candidate in the District 3 race, so his name does not appear…
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 | Donna Mills Nonpartisan | Ben Zagrobelny Write-in |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | Leans disagree· based on record As board chair in May 2022, Mills presented the superintendent's recommended resolution, and the board voted unanimously, to ask voters to continue the district's voter-approved operating property tax for four more years to pay for programs, salaries and maintenance. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Zagrobelny calls for disciplined, line-by-line scrutiny of school spending and says every dollar matters, but has not called for cutting taxes or named services he 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). | 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 | 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. | No public position found | No public position found |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | No public position found | 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Donna Mills | not enough data | not enough data |
| Ben Zagrobelny | 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.
Donna Mills
No additional issues found in public statements as of the last data review.
Ben Zagrobelny
- Parental role in schools — Zagrobelny says parents should be treated as partners rather than obstacles and should remain informed, involved and empowered. He did not describe how he would handle an objection to a specific book or lesson.
- Pathways after high school — Zagrobelny says the district should fund and support a range of pathways equally, including college, the trades, the arts and entrepreneurship.
- Parental role in schools — Zagrobelny says parents should be treated as partners rather than obstacles and should remain informed, involved and empowered. He did not describe how he would handle an objection to a specific book or lesson.
- Pathways after high school — Zagrobelny says the district should fund and support a range of pathways equally, including college, the trades, the arts and entrepreneurship.