Nine Candidates Qualify for Pasco School Board's Two Open Seats Ahead of Aug. 18 Primary

Nine candidates have qualified to fill two open Pasco County School Board seats, setting up crowded, wide-open contests in the district's Aug. 18, 2026 nonpartisan primary — races that will decide who helps set the policies, budgets and school boundaries affecting roughly 86,000 Pasco students. Both seats are open because their current holders chose not to run again, guaranteeing at least two new faces on the five-member board this November.

According to local media reports, District 1 incumbent Al Hernandez, who represents eastern Pasco, opted against a second term, saying he wanted to focus on his family and his job. He joins District 3's Cynthia Armstrong — a board member since 2010 — in stepping away. A third seat is also on the ballot, but there the lone incumbent seeking reelection drew just a single challenger.

Two open seats, a full field

The most crowded contest is District 3, where longtime member Armstrong is leaving after more than a decade. Among the qualified candidates are Matt Geiger, who most recently served as school director of a residential academy affiliated with the Benfica soccer club, and Kirk Phillips. Geiger ran against Armstrong four years ago, drawing roughly 42% of the vote in that earlier bid, according to local news reports.

Geiger has said he wants to strengthen teacher recruitment and retention — floating the idea of building apartment housing for district employees — and has pushed for more career and technical education, arguing that not every student is bound for college. He has also said he opposes the district's property tax referendum.

In District 1, the eastern Pasco seat being vacated by Hernandez, the announced field has included school-choice advocate Denisha Allen, Marine Corps veteran Christopher King, former congressional candidate Brian Perras, and Tanner Alvarado, according to local media outlets and county candidate filings. Allen, a Wesley Chapel resident, has built a national profile around school-choice and scholarship advocacy. Perras has said the system needs a broad overhaul and has been critical of the district's tax referendum.

The one incumbent race

The third seat on the ballot is District 5, where incumbent Megan Harding — a former district teacher who has served since 2019 — filed to seek what she has described as her third and final term. Harding drew a single challenger, Michelle Mandarin, who previously ran for the district's superintendent post. Local reports indicate Mandarin has campaigned on classical education and a stronger parental voice in schools, and has said she opposes the district's tax referendum.

How the vote works

Pasco school board races are nonpartisan, meaning all registered voters — regardless of party — can weigh in during the August primary. If one candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the primary, that race is settled outright. Any race that isn't decided in August advances to the Nov. 3 general election.

Why it matters for Pasco families

Pasco County Schools is one of the region's largest districts, enrolling about 85,855 students across 109 schools as of the 2023-24 year, according to public records compiled online. The board these candidates are competing to join sets district policy, approves the budget and draws the attendance boundaries that determine which school children attend — decisions that touch nearly every family in the county.

What to watch next

With two seats guaranteed to turn over and a third being contested, the makeup of the board could look notably different by year's end. Several candidates have already signaled sharp differences over the district's tax referendum, teacher pay and the balance between college-prep and career-technical programs — issues likely to shape the campaign through summer. Residents who want a say can register to vote, review the candidates and mark their calendars for the Aug. 18 primary.

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