School Boards Matter
Your 2026 Delaware School Board Election Voter Guide
Welcome to this year’s voter guide.
Only 11 of 34 seats have competitive contests this year. Now in our fourth year, we present to voters the candidate views about our top priorities (see below) for school boards.
Christina, Red Clay, and Milford each have one contested seat.
Appoquinimink has two seats up for election with six candidates vying for those seats. Caesar Rodney school district has two seats up for election with four candidates.
Colonial has three contested seats; all residents can cast votes for a candidate in each of those seats.
Delmar has two at-large seats with three candidates on the ballot.
What to look for in the candidate’s answers in a voter guide
To help you with your decision, we give you a guide for how to judge responses. Evaluate stances based on how you think their answers will improve student academic achievement while providing a safe and positive learning environment for all children.
To provide you with as full a picture as possible, we will link to other published information about each candidate. If the candidate did not complete the C4DS survey, the candidate will not be highlighted in orange.
Tips for Assessing Candidate Answers
Find voting locations in districts with elections
Disclaimer: Citizens for Delaware Schools does not endorse or oppose any school board candidate. We made multiple requests to all candidates, except those that provided no public contact information. We present the views of respondents in their own words and link to other sources so you, the voter, can cast an fully informed vote.
Appoquinimink - 2 At-Large Seats
Caesar Rodney - 2 At-Large Seats
Christina - District A & B
District A
District B
(No election for Districts B, F and G)
Colonial - District F & G
Delmar - 2 At-Large Seats
Milford
Red Clay
Districts with NO elections
Indian River did not have any seats up for election. The other districts listed had no challengers so the person who filed to run becomes the school board member. These individuals also were given an opportunity to complete the survey.
Brandywine
Cape Henlopen
Capital
Lake Forest
Laurel
Indian River
Seaford
Smyrna
Woodbridge
Four Priorities for School Boards
Improve student academic achievement. This is the main purpose of education. The equity gap between high and low performers can be narrowed with the proper policies. Every school board meeting in every district should include an agenda item that gets behind the numbers, especially math and reading skills.
- Create safe, positive learning environments for students and teachers. Common-sense approaches including accountability are required to teach disrespectful, disruptive students the proper behavior with support from parents. Students can’t learn when teachers can’t teach in a chaotic classroom.
- Stronger engagement, involvement, and transparency with parents is vital to academic success. One effective way to do this is a policy to require parents to opt in of every survey and health services provided.
- Complete fiscal transparency and re-allocation of funds from bureaucracy to student-focused outcomes. The way school budgets are tracked need drastic reform so the community understands it better.
Visit the C4DS You Tube channel to learn more about these issues
Get ready to run for a 2027 school board seat
The more time you give yourself before you have to file to run, the more you can set yourself for success – and we can guide you along the way.
First, you have to determine if you reside in the area where the nominating district seat is located.
There are two types of seats:
At Large seats: Anyone residing in the school district can run.
Nominating District seats: You must reside within the borders of a defined geographic area.
DON’T KNOW WHICH DISTRICT YOU RESIDE IN?
It’s easy. This link will take you to a page where you can enter your address and scroll down to see the name of your school district, nominating district and the name of the current incumbent.
Complete a short form to chat with us about how you can make a difference.
Candidate survey questions
Why are you running for school board, and what qualifications do you bring to the role?
What changes would you want to bring to how the school board currently operates?
How do you plan to work with the superintendent to address student achievement gaps?
What changes do you support to make the classroom a safer and more effective environment for maximizing learning and instruction?
School districts oversee multi-million dollar budgets, supported by taxpayers. What steps will you propose to ensure that the money is being spent wisely and efficiently?
What is your stance on standardized testing and ensure assessments support learning?
How do you plan to attack chronic absenteeism and student retention both in early grades and high school?
How can the school boards create policies that help forge closer relationships with parents, their children and educators?
REMINDERS:
C4DS does not endorse or oppose any candidate running for school board. We simply provide their views in their own words from various sources to make it easier for you to make an informed vote.
School Boards have the power to raise property taxes if deemed necessary. Seven Delaware school districts have approved increases in school taxes, primarily due to financial challenges and property reassessment uncertainty. (Information pulled from media coverage.)
It’s important to note that a law passed in 2023 gave school districts the authority to take this 10% increase option after every reassessment, meaning school boards could raise rates without voter approval again in the early 2030s.
- Appoquinimink School District: 10% increase to cover costs resulting from accounting errors by its former finance director, which left the district short by over $1 million.
- Brandywine School District: 7% increase to replace withheld federal funds that ultimately were released to Delaware.
- Christina School District: opted for a 10% increase to address financial needs, cancelling a planned March 2026 referendum.
- Colonial School District: 7% increase. Read their message
- Red Clay School District: 1% despite being in the 2nd of 3 years of increases from the referendum previously approved by voters
- Capital School District: 10% increase approved in September 2024.
- Indian River School District: Approved a 10% tax rate increase following the failure of two referendums and property reassessment uncertainty to help meet payroll and other financial obligations.
School Board Members Elected in 2025
New Castle County
APPOQUINIMINK
At-Large – Tim Higgins
COLONIAL (NO ELECTIONS)
District B – Christine L. Smith (ACLU)*
District C (2-year term) – Phils M. Breeding (ACLU)*
District D – Christopher Piecuch Sr.
SMYRNA
At-Large – Aaron Weisenberger
Kent County
CAPITAL
At-Large ( 3-yr term) – Vickie Pendleton (ACLU)*
At-Large (4-year term) – Donna Johnson Geist
MILFORD
At-Large – Yanelle Powell (NO ELECTION)
Sussex County
CAPE HENLOPEN
District B – Jason Bradley
District C – Patty Maull
At-Large – William (Bill) Collick (ACLU)*
DELMAR
At-Large – Raymond Vincent
INDIAN RIVER
District 1
Lisa Hudson Briggs, Kelly Kline
District 4 – Michelle Parsons
LAUREL
At-Large – Raymond Vincent
At-Large – Jeffrey Benson Jr.
WOODBRIDGE
At-Large – Timothy Banks (ACLU)*
2026 Hot Issues to Watch
Significant state and local tax funding efforts
The recent property school tax reassessment and seven school districts taking an additional increase, Delaware’s government is not done yet. Voters need to stay on top of developments of two initiatives driving toward a dramatic increase in education funding for low-income, special education (students with disabilities), and English and Second Language students. The latter two groups are growing fast as a percentage of the student population.
Keep an eye on the Redding Consortium district consolidation in New Castle County and the state-wide funding reform proposal fromThe Public Education Funding Commission (PEFC). Both these groups will be driving toward legislation to be enacted in June 2026. This will make it more essential to elect school board members who are good stewards of taxpayer dollars.
The composition of school boards in your community
Changes to drive academic improvement won’t happen without Board leadership. School boards are typically dominated by other educators, teacher union representatives, or those affiliated with social services who generally don’t have broader experience in running a large business called public education. Some educators are necessary, but the question is how to get more people from diverse backgrounds to run. When few only 5-10% of Delaware voters turn out, the established interests will always win.