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 update candidates’ profiles. For all candidates we will link to other published information as it becomes available. To see the responses from candidates who completed the C4DS survey, click on their name (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 who provided no public contact information. We present respondents’ views in their own words and link to other publicly reliable sources so you, the voter, can cast a fully informed vote. We make every effort to be accurate. Send any questions, corrections or suggestions to info@citizens4delawareschools.org.
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.
- 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.
- Thorough 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.
Candidate 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?
2026 School Board Candidates and Their Views
REMINDER: 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.
Appoquinimink - 2 At-Large Seats
Caesar Rodney - 2 At-Large Seats
Christina - District A & B
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
2027 Seats Up for Election
Appoquinimink – At Large
Brandywine – Districts A, C
Christina – Districts C, E
Colonial – Districts A, C
Red Clay – Districts A, D
Smyrna – At Large
Caesar Rodney – At Large
Capital – At Large
Lake Forest – At Large
Milford – A, At Large
Cape Henlopen – District A
Delmar – At Large
Indian River – Districts 2, 3
Laurel – At Large
Seaford – At Large
Woodbridge – At Large
Complete a short form to chat with us about how you can make a difference. The sooner you decide, the more we can help get you up to speed on the issues.
School Board Members Elected in 2025
New Castle County
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.