School Boards Matter
Delaware School Board Election Voter Guide
Running for office is hard, but those who got elected now must embrace an even more difficult mission.
Voters across the state elected fresh faces and familiar incumbents to oversee the effort to improve K-12 education for public school students in Delaware.
Citizens for Delaware Schools stands ready to help all of them by connecting them to respected independent resources available from our national network of partners.
It’s also time to recruit strong candidates for 2027 so they have time to prepare for the campaign and governing well.
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. Deciding now only enables us to give you an overview of the issues and impact effective school board leaders can have.
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 and specific, measureable superintendent goals. 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 that enables 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. Financial audits lead to good governance.
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 New School Board Members 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.
Spotlight Delaware provides an overview of all the school board contests here. The new or re-elected board members from this year’s elections are listed below.
Appoquinimink - 2 At-Large Seats
Caesar Rodney - 2 At-Large Seats
Dave Failing
Michael A. Marasco
Christina - District A & B
Colonial - District F & G
Delmar - 2 At-Large Seats
Neil Baker
Jordan Johnson
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 multiple opportunities to complete the survey.
Indian River
Seaford
Smyrna
Woodbridge
2025 New School Board Leaders
New Castle
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)*
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 (source: School Board Effectiveness.) 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.
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.
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.