School Board Race Moves Onto November Ballot

The ballot machines have been stored and the election results have been certified by the County’s Canvassing Board for the recent 2022 Primary Election. However, due to the requirement that the recent vote for nonpartisan seats on the Collier County School Board did not meet the requirement to exceed the 50% plus one plurality by a single candidate, there will be a runoff between the top vote getters in each of those three Districts.

Those Districts mirror those of the County Commission Districts and were recently redrawn after the 2020 Census.

In District One, which includes Marco Island, there will be a runoff between newcomer Jerry Rutherford who garnered a 44.6% plurality or 30,401 votes in that race, versus incumbent Dr. Jory Westberry who collected 33.1% or 22,509 votes.

District Three saw former School Board Member Kelly Lichter who garnered 46.6% plurality or 31,837 votes in that race, versus incumbent Jen Mitchell who collected 38.2% or 26,131 votes.

In District Five we saw Timothy Donald Moshier garner 39.6% plurality or 26,861 votes, versus incumbent Roy M. Terry who collected 27.4% or 18,571 votes.

The election of these three seats are vitally important to the future of the District, as Board Members over this next year will be interviewing candidates for selection as the new School Board Superintendent. 

Kamela Patton is in her 12th year as the District’s Superintendent and will retire at the end of the 2022-23 school year. Her present salary is $308,154 and she oversaw a total budget of $1.5 billion during the 2021-2022 school year.

The budget for 2022-2023 will be finalized in September and total numbers will be released at that time.

Board members are elected countywide and not by District, therefore all registered voters are encouraged to attend forums throughout the next two months to educate themselves as to all candidates regardless of District they’ll represent.

School Board Members receive approximately $40,000 pension, plus benefits.

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