This story is part of a statewide partnership of 27 nonpartisan newsrooms and universities working to help Florida voters make informed decisions in the 2026 school board elections. Learn more about the Florida Elections Reporting Partnership.
An incumbent, a former city clerk and a retired Army colonel are asking District 1 voters for a seat on the Martin County School Board, each bringing a different background to a race focused on the district’s finances, student achievement, teacher retention and school safety.
Incumbent Christia Roberts, former city clerk Cherie White and retired Army Col. Charles Winn are running for the District 1 seat in the Aug. 18 primary election. Beyond district spending, the candidates have identified student literacy, teacher retention, school safety and preparing students for life after graduation as priorities.
The candidates entered the final weeks of the campaign with notable differences in financial backing. Roberts leads the three candidates with $27,458.84 in contributions, followed by White with $9,210.39 and Winn with $2,600.60, according to campaign finance records. Roberts has reported $9,072.22 in expenditures, while White has spent $2,771.21 and Winn has spent $2,356.16.
Roberts, who has served on the School Board since 2014, is seeking another term.
Roberts said maintaining the district’s momentum and providing continuity are among the reasons she is seeking another term. She pointed to student achievement, stabilizing district funding and preparing students for life after graduation as areas where work remains.
“We are now 40% into our journey and, while adjustments based on unexpected circumstances can be incorporated, the direction has been agreed to by the families, employees, community and governance team,” Roberts said.
Roberts pointed to the district maintaining its A rating, increasing the number of A-rated schools and expanding career and technical program offerings as signs of progress. She said the district has also maintained the highest starting teacher salary in its local labor market while experiencing low staff turnover and high demand for employment opportunities.
White, a former teacher who spent 26 years as a city clerk and whose children attended public schools, brings both an educator’s perspective and firsthand experience with the school system as a parent. She said supporting and retaining teachers would be among her priorities if elected.
“I am running for the school board because our students cannot succeed unless we fully support, respect, and retain the dedicated professionals who work in our classrooms and school facilities,” White said.
She said she has heard concerns from teachers about the current school board micromanaging educators and from parents about staff shortages.
Winn said he would also examine district spending, pointing to his experience gained from his military career. Winn has 10 years of national-level strategic planning experience, spent six years at the Pentagon, and said his work included resource management and oversight of a $588 million budget.
“What I intend to do over the next four years is do a bottom-up review of the entire administration,” Winn said.
Winn said his goal is to ensure schools have the resources they need while identifying areas where the district could reduce administrative costs. Citing his master’s degree in human resource management, he said he would examine whether some deputy-level positions could be replaced with administrative assistants to save money.
Roberts said funding stabilization remains one of her priorities and pointed to the district’s voter-approved half-mill referendum, which supplements its operating budget by about 10%, or roughly $1,000 per student.
She said she has worked to create funding frameworks designed to make district finances more transparent and easier for board members and the public to understand, including frameworks for millage and sales tax referendum funds, federal COVID funding and five-year capital funding.
“Completing these frameworks is my personal goal to ensure that the fiscal conservatism that our community demands can happen seamlessly and without problems,” Roberts said.
The candidates have also identified student achievement and preparing students for life after graduation as priorities.
White said improving reading scores would be one of her first areas of focus.
“Literacy scores are low and have been for the past 10 years,” White said. “I would definitely focus on better ways to improve our reading scores since it is key to success for all students.”
Recent state testing data from the Department of Education show improvements for Martin County students in several areas, though reading scores remain below the statewide rate. In 2025, 55% of students in grades 3-10 scored at Level 3 or above in English language arts and reading, up from 52% in 2024 but below the statewide rate of 57%. Math scores increased from 56% to 60%, while Algebra 1 scores rose from 57% to 65%.
White said schools should focus on early literacy screenings and interventions, including specialized tutoring and structured phonics before third grade.
Both White and Winn said they want to expand opportunities for students pursuing vocational education and careers after high school.
“We must broaden access to both trade and college-preparatory programs to ensure that students who may not yet be college-ready still have clear, supported pathways into the workforce or higher education,” White said.
Winn said expanding vocational education would be his second priority and that schools need to prepare students for changes in Florida’s workforce.
Roberts said Martin County uses monthly student assessments in addition to the state’s three annual progress monitoring periods, allowing the district to identify struggling students and adjust instruction throughout the year.
“We utilize an ‘every student’ approach,” Roberts said. “What that means is that every student is valued and important. Every student needs the foundational skills to succeed.”
The candidates also weighed in on school safety and concerns over books available to students.
Winn emphasized the importance of school safety and that it would be his top priority. He wants the district to fully implement Florida’s school Guardian Program, which allows eligible participants to serve as armed school guardians after completing required screening and training.
Winn said having trained guardians already on school campuses could provide a faster response during an active-shooter situation, a situation where time is of the essence. He also wants schools to regularly practice emergency response plans with school resource officers, guardians and local law enforcement.
On concerns over books in school libraries, White said parents should have control over what their own children read but that one parent’s objection should not determine what is available to all students.
“Parents have the right to guide their own children with reading,” White said. “With that said, we cannot allow a single person’s objection to restrict access for all students in the district.”
Winn said age appropriateness should be the main factor when deciding which books should be available at different grade levels. He said some topics may be appropriate for high school students but not for elementary or middle school students.
Roberts said the district follows Florida law, State Board of Education direction and locally adopted policies when handling objections to books and instructional materials. She said parents can specify which book titles their own children are permitted or not permitted to access through the district’s student badge system.
“The goal is to allow an individual parent to choose a level of access for their individual child, while not impacting the access selected by other parents,” Roberts said.
School board races in Florida are nonpartisan. If one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the Aug. 18 primary, that candidate wins the seat. If no candidate receives a majority, the top two candidates advance to the Nov. 3 general election, according to Florida law.
For voters, the choice for District 1 will come down to three candidates with different backgrounds and approaches to addressing the district’s challenges, from managing its finances and retaining teachers to improving student achievement and keeping schools safe.
