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.
Lynda Evanchyk and Mitch Reed are your two candidates running for Okaloosa County School Board District 3 seat. Primary elections are on Aug. 18 and the General election takes place on Nov. 3.
Lynda Evanchyk, 69, has been the District 3 school board representative in Okaloosa County for the past 8 years. Prior to that, she was an English and journalism teacher at Choctawhatchee High School. Her biggest success came during her teaching career when she helped build the longest running student newspaper in the Panhandle, “Smoke Signals.”
“The students won a lot of different awards for their publications,” she said. “I ultimately got some recognition for that.”
Mitch Reed, 41, is a retired U.S. Army veteran. He previously served as a substitute teacher for Okaloosa County schools from 2009-10. Now, he runs his own consulting business that focuses on strategic planning for small- to medium-sized businesses.
His biggest success has been being a dad to his five children.
“Its been the most important part of my life so far,” he said.
In interviews with The Florida Trib, Evanchyk and Reed discussed issues they view as most important in the county right now, as well as the most important issues to residents of the county.
Linda Evanchyk
Evanchyk’s main priority if re-elected is good nutrition for students.
She mentioned feedback from the county’s new food service provider was not acceptable. Complaints ranged from food being served at the wrong temperature to a low variety of options for students. According to her, that opens the door for children to eat more junk food.
“I’ve met with the company that we have a contract with,” she said. “They’ve assured me and our board that those things will be looked at and changed.”
Evanchyk believes Okaloosa county schools have come a long way in adding career technical programs during her time on the board. She’s proud of how many students are graduating with certificates that will put them into the work force.
“We’re offering so many different things students can utilize,” she said. “We’ve really grown in that way.”
The schools in the county have done a good job destigmatizing career technical skills, she said. One example is by holding a signing day where students sign to technical colleges or workplaces.
“Every year we have a ceremony where they sign and get their certificate,” she said.
Evanchyk admitted that financial issues are a high priority in the county. Okaloosa has a big portion of land that isn’t taxable due to Eglin Air Force Base. To her, that’s a major problem financially.
Another financial concern that residents have brought to her is employee pay. She acknowledged they haven’t been able to raise employees salaries in years.
“We get compared to Walton County, where they can pay their teachers more,” she said. “They don’t have the military influence, they have a third of the students and have a higher millage than we do.”
Her goal is to continue to find new ways to structure the budget without raising taxes. She brought up the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program. The program allows certain students to receive a scholarship from the state to attend a private school of their choice.
“The bottom line is if we don’t have students, we don’t get the money that comes with that student,” she said.
Evanchyk wants people to understand that even though the county is building a new school in Crestview, the money for that and teacher salaries come from a different source.
“We can’t use capital money for salaries,” she said.
Despite finances being a complex issue and the county being limited in ways to gain money for teacher salaries, something she said the district has done a good job of is teacher benefits.
“We have some of the best medical benefits anywhere,” she said. “We have our own medical clinic for employees only.”
The state recently gave the county money for teachers who have taught in Florida for 10 years, which she said has helped with the budget. The main focus for her however, is keeping talented, dedicated employees and keeping the loss from the classroom and students.
“We need to make sure everything in the classroom is funded, including our workers, and then work out,” she said. “Then if we have to do any cuts, it can be outside of what’s affecting the student.”
When the topic of transparency came up, she said she likes to make sure the public has all the information from board meetings. Even if she knows the answer to a specific question she’ll ask to clarify for the sake of the public.
She said she knows board meetings aren’t exciting and most people don’t want to sit around for an hour to watch. After the board meeting on June 23, she put out a summary of the meeting and received great feedback.
“People just want to be aware of what’s happening,” she said.
On the topic of bullying and cyber bullying, Evanchyk thinks it exists but questions to what extent. To her, the first step is having a clear definition for bullying.
“There’s a legal definition the state gives us,” she said. “Most people find lesser things to be bullying that don’t fit that.”
She brings up that a lot of bullying starts outside the classroom and works its way in. Being open and speaking to parents to check their concern levels is the best way to handle it.
Mitch Reed
Reed’s main priority is safety.
“Kids have to be safe,” he said. “Teachers have to be safe. Everyone deserves to be safe.”
Cyber safety is just as important, if not more, according to Reed.
“We are lacking in data privacy, data protection and cyberbullying,” he said.
According to Reed, the school system does a pretty terrible job in regard to cyber security.
“Anything manufactured in China is not safe for our schools. Period,” he said.
Based on conversations he’s had with people inside the school system, he said the school board doesn’t understand basic and good cyber safety, as well as how to address modern AI tools. Reed said there’s work to do from an infrastructure standpoint. But there is even more work that needs to be done from a policy standpoint.
“We’re very behind the times on protecting people’s data,” he said. “And ensuring we have some of the latest and greatest capabilities in our schools here in Okaloosa.”
Cyber security and children’s safety mix, he said. He wants to move on from the times of publicizing bus routes and where children are at all times.
“All kinds of conflicts of interest could arise from that,” he said.
His plan to solve these issues would be maximizing workshop days, moving from Chinese manufactured devices to non-Chinese, more protocols to go through and parent portals that are more secure. To him it’s simple, more secure data with a low operational impact.
“It starts with some good old-school planning sessions,” he said. “You sit down and whiteboard this thing out. Where are we at? When’s the last time we did a penetration assessment? When’s the last time we did this and this?”
Reed isn’t trying to take technology out of school.
Reed wants to make sure schools are using technology ethically. He wasn’t too worried about the financial side. To him it’s as simple as phasing out the old technology with the new. According to him, in that scenario it wouldn’t cost the tax payer any more or less. He did admit he would have to review the current contracts to be certain.
“It’s more about operating smarter, not harder,” he said. “Smarter doesn’t necessarily mean more expensive.”
The conversation turned to skills students are graduating with. Reed said schools need to be aligned with the needs of the workforce, whether that’s trade skills or career technical education initiatives. He believes nowadays a GED, college degree, or both isn’t enough anymore. According to him, the increase of AI and automation brings a need for a skill-based workforce.
“We need to make sure that we are taking qualitative, substantive data and making data informed decisions when it comes to what skills our children need to succeed when they graduate high school,” he said.
He brought up that Florida has some of the lowest reading, reading comprehension, writing and math scores in the country. According to him, hundreds of employers tell him that high school graduates can barely read and write. He attributes that to current standards and how the state evaluates schools.
“I’m advocating that we scale back technology greatly in elementary class rooms,” he said. “So young children can focus on the foundations of reading, writing, arithmetic and critical thinking.”
Reed admitted that in today’s world, schools can’t remove technology altogether. He said by middle school, schools can start introducing tech that get them ready for high school. By high school, kids should be getting ready for the work force.
“Peer-reviewed research out there shows that excessive electronics exposure, use, and over-dependency amongst children K-5 is detrimental to their well being, their psyche, their learning ability,” he said.
Reed briefly talked about the financial issues in the county, saying the simple solutions are the ones they need to look at. He mentioned solutions like turning the lights off and the limiting A/C when schools aren’t in use. He also wants to make sure bus routes are financially effective and efficient. Lunches, school supplies, community partnerships all need to be reviewed.
“There’s a lack of sense and lack of strategic planning,” he said. “They aren’t applying logic.”
He again talked about the benefits of workshops for the board. He said full-time school board members should be refining and reviewing everything. He wants to be able to see where the board can save money to use it for the betterment of the schools.
As the primary election draws near, both candidates remained confident.
“Yes, I’m optimistic,” Evanchyk said. “I feel that I’ve represented the people of this district well.”
“I think we got a good shot,” Reed said. “I don’t know what the people are going to choose, but I think we have an honest chance to win this.”
