Seven candidates face off in an August primary election for three open seats on the Orange County School Board.
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Two of the seats are open because incumbents Angie Gallo, District 1, and Alicia Farrant, District 3, are stepping down and facing off in the race for school board chair, the only countywide elected position on the eight-member board. Maria Salamanca, the board member from District 2, is not running for re-election, creating the third open seat in the Aug. 18 election.
While non-partisan, the local Republican and Democratic parties have endorsed slates of candidates in this cycle’s school board races.
The winners will serve four-year terms and help run a school system facing many of the same challenges as other Central Florida school districts — shrinking enrollment and a growing budget deficit. The board also has the key task of by next year hiring the district’s next superintendent, as Superintendent Maria Vazquez is retiring at the end of the 2026-27 school year.
The District 1 and District 2 races will be decided this month, but the District 3 races features three candidates and could go to a runoff in November, if none of the candidates gets more than 50% of the vote.
District 1
Melissa Lopez Marantes, an attorney, is the executive director and co-founder of the Orlando Center for Justice, a non-profit legal aid organization. She’s also the mother of an Orange County Public Schools student.
“Over the years, I’ve realized how important it was for children to be able to be heard through adults, through the people around them,” Lopez Marantes said.
The expansion of private school vouchers and the loss of immigrant students has taken millions of dollars away from school districts, she said.
The district should be working to bringing back students, but that will take time. OCPS teachers need salary increases now, Lopez Marantes said, so she wants to find ways to do that more quickly. That could include outside money from grants or more dual enrollment teaching opportunities that would allow teachers to earn more money by serving as college instructors, too.
“We need to look at more immediate solutions because we don’t have time. Teachers don’t have time to wait for an answer,” she said.
She’s earned the endorsement of the local teacher’s union and several Central Florida Democratic lawmakers. Gallo has endorsed Lopez Marates as her successor.
David Shepard is a firefighter and father of an OCPS student and said he’s running because he’s seen programs disappear from his son’s school and thinks school leaders should be more upfront about what is being cut to save money.
“Transparency and accountability with how money is spent is a big topic when you’re sitting here telling us that you are struggling for money … maybe if you didn’t have the enrollment beforehand, doing a $17 million remodel to one of the schools and closing it doesn’t seem fiscally responsible,” Shepard said, citing ongoing school renovation projects amid continuing enrollment declines.
He said one of his top priorities is expanding and supporting the district’s career and technical education offerings, which he said could help boost enrollment and bring in more money for teachers.
“There’s creative ways through trade programs, agricultural programs of bringing in other funds to fund the school that makes us less reliant on Tallahassee’s money,” he said.
On enrollment, Shepard said the district could be doing more to meet parents halfway on alternative forms of schooling because private schools have made it easier for families to choose other options, if the district doesn’t do so.
Shepard has earned the endorsement of the district’s teachers union and the local Republican Party. He’s proud of the union endorsement as he is a member of the local firefighter’s union and believes fighting for better teacher pay is a priority.
He said the starting teacher salary of $50,000 in Orange isn’t close to enough.
“You aren’t even honoring the promise that you’re selling to our kids by go to college, you’ll have a better life, better outcome,” he said.
District 2
Marisol Lugo describes herself on her campaign website as a “mother and community advocate.” She said she’s running to “bring faith-centered leadership, integrity, and real service to our schools and community.”
Lugo did not respond to several requests for an interview ahead of publication, but her website states that she wants to give teachers competitive pay and quality healthcare.
She earned the endorsement of Farrant and the local Republican Party.
Gloria Reina O’Neal is a former educator, former director of housing at the Orlando Housing Authority for more than 15 years and is currently a consultant for the federal government.
Her oldest son graduated from OCPS, and she has another son starting third grade. She decided to run, she said, because she “wanted to initiate change where I can.”
She wants to tackle the district’s funding shortfalls in three parts: through lobbying the state for more money, through seeking alternative funding with grants and tourism dollars, and using property tax funds for teacher pay increases.
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And with her background in affordable housing, she thinks the district could turn its declining enrollment issue into a solution.
“We will have some potentially vacant land. I would love to do an initiative … of how we could do alternative uses for schools, such as housing,” she said.
She’d like to see private school voucher reform to bring further accountability, she said. But OCPS can make itself the best option for parents and bring students back by being more flexible, Reina O’Neal said.
“A lot of parents want flexibility. They want their kids to maybe go to school four hours a day because there’s other priorities, such as sports or things like that, or they’re in a gifted status and they want more access to a gifted program that’s local,” she said.
Reina O’Neal has been endorsed by the district’s teachers union and several Central Florida Democratic lawmakers. She’s also been endorsed by Salamanca.
District 3
Ilia Adorno is an “advocate for students with unique abilities” according to her campaign website, and she worked in Orange County Public Schools as a literacy coach.
She did not respond to the Sentinel’s requests for an interview ahead of publication, but her campaign websites list her priorities as “preparing students for real-world success”, “listening to families” and “valuing educators.”
She has earned endorsements from Farrant, who currently holds the District 3 seat, and the local Republican Party.
Diana Moore is the former president of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, the local union, and a current elementary teacher. She said she’s running on a platform of parent partnership and financial accountability.
“The public needs to have transparency and integrity brought back to this office,” she said.
Moore said she wants to change the structure of OCPS’ budget to provide higher salaries to teachers, including using more than $100 million of a so-called “unassigned fund balance” that the district “isn’t explaining” what its doing with, she said.
She also believes the district needs to look inward for reasons why students are leaving OCPS, instead of blaming private school vouchers and birth rates.
“I am a person that believes in solutions, not excuses. And lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of excuses when it comes to why we are losing teachers and students in this district,” Moore said.
Susanne Peña is an assistant professor at Florida International University, a former OCPS teacher, vice president of the Parent Teacher Association at her child’s school, and president of the Florida Association for Bilingual Education.
“I want to bring my experience, my knowledge, and my passion for education — for public education — onto the school board,” Peña said.
She sees the issues facing OCPS — declining enrollment, budget woes and need for teacher pay increases — as interconnected and wants to make the district as attractive as possible to families to begin alleviating those issues.
“When you look at what schools you’re going to enroll your child, you’re going to say, ‘There’s no question about it. I’m going to enroll them in OCPS,’” she said.
Peña said she has a track record of writing grants, including a multi-million dollar one between OCPS and the University of Central Florida. She said she wants to bring that experience onto the board to help earn more funding in creative ways.
She’s earned the endorsement of the district’s teachers union and several Central Florida Democratic lawmakers. Peña said no matter what happens on Aug. 18, she knows she’ll continue to be right where she wants to be — in education — and that’s how voters should know she’s the “real deal.”
“I’m still going to continue advocating for our students and our families, not only at the state level but at the national level as well. So this is not going to change for me, come August 19th. I’m still in education,” she said.
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