Voters across Nocatee and Ponte Vedra headed to the polls Tuesday to decide who would fill the St. Johns County School Board's District 4 seat, a race that pitted educator Tammie McClafferty against Nocatee mother and business owner Jillian Tozer. The seat opened up after incumbent and board vice chair Kelly Barrera opted not to seek another term, setting off a campaign dominated by fights over teacher pay, district growth and how tax dollars get spent in one of Florida's top-rated school districts.
Neither candidate cleared a majority in the August primary, which is why the race carried into the November general election. As News4JAX explained in its voter's guide, “None of the three candidates in the August primary got more than 50% of the vote, so the top two vote-getters, Tammie McClafferty and Jillian Tozer, advance to the November general election.” That primary field included a third candidate, Leif Jonassen, who did not advance. The District 4 seat, along with the rest of the board's races, is officially non-partisan.
Two Very Different Resumes
McClafferty entered the race with a long career inside classrooms and administration. Per her campaign website, cited by the same outlet, she holds degrees in elementary education, religious studies and organizational leadership, and previously worked as a public school teacher and principal. She now serves as CEO of Lifework Leadership First Coast, the Jacksonville branch of a faith-based leadership and influencer development organization, and described her own background bluntly: “I have served as a teacher, principal, professor, university director, and school operator.”
Tozer's path to the ballot looked different. A mother and business owner living in Nocatee who owns a luxury travel business, she holds a bachelor's degree in City/Urban, Community and Regional Planning from Temple University along with an associate's degree in culinary arts, according to News4JAX. She also serves as a board member of the Valley Ridge Academy parent-teacher organization, where her own children attend school.
A Campaign Born From Layoff Fears
Tozer has said her decision to run traces back to budget trouble at her children's school. In an interview with St. Johns Citizen, she recalled learning that administrators “were going to have to lay off nine teachers due to budget constraints.” That experience shaped a platform built around smart district growth, teacher retention, academic and arts excellence, and financial accountability. She has pledged that, if elected, she would find a way to raise teacher pay by cutting overhead spending, telling the outlet, “I do believe we need to find in the budget a way to increase our teacher pay and to keep our teachers.”
Tozer has also pushed for more scrutiny of private schools that receive taxpayer-funded voucher dollars, arguing those institutions should face the same oversight as public schools. “These private institutions that are receiving public dollars should [face] more scrutiny, more budget checks, more testing,” she said, per the same report. Her campaign has further proposed rezoning to make better use of under-enrolled facilities. As something of a signature pledge, she has committed to donating 50% of her School Board salary directly back to District 4's local PTOs, telling News4JAX, “I have formally pledged to donate 50% of my School Board salary directly back to the local PTOs within District 4.”
McClafferty Points to Growth Strain on the District
McClafferty's campaign has centered on teacher-parent collaboration, academic excellence, student character and confidence, and transparent taxpayer spending. She has argued that the district's rapid growth has pulled focus away from educational quality in favor of simply keeping up with new buildings and staffing needs. “We've just been focusing on the growth and just surviving that,” she told St. Johns Citizen. To address a list of recurring concerns, she has proposed creating an advisory board covering “the special needs program, it's trade and industry, it's bullying, it's teacher turnover, and the budget,” as she put it in the same interview.
Budget concerns weren't unique to one candidate. Jacksonville Today, covering all three primary contenders, reported that “for all three candidates, a top priority is the district's budget.” Tozer has cited a specific figure to back up her concerns, telling News4JAX, “We recently lost over 60 highly qualified teachers due to stagnant wages and the rising cost of living in St. Johns County.”
Money Flowed Unevenly Into the Race
Campaign finance filings showed a lopsided fundraising picture heading into the fall. According to Jacksonville Today, McClafferty had raised $28,853 by July 24, far outpacing her rivals — the outlet noted she “has the most money by far.” Tozer had raised $5,165 by the same date, while primary candidate Jonassen had raised $7,652, including $3,760 he had contributed to his own campaign. McClafferty's support also extended beyond individual donors: her campaign PAC, Friends of Tammie McClafferty, received a $25,000 donation in July from Florida Courage, the same report found.
What's at Stake for Nocatee and Ponte Vedra Schools
District 4 covers a stretch of St. Johns County anchored by Nocatee and Ponte Vedra, and its winner will represent an unusually large cluster of schools — including Ponte Vedra High School, Allen D. Nease High School, Alice B. Landrum Middle School, Valley Ridge Academy, Palm Valley Academy, Pine Island Academy, Sabal Crest Academy, Ocean Palms Elementary and PVPV-Rawlings Elementary. Polls closed at 7 p.m. local time Tuesday, as First Coast News reported in its live-results coverage of the race.
The District 4 winner joins a five-member board that has already seen turnover this cycle. Kevin Allen defeated incumbent Beverly Slough for the District 1 seat in August, while board chair Jennifer Collins was reelected to District 3 without opposition that same month. Anthony Coleman Sr. holds the District 2 seat, and Dr. Linda Thomson represents District 5, rounding out the board that St. Johns County voters were deciding to complete this November.
