The District 1 seat is currently vacant, as former board member Derek Barrs was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2025 as the administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Two candidates are running in this non-partisan race, which is open to all voters regardless of party affiliation.
News4JAX sent a questionnaire to each candidate asking about their background and their views on several issues. Scroll down to read the responses of those seeking your vote in their own words.
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Note: Responses are sorted alphabetically and are presented exactly as submitted, with no editing by News4JAX staff.
| NON-PARTISAN CANDIDATES |
Cathy Moon
Occupation: I bring nearly 30 years of experience in program/project management with multiple federal agencies and increasing levels of responsibility, which culminated in an executive leadership role in Washington, D.C. I retired in 2017, moved to Flagler County, started and operated a small business from 2018 through 2024, and then retired again. Now I have the time to give back to my community full-time.
Age: 68
Family: My husband and I have four adult children and one granddaughter. We chose to make Flagler County our home because family matters more than anything. We gave up the dream of retiring internationally because watching our grandchild grow up is simply priceless.
Education: I hold a bachelor’s degree in health and safety education, a graduate certificate in human resources, and a master’s degree in business administration.
Political experience: This is my first run for office.
What do you see as the top three issues in this race, and how do you plan to address them?
Flagler County’s schools are at a crossroads. The decisions this board makes in the next few years will shape outcomes for an entire generation of students. Three issues demand urgent, experienced leadership.
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Our Kindergarten Readiness Crisis
Only 37% of Flagler County children arrive at kindergarten ready to learn. Research tells us that most who fall behind at this stage will never fully catch up. That is not a statistic. That is a child whose potential is slipping away before they ever open their first textbook.
A free Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten program already exists. Yet far too many families are not accessing it. I have listened carefully to parents across this community, and the message is consistent. The single greatest barrier keeping children from this free program is the lack of transportation. Many argue that we simply cannot afford to provide it because the state does not fund VPK transportation. I understand that argument. But I believe we are asking the wrong question.
The real question is this: What is the true cost of NOT providing transportation?
When a child misses VPK and arrives at kindergarten unprepared, our school system invests additional resources in intervention, remediation, and support services for that child across all thirteen years of their K-12 education. Multiply that investment across the hundreds of children who miss VPK every single year, and the financial case for solving the transportation barrier becomes impossible to ignore. The cost of inaction far exceeds the cost of a solution.
As your School Board member, I will convene parents, educators, transportation officials, and community partners to find creative, fiscally responsible solutions to this barrier. I will also advocate at the state level for VPK transportation funding, because this is not a challenge unique to Flagler County. Every child deserves to arrive at kindergarten ready to thrive, and I will not accept transportation as an excuse for inaction.
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Teacher Recruitment and Retention
Florida’s educators are stretched thin, underappreciated, and in many cases underpaid. Flagler County is not immune to this crisis. When we lose experienced, talented teachers, our most vulnerable students pay the highest price.
Retaining great teachers requires more than words of appreciation. It requires competitive compensation, affordable health insurance, meaningful administrative support, and a school culture where educators feel respected and empowered. I hold both a degree in education and an MBA, and I am honored to be advised by a team of retired Flagler County educators who understand deeply what keeps great teachers in our classrooms and what drives them away.
I will fight to make Flagler County schools a place where exceptional educators choose to build long, fulfilling careers. Because when we invest in our teachers, we invest directly in every student they will ever teach.
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Economic Uncertainty
Federal and state funding pressures are real and growing. Every dollar lost to inefficiency, bureaucracy, or lack of accountability is a dollar stolen directly from our classrooms.
My entire career was built around doing more with less. I led teams that saved the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars without a single layoff or service cut. I know how to protect resources, identify inefficiencies, prioritize strategically, and ensure every available dollar serves students first. I will bring that same discipline, creativity, and transparency to Flagler County’s budget.
Economic uncertainty is not an excuse for failure. It is a call for exactly the kind of experienced, focused leadership I am prepared to provide.
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Flagler’s students deserve focused, experienced, and principled leadership. The challenges are real, but so are the solutions.
How can you help voters in a way that others running for this office cannot?
The answer begins with preparation, experience, and an unrelenting commitment to Flagler County’s students.
I bring graduate level credentials no other candidate in this race possesses. While all candidates hold a bachelor’s degree in education, I also hold a graduate certificate in Human Resources and a Master of Business Administration. Understanding what happens inside classrooms matters deeply. But governing a school district also requires sophisticated financial literacy, strategic planning, and leadership expertise. I bring all of it.
I bring a proven record of fiscal leadership at the highest level. My career was built on solving complex problems, leading highly effective teams on a national scale, and delivering results that saved the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars without a single layoff or service cut. I wrote national policy. I managed budgets of extraordinary complexity. I know how to protect resources, eliminate inefficiency, and ensure every dollar serves the people it was intended to serve. In a time of growing federal and state funding uncertainty, Flagler County needs that experience at the table.
I bring a fresh perspective combined with deep local roots. I am not a career politician and I have no ideological agenda to advance. I am a retired executive who chose to make Flagler County home because of its community, its families, and its potential. I am fully retired with no competing professional commitments, which means I will attend every board meeting, every training, and every legislative day in Tallahassee. I will build relationships with state representatives and fight relentlessly for Flagler’s fair share of funding.
I bring the trusted voices of retired Flagler County educators. I am honored to be advised by educators who dedicated their careers to these schools, these students, and this community. Their institutional knowledge and classroom experience ensure that the voice of Flagler’s educational community will always have a seat at my table.
I bring a specific, urgent focus on our kindergarten readiness crisis. Only 37% of Flagler children arrive kindergarten ready. Research tells us most who fall behind will never fully catch up. Parents have told me clearly that lack of transportation is the greatest barrier to accessing our free Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten program. I will ask the question others have not: what is the true cost of NOT solving this problem? When we calculate the additional resources invested in unprepared students across thirteen years of schooling, the case for finding a solution becomes undeniable. I will convene the right people and find one.
What I offer voters is simple. Graduate level expertise. Proven national leadership. Fiscal discipline. Full time availability. Trusted local advisors. And a genuine, unrelenting commitment to making Flagler County’s public schools the best they can possibly be for every single student.
I am Cathy Moon, and I am asking for your vote on August 18th.
What would you hope to be remembered for accomplishing after serving in this office?
If I serve this community well, I hope to be remembered as the board member who finally solved Flagler County’s kindergarten readiness crisis, not by talking about it, but by building the village required to actually fix it.
The data provided by Flagler County Schools tells an urgent story. In 2024-2025, 35% of Flagler kindergartners did not attend our free Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten program. Of those who completed VPK, 65% tested kindergarten ready. Of those who did not attend, only 36% tested ready. In the fall of 2025, readiness scores dropped to just 37% of all kindergarten students. Children who arrive unprepared are significantly more likely to struggle with third grade reading scores, and those early skills gaps follow them for years, quietly closing doors before a child ever realizes it.
This is not acceptable. And it is not inevitable.
The barriers keeping families from VPK are real, layered, and solvable. Transportation is the most frequently cited obstacle. But the challenge runs deeper. Our VPK program operates only half a day. After care is available, but the $80 weekly fee is out of reach for many families. For some, that choice comes down to their child’s education or food on the table. No family should face that impossible choice. Assistance programs exist for qualifying families, but awareness and access remain inconsistent. The good news is that Florida only requires booster seats for four-year-olds rather than full car seats, making the logistics of providing transportation meaningfully more manageable than many assume.
Awareness is equally critical. More than a third of families with students currently in Flagler County schools moved here within the last four years. In many states, VPK is not free. These families may simply not know what is available to them here. We must reach families the moment they arrive in Flagler County, not after kindergarten registration opens. Additionally, some parents may not fully understand the difference between VPK and daycare, or appreciate the profound long-term impact of kindergarten readiness on their child’s entire educational journey. Changing that understanding requires intentional, compassionate community outreach.
This issue will require a true village. School district leaders, transportation officials, community organizations, faith communities, pediatricians, local businesses, and state legislators all have a role to play. The good news is that this challenge can be tackled strategically and in phases, with each solution building on the last.
I will ask the question that deserves a definitive answer: what is the true cost of NOT solving this? When unprepared children require additional intervention and remediation resources across thirteen years of schooling, the human and financial case for removing these barriers becomes impossible to ignore.
Every child in Flagler County deserves to walk through their kindergarten door ready to learn, ready to grow, and ready to succeed. If my service helps make that a reality for significantly more of our children, that will have been time extraordinarily well spent.
Campaign website: www.cathymoon4flaglerschoolboard.com
Campaign social media: Facebook
Jill R. Woolbright
Occupation: Retired Flagler County Teacher of 28 years and former School Board Member for District 1 2020-2022.
Age: 68
Family: I have 3 children and 5 grandchildren.
Education: University of Central Florida BS degree in Elementary Education
Political experience: Former Flagler School Board member for District 1 2020-2022
What do you see as the top three issues in this race, and how do you plan to address them?
1. Academic Achievement: Reading and math proficiency needs improvement year over year to maintain our A District rating. I would use data to identify successful instructional practice, support teachers with evidence-based resources, and ensure every decision is focused on improving student outcomes.
2. Trust Through Transparency and Parent Engagement: trust needs to be rebuilt by communicating openly with families and ensuring parents are informed and involved in decisions affecting their children. This includes compliance with Florida law regarding parental rights, clear communication from the district, and greater transparency in curriculum, policies, and spending.
3. Fiscal Responsibility and Workforce Support: We need to make the best use of taxpayer dollars and pay our staff better.. Each year, I hope we can make gains in equalizing the steps on the teacher pay schedule where 9 years were compressed to the same pay. Classroom spending need to be prioritized, we need to retain and recruit top level teachers and staff, and partner wth the local business community to strengthen our classroom to career programs and opportunities.
How can you help voters in a way that others running for this office cannot?
I bring a combination of experience that is difficult to match. I spend 28 years teaching in Flagler County classrooms, served on the Flagler County School Board, and have lived in this community since 1989 while raising three children who graduated from Flagler Schools. I understand how board decision affect students, teachers, parents, and taxpayers because have experienced each of those perspectives firsthand. As Florida’s #1 sixth-grade math teacher for student academic growth in 2016 and a High Impact Teacher, I have a proven record of improving student outcomes. My background allows me to evaluate district policies through both the classroom and governance lens, helping ensure decision are practical fiscally responsible, and focused on student success.
What would you hope to be remembered for accomplishing after serving in this office?
I would hope to be remembered for helping restore trust in Flagler Schools where we are parents first choice for educating their children while improving student achievement and keeping the focus where it belongs--on students. I want parents to know theirr voices were heard, teachers and staff to feel respected and supported, and taxpayers to know their dollars were managed responsibly. If , at the end of my service, our schools are safer, academic outcomes are stronger, families are more engaged, and the community has greater confidence in the district, I would consider that a successful egacy. My goal is not simply to hold office, but to leave Flagler Schools stronger and better prepared to serve ever student for years to come.
Campaign website: jill4kids.com