A former public-school student and teacher turned parent volunteer, she is one of two candidates vying for Robyn Marinelli’s seat.
By Ed James III
Original Air Date: May 20, 2026
In local politics, the races for three Sarasota County School Board seats have become one of the most watched contests of the season. Despite school boards being constitutionally nonpartisan, political parties are playing a big role. District 4 covers parts of Newtown as well as east county suburbs. Two candidates—Frank DiCicco and Megan Tennimon—are vying for the seat currently held by Robyn Marinelli. Our reporter, Ed James III, begins with Tennimon.
Ed James III: Step into any school board meeting in Sarasota County lately, and you are likely to see some drama. But behind the headlines are parents and educators looking for stability. Megan Tennimon is trying to tap into that sentiment.
Tennimon is a product of Sarasota County public schools. With three children currently enrolled, she has spent years volunteering in parent-teacher associations, serving as PTO Co-President at Fruitville Elementary and PTSS President at the Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences. She says her decision to jump from a parent volunteer to a candidate for public office came after she started paying closer attention to how the current board operates.
Megan Tennimon
Megan Tennimon: As I started paying more attention to school board meetings and how our district was moving and community partnerships, I was really intrigued on how the whole process worked. When Support Our Schools said that they thought I was a good candidate, I decided maybe instead of going back to teaching, this would be the next step in my educational journey.
EJ: The current school board is narrowly split, often landing on controversial decisions by a 3-2 margin. Tennimon points out that the Bridget Ziegler-chaired board frequently seems out of step with the public comments heard at meetings.
MT: The school board as a whole can do some very good things for our community. But as you know, it is a five-seat board. For every decision, there is a vote, and for many of those decisions that our community asks a specific vote to happen—either yes or no—it is consistently a 3-2 vote that typically does not mirror what the community asks for.
EJ: One of the most pressing issues facing the board is a multi-million-dollar legal battle. The school board is suing Tax Collector Mike Moran over his withholding of a 2% commission—amounting to roughly two million dollars—from the voter-approved one-mill property tax referendum. While the County Commission recently stepped in with a temporary fix, Tennimon, who was on the streets waving signs for the very first referendum back in 2002, says the fight to protect that money is personal.
MT: The amazing benefits we see from that referendum—there’s too many for us to not fight for this. Also, as I’ve been on the campaign trail, a lot of people brought this up to me, and several of these were people who didn’t even have kids in our school system. Either they were retired and their kids were older or they didn’t have kids. Those people even told me, “I voted for this. I voted for my tax dollars to go to our schools. I did not vote for it to go to the County Commission Office.” So I think the community as a whole agrees with our school board, and I do support the lawsuit as well.
EJ: Tennimon is highly critical of the state’s massive school voucher expansion, which she argues has defunded local public schools and allowed private entities to raise tuition rates while capitalizing on public tax dollars. To combat declining enrollment and address the youth mental health crisis, she offers an unconventional, human-centric solution: cutting back on expensive classroom technology and reinvesting that money into people.
Megan Tennimon and family
MT: I’d love to continue to talk with board members and the superintendent about getting rid of some of these educational technology programs that take away from valuable teaching time and have have been shown they don’t really increase a student’s mastery. Students learn when they interact with people, so we need less screen time and more people. I would love to see some of those people be aides that can come into the classroom to help as well as the behavior specialists who can be there to help de-escalate a situation.
EJ: This race has also been swept up in the broader Florida culture wars. Despite the race being nonpartisan, the Sarasota County Republican Executive Committee recently issued an endorsement slate, warning that a loss in District 4 would mean “Democrats run our schools.” Meanwhile, the Sarasota County Democratic Party has endorsed Tennimon and two other school board candidates. But Tennimon, who is also backed by local public education advocates, emphasizes that she deliberately declines political party endorsements to maintain her independence.
MT: I have not accepted an endorsement from a political party for that very reason. I am a firm believer in nonpartisan school board. We are here for our students and our teachers, not for a political party. What voters need to recognize is when a candidate is endorsed by a political party, they are beholden to that party. They have to listen and do what that political party asks them to do.
EJ: As she makes her final pitch to the voters of District 4, Tennimon points to her unique dual perspective as both a former educator and a mother who understands the difficult choices families must make. Her platform includes a plan to build a “community PTA” to pool fundraising resources and support struggling Title One schools.
MT: I bring a very unique background to the school board. As a former teacher, I have educational experience. I also have three kids who have attended our county schools from elementary up through high school, so I think that’s very important when looking for a school board candidate—that they know what it’s like to be a parent in the district—to have to make tough decisions about middle schools or what programs my child’s going to go into for high school. Those are really important decisions, and they can be very overwhelming and confusing, so it’s very helpful to have somebody on your board who knows, as a parent, what that feels like and can be somebody that can be an advocate for those families.
EJ: For WSLR 96.5 FM, Sarasota’s community radio, I’m Ed James III.
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