Barenborg returned to Indian River County School Board; District 2 race heads to runoff

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — School Board incumbent and longtime educator Teri Lee Barenborg beat political newcomer and media consultant Thomas Kenny for the District 4 board seat Tuesday, according to final, unofficial results from the Supervisor of Elections Office.

Results of the District 2 race, however, were less clear-cut, and the contest is heading to a Nov. 8 runoff.

None of the four District 2 candidates received at least 50% of the vote, so the top two vote-getters — incumbent Jacqueline Rosario and newcomer Cynthia Gibbs — will face off in the runoff. Rosario, a former educator and assistant principal, received 47% of the vote, according to the elections office; Gibbs, who has years of experience as a teacher in local public schools, received 26%.

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LaDonna Corbin, a Vero Beach native who works for Treasure Coast Community Health, received 17% of the vote, and Josh Post, another local educator, received 9%

School Board races are nonpartisan, but the seats have become increasingly politicized since the COVID-19 pandemic due to debates over mask mandates and parental involvement in the curriculum.

Rosario was among conservative School Board candidates across the state fincially supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis. She and Kenny also were endorsed by the the local Republican Party, and Gibbs was endorsed by the local Democratic Party.

Despite Kenny's party endorsement — and despite District 4 having 10,000 registered Republicans and only 6,000 Democrats — Barenborg was reelected to her seat with 57% of the vote and Kenny received 43%. Her campaign raised $26,365, outraising Kenny by about $7,000. Both candidates spent nearly all their funds.

Barenborg, who was first elected to the School Board in 2018 and most recently served as chair, said during her second term she plans to focus on school safety, providing more academic programs and increasing the school district's ranking.

Her campaign was primarily funded by individual donations. She had support from some local elected officials, such as Clerk of Circuit Court Jeffrey Smith, who donated $75, Tax Collector Carole Jean Jordan, who donated $150, state Rep. Dana Trabulsy, who donated $200, and Brian Foley, mayor of Indian River Shores, who donated $1,000.

Kenny's campaign largely mirrored national conservative political talking points, such as banning books with sexually explicit material and opposing critical race theory — a college-level academic theory that examines race in society.

Kenny had financial backing from the local Republican Party, which donated $3,000 to his campaign, and conservative parental-rights group Moms for Liberty, whose local chair, Jennifer Pippin, donated $1,000.

Rosario, Gibbs in Nov. 8 face off

In the District 2 race, incumbent Rosario, who was first elected to the board in 2018, had raised $35,990, the most out of the four candidates for the seat.

She, too, had backing from Moms for Liberty, which donated $250, and Pippin, who donated $1,000. The local Republican Party donated $3,000.

She was endorsed by DeSantis and received a $1,000 donation from Friends of Ron DeSantis, his political action committee, and a $1,000 donation from Gene Posca, a conservative candidate who campaigned against COVID-19 restrictions and was automatically elected without opposition to the School Board District 1 seat.

Rosario's platform, similar to Kenny's, leans into the recent push for parental rights and involvement in the curriculum, as she's campaigned against COVID-19 restrictions and books with sexually explicit material in school libraries.

Gibbs, a political newcomer, raised $18,032, about half of which was self-funded. The rest largely came from individual donations.

She has 13 years of experience teaching in local elementary schools, and has said she would focus on advocating for teachers and repairing the relationship between parents and the district.

Corbin fell behind Gibbs despite raising nearly $10,000 more than her. Her campaign was funded mostly by individual donations, with backing from Vero Beach Councilman John Cotugno, who donated $200, and Pam Barefoot, wife of School Board member Brian Barefoot, who donated $1,000.

Post raised $1,605. His campaign was almost entirely self-funded.

School Board terms last four years with a $37,705 annual salary.

Thomas Weber is TCPalm's Indian River County government watchdog reporter. You can reach him at thomas.weber@tcpalm.com or 813-545-9113. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Indian River County elections: Who won the School Board race?