Two Hillsborough School Board Seats Go to November, With a Residency Question Trailing One Candidate

Two of the seven seats that govern Hillsborough County's public schools are still up for grabs after the Aug. 18 primary, and both fights now land on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. In District 2, which stretches from Hyde Park down to Ruskin, former educator Daniela Simic took about 39% and attorney Brittany Lyssy about 37%. In the countywide District 6 race, board chair Karen Perez finished with just over 48%, short of the majority she needed to end it in August, and will face retired educator Kenneth Gay.

Every Hillsborough voter gets a say in one of those races. District 6 is elected countywide. District 2 is a single-member seat, so only voters who live inside its boundaries will see it on their ballot. If you are not sure which one applies to you, the Supervisor of Elections keeps current district maps online; new precinct and district maps were published in June.

District 2: an open seat, and money that did not decide it

The seat is open because the incumbent did not seek re-election, opting instead to run for county commission, according to local reporting on the race. Three candidates filed. Chris Taylor finished third and was eliminated despite outraising Simic.

Candidate	Primary share	Contributions
Daniela Simic	39%	$47,748
Brittany Lyssy	37%	$77,760
Chris Taylor	third	$62,230

Simic has spent 25 years in education, including a stint as Hillsborough's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. She has campaigned on teacher pay and retention, enrollment pressures, and what she describes as the state legislature steadily narrowing what local boards are allowed to decide. Her son attends a Hillsborough public school and she serves as an advocacy officer in his PTA.

Lyssy is a Stetson law graduate and a member of the Florida Bar with three young sons. School board races in Florida are nonpartisan on the ballot, but party affiliation is in the open here: Simic is a registered Democrat, and Lyssy is a former president of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans.

The residency question

Lyssy's election paperwork lists her voter registration at a 684-square-foot apartment in downtown Tampa that is registered to her husband, Douglas Lyssy. He is registered to vote with no party affiliation in Manatee County, where one of his Longboat Key properties is homesteaded. A 2022 wedding announcement described the couple as intending to remain full-time residents of the island. The family also has its name on a second Manatee County property nearby.

Lyssy has said she has lived full-time in District 2 since September 2024, and that her residency was verified before she began serving on the City of Tampa's Citizens Advisory Budget and Finance Committee in early 2025. She said her husband owns and votes in Manatee County, and that one of the properties in question was left uninhabitable by Hurricane Helene and has since been demolished. Local reporting from July described the couple as raising their three sons in Hillsborough County.

Simic has declined to make the address an issue, returning instead to pay, retention and enrollment when asked about it.

District 6: the chair has to run again

Perez led the field with roughly 48.3% of the countywide vote. Gay, a former teacher and school administrator, took about 27.2%. Third-place finisher Sally Harris Williamson pulled just under 25%, and where those voters go in November is the whole ballgame for the sitting chair.

Both winners take office Nov. 17.

Sharing the ballot with the superintendent question

The same Nov. 3 ballot asks Hillsborough voters whether the superintendent of schools should stop being an appointee of the board and become an elected, partisan officeholder starting with the 2028 election. The referendum reached the ballot through HB 4027, signed by the governor in June.

The two District 2 finalists are on opposite sides of it. Lyssy supports the change. Simic argued at a candidate forum in March that the job needs someone who has actually been a teacher, a school leader and a district administrator, and that handing it to a politician would be a poor outcome for the district. Every other candidate at that forum agreed with her. Lyssy did not attend.

The third Hillsborough seat on the 2026 cycle, District 4, drew no opposition and never went to a primary. Between now and November, the two remaining races are the only ones that can change the board's composition, and the deadline to register or update your address for the general election falls in early October.

More local coverage lives at Tampa Community Website, and we post updates on Facebook. Got a question about your ballot or your school? Bring it to the Community Forum and join the conversation. You can read more education stories and follow the rest of the campaign in government and politics.