ORANGE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE

ANNE PURCELL

I believe that the Orange County School System is stronger than it has ever been, and our Board must work to use money and resources wisely and efficiently to ensure that we continue on this positive trajectory. With your support and help, I will continue this work to help our district reach new heights for our students, teachers and staff.

I would appreciate your vote on March 3, 2026.

With sincere appreciation,
Anne Purcell

Three of my top priorities are:

We must ensure that all students graduate fully prepared for successful futures, whether they further their education, or choose careers or military service.
In addition, we must continue to focus on supporting and retaining our teachers and staff by providing professional development to help them in the classroom and keep them abreast of the best methods for preparing students, timely instructional data to help them identify where students need more help, the resources they need to teach and support our students, and by advocating for salaries that reflect the crucial importance of their jobs.
We must also continue to monitor the needs of our families and offer assistance whenever possible by supporting the critical work of our Family Liaisons, Social Workers and Nurses – who help families every day.

As I reflect on my first term on the Orange County Board of Education, I cannot help but think about the positivity and collaboration among our seven board members. Our board has worked very hard to meet the needs of the students, teachers, support staff, and administrators within our school district. Even though we don’t always agree on everything, we do agree that our students and their families deserve the best education possible and that it is our job to make that happen.

Our district achieved remarkable success in many areas over the past three years. Most notably, last year, for the first time in our district’s history of standardized testing, all schools showed growth or proficiency, or both. We attained growth across the board, with our minority students scoring higher than all other subgroups. These results were exceptional and put us in the top three school districts in the state for growth.

While our teachers, administrators and central office staff continue to make academics a top priority, our operations staff is preparing to begin construction on a new elementary school adjacent to Gravelly Hill Middle School. This new school along with much-needed improvements to our existing school facilities was made possible by the school bond approved last year. Plans are for this new school to accommodate 600 students and open by the fall of 2030.

While I am extremely proud of our school district and the progress that we’ve made over the past three and a half years, there is still much left to do. With your support, I look forward to serving a second term and working to continue our momentum.