Three candidates will vie for Gulf County’s School Board District 1 seat in the August 18 primary—incumbent Chad Bailey, Pamela Palmer and Dennis Peak.
About Chad Bailey
Bailey was appointed to the school board by Gov. DeSantis last October, filling a vacant seat left by Denny McGlon, who stepped down in January 2025. Bailey says his experience as a current school board member is one of the things he brings to the table.
“I have been involved in the community for a number of years,” he says. “ I have worked with our local baseball programs, the high school bass fishing club, and I am currently working as a children’s minister. I believe this has given me the knowledge that allows me to see the needs of our children.”
Bailey also works as an outside plant engineer with Consolidated Communications, also known as Fidium.
Bailey said via email that he thinks one of the biggest priorities for District 1 is teacher retention.
“Some of our counties can offer better pay,” Bailey says. “As a sitting school board member, our district is currently working to improve our teachers' salaries.”
About Pam Palmer
Pam Palmer worked as a principal and guidance counselor in Wewahitchka for 21 years before retiring. She currently works as a beekeeper, roofer and residential contractor in Gulf County. She and her husband own and operate North Gulf Apiaries, home of Blue-Eyed Girl Honey.
“I felt like my experience of having made decisions about these things at the local level, at the school level, would inform my ability to see some of the details or some of the missing pieces, or maybe just a fresh set of eyes,” Palmer says. “I really think that’s what a board offers a superintendent.”
Palmer says she is fiercely committed to the importance of public education for every child.
“I just felt an urging to get back in this capacity to serve and to see if I can help support or offer suggestions,” she says. “The role of the school board is a very serious one. It holds a lot of weight, and I think I could use that to help improve and grow our schools.”
Palmer says she thinks the biggest challenge rural school boards face is recruiting and retaining qualified, motivated teachers.
“That involves what we pay teachers, but also when they get in there, it’s hard, those first three years as a new teacher,” Palmer says. “They just need so much encouragement.”
About Dennis Peak
Dennis Peak is a Gulf County native who told the Rural News Service he’s bringing his love and passion for Wewahitchka to the school board. Peak graduated from Port St. Joe High School in 1983 and has been a district booster president for 20 years. He owns Peak’s Ink, a screenprinting company. He also works at Carpet Country and is a partner at Lighthouse Monument and Vault LLC.
Peak says one of his biggest first-year priorities is bringing on more local teachers and administrators.
“A lot of our teachers and administrators are not locals and I think it’s very important that we get that back into our system,” Peak said in an interview, “I believe it’s a role that we really need to tighten up on when it comes to hiring new employees. Our administrat[ors] and our staff and coaches and teachers is the backbone of the community. It’s important influences in the life of young people.”
Another concern for Peak is student behavior issues. He says one way he wants to address that is by getting parents more involved.
“There’s a big gap there between kids actually going to school and just getting through the day versus at the end of the day they disrupt more in the classroom than they learn.”
On the Issues
The Rural News Service asked the candidates the same questions on several issues. Here are some of their other responses:
When asked how the district should respond to the expansion of vouchers and school choice–
Bailey: “Our responsibility as a school district is to make our public schools a place where families want to be. That means providing high-quality instruction, supporting excellent teachers, maintaining safe schools, offering strong academics, career, arts, extracurricular programs, and communicating well with families.”
Palmer: “I would say if you have a parent that is highly motivated, has expertise and flexibility to homeschool or transport their child to what they think is a superior education facility, I can see the appeal of having state funds funneled to private endeavors. However, I don’t think public education was intended to support the agenda of ‘a’ parent for ‘a’ child, but it was the community as a whole. We want an educated community.”
Peak: “This is an area I’m not really sure of. I don’t know why a lot of our kids are going home school. I don’t know if it’s just making it more available for kids to do home school. When I get in there, I would like to find out and research this a little bit more and find out what we can do to not — to make it more accessible to kids to come even part-time if possible. I don’t even know if that’s possible, but I’d like to check into why a lot of our kids are being homeschooled. Why are they taking them out of public schools and that’s an answer I don’t have.”
On a question regarding how schools should handle concerns about library books, both Palmer and Peak disapproved of sweeping book bans and believe in access to reading and other school materials outside of the classroom.
“I don’t really feel like it’s the responsibility of public education to cherry-pick books based on particular biases of my family or your family,” Palmer said. “We have established wonderful collections of books over the decades that are wonderful for students to read and to be taught, to give them a perspective outside of the life they live.”
“I believe a lot of the things they are banishing out of the schools is not necessary,” said Peak. “I think that’s history, and I think history comes harsh sometimes. I think when you get rid of history, you’re getting rid of a big part of life.”
Bailey noted students have access to books in the classroom as well as online ebooks.
While Florida school board elections are nonpartisan, Bailey is a Republican, Palmer is non-party affiliated and Peak is a Republican as well. Gulf County School Board primary elections will take place on August 18th, with early voting beginning August 8th.
This story was produced in partnership with nonpartisan news organizations and universities across the state working to provide information about the 2026 elections. Learn more about the Florida Elections Reporting Partnership at floridaelections.org.
