Hillsborough School Board incumbent faces a challenger

Stacy Hahn, now finishing her first term on the Hillsborough County School Board, has filed for re-election and will face a challenge from long-time PTA activist Damaris Allen.

They will run in Hahn’s newly redrawn District 2, which covers south Tampa, Riverview and coastal areas south to Apollo Beach.

The race is non-partisan but likely to take on partisan overtones. Hahn is a Republican and Allen a Democrat, and both are likely to be supported by their parties.

In December, Hahn and Melissa Snively lost out to the 5-member Democratic majority on the board as it redrew districts, including making Hahn’s district more Democrat-friendly. The new map removed Sun City Center and other GOP-voting areas from the district.

Hahn is a long-time special education teacher in several counties, including Hillsborough, and taught special education teachers at the University of South Florida College of Education.

She has been active in philanthropic and governmental boards and commissions including the Zoo Tampa and Tampa Museum of Art boards.

She and her husband have three children who attend Catholic schools.

Allen, a former United Methodist church youth and family minister, now does volunteer education advocacy work full-time, she said.

She is past president of the Hillsborough County PTA and said she will resign her current posts as Plant High School PTA president and chairperson of the School Board’s Citizen’s Advisory Committee to avoid involving them in the race, she said.

She and her husband have two children who have both gone through public schools.