News
News, events & updates.
Where to find Michael in District 4, and what the campaign is up to.
May 19, 2026 · Get involved
Yard signs are coming soon. Here’s how to get one.
The first round of Rathjen for School Board yard signs are coming soon. If you’d like to put one in your yard, request one from the link below and a volunteer will drop it off within the week.
Yard signs aren’t decoration. In a Clay County race, they’re a neighbor telling another neighbor who they trust, which is one of the most powerful kinds of campaigning we have.
If you’d rather help in other ways (knocking doors, hosting a meet-and-greet, sharing the campaign with your networks) head to Get Involved. Every hour and every conversation matters in a race this size.
May 12, 2026 · Issue positions
SR-21 is not a safe walk to school. Reliable transportation is part of educational access.
In August 2025, about 1,200 Clay County students were reclassified from bus riders to walkers on the first day of school. The 2-mile walk-zone policy is the technical reason, but the practical reality is what matters: SR-21, SR-100, US-17, and CR-220 are not safe walking routes for a seven-year-old.
This is a District 4 issue. The roads where the policy bites hardest are in southwestern Clay, the corridors connecting Keystone Heights, Clay Hill, and the rural edges of the district. Reliable transportation isn’t a luxury. It’s the difference between a kid who’s in their classroom and a kid who isn’t.
I’ll bring this issue to every budget conversation. Walk zones along high-speed rural roads should be reviewed annually with safety, not just distance, as the standard. And the cost of route changes, about $1.9M/yr for full HB 733 compliance by the district’s own estimate, should be evaluated against the cost of kids who can’t reliably get to school.
May 5, 2026 · Issue positions
On teacher pay: the November vote left 1,200 educators without a raise. That’s a stewardship failure.
In November 2025, the Clay County School Board approved a budget that left roughly 1,200 teachers, about 45% of the district’s educators, without a raise. The vote was defended as “safeguarding taxpayer dollars.”
I disagree. That vote wasn’t fiscal discipline; it was a stewardship failure. Pay parity with our neighbors in Saint Johns and Duval needs to be the floor, not the ceiling. When one-in-three of our educators is asked to teach our kids for another year without a raise, we are telling them, and the families they serve, that they aren’t a priority.
I won’t pretend the budget math is easy. There’s a ~$20 million shortfall on the table, voucher payouts are pulling dollars out of the district, and enrollment is shifting. But honesty about the math has to start with naming what’s working and what isn’t, and what isn’t working is asking our classroom teachers to absorb the difference.
Read more about Michael’s priorities →
April 28, 2026 · From Michael
Every D4 family experiences our schools differently. I want to hear from yours.
One of the things I’ve learned in sixteen years of partnering with public schools is that every family experiences them differently. A parent in Keystone Heights might be focused on transportation. A teacher in Clay Hill might be wondering when the next pay conversation is going to be a real one. A grandparent in Middleburg might just want to know whether the school their grandkids attend is still on track.
I want to make sure I’m listening as much as I’m speaking this summer. If you have five minutes, share what matters most to you and your family on the “Ask Michael” page. Every message gets read. As often as I can, every message gets a personal reply.
— Michael
April 14, 2026 · Campaign news
Michael Rathjen announces run for District 4, Clay County School Board.
Michael Rathjen, Vice President of School Programs at VyStar Credit Union and Chair of the Clay Education Foundation, has officially filed to run for the District 4 seat on the Clay County School Board.
“This seat deserves the focus this job demands,” Rathjen said in his announcement. “I’m not running as a politician or a career educator. I’m running as a parent, a neighbor, and a business leader who has spent his career working alongside public schools, and I’m ready to bring that same outcome-focused discipline to the work of the school board.”
Rathjen has lived in Clay County with his wife Rebecca for more than fifteen years. They have three daughters, two of whom have graduated from Clay County schools; their youngest currently attends Keystone Heights Junior/Senior High. Rathjen also serves on the boards of the Economic Development Corporation of Clay County, the Clay County Fair Association, the Clay County Farm Bureau, and CareerSource Northeast Florida.
The primary election is Tuesday, August 18, 2026, with early voting beginning Saturday, August 8.