Melissa Byrd was elected to represent District 7 on the Orange County School Board in 2018, was re-elected in 2020 and most recently re-elected again in 2024. From an early age, Melissa Byrd had a passion for education, deciding she wanted to be a teacher when she was in elementary school while growing up in Altamonte Springs.
Her passion led her to the University of Central Florida, where she received her degree in elementary education in 1997 and started her career at Forest City Elementary, the school she attended as a child.
At Forest City Elementary, Melissa assumed leadership positions in addition to teaching first grade. She spent two years as a Title I reading resource teacher working with struggling readers in all grades. She implemented and supervised a groundbreaking program at the school whereby she trained older students in specific reading strategies to work with and remediate below-level readers in younger grades. She was also the staff trainer for the Reading Recovery and Four Blocks literacy program.
From there, Melissa moved to Pace Brantley Hall School in Longwood, where she specialized in working with children with learning differences in first through fourth grade. While at Pace Brantley, she worked extensively on brain-based research training and completed a clinical supervision course through UCF, as well as graduate level educational leadership courses.
Melissa later left the classroom to raise her daughters, Abigail and Madeline. Throughout their schooling, Melissa has been actively involved in her daughters' education. She served as the PTSA vice president and chair of the School Advisory Council at Piedmont Lakes Middle. At Clay Springs Elementary, she volunteered at multiple PTA events and was a regular classroom volunteer.
She served as a substitute teacher for Orange County Public Schools, working in elementary, middle and high schools in northwest Orange County.
Melissa moved from Altamonte Springs to the Apopka area in 1998 after marrying Alan Byrd, owner of Alan Byrd & Associates, a public relations and marketing firm.
Melissa is a graduate of Orlando Business Force's Central Florida Political Leadership Institute as well as Leadership Apopka.
Melissa serves on the Community Action Board for Orange County Government, the Apopka Community Advisory Council for Advent Health Apopka, the Wekiva Culinary Program Advisory Council, the Apopka Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the HOPE Community Center Board of Directors, the Orlando Science Center Board of Trustees and the Florida School Boards Association Board of Directors.
In 2019, Melissa was named an Emerging Leader from the Florida School Boards Association and in 2020, she earned the distinction of Certified Board Member
In her time on the school board, Melissa is especially proud of the following accomplishments:
- Advocated for the early construction and opening of the first K-8 school in District 7 to relieve the overcrowded Wolf Lake Schools. Kelly Park School opened in Apopka in 2022 and has received its first grade of an “A” from the FLDOE.
- Followed through on the promise to deliver an adult education center in Apopka near Wheatley Elementary. The Orange Technical College – Apopka Campus opened in 2023.
- Assisted the Wekiva High School Culinary program to become the first culinary magnet program in all of Central Florida. The Wekiva Culinary Magnet has gone on to receive numerous local, state and national awards.
- Fought to end the unfair treatment of our female students in dress code issues with the development of a more gender-neutral dress code.
- Initiated the replacement and installation of new baseball/softball field lights in all OCPS high schools.
- Brought to OCPS a partnership that resulted in the development of the exciting Read Around the City program to encourage literacy rates resulting in the District 7 community reading over 2 million minutes during the 2023/2024 competition.
- Helped fund and assist Wekiva High School in attaining the first new marching band uniforms since the school’s opening.
- Funded more than $70,000 in teacher grants making sure teachers had the supplies they needed and wanted for their classrooms.
- Funded buses for Ocoee High School students to travel to Tallahassee to learn about how our state government works.