Melissa Byrd

Melissa Byrd was elected to represent District 7 on the Orange County School Board in 2018 and was re-elected in 2020 for a second four-year term. 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.