School board candidate Sharry Kimmel. {courtesy}
Broward Teacher of the Year and Parkland resident Dr. Sharry Kimmel is campaigning for the Broward County School Board District 4 seat with a platform focused on supporting teachers, strengthening student services, and restoring confidence in Broward County Public Schools.
Kimmel, a longtime educator and current Broward College professor, announced her candidacy earlier this year and is making her education experience the centerpiece of her campaign. In her quest to win Seat 4, she will be facing challenger Nicole Morst in the August 18 nonpartisan primary election.
Her career has included classroom teaching, school administration, higher education, grant management, and community leadership.
“I’m a veteran educator with 32 years of combined experience at every level of education, including teaching, administration, managing multi-million dollar budgets, and serving as a teacher educator,” Kimmel tells Parkland Talk.
Kimmel also shared with Parkland Talk how life circumstances have led her to a place where she can help others going through similar challenges, as she herself is a mother of two children with special needs.
Kimmel said those experiences — paired with her success in being named Broward Teacher of the Year and Broward College Professor of the Year–– have given her a unique perspective on the district’s challenges.
“I have watched the gradual and steady decline of Broward County Public Schools and the broken system that supports that decline, and I am fed up,” she said.
According to Kimmel, Broward schools were once “a proverbially well-oiled machine,” but she believes the district has lost its way over the past decade.
“My experience working in that system at every level when things were better will serve as a guide,” she said, adding that her fiscal background and ability to analyze data make her “the ideal person to help facilitate desperately needed changes.”
One of Kimmel’s primary campaign priorities is improving support for teachers.
She said she would work to reduce mandatory testing, expand teacher training, and increase compensation and benefits.
“We need to support teachers by freeing up their unnecessary burdens in the classroom so they can actually teach,” Kimmel said. “We need to incentivize great teachers to stay and potentially great new teachers to join BCPS by paying teachers a livable wage in today’s environment.”
She also argued that stronger benefits are essential to retaining educators.
“We must focus our attention on providing teachers with excellent health insurance coverage for themselves and their families,” Kimmel said. “We need teachers who are happy and well.”
That philosophy has become one of the central themes of her campaign.
“I will be a wild advocate for increased teacher pay and benefits as well as for more teacher support and training, along with less testing and external bureaucratic imposition,” Kimmel said.
“Happy teachers make for happy students, which make for happy schools and happy families. It all starts with the teachers.”
Kimmel also points to her experience helping launch The Sagemont School’s Lower School as its founding assistant principal as evidence of her ability to build successful learning environments.
“My experience taught me to use data, make research and data-based decisions, to be creative, to work with community partners, and to listen to the experts,” she said. “Above all, put the needs of each member of the school community first.”
For District 4 communities, Kimmel believes the biggest challenges include aging facilities, insufficient funding for Exceptional Student Education and arts programs, greater support for school personnel, and increased parent involvement.
“I see the lack of resources at the schools as the biggest issue affecting our community,” she said.
Kimmel also highlights her experience overseeing approximately $100 million in education grant programs as preparation for managing district finances and identifying new funding opportunities.
“I know how to create a budget revision based on program needs through analyzing data and also through communication,” she said. “Part of the key to success is relationships with teachers, school administrators, and community partners.”
Beyond education, Kimmel has served as president of the Parkland Friends of the Library and previously led her homeowners association, experiences she says taught her how to manage budgets, collaborate with government officials, and work within Florida’s Sunshine Laws.
“I learned to collaborate, compromise at times, propose and carry through solutions to problems,” she said. “I learned to oversee budgets, study legal proceedings, and engage experts when needed to properly manifest change.”
As voters prepare to choose a new representative for the District 4 seat, Kimmel says her combination of classroom experience, administrative leadership, financial management, and community involvement sets her apart.
“It is imperative that voters in District 4 elect a School Board member who has not only been a fierce advocate for children, parents, and equity in our community for 32 years, but also is a community leader who has classroom experience in teaching and learning, administration, and managing multi-million dollar budgets.”
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