Lori Alhadeff won’t seek third school board term, endorses another candidate
Broward District 4 school board member Lori Alhadeff has announced that she doesn’t plan to run for re-election this year and instead endorsed another longtime educator.
Her district includes Coral Springs, Margate, North Lauderdale, Parkland and Tamarac.
“After almost eight years of service, I’ve decided not to seek another term as a School Board member,” Alhadeff wrote in a statement Jan. 5. “It has been an honor to serve our community and work on behalf of our students, families and educators.”
She was elected to the board in 2018 after her daughter, Alyssa, was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland. Alhadeff and her husband, Ilan, went on to found the nonprofit Make Our Schools Safe, which is dedicated to protecting students and teachers and funding safety training and education in schools.
“This next chapter allows me to fully focus my time and energy on Make Our Schools Safe, continuing the work to protect students and advocate for safer schools on a broader, national level,” Alhadeff said.
She endorsed Sharry Kimmel, a Parkland resident and a current professor of teacher education at Broward College with a doctorate in Child, Youth and Family Studies.
“I plan on carrying the torch for school safety that you have carried so eloquently for so long,” Kimmel said in a video with Alhadeff posted to Facebook.
Records show Kimmel is the only one running for the District 4 seat at the moment, having filed her candidacy paperwork with the Broward Supervisor of Elections on Dec. 30.
Alhadeff won re-election in 2022 during a turbulent time for the school board that saw four of its members suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis on recommendation of a grand jury empaneled after the Parkland shooting.
The grand jury wrote that “a safety-related alarm that could have possibly saved lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School ‘was and is such a low priority that it remains uninstalled at multiple schools.’”
One mission of the Alhadeffs’ nonprofit has been to create and pass Alyssa’s Law, which installs silent panic buttons in schools that will contact law enforcement in emergency situations. The law has passed in 10 states as of Jan. 5.
Alhadeff told the Coral Springs News that her nonprofit work this year will focus on Alyssa’s Law.
Recently, Alhadeff successfully convinced other school board members to remove Forest Glen Middle School in Coral Springs from the mix of schools that were being considered for closure or repurposing under the Redefining Our Schools plan.
She also served as the Broward County Public Schools board chair from 2022 to 2024.
This story was originally published January 5, 2026 at 1:52 PM.