Longtime ‘teacher of teachers’ discusses race for NW Broward’s school board seat

Sharry Kimmel is calling on her decades of experience as a “teacher of teachers” in her campaign to be the Broward School Board member representing District 4.

Kimmel, of Parkland, has received the support of current District 4 School Board member Lori Alhadeff, who shared she won’t seek a third term when the August 2026 election rolls around.

District 4 in northwest Broward includes Coral Springs, Parkland, Margate, Tamarac and North Lauderdale.

“I’m an overachiever and a workaholic, it’s just my way,” Kimmel told the Coral Springs News. “I don’t give 100%, I give 400%. That’s with work, being a homemaker, being a mother, everything.”

Kimmel, a Broward College professor of teacher education, said she has taught countless current Broward teachers in her 22 years with the institution and has a long career working in the education system in South Florida, including as a Broward County Public Schools teacher.

“I teach about everything the school district practices,” she said. “History, assessment, bargaining, I’ve been a union member my whole career, school laws, funding and governance. I teach about school boards, boards of education …”

She was named Broward County Teacher of the Year in 1996 at Pembroke Lakes Elementary in Pembroke Pines and went on to be the founding assistant principal of the Sagemont School in Weston.

She said she’s worn many hats over the years, managing millions of dollars and working closely with schools as the director of grants and programs with the South Florida Annenberg Challenge that sought to improve public education in the tri-county area, while she was also teaching at Broward College and working on her doctorate.

She said she’s served on dozens of boards and introduced the first community college chapter of the educator honor society Kappa Delta Pi.

“I have the education, I have the skills, I have the work ethic, and I’m ready to be a school board member,” Kimmel said. “I’m ready to fight for teachers, fight for school board accountability, fight for school safety.”

Kimmel emphasized the importance of the latter point, taking up the school safety mantle that Alhadeff carried in the years after her daughter, Alyssa, was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018.

“School might be the only place a student feels safe,” Kimmel said. “Kids should feel safe emotionally, physically, and it’s our responsibility to create that place for them.”

She mentioned bolstering school resource officer placements, adding metal detectors and possibly using AI to monitor cameras for threats to campus.

Kimmel said she would be a “champion for teachers first and foremost,” saying that helping teachers and support staff leads to happier students.

The school board is reckoning with a slew of controversies in recent months, including misuse of referendum funds meant to boost teacher salaries, a terminated $2.6 million office lease that led to a lawsuit and procurement errors tied to a $1 billion construction program.

“Broward Schools has lost the trust of parents and taxpayers,” she said. “Millions of dollars have been wasted, and there have been some good choices recently, but so much work needs to be done to regain trust.”

As the school board works to resolve those issues and manage a roughly $94 million budget deficit, one idea Kimmel mentioned is selling its headquarters at the Kathleen C. Wright Administration Center in Fort Lauderdale, an idea that has gotten support from sitting school board members.

She mentioned school board administrative offices could be moved to schools that are struggling with empty space due to the district’s underenrollment issue.

“I really feel that we need to move those school board offices into the schools, and we kill two birds with one stone,” Kimmel said. “We need to monetize that building. There are solutions to these problems, we will find them, and I would like to have a seat at the table.”

Kimmel said she’s been asked many times over the years to run for the school board, but now that she’s an empty-nester after raising two sons, she said it feels like the right time. She has also received the endorsements of the Parkland mayor, all of Parkland’s city commissioners, as well as some past commissioners, and other community members and professionals.

“There is no one who can come close to my credentials and my experience and my work ethic,” she said.

Outside of her education work, Kimmel is the president of the Parkland Friends of the Library, member of the City of Parkland Community Advisory Board, and she was also the first HOA president of the Cascata subdivision.

Records show one other candidate has entered the race so far. Coral Springs resident Nicole Morst, of the North Area Advisory Council, filed her paperwork with the Broward Supervisor of Elections Jan. 6.

This story was originally published January 15, 2026 at 5:05 AM.