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Voters got their first opportunity to hear from all seven candidates seeking the three contested seats on the Polk County School Board on Thursday, July 16.
The three incumbents and their challengers running for District 3, District 5, and District 6 answered questions in a public forum hosted by LkldNow, the League of Women Voters of Polk County, NAACP Lakeland Branch, and several additional nonpartisan community groups.
Moderated by senior contributor Cindy Glover and LkldNow board chairwoman Latrice Moore, this year’s race features one of the most diverse candidate fields in recent school board elections — longtime incumbents shared the stage with first-time candidates, including a college student, a former foster youth, business executives, and nonprofit leaders.
Doing more with less
Candidates competing for the same seat answered the same questions at the forum, but questions varied from district to district.
Most questions from the moderators centered around student achievement and persistent teacher, bus driver, and funding shortages. Audience questions expanded the discussion to immigration enforcement near or in schools, diversity initiatives, and AI in the classroom.
One challenge that surfaced repeatedly throughout the forum was how to improve Polk County schools while working with limited resources.
Candidates offered a range of solutions to this question. District 6 incumbent Justin Sharpless argued that the district needs more funding from Tallahassee or voter-approved tax funding, while Kay Fields, Sarah Corona, and Kate Wallace said leaders should first find savings within the existing budget by reducing health insurance costs, cutting unnecessary spending, or lowering utility bills.
Driver shortage
A question about Polk County’s on-going bus driver shortage sparked a larger conversation about funding and budgets.
Sharpless said solving the bus driver shortage will require additional state funding and more efficient routing. “If you were to take every single bus route in Polk County and you were to lay it end to end daily, we would go around the equator twice,” he said. “Just think about that. We are bussing kids a lot, so this is very critical.” He suggested that artificial intelligence could help optimize bus routes.
His challenger, 19-year-old Kasen Hampton, argued, “We need to pay our school bus drivers more.” He used his grandfather as an example: Despite out-of-state experience as a bus driver, after moving to Florida, he chose not to pursue the job because of the low pay.
District 3 incumbent Kate Wallace said the district could redirect millions of dollars toward employee raises by reducing health insurance costs through wellness initiatives. “We need to get our employees getting physicals every year, making sure that they’re consuming the health insurance we spend $1,100 per employee per month for free to them to use,” she said. “When we get healthier employees doing what they’re designed to do, we can reduce claims by tens of millions of dollars.”
Sarah Corona, who operates mental health clinics and said she handles a multi-million dollar budget, argued the district doesn’t have a budget issue; it has a spending issue. “We need to be able to analyze it (the budget) and execute a plan where we’re going to allocate the money where it’s needed. That will fix the problem.”
Victor Sims said, “We’re the Sunshine State. There’s no reason why we don’t have solar on top of our schools.” He said this strategy has been successful in Miami-Dade and Orange Counties. “With districts who have done this, they’ve been able to reinvest about $8,000 per staff member — not per teacher, per staff member.”
Teacher shortage and school choice
Incumbent Kay Fields, who has served on the board since 2002, pointed to teacher mentorship programs, efforts to improve salaries, and a proposed November property tax referendum as ways to recruit and retain educators.
Her challenger, software entrepreneur Sam Neelam, who moved into District 5 in April, said his priorities would include increasing teacher pay, strengthening classroom discipline, and expanding parental choice.
When asked how the district should prepare students for college, careers, and military service, Sharpless said students should not be limited to a single educational path.
“Don’t put kids in silos,” he said, pointing to Polk County’s career academies and arguing students can pursue technical education while remaining college-bound.
Hampton, who said he was denied admission to a charter school because of his Individualized Education Program (IEP), said his priority would be ensuring all students receive the services they need regardless of where they attend school.
District 3 candidates were asked about how their opinions on public schools had changed over time.
Sims addressed school choice, saying that caring for a child with IEP services changed his perspective on educational options. “I believe in our schools, and I don’t believe they’re perpetual bottom feeders, I do believe that we can do great work,” in an apparent reference to previous comments from Wallace.
Wallace said, “I think something that we all have told ourselves before is that demography is destiny.” She said witnessing Florida’s student achieve changed her mind. “We have disproven the notion that your skin color, your income, or how much you spend actually correlate with achievement, and that’s what I used to think differently — that if you spent more, you got better, and now it has to do with policy and leadership.”
Corona said she has a change in students’ mental health. “I can tell you that it’s not only a global crisis. It’s attacking our children, and it’s attacking humanity,” she said. “We label those kids behavior issues but probably those kids have not been diagnosed.”
Common ground
Despite their differences, candidates found common ground on several issues.
Most agreed artificial intelligence should supplement, not replace, teachers in the classroom. Several said retaining educators will require more than competitive salaries, pointing to school culture, leadership, and workplace support.
The three races will be decided in the Aug. 18 primary unless no candidate receives a majority of the vote.
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