Karina Schmitt wants changes at the Charlotte School Board

PORT CHARLOTTE — As a mother of three children she homeschools, Karina Schmitt wants education to be meaningful for Charlotte County Public School students.

She’s running for District 3 Charlotte County School Board seat against incumbent Bob Segur. This is a nonpartisan race that will be settled in the Aug. 20 Primary Election. All voters registered in Charlotte County can participate in this election.

“We do not have a single public school in this county that is top-rated,” Schmitt said. “People increasingly pull their children out of public schools and place them in private, charter, homeschool and virtual school programs.”

Schmitt said during COVID-19, while her children were in virtual school, she realized the lessons were inferior to in-school teaching.

Schmitt is a newcomer to politics and Charlotte County, having moved to South Gulf Cove in 2023. She was a substitute teacher in Miami-Dade County and also has lived in Baltimore and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She is from Denmark and studied at a European university. Schmitt said she has teaching experience and knowledge from Florida and Denmark.

“My opponent does not,” she said.

Schmitt said she can help make education “great again” by “bringing back classical educational materials, training students in critical thinking, ensuring math skill development at a higher level.”

Schmitt said focusing on vocational training, personal and professional development is needed to “ensure labor market readiness in students.”

She also emphasizes a need for foreign languages, “fact-based” history and civics and “practical skill development.”

“All schools are rated mediocre to poor,” she said. “That is a statement of failure. Why are Charlotte County public schools only rated between 7 and 3 on greatschools.org?”

Schmitt said European schools are more successful than American. She said nothing is being done to help with ongoing issues.

“We have a serious problem with violent incidences, drugs, vaping, smoking, and sex in the bathrooms that the current board, in collaboration with the sheriff, think they can solve successfully by surveillance cameras in schools,” she said. “We need to get to the root of the problem.”

Schmitt said the School Board listens to the public “with a deaf ear.”

“Nothing upsets and discourages parents more than bureaucratic gurus who are half asleep when people deliver their 3-minute speech,” she said. “That is unacceptable.”