The Conservative Case for Justin Sharpless

A school board is not a seminar. Its decisions shape every public school, the district's workforce and the stewardship of taxpayer-owned property. Voters should expect members to arrive ready to lead.

Justin Sharpless is ready because he has spent his life doing the work.

Sharpless was born and raised in Lake Wales and attended Polk County public schools from kindergarten through graduation. He earned degrees in agricultural education and agribusiness, returned home to teach agriculture in middle and high schools, and became a professor of agricultural studies at Warner University.

Education is also the family business. His wife teaches agriculture, his mother teaches high school science and his brother teaches construction. Sharpless and his wife are raising three sons in Lake Wales. When he talks about district policy, he hears its consequences at his own dinner table from the perspectives of a parent, a teacher and an educator.

That combination is hard to replace. Sharpless knows what a board directive looks like from the classroom. He knows what employers need from graduates. He knows the difference between a program that sounds impressive in a meeting and one that prepares a student to earn a living.

Polk voters elected Sharpless in 2022, and his colleagues selected him to chair the School Board during his first term. He is not asking voters to gamble on a resume. He is asking them to judge a record.

Polk moved forward on his watch

The first measure is student achievement. During Sharpless's term, Polk County Public Schools moved from a "C" district to a "B" district and then improved its "B" in 2025–26. The district increased the share of students reading on grade level from 41.5% in 2022–23 to 50.1% in 2024–25.

Those numbers are not a victory lap. Half of Polk students still were not reading on grade level at the latter measure. But movement from 41.5% to 50.1% is real progress, and serious conservatives should recognize progress while demanding more.

Sharpless does exactly that. His stated goal is an "A" district by 2030. He supports real-time student data so teachers can identify where a child is falling behind and deliver targeted help before a missed skill becomes a lost year.

That is a conservative approach to accountability: measure results, tell the truth about them, preserve what works and change what does not.

Education should lead to work

Sharpless also understands that education must lead somewhere. College is a powerful path for many students, but it is not the only path to dignity, prosperity or service. A teenager who earns an industry credential, masters a trade or enters a technical career is not receiving a consolation prize. That student is building Polk County.

Career and technical education has therefore been central to Sharpless's work. His campaign reports a 57% increase in student industry certifications and a 90% job-placement rate in high-demand fields for the district's technical colleges. Polk's official CTE program is built around preparing students for high-skill, high-wage or high-demand occupations.

The new air-traffic-control training program shows what that looks like. Polk County Public Schools installed professional simulation technology so students can train for air-traffic-control and related aviation careers using competency-based tools. The district also expanded Civics Career Academies connecting students to careers in public service.

These are not soft electives designed to fill a schedule. They are pipelines into aviation, public safety, agriculture, skilled trades and public service. They connect classroom effort to a paycheck and connect local employers to local talent.

That focus comes naturally to Sharpless. As an agricultural educator and professor, he has prepared students for an industry that still feeds Florida and remains central to Polk County's identity. He has built relationships with employers who tell him what skills they need from graduates.

A conservative school system should restore the connection between education and work. Students should graduate able to read, reason, communicate, show up on time, master a skill and support themselves. Sharpless is one of the few school-board members who has taught on both sides of that bridge: K–12 classrooms and higher education.

Safe schools and accountable technology

Safety is the next test. Sharpless's record includes continued support for school guardians and school resource deputies, investments in single-point entry and perimeter fencing, and a partnership with Sheriff Grady Judd on the Safe Stop initiative to deter drivers from illegally passing school buses.

Sheriff Judd has endorsed him. So has the Polk Education Association, the organization representing district educators. It is unusual and revealing when a constitutional conservative earns support from both the county's top law-enforcement officer and its teachers' association. They see different parts of the system, and both trust Sharpless to lead it.

Sharpless's view of technology is similarly grounded. He argues that technology should support great teachers rather than replace them. It should reduce administrative burdens, help teachers personalize support and return time to instruction — not put another glowing screen between a child and the adult responsible for teaching him.

Parents remain the first educators of their children. Sharpless has consistently identified parental voice, child safety, fiscal responsibility and respect for law enforcement as core principles. A conservative board member should not treat parents as intruders in a government system. He should treat the district as accountable to the families and taxpayers who sustain it.

Experience for hard decisions

Sharpless has also invested in becoming a better board member. In 2026, the Florida School Boards Association gave him its Distinguished Leader Award after he earned both the Certified Board Member and Advanced Certified Board Member designations. The award recognizes professional learning, leadership development and effective governance — the unglamorous work required to understand budgets, policy, law and board oversight.

That preparation matters when the district faces teacher shortages and hard financial choices. Sharpless says Polk ranks 62nd of Florida's 67 districts in per-pupil funding. The board has placed a four-year, one-mill proposal before voters, with 80% directed to employee salaries, 20% to identified programs, charter-school sharing required by law and an independent citizens' oversight committee.

Conservatives can disagree about the referendum. Sharpless's case is that Polk cannot become an "A" district while treating excellent teachers as temporary labor, and that any new revenue must be transparent, targeted and time-limited. The final decision belongs to the voters.

That is a healthier debate than pretending teacher compensation does not matter or writing a blank check without oversight. Sharpless is willing to state the problem, propose a defined solution and let taxpayers decide.

No incumbent should receive an automatic second term. But neither should experience be dismissed as though governing one of America's largest school systems were an entry-level position.

This is no entry-level job

Sharpless's challenger is a nineteen-year-old college student. Youthful civic engagement should be encouraged, and willingness to run deserves respect. But the chairmanship of a seven-member board responsible for every public school in Polk County is not a place to begin learning how classrooms, contracts, budgets, personnel systems and state education law fit together.

Sharpless has taught in Polk schools. He has trained future educators. He has served a full term, chaired the board and studied governance. The district delivered measurable improvement during that term. He has also shown the conservative instinct to connect education with work, pair authority with accountability and keep parents, safety and taxpayers at the center of the system.

Keep building on progress

Four years later, Polk County is academically stronger, more serious about workforce preparation and still determined to improve. Sharpless now brings both the conviction that first elected him and the hard-earned knowledge of how to turn that conviction into policy.

District 6 includes schools in Dundee, Fort Meade, Frostproof, Lake Wales and Poinciana, but the race is decided countywide. Every Polk voter can help choose whether the district builds on progress or starts over.

Vote Justin Sharpless for Polk County School Board, District 6, on August 18.

Sources

1. Polk County School Board members and Justin Sharpless biography
2. Meet the candidates for Polk County School Board District 6
3. Justin Sharpless biography, platform and record
4. PCPS improves and earns another B grade
5. PCPS unveils air-traffic-control training technology
6. Justin Sharpless receives Distinguished Leader Award
7. Polk School Board unveils tax proposal for teacher pay
8. Polk School Board incumbent Justin Sharpless faces challenger
9. Polk County candidate qualification records
10. Polk County 2026 ballot and election dates
11. Polk County Career and Technical Education programs
12. Civics Career Academies
13. Justin Sharpless faculty profile at Warner University

Paid political advertisement paid for by the Polk County Republican Executive Committee, 6039 Cypress Gardens Blvd; Box 108, Winter Haven, FL 33884. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.