Of the Broward School Board’s nine members, seven are elected from individual districts and two are elected at-large or countywide. One of those, District 8, is on the ballot on Aug. 18, and the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board recommends voters send Allen Zeman back for four more years.

Four years ago, Zeman promised a plain-spoken, no-nonsense approach to a board plagued by too many lapses. We endorsed him then over incumbent Donna Korn, and he has kept the promise by regularly asking pointed questions and never shying away from uncomfortable issues.

He has called for $100,000 compensation packages for teachers, a goal not yet attained in Broward, and one that will be impossible without approval in November of the property tax extension that he supports.

With recent reports that South Florida is now more expensive than New York City, such a pay package is long overdue.

To save money in a school system that has lost tens of thousands of students since the pandemic, Zeman is also willing to take stances unpopular with his colleagues, including calling for elimination of middle management school employees instead of in-school staff.

He also is the most vocal board member in favor of closing or consolidating many more underenrolled schools.

“It’s not if we’re going to close schools, it’s when we close schools, and as hard as that is … we’ve built a capacity for 250,000 students and we’re going to land at around 150,000,” Zeman said in an online Sun Sentinel interview. “We have to start planning for that.”

Zeman says that he is especially proud of never having missed a board meeting in four years, and of being constantly responsive to Broward parents, a difficult proposition when his constituency is the entire county.

“Broward County trusts me,” Zeman said. “And the evidence of trust, whether they’re a business owner, they’re someone who has an idea about a program, or they’re someone who thinks the School Board could be doing something better, they call me, and they get responses.”

Zeman, 62, of Fort Lauderdale, also is CEO of the Center for Human Capital Innovation, a training and leadership development consulting firm. He has three children in Broward public schools, and it is essential that parents are well-represented on the School Board, as much or more than teachers and other major stakeholders.

The challenger in this race is Sonia Azim, 54, of Plantation, who has worked for five years as a school district safety and security trainer. Before that, she was dean of students at Renaissance Charter School of Plantation for 10 years and, from 2007 to 2011, served as a special education teacher in Broward County schools.

Azim is a solid candidate. As both a security and special education professional, she could offer a new perspective. She also wants things to move faster, pointing out that Rickards Middle School’s roof collapsed in 2021 and students are still in portables, and that School Board meetings seem to focus too often on granular details instead of the big picture.

The criticism is valid, but Zeman is not the problem.

Still, even as the Board faces school closures and dwindling enrollment, it ought to heed Azim’s criticism. It poorly serves the Broward community to hold marathon meetings about job qualifications when a school is waiting on a roof.

The board ought to pay closer attention to facilities and operations, an area in which Azim is sounding the alarm.

Allen Zeman’s continued presence is an asset.

Note: Our endorsements reflect the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s values and concerns for our community. The newsroom does not participate in editorial board decisions.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.