Democrats Organize in Support of Violet Sims for Board of Education Vacancy

Press Pool Story

After mourning the loss of Democratic Board of Education member Judy Greco, City Democrats have nominated Violet Jiménez Sims to succeed Greco. Sims was selected at the Democratic Town Committee meeting January 19th to fill the seat.

“Good news, our very own Violet Sims received the nomination and appointment by the Democrats this past Thursday night!”, exclaimed Democratic activist Aggie Kurzyna on Facebook.

But, officially, the choice to fill the Democratic seat is in the hands of the Republican-dominated City Council and Republican Mayor Erin Stewart appears to have her own choice in mind.

“We have nominated Violet Sims to fill the seat on the Board of Ed, left by the passing away of our much-loved Judy Greco,” said Democratic Chair Bill Shortell. “Violet is a life-long educator, much in Judy’s mold. She is a native Spanish-Speaker, who grew up and went to school in New Britain, and a deeply experienced teacher of English as a second language. She has post-graduate degrees and a lot of experience in community affairs.”

“Violet was raised in New Britain and attended New Britain public schools,” Kurzyna said, “She chooses to send her two young daughters to New Britain public schools. Violet worked in the district as an educator for many years and has an outstanding reputation in her community. She gives back to her community in many ways. Her educational background and many years of experience in education are a catalyst to the solution based thinking needed to address systemic challenges in the district.”

In Sims’ doctoral studies and educational leadership training she studied educational law, collective bargaining, grant writing, school finance and budgeting, among other topics.

As part of her community involvement, Sims chartered and was past president of the Greater Hartford chapter of the service organization, Altrusa. In her leadership of the organization, she secured a grant to allow middle school boys and girls to practice, train and play in the Hardware City soccer team. Altrusa also handed out nearly 100 English and Spanish books to New Britain children at the Puerto Rican Festival on High Street, ran a 6-week summer program in collaboration with Pathways/Senderos, provided kids with backpacks full of school supplies and personal hygiene products and donated cases of water for students and teachers at Smith Elementary because their field day was on a very hot day.

City Democrats are encouraging people to attend the City Council meeting on Wednesday, January 25th, to show support for Sims. “Please come to the meeting to show support for our chosen candidate, and for fairness,” said Shortell.

“I want everyone to know that this effort is an up hill battle,” Kurzyna added, “Violet represents the parents, she represents the little guy, she represents us. This is a time to come together for a very worthy and necessary cause to ensure the right person is appointed to the BOE.”