Shamsudin: Financial Experience Will Be an Asset

Editor's note: Patch continues its weeklong series of Board of Education candidate profiles with a look at Sharif Shamsudin. In case you missed it, here are profiles on , , ,  and .

Longtime youth sports coach became a naturalized U.S. citizen two years ago and he said he’d like to serve on the Parsippany Board of Education as a way to give back to his community.

“I want to give back to this town that I was raised in and this school system that I went through,” he said. “I feel I should be able to give back to the community and the taxpayers.”

Shamsudin, 32, was born in Uzbekistan and raised in Parsippany. For a dozen years, he has worked in the mortgage industry and today he owns his own mortgage bank. He is also president and coach of the Par Troy Wrestling Club and coached for the Parsippany PAL football team.

“I’ve been around kids for a long time, I’m involved in a lot of local youth activities,” said Shamsudin, who is also a father of two young children who he said aren’t in the school system yet.

According to Shamsudin, he became motivated to run for the school board after it seemed to him that there wasn’t enough cooperation among board members.

“There’s not enough cohesiveness,” he said. “It’s always a split decision. They should work together as a cohesive unit and come together rather than fight over little items.”

Shamsudin said he disagreed with the new contract for Superintendent LeRoy Seitz.

“The governor mandated a $175,000 salary cap and that’s what it should be,” he said. “There’s no reason we should’ve went to litigation to spend taxpayer money and go to court and give a black eye to the town of Parsippany.”

Another problem he sees in the schools is the number of students that are suspended. Shamsudin said he would like to find a better way to deal with those kids.

“If you look at our schools, there are numerous kids suspended from school,” he said. “I want to figure out a way to help those kids out and put in a policy to prevent them from being suspended and keep them off the streets.”

Shamsudin said his experience in the mortgage industry has given him vital financial lessons that he said he would apply to his work on the school board.

“Many people ask, ‘Do you have experience with budgets and finances?’” he said. “I help people make the biggest financial decision of their lives, which is buying a house.”

He added that he has worked with many families to create and stick to a budget, a skill he would like to apply to the school board.

“My experience in the finance industry and the real estate industry will go a long way to helping the board with their finances,” he said.

He also said he would like to push to give the public a greater voice at school board meetings.

“I don’t feel the public has enough time to speak and I don’t feel as though the questions they’re asking are being answered,” he said. “I want to give the public a better voice.”