Staff Spotlight - Kim Sherwood

Kim Sherwood is one of those people who keeps Fairborn Digital Academy running in ways most people might never see. As the school’s EMIS coordinator, Kim lives in the world of details. She manages data entry, checks reports for accuracy, investigates errors and makes sure the school’s records are correct and up to date. It is the kind of behind-the-scenes work that is easy to overlook until something goes wrong. Kim makes sure it does not.

As a school of choice and dropout prevention and recovery program, the data is key to keeping everything moving forward at Fairborn Digital Academy, and Kim has been the one to move it along. 

At FDA, it is often the small things that make a student feel supported, welcomed and cared for. Along the way, Kim also became the person in charge of purchasing and making sure the building is stocked with supplies, from the essentials like toilet paper to the everyday items that keep the school functioning smoothly. For Kim, it’s quite literally the little things that matter. 

This year, as she has prepared for retirement, Kim’s presence feels even more significant. She has spent years doing the work that keeps the school steady, and she has done it with humor, loyalty, and a deep belief in what FDA exists to do.

Kim loves FDA for a simple reason. She believes in the mission of helping students who are having a difficult time, for any reason. Some students have health issues and cannot attend a traditional school. Some are dealing with family situations where support is limited or inconsistent. Others are simply ready to finish and need a different path to get there. Kim loves that FDA offers possibilities, flexibility, and real support that help students not only earn a diploma, but build momentum for the rest of their lives.

Every role at Fairborn Digital Academy is student facing, which may surprise some who don’t necessarily understand the hybrid model, but FDA firmly believes the interactions between staff and students are key to the students’ ultimate success. And Kim’s daily interactions with students are part of what she values most. She has loved seeing the students come in in the morning and her role to help set the tone for the day. She and the front office team try to pull a smile out of them, especially if they come in tired or closed off. It is part of the culture. It is also part of the care.

Kim is stationed near the door where students can come for water and snacks twice a day. She helps make sure the area is stocked, and in doing so, she becomes one more consistent adult presence in their day.

One day, when Kim was going through a difficult moment, she sat quietly on the couch. A student noticed. Without being asked, the student went to her teacher and asked if she could go check on her. 

It was a small moment, but Kim said, “I think that maybe we don’t realize how much the students care about us as much as we care about them.”

Kim also sees the bigger picture. She points to the work-based learning program, the tutoring support, and the school’s unique hands-on experiences like Ms. Shari’s gardening and cooking program. She appreciates that FDA’s leadership is honest with students. They do not sugarcoat things. They tell students the truth, and they treat them like people who can rise to expectations.

When Kim talks about the moments that will stay with her after she leaves, she talks about graduation. She talks about students who have taken eight years to finish their diploma, but finished anyway. Students who came from sensitive situations or battled low self-esteem and still crossed the stage. Moms and dads who graduate with their children beside them. Students who want to graduate early and do.

As she steps into retirement, Kim leaves knowing she played a real part in all of it, and everyone at Fairborn Digital Academy will miss her. 

At the end of the day, Kim says she hopes students feel loved and cared about. She hopes they feel her hope and enthusiasm for them as they move into their future. She even shares her own story as proof that it is never too late. Kim went back to school in her 50s to earn a two-year degree, and she tells students, if she can do that, they can do this too.