Kelly Garcia finished second in the at-large field in 2025 with 1,081 votes. Her record is almost entirely about schools, and the two hires she helped make will outlast her term.
The classroom first
Garcia started as a Teach For America corps member. She then worked as a special education teacher and case manager at City on a Hill Charter Public School. She holds a master’s in education.
She now serves as Associate Dean of Student Supports for Transition Planning at Excel Academy, a role focused on getting students ready for what comes after high school. Her stated interest is rigorous and inclusive education, which in practice means the same standards applied to students who are usually offered less.
The school committee years
Before the council she chaired the Chelsea School Committee.
Two things happened on her watch that are worth stating specifically. She served on the superintendent search committee that hired the district’s first Latinx superintendent, in a district where the student body is overwhelmingly Latino and had never had a superintendent who reflected it. That same process produced the district’s first Officer of Equity, Diversity and Excellence.
She also co-founded the district’s Equity Committee, set up to identify and address equity problems inside the schools rather than around them.
Hiring a superintendent is the most consequential thing a school committee does, for the same reason hiring a city manager is the most consequential thing a city council does. Whoever is in that chair sets the direction for years after the people who picked them have moved on.
What we could not confirm
We could not verify her committee assignments on the council for 2026, when she was first elected to the school committee, or which ordinances she has introduced as a councillor. The city’s council page publishes contact details only, with no biographies or committee rosters, and we have not guessed.
The numbers
On November 4, 2025 she took 1,081 votes, second among the at-large candidates. Her term runs through 2027.
Sourcing: this profile draws on the Chelsea Record’s reporting, the councillor’s own published biography and professional profile where one exists, and the City Council’s posted meeting agendas. The city’s official council page lists each member’s seat and contact details but publishes no biographies and no committee assignments, so those could not be verified there. Anything we could not confirm is marked as unconfirmed rather than guessed at. Photograph: City of Chelsea. Corrections are welcome and will be published.