Parental rights, DeSantis talking points line up for some Miami school board candidates

Miami Herald | By Sommer Brugal | June 20, 2022

Following a tense legislative session where public education and school boards were at the center of state — and national — debates, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ playbook of boosting parental involvement in public education and ridding schools of “woke” ideologies could be taking hold in Miami-Dade County’s School Board elections this year.

Nine candidates qualified Friday to run for the four of nine seats on the ballot this year, including three held by longtime incumbents: Dorothy Bendross-Mindingal, Maria Teresa Rojas, Marta Pérez. The fourth seat is open, due to the longtime chair, Perla Tabares Hantman, announcing earlier this year that she wouldn’t seek reelection.

The four races will be on the ballot in the Aug. 23 primary election. If no candidate takes more than 50% of the vote in each of the races, the candidates will face a runoff election in November.

Candidates had until noon Friday to get their name on the ballot. School board members serve four-year terms and earn a salary of $46,773, according to the Miami-Dade Elections Department.

At least three of the candidates have political views that align with DeSantis, even though school boards are independent bodies funded by Miami-Dade County property taxes.

Roberto Alonso, who’s running for the open District 4 seat vacated by Tabares Hantman, and Monica Colucci, who is vying to represent District 8, the seat held by Perez, are hoping to increase parental rights and school choice options for families, oppose critical race theory and “other extreme liberal agendas” and protect female athletes, according to their campaign websites.

And Sandra Manzieri, who hopes to win District 6, the seat held by Rojas, has already garnered support on social media from the Moms for Liberty Miami chapter, a conservative parental rights organization that has backed DeSantis’ efforts and shared the stage as he’s signed controversial education bills such as H.B. 7, titled “Individual Freedom” and known as the “Stop Woke Act,” which limits how race-related issues are taught in public universities, colleges and in workplace training.

DeSantis already has made it clear the types of candidates he wants to endorse. On Wednesday, the governor’s re-election campaign announced the DeSantis Education Agenda: Putting Students First, Protecting Parents’ Rights, which the campaign called a “statewide blueprint for school board candidates …”

The elections are coming after the district’s first full year back to the classroom since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. They follow the departure of former Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who stepped down in February to helm the Los Angeles school district, and the appointment of Superintendent Jose Dotres, which drew strong criticism from some in the community who said the search process was rushed and lacked community input.

Here, then, are a look at the races:

DISTRICT 2: HELD BY DOROTHY BENDROSS-MINDINGALL SINCE 2010

The first incumbent to see a challenger was Bendross-Mindingall, 79, who has been in her seat since 2010 and since then, has faced just one challenger during her tenure. She was re-elected in both 2014 and 2018.

The district encompasses Liberty City, Overtown, Little Haiti, Wynwood, Morningside, El Portal and Miami Shores.

Bendross-Mindingall is a former classroom teacher, principal and adult education administrator. She will face La-Shanda West, 50, a teacher at Cutler Bay Senior High, who filed her paperwork to run more than one year ago, in March 2021.

West began her teaching career more than two decades ago in 2001 as a world geography teacher for Centennial Middle School.

Since then, however, she’s taught a range of topics, including civics, law, reading and U.S. history to middle school students and global studies, iPrep career choices, speech and debate honors, world cultural geography honors and world history for high schoolers.

Bendross-Mindingall has raised $80,000, while West has raised $2,391, records show.

DISTRICT 4: HELD BY PELA TABARES HANTMAN SINCE 1996

The race to succeed longtime Chairwoman Tabares Hantman, 81, brought the largest number of challengers, with three people vying for her seat to represent Hialeah and Miami Lakes. Tabares Hantman, who announced in April she would not seek reelection after nearly three decades, was the first Hispanic to serve as chair.

Alonso, 42, was the first to announce his candidacy, filing even before Tabares Hantman announced she was bowing out. Maribel Balbin and Kevin Menendez Macki filed their paperwork after her announcement.

DeSantis ally running for her seat DeSantis appointed Alonso, a Hialeah businessman who developed educational software before returning to his family’s real estate business, Costa Realtors, to the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees in 2020. He is also the founder of Miami Lakes Cars for a Cure, which aims to raise funding for cancer research, and is the vice chair of the Miami-Dade Planning Advisory Board.

Alonso’s platform borrows from GOP-talking points used by lawmakers, including DeSantis during recent months, espousing to support “parental rights in school curriculum and books taught to K-12 students” and “oppose attempts to impose critical race theory” in schools. Last month, he told The Reporter, the student newspaper at Miami Dade College, that his platform is centered around conservative values.

Balbin, 67, is the only female hoping to succeed the longtime chair. The former president of the League of Women Voters, Balbin is the CEO and president of Public Affairs Concepts, a firm that specializes in voter engagement services, public outreach and strategic communications and government relations, which she founded in 2005. She also founded the Miami Women’s Speakers Bureau in 2020.

Similar to Tabares Hantman, she was the first Hispanic woman to serve on the national board of the League of Women Voters of the United States. Some of her priorities include school safety, recruiting and retaining teachers, expanding programs for students with disabilities and reviewing student suspension policies.

For his part, Menendez Macki, 41, is the only candidate in the race with experience as both a teacher and principal. The Hialeah native taught at Hialeah Gardens Elementary School from 2005-2012. After, he was the professional development liaison and teacher at Joella C. Good Elementary in Hialeah. And in 2016, he became the principal at Horeb Christian School, his current job.

Like Alonso, Menendez Macki is also advocating for parental involvement. According to his top priorities, he’s pushing for “two-way communication to ensure parents are heard and able to be active participants in their children’s education.”

As of Friday, Alonso has raised more than $76,260, with Balbin and Menendez Macki have raised $4,850 and $16,555, respectively.

DISTRICT 6: HELD BY MARIA TERESA ROJAS SINCE 2016

Manzieri, a first-grade teacher and PTA board member at the Key Biscayne K-8 Center, filed to run against Maria Teresa Rojas on June 8, records show. This is the first time the incumbent will face a challenger since she was elected to represent District 6 in 2016, when she beat three other political newcomers.

Manzieri, 56, has made headlines in recent months for airing frustrations regarding the school’s leadership on behalf of other parents. In a social media post earlier this week, she introduced herself as a District 6 candidate and said she is “here for the kids, for the parents and for the teachers.”

Rojas, for her part, is a professional educator with more than 45 years experience in various high-level administrative and teaching positions in the district, according to her bio.

Manzieri has raised no funds, while Rojas, 68, has raised more than $164,000, the second largest amount, to date, in the school board races.

The district runs along from Key Biscayne to South Miami.

DISTRICT 8: HELD BY MARTA PEREZ SINCE 1998

Colucci, 49, like Alonso, is running on a conservative platform, emphasizing a “back to basics” academic foundation that focuses on reading, writing, math and civics, and opposing critical race theory and “other extreme liberal agendas.”

A 26-year educator and teacher at Everglades K-8 Center, she said on her campaign website that she has “seen firsthand the detrimental impact of liberal policies being implemented in local schools throughout the country,” and that the “current school board member has either supported or stood idly by as progressive activists and special interests seek to promote socialist curriculums [sic] and ideologies in our schools.”

“A vote for me will be a vote for ‘Education, Not Indoctrination,’” her website says. The candidate also served as the special assistant to the lieutenant governor in the DeSantis administration from February 2019 to August 2020, according to her website.

The approach has already garnered support from top Republican officials, too. The future Senate President’s PAC has donated $1,000 to her campaign, records show.

DISTRICT 8: HELD BY MARTA PEREZ SINCE 1998

Colucci, 49, like Alonso, is running on a conservative platform, emphasizing a “back to basics” academic foundation that focuses on reading, writing, math and civics, and opposing critical race theory and “other extreme liberal agendas.”

A 26-year educator and teacher at Everglades K-8 Center, she said on her campaign website that she has “seen firsthand the detrimental impact of liberal policies being implemented in local schools throughout the country,” and that the “current school board member has either supported or stood idly by as progressive activists and special interests seek to promote socialist curriculums [sic] and ideologies in our schools.”

“A vote for me will be a vote for ‘Education, Not Indoctrination,’” her website says. The candidate also served as the special assistant to the lieutenant governor in the DeSantis administration from February 2019 to August 2020, according to her website.

The approach has already garnered support from top Republican officials, too. The future Senate President’s PAC has donated $1,000 to her campaign, records show.

This is the second time Pérez, 71, will face a challenger to keep her seat. In 2014, she beat a political newcomer with more than 80% of the vote. She is the longest-serving member on the School Board seeking reelection, having first been elected in 1998.

In January, Pérez was one of three board members who didn’t vote for Superintendent Jose Dotres. Pérez expressed concern with his enrollment in DROP, the deferred retirement option program, and his decision to continue living in Broward County. Prior to joining the school board, she spent eight years as an elementary school teacher and 15 years as co-owner of an airline software firm, according to her reelection site.

Colucci has raised $53,266. Pérez has raised the most money in any race, with more than $165,200, records show. The district goes from West Miami to west of Krome Avenue and south to West Kendall.