Who’s on the ballot for the Miami-Dade School Board? Here’s what you should know
There are 10 candidates vying to represent students and families throughout the Miami-Dade school district. Elections take place during the Aug. 20 primary.
Some candidates are running to be re-elected and expand on the initiatives they started during the school year. Others are parents, educators or just concerned citizens.
Only two current school board members ran unopposed, allowing them to keep their school board seats. Steve Gallon III will continue to represent District 1 for the eighth consecutive year. Danny Espino, who was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022, will also keep his seat for District 5.
That leaves seats open for Districts 3, 7 and 9.
School board elections are nonpartisan, but in November’s general election voters will also decide on an amendment that would identify party affiliation for school board candidates for the first time in 20 years. For that reason, we are including party affiliation for the candidates in this guide.
Some of the important issues candidates discussed with the Miami Herald include questions about African American history in social studies curriculum, what books should be allowed in school libraries, and the expansion of the voucher system and other school choice initiatives.
Here’s what you should know about candidates and their campaigns for the Miami-Dade school board seat to represent you and your community.
District 3:
District 3 candidates are looking to replace Lucia Baez-Geller, who is leaving the school board to seek the Democratic nomination to run for the House of Representatives seat currently held by Republican María Elvira Salazar. District 3 stretches from Aventura down to parts of Coconut Grove along the beaches and the bay. Baez-Geller was elected in 2020.
Joseph Scott Geller
Joseph Scott Geller (no relation to Baez-Geller) is a lawyer who served four terms in the Florida State House of Representatives and is running for the school board on the platform of protecting vulnerable populations. Geller, 70, is the former longtime chair of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party, former mayor of North Bay Village and currently the town attorney for Bay Harbor Islands and El Portal.
His says he “supports teaching real history, protecting vulnerable groups, and preserving parental rights while ensuring radical extremists don’t impose their will on the rest of us parents.” Geller lives in Aventura with his wife and 16-year-old daughter who attends Don Soffer Aventura High School, a public charter school.
“I am running for this because I don’t think we should be banning books. I think we should be teaching real history,” said Geller.
“I think we need to do things differently, and better and smarter.” One thing Geller is interested in is installing solar panels on school buildings.
Geller is a registered Democrat. He has been endorsed by the United Teachers of Dade, Democratic State Sen. Shevrin Jones, whose district includes parts of Miami-Beach, and current District 3 board member Lucia Baez-Geller.
Martin Karp
Martin Karp is a former school board member who served from 2004 until 2020, including four years as the vice chair. He is now the dean of academic affairs and community engagement for a consortium of private Jewish schools. For 13 years, Karp, 59, taught gifted and talented and exceptional student education at Biscayne Beach Elementary.
He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration, a master’s degree elementary education, and a doctorate of education in educational leadership from the University of Miami. He also has a joint communications/business degree from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.
During his time as a school board member, he proffered items for “children with disabilities, gifted students, children in foster care and students whose families faced foreclosure,” according to his campaign site.
As a school board member he wants to ensure students graduate with a specialty skill and wants to expand after-school programming.
While a school board member, he was also named in an inspector general report that claimed Karp and his then chief of staff, Jerod Blumstein, were helping a Jewish after-school program use Miami-Dade public school facilities for free by filing paperwork incorrectly stating that no fees were charged for the program. The report also found that proper background checks were not done for dozens of employees of the after-school program. The privately run after-school program operated “temporarily” for over a decade, costing the school district $1.3 million, according to Miami Herald reporting from the time. Through his attorney, Karp denied any wrongdoing.
Karp grew up Miami Beach and lives in Highland Lakes with his wife and three sons. His eldest son graduated from the Hebrew Academy in Miami Beach, and his middle son attends Mechina of South Florida, both private Jewish schools.
Karp donated $300,000 to his school board campaign.
On May 22 Karp requested his political affiliation change from Republican to No Party Affiliation.
Brent W. Latham
Brent W. Latham is the mayor of North Bay Village. He holds a master’s degree in international relations from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in business administration from Instituto de Empresa in Madrid.
He has a background in the nonprofit sector, and worked at two organizations related to soccer for children, as well as a nonprofit that “inserted impoverished kids into public education,” he said.
He also worked for five years as head of media for CONCACAF, an international soccer management organization and one of the governing bodies under FIFA.
Latham says one of his top concerns is the pace at which change happens on the school board. He would like to speed up processes as well as partner with local community organizations to support the public school system.
When asked about issues related to African American social studies curriculum, he said he would fight to make sure that historically accurate material and curricula will be taught in schools.
The Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust and the State of Florida Commission on Ethics both looked into allegations that Latham accepted a gift in the form of a trip to London from a donor. No action was taken on the allegations. The state’s investigation revealed Latham received inaccurate guidance from his legal counsel before taking the trip.
“The Ethics Commission gave a green-light to take the trip,” said Latham of the allegation.
Latham is from Coral Gables and lives in North Bay Village with his wife and two children. One attends a public high school and the other a charter school.
Latham is fluent in Spanish, French and Portuguese, and is a registered Democrat.
Gustavo Ortega
Gustavo Ortega is a special education teacher at Biscayne Beach Elementary School who has been teaching for the past 15 years. Ortega, 44, currently teaches first grade for children on the autism spectrum.
He lives in Bay Harbor Islands with his wife and two children, who both attend public schools. He has a bachelor’s degree in media and communication from SUNY New Paltz and a master’s from Mercy College in general education and special education.
Ortega wants to bring universal pre-Kindergarten into the Miami-Dade public school system starting at age 3.
He says the students who started pre-K at age 3 were “so much more verbal communication-wise and academically higher.”
He also wants to advocate for increased teacher pay — making the starting salary $65,000, and $100,000 for teachers who have been teaching over a decade. Starting salaries for teachers are about $52,000 now.
He also wants to encourage school board members to show up to schools and stay for more than a couple of hours. He said that he notices how the schools clean up and present their top-performing students, while the serious issues such as plumbing and air conditioner maintenance get ignored.
Ortega is an immigrant who came to the United States from Mexico when he was 9. He is also a breast cancer survivor and a baseball coach. He has been endorsed by various organizations including Stop Moms for Liberty and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
Ortega is a registered Democrat.
Hayley Ross
Hayley Ross is a former teacher who taught second and third-grade English in both public and private schools for 26 years. Ross, 63, holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of West Florida, and a master’s in elementary education from Nova Southeastern University, where she also received a specialist degree in leadership.Ross lives in Miami Beach and says she would like to increase academic rigor, increase teacher pay and improve school safety.
“I don’t think kids need politicians, they need someone who has passion and someone to fight for them,” said Ross.
Ross has two grown daughters, one who graduated from Our Lady of Lourdes Academy and another who graduated from Palmetto Senior High School.
Ross was born in Cuba and is a registered Republican.
District 7:
Three candidates, all of whom worked within the public school system in some capacity, are running for District 7, which encompasses Kendall, West Kendall, parts of Pinecrest and parts of Redland and Homestead.
Maxeme “Max” Tuchman
Max Tuchman has three main points for her campaign: expanding early childhood education access, ensuring student safety and preparing students for the jobs of the future. Throughout her career, Tuchman, 42, has worked as a teacher in Miami-Dade public schools and public policy sectors. She was a co-founder and CEO of Caribu, a video calling app for families, before selling it to Mattel, a company with $5 billion annual revenue.
If elected, she plans to use her experience as a White House Fellow at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and her tech experience to bring Miami-Dade schools into the “21st Century,” she said. Tuchman suggested bringing more technology opportunities to high schools, such as Artificial Intelligence training.
So far, she’s been endorsed by Ruth’s List Florida; Equality Florida; Latino Victory Fund; Run For Something; Everytown Gun Sense Candidate Distinction and Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Tuchman is a registered Democrat.
Mary Blanco
This will be the first time the current school board member for District 7 will be running for office. In January 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Blanco to the District 7 seat after former Vice Chair Lubby Navarro stepped down in December 2022.
While Blanco, 50, serves on the public school board, she is still a guidance counselor at the Catholic school, Our Lady of Lourdes Academy. Her daughters Ashley and Alyssa also attended the private school. It’s unknown where her youngest son attends. Before working at Lourdes, she spent 15 years working in the Broward County school district as a school psychologist.
Her main campaign points are to prioritize school safety for children, teachers, and school employees and the mental health of students as well as promoting parental rights and school choice for all students.
Blanco has been endorsed by several Republican state representatives such as representatives Alina Garcia, Danny Perez, Mike Redondo, Juan Porras and Alex Rizo, the chairman of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade.
Mari Tere Rojas, Miami-Dade school board chair, Monica Colucci, vice chair, Roberto Alonso and Dan Espino have also endorsed Blanco.
Blanco is a registered Republican.
Javier “Javi” Perez
Javier Perez became an educator at age 20 and has worked in the Miami-Dade public schools system for nearly 28 years. In 2016, while Perez, 51, was the principal at Southeast High School, he was run over by a drunk driver while he was watching his son play baseball, resulting in him losing both of his legs.
The district allotted him recovery time, but he said the surrounding community stuck by him and supported him as he recovered. He had the opportunity to apply for disability and leave the education field, but instead he came back to work to return to support the only career he’s known.
Now, Perez works for the district in school operations. If elected, he would take leave from his job. He plans to spend time visiting schools in the district and his key campaign points include enhancing educational opportunities for underperforming schools and to look into redistributing funds for a more equitable education, he said.
His daughter graduated from Southwest Senior High. His son attended a Miami-Dade public school before Perez and his wife enrolled him in a charter school that could better assist his ADHD. He’s worked at every level in Miami Dade Public Schools: elementary, middle and high schools, as a substitute teacher, security monitor and principal.
He’s been endorsed by FOP 133 (the school police union), Miami-Dade County Schools Maintenance Employee Committee, G. Holmes Braddock, the former board chair, and Larry Feldman, another former board chair.
Perez was registered as an Independent all his life but recently re-registered as a Republican.
District 9:
There are two candidates running for the District 9 school board seat: Luisa Santos, who was elected in 2020, and Kimberly Beltran, a Miami native. District 9 stretches from Pinecrest to Homestead.
Luisa Santos
At 33, Santos is the youngest school board member. During her tenure with MDCPS, she advocated for more transparency
by pushing for school board meetings to be livestreamed.
Before being elected, Santos was the founder and CEO of Lulu’s Nitrogen Ice Cream. She is a graduate of Miami Dade College and Georgetown University, where she studied political economy and education, inquiry and justice.
Santos said she plans to continue to push for transparency, sustainability and expanding access to technology, initiatives she’s pushed for since joining the school board.
Last year, DeSantis released a list of a dozen Florida school board members whose seats he planned to target in this election, including Luisa Santos, though it wasn’t clear why she was singled out over other left-leaning board members.
Santos is a registered Democrat.
Kimberly Beltran
Beltran, 53, said her family has witnessed the evolution of the Miami-Dade public schools since the 1940s, inspiring her to run as a concerned parent and citizen.
She’s been a claim supervisor at the Ferraro Law Firm for over 20 years and worked as an administrative assistant in the ‘90s and early 2000s. With a background in law and finance, she hopes to watch the school board budget closely to help end “wasteful spending,” she said. Her main campaign points are transparency within the school budgets and creating stronger connection between parents and the board.
Beltran is endorsed by Florida Right to Life, Gays Against Groomers and Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Florida. Her endorsements align with her stance on topics and removal of divisive rhetoric in school, she said.
Social justice topics have become an increasing concern of the school board, said Beltran. If elected, Beltran wants to advocate for eliminating topics that do not serve teachers or students.
Beltran is a registered Republican.
