A Miami Lakes man connected to Ron DeSantis and charter schools could challenge longtime Miami-Dade School Board Member and current Chair Perla Tabares Hantman.
Roberto J. Alonso is a trustee at Miami Dade College, appointed by the governor in 2020, and a civic leader with roles on the Miami-Dade planning and zoning board, the Miami Lakes charter review and public safety committees, and the Loch Lomond Homeowners Association, where he served as president. He filed paperwork on Monday intending to run against Tabares Hantman.
On Tuesday, he joined DeSantis at Miami Dade College press conference for the signing of Senate Bill 7034, which aims to provide a pathway to college and career readiness for foster kids.
Read related: Miami Dade College board gets it right, makes Hialeah homegirl new president
Two months ago, he joined MDC President Madeline Pumariega and other trustees on a trip to Tallahassee. “We spent the day advocating for our students, education and workforce training programs that will grow our economy and fuel much-needed talent in emerging industries,” Alonso posted on his LinkedIn.
In 2017, Alonso helped raise capital and develop a school choice platform named SchoolMint, described as “a student enrollment software that allows parents to easily merge their child’s educational needs with the proper school environment.” It has also been called a tool that allows schools to recruit and retain students.
Since 2019, Alonso has been vice president of business development at Costa Realtors Corp. His wife owns an adult day care in Miami Lakes and a home health care service.
Tabares Hantman has been on the school board since 1996. This is her seventh term. That’s more than a quarter of a century. She ran unopposed for two other four-year terms and then won four re-election contests — including a 2010 challenge from Manny Diaz, Jr., who went on to become a state rep and is now a state senator.
Read related: Miami-Dade School Board brings back Jose Dotres as new superintendent
She represents District 4, which covers Miami Lakes, Hialeah and Hialeah Gardens. And she was the first Hispanic woman to serve as chair, a position she has held multiple times.
Tabares Hantman, a close confidante of former Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, only filed her first paperwork last week, so neither candidate has any funding to report.
She is one of four incumbents whose terms are up this year. The others are Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, who has been challenged by La-Shanda West, a social studies teacher and iPrep Academy lead teacher at Cutler Bay Senior High, and Marta Perez and Maria Teresa Rojas, who have $157,000 and $133,000 raised so far, respectively, but no challenge.
Yet.
Las malas lenguas say state Republican operatives are trying to recruit candidates to run against the three women, who were not seen as supportive of DeSantis during the mask mandate controversy.
Alonso might just be the first.
Miami-Dade School Board veteran Perla Tabares Hantman draws challenger added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
