Will the last incumbent get a challenge by qualifying deadline?
Three of the four Miami-Dade School Board races are filling out with about three weeks left before the qualifying deadline.
Robert Alonso, who filed against veteran Perla Tabares Hantman then suddenly decided to retire after almost 30 years. Maribel Balbin, former president of the League of Women Voters, and Kevin Menendez Macki, a 17-year educator with both public and private school experience, have both opened bank accounts and announced intentions to run in District 4.
And on Tuesday, Monica Colucci filed paperwork to challenge Marta Perez, who has been a school board member for 24 years, leaving Mari Tere Rojas as the only incumbent without a challenge. Yet.
Qualifying ends at noon June 17 so there is still a chance someone could jump in. Las malas lenguas say that Republicans recruited challenges against Tabares Hantman, Perez and Rojas because they did not support Gov. Ron DeSantis in his fight with local school districts over masks requirements during the COVD crisis or in his campaign against diversity.
Read related: Perla Tabares Hantman bows out and Miami-Dade School Board race ignites
School Board Member Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall in District 2 had the first challenge from La-Shanda West. But the iPrep lead teacher at Cutler Bay Senior High has only raised $2,290 against the incumbent’s $68,000.
Perez has raised $61,000 and loaned herself another $100K to defend her District 8 seat. Colucci, a 3rd grade teacher at the Everglades K-8 Center who also served on the West Kendall Municipal Advisory Committee considering incorporation, has not reported raising anything yet.
But Alonso was able to raise a respectable $44,500 in his first month April — with a lot of help from the Hialeah hoodlum gang. According to his finance report, he has almost $50K in hand because he wrote himself a $5,000 check. Among his contributors are former State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez, who didn’t live in his district when he was in office and lost a race for Hialeah mayor afterwards, and former Speaker Jose Oliva, Hialeah Council President Carl Zogby, former Hialeah henchman to the mayor Arnie Alonso and at least $5,000 in bundled donations from companies tied to former Mayor and county mayoral candidate Alex Penelas. That’s because Alonso supported his mayoral run against La Alcaldesa Daniella Levine Cava and Esteban Bovo, who went on to become Hialeah mayor.
That’s a little weird for someone who was allegedly hand-picked by De Santis to run against Tabares Hantman. And some of the support may have come before la dinasaura resigned.
Menendez Macki, who grew up in Hialeah and went to public school, is principal at Horeb Christian School in Hialeah. Prior to joining the school in 2016, he worked as a teacher at Joella C. Good and Hialeah Gardens elementaries for a combined 11 years. He is also on the Miami Lakes Education Advisory Board.
Read related: Miami-Dade School Board veteran Perla Tabares Hantman draws challenger
“As a lifelong educator, my roles as a teacher and principal have helped me understand what needs to be accomplished for our students to thrive,” Menendez Macki, 41, said in a statement.
Balbin, 67, also filed paperwork on Tuesday, but she had said last month that she was forming an “exploratory committee” to see if she should run. Balbin worked in government for at least 15 years, first at the South Florida Water Management district and then at the Miami-Dade County Office of Sustainability from 2005 to 2013.
A government consultant who specializes in public outreach, she was also a board member and trustee at the League of Women Voters and a trustee at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora.
Some of these first time hopefuls make more than the annual salary of a school board member, which is about $46,000. So one question we will be asking after they qualify is: Why take the pay cut?
Three more Miami-Dade School Board candidates come out to play in 2022 added by Ladra on
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