Florida\u2019s largest school district \u2014 Miami-Dade \u2014 attracted scant interest from candidates for its Aug. 18 school board election, guaranteeing reelection for three of the four incumbents whose terms are up.<\/p>\n
While Florida\u2019s other big-city school districts, including neighboring Broward<\/a> County, or Tampa\u2019s Hillsborough<\/a> County, have robust fields of candidates, only one of Miami-Dade\u2019s four incumbent school board members faces a challenger, despite the system facing headwinds like sharply declining student enrollment and a high-profile search for a new superintendent<\/a>.<\/p>\n Candidate qualifying ended Friday.<\/p>\n Dorothy Bendrolls-Mindingall (District 2), Roberto J. Alonso (District 4), and Mari Tere Rojas (District 6) were all automatically re-elected to the Miami-Dade County School Board after drawing no opposition, according to the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections website.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a real tough job,\u201d said Antonio \u201cTony\u201d White, president of the United Teachers of Dade teachers union.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not as attractive as it once was,\u201d White added.<\/p>\n White noted that Miami-Dade\u2019s school board members earn a modest salary of about $54,000 \u2014 the same as a first-year teacher.<\/p>\n They are also consistently caught in the crosshairs of Florida\u2019s political battles. Gov. Ron DeSantis has aggressively worked to influence local school board races, and several of Miami-Dade\u2019s board members were either endorsed by, or directly appointed by, the governor.<\/p>\n One of those DeSantis-backed members, conservative educator Monica Colucci, drew a late-hour challenger Thursday afternoon. That challenger, Samuel \u201cSam\u201d Joseph, could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n