![\"Candidate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MIA_206SchoolBoard29NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"Rafael")
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Rafael Villalobos, South region superintendent of MDCPS, after being selected as the new Miami Dade County Public School superintendent, during a special meeting to replace Superintendent Jose Dotres, in Miami, on Tuesday July 29, 2026.<\/p>\n
Pedro Portal<\/p>\n
pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Rafael Villalobos has yet to start his new job, but the South Region Superintendent, who was recently picked to succeed Jose Dotres as superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools<\/a>, has some ideas on where the district will head once he takes the reins.<\/p>\n In an interview with the Miami Herald this week, Villalobos<\/a> weighed in on some of the most pressing issues facing the district: school closures<\/a>, teacher pay, land deals<\/a>, AI in schools and more.<\/p>\n Details on the longtime administrator\u2019s contract and official start date as the new superintendent are expected to be hashed out later this month. In the meantime, he continues as South Region Superintendent, which covers about one third of the county.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what Villalobos said over the course of a 30-minute interview with the Herald:<\/p>\n Answers edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n Miami Herald: At a recent press conference, you said you\u2019d fight for teachers to make \u201ctop dollar.\u201d Where can that salary number go, realistically?<\/p>\n Rafael Villalobos: We know the impact that teachers make on a daily basis, and I don\u2019t think that they get enough credit. We need to really thank them for the work that they do, because whether you go on to become a police officer, a lawyer, a doctor or anything it started with a teacher making sure that they got you to that point, and academically got you ready.<\/p>\n I\u2019d like us to be as competitive as possible. A report that came out not too long ago spoke about how the city of Miami is more expensive to live in than New York City. So, when you look at the teachers in New York City, I believe that their base salary is somewhere around $70,000 or above. So I\u2019d like us, at some point or another, to be as competitive.<\/p>\n That\u2019s number one. Number two is: It\u2019s extremely, extremely important\u2014and the voters know it because they voted on it twice already\u2014(to pass) the referendum. Whether you have a child in school or you don\u2019t have a child in school, you\u2019re impacted by that student that\u2019s going to graduate and is going to go into the community and is going to be a part of that community one way or the other.<\/p>\n MH: Enrollment has been a big theme of late, and we\u2019ve seen the recent closures, consolidations. Both you and Superintendent Dotres have said plainly that more of these things are coming down the pike. For you, what are the guiding factors going forward?<\/p>\n RV: It\u2019s never easy because, at the end of the day, these are schools that have been in our communities for years and years and years. So, that\u2019s never an easy feat to tell somebody, \u201cHey, we may need to close this school, because you\u2019re at 150 students or 200 students, and when you look at the fiscal responsibility that we have and the programmatic responsibility that we have to students, we need to make sure that we do this, and consolidate those students at another school so that they can have more personnel at their disposal to help them and assist them to have better programs.\u201d Whether it\u2019s that PE teacher that\u2019s there full-time, that music teacher that\u2019s there full-time, that art teacher that\u2019s there full time \u2013 those resources are also important to students.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a big proponent of you know teaching the whole child, and if that whole child is missing something beyond the academics, that\u2019s going to help them socially, emotionally, and actually, you know, grow as a human being\u2026 Most of my greatest memories are those right beyond academics.<\/p>\n MH: Looking at the numbers of the schools that closed this past summer, the majority of them have been majority Black schools. At the same time, majority Black schools also tend to be more under enrolled. Just looking at the data, is that a factor in your decision-making going forward?<\/p>\n RV: I think that what we did was we prioritized, right? So we looked at those schools that were at 200 students or less, and, unfortunately, they fell in many of those neighborhoods. But I like to call those the tier three enrollment gaps that were happening. We\u2019re going to get to a point that we\u2019re going to get to that tier two, and that tier two is those schools that may be at 250 to 350 that have a capacity of 1,000 or 1,500. Those schools are not being efficient fiscally, so we\u2019ve got to make sure we combine them.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve got three schools in a neighborhood in a one-, two-, three-mile radius, and those three schools have the capacity for 1,000 each, but they\u2019re at 300, we\u2019re not being efficient. We\u2019re not having all the programmatic impact to students that we should have. So we\u2019ve got to look at consolidating those schools. So fiscally, we\u2019re responsible, and I understand that. But the most important thing \u2014 and it\u2019s what I continue to harp on \u2014 is that students receive the best programmatic impact for their academic careers, and that they have the best ability to learn not only academically, but also in the electives and also in activities.<\/p>\n MH: What\u2019s your philosophy on the district selling land versus leasing it?<\/p>\n RV: I have some reservations about selling land, only because if Miami-Dade is known for anything, it\u2019s that all of a sudden things can change at a moment\u2019s notice. We can have thousands of students coming to Miami because of whatever can happen, maybe, in the Caribbean or Central America. We\u2019ve seen those things happen in the past.<\/p>\n For a long time, we were building schools because we couldn\u2019t do it fast enough. And now we\u2019re in a different environment, but it doesn\u2019t mean that that won\u2019t change in the future. So we\u2019ve got to make sure that we hold on to as much land as we possibly can. But then, we can also be strategic, and we can say, \u201cHey, although we\u2019re not using it right now, there may be some opportunities to lease some of this land.\u201d There may be some opportunities then to look at some other land that may be ineffective to build a school in.<\/p>\n MH: Do you feel confident going forward the district can avoid any and all layoffs for school staff, specifically, or is that something that you might keep as an option?<\/p>\n RV: Well, it\u2019ll be my primary goal. I would never like to lay off if I don\u2019t have to, right? So, we have to be very strategic and very methodical on how, when we\u2019re either consolidating schools or merging schools, the effect that that\u2019s going to take on administrators, teachers, custodial staff, security, cafeteria, et cetera.<\/p>\n We have attrition that follows suit, and we\u2019ll be able to fill those positions in because of that attrition. But we also have to have some other plans of action in place, and I am exploring some things. I don\u2019t feel comfortable saying them yet because I don\u2019t know if they\u2019re going to come to fruition. But I have to be innovative looking into the future, knowing that\u2019s going to be something that will allow us the flexibility to not have to rift anyone.<\/p>\n MH: AI has shaken up the workplace already. A few years ago, everybody was still saying, \u201cLearn to code. That\u2019s the safe thing to do.\u201d Now that\u2019s not the case. What should educators prioritize, given that it seems like this technology is increasing uncertainty in the job market?<\/p>\n RV: A lot of industries now are using AI, and we know that across the board. But it\u2019s: How do you teach them to use it responsibly? How do you teach it to use it where it doesn\u2019t take away from your intellect and your innovation as a human being? We\u2019ve got to make sure that that creativity is still there, that we create resiliency as well in our students. We can\u2019t allow AI to take that away from them either.<\/p>\n But if we use AI to learn, that\u2019s just another wealth of support that a student can have. But we\u2019ve got to teach them that, right? Because at the end of the day, at some point or another, they\u2019re going to have a real assessment, and that real assessment is not going to have AI with them, so they\u2019ve got to learn it as well.<\/p>\n MH: Two years from now, how will you \u2014 and how will we, as a public \u2014 know that Rafael Villalobos has done a good job?<\/p>\n RV: We keep talking about making Miami-Dade County Public Schools even more premier, making it the number one school district in the country. You do that through increasing academic proficiency levels. You do that in making sure that we close that achievement gap.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s also extremely important that we have the highest graduation rates possible, and we\u2019re up there already. It\u2019s creating even greater partnerships, and making sure that, as education has to evolve, we are doing that in a timely fashion. I want the community to know that we will be fiscally responsible and that we will be academically responsible. I want them to know that we will build strong students that are going to go into our communities and our societies and are going to be leaders and contributors.<\/p>\n If you look at the greatest societies and the greatest countries, it always started through education. Education is a key component to the success of us all. Making sure that students understand that, and that our communities understand that, and that two years, three years, four years or 10 years down the line, I can look back and be proud of the work that we have continued to do \u2014 that\u2019s what I wake up for every single day. That is my motivation and inspiration: making sure that everything that I do, alongside all of my team members and everyone that works diligently in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, that we have elevated to a whole other level.<\/p>\n MH: As superintendent, you\u2019ll very likely have to work a good amount with Tallahassee. How will you navigate disagreements? Will it be a public-facing thing? A \u201cwork-behind-the-scenes\u201d thing? What will that look like?<\/p>\n RV: You know, I think it\u2019s extremely important when we talk about Tallahassee, or when we talk about communication with municipalities and support systems and partnerships, we know that our future is our children, and we know that we\u2019ve got to be responsible to our children that are ultimately going to be in our society and our communities.<\/p>\n So making sure that my message and their message are along those same lines, and that I am clear with them that that continues to be our main objective, because our future is counting on all of us\u2014and it won\u2019t wait. So, it\u2019s counting on all of us to make sure that our children are going to be prepared and ready to meet the demands of the future. So, working with them, building relationships, learning what some concerns are that we may need to meet at the state level, and addressing those as well \u2014 it\u2019s going to be a partnership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rafael Villalobos, South region superintendent of MDCPS, after being selected as the new Miami Dade County Public School…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-370256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}