{"id":377416,"date":"2026-08-21T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/377416\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T12:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T12:00:08","slug":"educator-joins-candidates-running-for-council-in-key-biscayne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/377416\/","title":{"rendered":"Educator joins candidates running for Council in Key Biscayne"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Key Biscayne educator has joined a list of well-known local leaders who are vying for seats<\/a> on the Village Council this fall. A total of five candidates filed. <\/p>\n

Silvia Tarafa filed her candidacy papers on Wednesday, joining a group of community leaders who are running for three open Council positions. The candidate qualifying deadline was Thursday<\/p>\n

Tarafa has been the principal of Motivating Minds Academy, which touts a nontraditional and individualized way of learning.<\/p>\n

Before joining the academy, Tarafa was principal of the Key Biscayne K-8 Center<\/a>, whose decline has become a focus for some of the other Council candidates. Key Biscayne\u2019s public school this year has struggled with low enrollment, falling academic rankings and test\u2011score drops.<\/p>\n

Tarafa, a New Jersey native, worked in banking after graduating from Wellesley College and later gravitated to education. She was the Grand Marshal for the Key\u2019s Fourth of July parade in 2021.<\/p>\n

Tarafa didn\u2019t respond to a text or email seeking an interview Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Incumbent Fernando Vazquez<\/a> also filed to run this week. His vote was pivotal in the scrapping of the failed Big Dig stormwater project, a mammoth effort to replumb the island in a fight against climate change. \u00a0He has said water quality and discharges into Biscayne Bay were top priorities for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vice Mayor Oscar Sardi\u00f1as<\/a>, former Council Member Luis de la Cruz, and Claire London also have filed to run for Council seats.<\/p>\n

Sardi\u00f1as, who is wrapping up a four-year stint on the Council, has been a reliable vote for outgoing Mayor Joe Rasco and the administration of Manager Steve Williamson, including the Big Dig plan.<\/p>\n

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De la Cruz is a former council member and critic of the Big Dig effort<\/a>. He previously ran for mayor, losing to Mike Davey in 2018<\/p>\n

London is married to outgoing Council Member Ed London, who was the Big Dig\u2019s most persistent critic. She helped transform the Council Chambers into a theater and has been involved with the Key Biscayne Film Festival <\/a>and the Dog Park.<\/p>\n

A change to the Key Biscayne Village Charter, intended to limit future big stormwater projects, also is on the fall ballot. If approved by voters, a referendum would be required<\/a> to authorize large projects costing $50 million over a three-year period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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MIKE SCHNEIDER is a reporter for the Key Biscayne Independent. He is an expert at finding the story in the data. An award-winning journalist with more than 30 years of experience. His reporting has focused on demographics, the U.S. Census Bureau the U.S. space program, tourism, agriculture, hurricanes and breaking news in Florida. He is the author of “Mickey and the Teamsters: A Fight for Fair Unions at Disney.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Key Biscayne educator has joined a list of well-known local leaders who are vying for seats on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[55784,589,87517,123,125,124,143325,127],"class_list":["post-377416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-enrollment","tag-featured","tag-k-8-center","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-silvia-tarafa","tag-village-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377416","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=377416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}