MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) – Miami-Dade County Public Schools welcomed Rafael Villalobos as its new superintendent at an installation ceremony in Miami Beach on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Villalobos took the opportunity to address the community and lay out his agenda for the upcoming school months. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo as superintendent of M-DCPS, it is my obligation, it is my duty to make sure parents and students have all of the resources that they deserve,\u201d he said. \u201cOur students deserve the best, our families deserve the best. We want your input, we want you to come to our community meetings, we want to have those discussions with you, because at the end of the day, this is an effort that we all share.\u201d<\/p>\n
Villalobos, who had previously spent his 30 year career in M-DCPS, succeeded superintendent Jose Dotres in a unanimous vote by the school board<\/a>.<\/p>\n He has inherited one of the nation\u2019s largest school systems during a time of enrollment declines, budget pressures and political scrutiny over public education.<\/p>\n Villalobos said that he is working to bring students back into the public school system. However, this year, there has been a shortage of 15,000 students for traditional public schools.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you look at enrollment, we\u2019re right now, we were about three and a half, four thousand students under what we had estimated, but everyday our enrollment continues to increase,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n