The next leader of Miami-Dade County Public Schools wants to raise teacher pay, reverse a 13,000-student enrollment slide and welcome immigrant families into classrooms. For parents at MAST Academy, Key Biscayne K-8 Center and George W. Carver Middle School, those priorities land close to home.
All eight sitting school board members voted unanimously Wednesday, July 29, to select Rafael A. Villalobos Jr. as superintendent designee. The District 1 seat was vacant. Villalobos, 54, will succeed José L. Dotres when Dotres's contract ends Feb. 14, 2027.
School Board Chair Mari Tere Rojas, who represents District 6 covering Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables and South Miami, was among those voting yes. In a post on X, Rojas (@MariTereMDCPS) wrote: "I joined my colleagues on the School Board and members of the media following today's selection of Mr. Rafael Villalobos as the next Superintendent of Schools. Congratulations to Mr. Villalobos on this well-deserved honor."
A homegrown pick, three decades in the making
Villalobos is a Miami-Dade public school graduate from South Miami who started teaching at South Dade Senior High in 1994. He was named Principal of the Year in 2020 while leading John A. Ferguson Senior High, where the graduation rate hit 99%. Since 2022, he has run the district's South Region, overseeing more than 100 schools and 80,000 students. Under his watch, Advanced Placement (AP) passage rates rose 13 percentage points and the region posted a 98% graduation rate.
The search drew 21 applicants from across the country. Villalobos was the only candidate selected as a semifinalist by all eight board members.
His path into education, he told the board, was shaped by his brother, who was blind and autistic. "Seeing the profound care my brother received from his teachers, I realized I was born to be an educator," Villalobos said, according to the Key Biscayne Portal.
A four-phase, 100-day rollout
Villalobos published a four-phase plan modeled on the trust-building research of Canadian educator Michael Fullan. Phase one: meet school communities across the district. Phase two: build an academics strategy. Phase three: tackle operations and finance. Phase four: integrate those steps.
He acknowledged his career has been concentrated in South Dade and said getting to know the rest of the district is job one. That includes the Key Biscayne and Coconut Grove corridor, where MAST Academy serves roughly 1,578 students in grades 6-12 on Virginia Key and lists both Key Biscayne K-8 and Carver Middle in its feeder pattern.
Enrollment, funding and what's at stake locally
The district lost more than 13,000 students in the 2025-26 school year, triggering a $50 million budget deficit. State funding follows headcount, so every empty seat cuts revenue. MAST Academy, a magnet school that has held a Florida "A" rating every year since 2004, depends on robust enrollment from across the county to sustain its maritime and science programs.
On teacher pay, Villalobos was blunt at his July 29 press conference: "Teachers should be raised at top dog. Definitely here in Miami, because the ability for them to survive without working two and three jobs sometimes is very difficult," he told the Miami Herald. He added that budget constraints would shape what's possible.
On immigrant families, Villalobos pledged at the same press conference to "welcome every single child into our schools," saying the priority is making sure students "feel safe and secure." Coconut Grove is home to a sizable Haitian community, and families affected by the loss of Temporary Protected Status stand to be directly impacted by that commitment.
The United Teachers of Dade welcomed the pick, saying Villalobos "brings a deep understanding of our schools, educators, staff, and students."
What's next
Villalobos officially takes over Feb. 14, 2027. His 100-day plan calls for community listening sessions across the district, though no specific dates for Key Biscayne or Coconut Grove visits have been announced.
