Miami-Dade school superintendent search draws leaders from across U.S.

Education admin June 16, 2026 0 Comments

Miami-Dade school superintendent search draws leaders from across U.S.

Education leaders from across the country, and a handful of South Florida stalwarts, were among the 21 applicants to lead Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

According to materials from the district released to the Herald, superintendents from large districts elsewhere in the country, a former state secretary of education, a former charter school executive, and several leaders in South Florida were among the applicants.

Current Superintendent Jose Dotres was hired to lead the district Jan. 2022, replacing Alberto Carvalho.

Dotres’ contract is scheduled to end Feb. 14, 2027. The board recently approved a deal with a national search firm to lead the process, with the contract not exceeding $30,000.

The district had previously released the names of the applicants in a preliminary response to the request, but more recently provided all 200-plus pages of application materials submitted by the candidates.

The window to apply for the role closed last Wednesday. Board members have yet to comment publicly on their level of satisfaction with the applicant pool; they hold their monthly meeting this Wednesday.

Here’s more on their backgrounds and what they put in their application materials.

National applicants

Alex Marrero has served as superintendent of Denver Public Schools for five years. More than 89,000 students are enrolled at the district, which is Colorado’s largest. He also serves as president of the national Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents. Last year, he was a finalist for the top job at Chicago Public Schools.

In his application, he wrote that he hopes to navigate MDCPS’ challenges as well as he’s navigated Denver’s, given their similarly declining enrollments and multicultural student bodies.

Christopher Ruszkowski currently leads the education nonprofit South Carolina Children’s Fund and is overseeing the state of Texas’ takeovers of the Forth Worth Independent School District — a process triggered by low student performance at a single campus in the district — as well as the largest charter school network in the state. A former New Mexico secretary of education under GOP former governor Susana Martinez, Ruszkowski started his career in education as a member of Teach For America in Miami.

Sylvia Mitchell previously led the charter school network Legacy Traditional Schools in Texas. Now, she holds a vice president role at the information technology education company Per Scholas. In her cover letter, she stressed her administrative roots in South Florida, where she served as principal of Downtown Miami Charter School as part of the Charter Schools USA for-profit education management organization.

Jeffery Mosley is the for Chicago Public Schools. He has been with the district, one of the nation’s largest, since 2022, and is a graduate of Florida A&M University.

Angel Rivera is the superintendent of Mesquite Independent School District in the Dallas, Texas area. It serves more than 37,000 students. He was recently named region superintendent of the year.

Linus Guillory served as superintendent of two high-performing school districts in the Boston area from 2019 to 2025. He began his administrative career leading education initiatives at NASA.

Christopher Spence is the superintendent of Utica City Schools in New York. At his request, the board there recently placed Spence on leave; days earlier, many community members spoke out in support of Spence, given that he had not yet received a contract extension.

Taran Chun most recently was headmaster at The Kamehameha Schools, a large private school system in Hawai’i, for eight years.

Latanya Collins was previously an administrator in New York City Public Schools and now helps run education services for a nonprofit dedicated to helping people with disabilities.

Shawn Thorpe is a consultant and administrator based in Washington, D.C. He applied for the open Miami-Dade superintendent role in 2022.

Corey Gardenhour was superintendent for a small district in East Tennessee for five years, and is now a middle school principal.

Samuel Bentsen is currently superintendent of a single-school district in the greater Chicago area. He is planning to retire from that role this summer, per his cover letter.

Jaime Cole has been superintendent of four small school districts across the country and is now a special education coach in Louisville, Kentucky.

Amanda Blatter has served as a school principal in and around New York City, most recently in The Bronx, for two decades.

Desmond Moulton is a music educator and entrepreneur. His resume lists educational roles in New Jersey and business ventures in Jamaica.

Familiar faces from Florida

Several South Florida educators applied for the role.

Jose Bueno has served as the superintendent’s chief of staff in Miami-Dade since 2021. His application stressed that he is both an MDCPS graduate and a parent; he spent his entire professional career at the district, beginning as a teacher at Norland Middle in 1993.

“I believe my proven record of improving student outcomes, deep institutional knowledge, executive leadership experience, and unwavering commitment to this community uniquely position me to guide Miami-Dade County Public Schools into its next chapter,” Bueno wrote.

Ernie Lozano is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Broward County Public Schools. In 2023, Lozano was considered for the top schools job in Brevard County.

Several Broward County officials and educators also gave Lozano their seals of approval in separate letters of recommendation included in the application. The superintendent in Broward County, Howard Hepburn, offered his “strongest recommendation” of Lozano.

“I have worked with many talented administrators throughout my career, and Dr. Lozano stands among the most capable, principled, and prepared executive leaders with whom I have served. I offer this recommendation with full confidence and without reservation,” Hepburn wrote.

South Region Superintendent Rafael Villalobos has held that position serving more than 80,000 students for four years. Like Bueno, Villalobos’ career spans three decades in Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

“If the South Region Office were recognized as an independent school district (excluding charter schools), it would have ranked among Florida’s largest and highest performing school districts,” Villalobos wrote.

Carlos Perez is the former the executive director of the Education Reform Project, a nonprofit organization based in Miami Beach. Perez applied for the open superintendent position in Duval County in 2024. He is now a principal at Charter Schools USA in West Palm Beach.

Santarvis Brown is an administrator, holding a PhD and J.D., with a primarily postsecondary background. He has held roles at Miami Dade College as well as Florida International University. Brown applied for the superintendent job in Broward County three years ago.

Lidice Loscano is the owner and director of Montessori Children’s House in South Dade County. She is a former MDCPS elementary teacher.