The winners of the races for South Florida school boards are Linda Cothiere in Miami-Dade, Adam Cervera in Broward and Christina Romelus in Palm Beach counties.
Most school board races were decided in August’s primary election. However, these three went to runoffs after no single candidate received more than 50% of votes in their respective packed races.
Florida schools board members are limited to two consecutive four-year terms. Newly-elected members take office the second Tuesday after the general election.
READ MORE: South Florida voters renew school funding referendums for teacher salaries, school safety
School board elections are non-partisan.
Here are the projected winners with 97% of the votes counted at the time of publication.
Miami-Dade County – District 1
Linda Cothiere secured the board seat previously held by Steve Gallon III. She won with 51.63% over opponent Katrina Wilson's 48.37%.
Cothiere was born in Haiti and raised in Carol City.
Cothiere was the second runner-up in the primary elections; Wilson led that eight-way primary.
With more than three decades working in education, she began her career in education as a paraprofessional. She's a first-grade math, science and social studies teacher at Phyllis R. Miller Elementary School.
"I see firsthand what’s going on in the school, with the parents, with the kids, with the declining enrollment," Cothiere told the Miami Times in August. "I see that I can be more useful.
Broward County – District 6
Incumbent Adam Cervera came out on top with 54% of votes, according to the latest results. His opponent, lifelong teacher and Army veteran Roberto Fernandez III, received 45%.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Cervera, a lawyer and registered Republican, following conservative Brenda Fam's resignation.
Cervera is known to swim against the current board, like when he was staunchly opposed to the organizational chart that cut 1,000 roles districtwide, including student-facing roles.
The Broward Teachers’ Union endorsed Cervera, the first Republican the group endorsed in a decade. The South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial board also endorsed him.
District 6 is made up of Cooper City, Davie, Plantation, Sunrise and Weston.
Palm Beach County – District 4
Christina Romelus won over teacher Daniel Zapata by 23%, according to the latest results. Voters handed her the win with nearly 62% of votes.
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and raised in Palm Beach County, Romelus, was a nurse, anatomy and physiology professor, and commissioner and vice mayor of Boynton Beach from 2016 to 2022. She is CEO of PolitiCALM, a government and policy consulting firm.
She is a mom of two sons who go to Palm Beach County schools.
District 4 includes 19 schools on the coastal part of the county, stretching from Boca Raton to West Palm Beach.
The Palm Beach County School District is the 10th-largest in the nation and Florida’s fifth-largest. It serves more than 189,000 students, including those in charter schools, and is the county’s largest employer with 22,801 employees, including more than 13,000 teachers.
The salary for a School Board member last fiscal year was $56,587.
