MIAMI – Modesto Abety and Mari Tere Rojas are vying for a vacant seat on the Miami-Dade County school board.
The seat opened up after Raquel Regalado stepped down to run for Miami-Dade County mayor.
"I am a 40-year veteran educator who has spent an entire lifetime dedicated to our children and their education," Rojas said.
The former teacher, principal and administrator wants to bring her years of experience to the District 6 seat.
"I have many plans for District 6," she said. "First and foremost, I want to ensure the safety and security of all of our students and staff. I think that we owe it to our children to provide them an opportunity to learn in a safe environment."
Rojas said she'd push for more after-school activities, special-needs programs and school counselors. Her brother-in-law is Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez.
"To those who question that, I have been an educator since 1975, way before my brother-in-law has been the mayor of Miami-Dade County," she said. "I run on the Rojas name. That is who I am. I am my own person."
District 6 includes Key Biscayne, Coral Gables and South Miami.
"For the past 40 years, I've been in children services, child advocacy, helping families," Abety said.
Abety, the former president of The Children's Trust, wants to build on his long history of improving children's lives. He said he's ready to be a voice for the parents and teachers of District 6.
"I respect teachers a lot and feel they're being made to teach to test, and that what they deserve and need is our respect, to be treated with dignity and have the academic freedom to do what they do best, which is teach," Abety said.
Abety, who is also known as "Mo," would like to expand services for special-needs students, find ways to add more Miami-Dade County Public Schools to the district and improve the ones that are struggling.
"If we have a 'D' school, an 'F' school, a 'C' school, rather than convert it, close it down and allow a charter school to come in and take care of that, we have got to turn around those schools and we have got to make them places where kids want to come and learn," Abety said.