2 Miami-Dade School Board members hold special meeting on minority participation

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A gathering just lately popped-up on the Miami-Dade College Board calendar, but it surely wasn’t actually publicized.

It was held outdoors of the conventional assembly room by two board members.

There was just one merchandise on the agenda: “Minority participation in procurement and board assembly format and procedures.”

Evidently, the assembly raised some eyebrows and considerations.

Native 10 Information was the one South Florida information outlet within the room, on the seventh flooring of district headquarters, the place you want a safety badge to get inside.

Matthew Pigatt is with the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce and confirmed up with a contingent of members, curious to see what the dialogue was about.

“We came upon about it via textual content,” Pigatt mentioned. “The priority was that there have been two board members having a dialog about minority participation with out the participation of Black and minority enterprise homeowners.”

It was laborious to listen to, at first. Board-member Danny Espino, a Gov. Ron DeSantis appointee, and board-member Roberto Alonso, who was endorsed by DeSantis, hadn’t been chatting lengthy after they have been interrupted by their colleague, Dr. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall.

There was a short back-and-forth as as to if she might even take part.

The district’s lawyer mentioned sure.

After discussing making board conferences extra environment friendly, and permitting extra entry for public participation, issues shifted to the minority participation in procurement problem.

“After I have a look at it, generally, there’s some contracts, it’s not even involving our neighborhood, there are contracts which can be outdoors of our neighborhood,” mentioned Alonso.

Ron Frazier chairs the varsity board-appointed Small Enterprise Advisory Committee that screens which companies the district does enterprise with.

“I feel they’re making an attempt to eliminate this system, and make it a race-neutral program,” Frazier mentioned.

Added Pigatt: “We need to be certain all communities are on the desk (and) are being represented.”

Espino mentioned the assembly was simply an early stage of what needs to be a much bigger dialogue.

“This can be a preliminary, most likely probably the most preliminary dialog you could have on an merchandise,” Espino mentioned. “That is simply getting the ball rolling.”

The assembly ended and the board members left.

To be clear, nothing was determined, and it wouldn’t have been with out the complete board.

The thought was thrown out a couple of doable city corridor assembly for extra enter.