Her full plan →
The School Board of Miami-Dade County · regular meeting Tuesday, June 17, 2026 Item D-67 · passed without debate

At every school board meeting there is a stack of routine paperwork that gets approved all at once, in a single vote, with no debate. On June 17, tucked inside that stack, was the decision to close nine schools.

Nine schools. One vote. No debate.

  • 01Rainbow Park ElementaryDistrict 1 · ours
  • 02Parkway ElementaryDistrict 1 · ours
  • 03Lenora B. Smith
  • 04Miami Springs Middle
  • 05Pine Villa
  • 06Richmond Heights
  • 07Robert Russa Moton
  • 08Phillis Wheatley
  • 09Mandarin Lakes
Debate on each school: none Votes recorded per member: none, it passed as a bundle Also in the same stack: new boundaries for 16 more schools

Two of the nine
are ours.

Rainbow Park Elementary and Parkway Elementary hold down District 1 neighborhoods in Miami Gardens and Opa-locka. The board seat that should have pulled them out of the stack and forced a real debate has been empty since June 9. Come down and see what one vote did.

Rainbow Park
Elementary.

A dance and performing arts school. 409 children in 2016. 128 this spring. The district's answer was not a rescue plan. It was a line in the stack: erase the school zone, close the doors.

The kids didn't disappear.
They got farther from home.

The west side now travels 1.85 miles by road to Dr. Robert B. Ingram Elementary, and the arts program moves with them. The east side travels 0.82 miles to Bunche Park Elementary. Every moving light below is a child's new morning.

409
children, February 2016
Cinematic dawn aerial rendering of Rainbow Park Elementary

Rendering from real aerial imagery

The last morning bell
already rang here.

Parents told the district its plan left them confused. The PTA president called losing the arts program "the end of an era" and asked for a K-8 school in this building instead. The stack closed it anyway.

East side, arriving:
Bunche Park Elementary.

0.82 miles from Rainbow Park. The west side is still on the road behind you, riding to Ingram. Two receiving schools, one erased zone, zero minutes of debate.

It wasn't only
Rainbow Park.

Same stack, same vote: Parkway Elementary, about 106 students reassigned. Their building was down to 29 percent full. The western zone now rides 1.12 miles north to Norland Elementary.

This seat can belong to
someone who lived it.

Carol City raised Linda Cothiere. These streets, these schools. She is running so that the next closure list meets a public fight, and so the buildings District 1 already paid for keep serving District 1 kids.

0
more students reassigned
Parkway to Norland

One continuous shot · rendered from the real campus

"I am not a stranger to these schools.
I am a product of them."

Linda Cothiere · raised in Carol City. From the sky over the schools the stack closed, down to the walkway of the one that made her. On August 18, put her in the empty seat.

The districtRainbow ParkThe crossingBunche ParkParkway · NorlandComing home
High night view over District 1

Two of the nine are ours.

Rainbow Park Elementary and Parkway Elementary anchor District 1 neighborhoods. The seat that should have fought for them has been empty since June 9.

Rainbow Park Elementary at night from above

Rainbow Park Elementary.

409 children in 2016, 128 this spring. The west side now travels 1.85 miles to Dr. Robert B. Ingram Elementary, with the arts program. The east side, 0.82 miles to Bunche Park Elementary. Parkway's western zone rides 1.12 miles to Norland Elementary.

The crossing routes lit between schools

Carol City raised Linda.

"I am not a stranger to these schools. I am a product of them." August 18 fills the empty District 1 seat.

Linda Cothiere smiling outside Miami Carol City Senior High at golden hour

"I am not a stranger to these schools. I am a product of them."

Linda Cothiere, raised in Carol City. On August 18, put her in the empty District 1 seat.

What the parents said, on the record

"The end
of an era."

Crystal Walker · PTA president, Rainbow Park Elementary

Parents said the district's plan left them confused about where their own kids would go. The PTA didn't ask for a miracle. It asked to keep the building alive as a K-8 school. Instead, the closure stayed in the stack, and the stack passed in one vote.

Linda's promise No District 1 school ever gets closed inside the paperwork stack again. Its own agenda item. A public debate. Every board member's vote recorded, on the record, by name. And closed buildings keep working for D1 kids, starting with the K-8 idea this community already asked for.

Why classrooms empty out

A career that earns
a flat line.

$52,470
Starting base salary,
2023 contract
+$219
Total base growth from
year 5 to year 20
50th
Florida's rank among the
50 states, average teacher pay
Year 1 Year 5 Year 20 WHAT A REAL LADDER LOOKS LIKE START +$219
The state's new raise money is capped at $3,000 for teachers with 10+ years, and Miami-Dade's teachers skew veteran Referendum supplements stack on top of base pay, if voters renew them
Linda's promise Vote to lock in a clean teachers' contract fast, and steer the referendum's local dollars toward the mid-career teachers the state's formula shortchanges.

When parents and teachers speak up

Fifty complaints.
Two opened.

50→2

Last year, 50 complaints reached the district's independent watchdog. It opened investigations on about 4 percent of them, and it does not handle retaliation or everyday management problems at all. A parent with a real grievance gets bounced between three different offices.

Linda's promise One front door for parent and teacher complaints. And the numbers published every year, in plain English, so everyone can see what happened to every single one.

August 18.

Fill the empty seat before the next stack gets voted. Linda Cothiere, Carol City raised, is running for School Board District 1: no more closures hidden in the paperwork, a fast clean teachers' contract, one front door for complaints, and D1 buildings kept working for D1 kids.

Tuesday, Aug 18, 2026 · special election, School Board District 1. Won outright if a candidate clears 50 percent.
Nov 3, 2026 · if it goes to a runoff, it shares the ballot with the teacher pay renewal: 88 cents of every dollar to teacher pay.
The record · 9 schools closed June 17 · 2 in District 1 · new boundaries for 16 more, same vote.
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Preview concept. Paid by Linda Cothiere Campaign. Terrain: Esri World Imagery (Maxar). Buildings: OpenStreetMap contributors. Distances measured by road.