Katrina Wilson believes her nearly four decades of experience with Miami-Dade County Public Schools have prepared her to oversee District 1 and continue the academic progress made under outgoing School Board member Dr. Steve Gallon III.
Wilson, a former Miami Gardens councilwoman, educator and longtime principal, is running to represent District 1 on the Miami-Dade County School Board. During an interview on the Can We Talk Podcast powered by Hy-Lo News, she discussed teacher pay, school choice, declining enrollment, student absenteeism and preparing children for life after graduation.
“You should vote for me because I have the qualifications and the level of experience to provide the oversight necessary for the schools in District 1 to continue on the upward trajectory that they’re currently on,” Wilson said.
Wilson is a graduate of Miami Carol City Senior High School and Florida Memorial University, where she earned a degree in public administration. She also attended Florida Heights Elementary, Myrtle Grove Elementary and Parkway Middle School.
“All of my education was right here, in this place that we call home,” Wilson said.
She credited her experience at Miami Carol City with giving her confidence, a strong sense of community and relationships that have lasted throughout her life.
“Being a part of schools that have that kind of spirit is incredible,” Wilson said. “It changed the trajectory of our lives, and Carol City did that for me.”
Wilson began working for Miami-Dade County Public Schools after graduating from high school. Her first roles included working as a clerk and in the district’s purchasing department, where she processed requisitions and learned about the operational costs of running schools.
After graduating from Florida Memorial University, Wilson became a social studies teacher at Miami Killian Senior High School. She taught for 11 years and became involved in several extracurricular activities, including serving as a cheerleading sponsor, running a student club and organizing the school’s first Black History Month celebrations.
“When you are a teacher, you’re not just teaching the subject that you are instructing,” Wilson said. “You’re teaching the children who will then go back into the community and apply the things that you’re teaching them.”
Wilson said working with high school students showed her how much an educator can affect a young person’s transition into adulthood.
“It got me excited about education and about teaching,” she said. “You really get an opportunity to see how much you can impact a child’s life by how you shepherd them through the process of growing, learning and becoming a young adult.”
Wilson later worked as a principal for more than a decade and said she has experience working with students from kindergarten through 12th grade. She also worked with the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project during its early years.
Wilson described the School Board’s primary responsibility as providing oversight, particularly over how public money is spent and how the district prepares students for the future.
“We’re not just educating them in a right-now kind of way,” Wilson said. “We’re educating them based on what the future says they’re going to need and be able to do when they leave us.”
She said strong schools are closely connected to healthy communities.
“If the schools are not good, the communities generally are not good,” Wilson said. “If the schools are strong, then the communities are generally strong. When the communities are strong, then we start having a stronger country altogether.”
Wilson has been endorsed by Gallon, who has represented District 1 since 2016. Under his leadership, schools in the district experienced improved grades, campus upgrades and the creation of several student and community initiatives.
Wilson said she would preserve that progress while working to improve the experience students and parents receive at every District 1 school.
“It’s a no-brainer that you should stay on a winning trajectory,” Wilson said. “The goal is to ensure that we don’t have one year of no F schools. The goal is to ensure that we have multiple years of A schools.”
Wilson said families should receive high-quality service regardless of which school their children attend. That includes how families are greeted, how students are treated, the quality of instruction and the communication surrounding expectations.
“Our schools ought to be such that it doesn’t matter which one you go to, you are being served high-quality service,” she said.
Wilson said continuing the district’s progress will require shared accountability among parents, students, teachers, administrators and School Board members.
“It’s not an us against them. It’s a we,” she said. “When our children are educated, we all do better.”
Wilson said Gallon helped her during her first year as a principal when she was preparing to open a charter school but struggled to find teachers. She called him for assistance, and he helped connect her with educators.
“I had nothing. I barely had a building,” Wilson recalled. “I said, ‘I don’t have anybody. In order for me to open, I’ve got to have teachers.’ And he sent me teachers.”
Wilson said that experience taught her not to be afraid to seek help and to surround herself with knowledgeable people.
“Part of what I learned from him is that you’ve got to surround yourself with people who have experiences that can help you move through the same or similar experiences,” she said.
Teacher and employee retention would also be a priority under Wilson’s leadership. She said competitive salaries are important, but the district must also create environments where educators feel supported and enjoy coming to work.
“Schools right now have to be places where teachers want to be,” Wilson said. “When you teach, more often than not, it’s because you love it.”
Wilson said discussions about compensation must include all employees who contribute to a school’s success, including security guards, custodians, office staff and cafeteria workers.
“It’s a lot of people in a school that make it successful,” she said. “Our teachers, our custodians — everybody needs to earn a living wage that they can live with.”
Wilson said her experience as a principal taught her how essential support employees are to maintaining a safe, clean and functional campus.
“I’ll be looking at those salaries, and I’ll be trying to figure out how to bring equity in a way that brings balance,” she said.
On school choice, Wilson said competition can push traditional public schools to improve. She believes the district should study why some parents choose charter or private schools and determine what public schools can do differently.
“What opportunities do we have to be better so that we are your choice?” Wilson asked. “What are we doing that’s making us not their first choice?”
Wilson said the answers may be uncomfortable, but the district should examine whether families are dissatisfied with customer service, academic rigor, curriculum or other aspects of their schools.
“It ain’t pretty, but that’s OK,” she said. “We can deal with it not being pretty because we can make it pretty. We can fix the drawbacks, but we’re going to have to be willing to hear the tough answers.”
Wilson supports oversight and accountability for every school that receives public funding.
“We can’t have kids going into a school one year and two years or three years later, they’re gone and there’s no accountability,” she said. “I don’t think there should be any school that receives any public dollars that doesn’t have any accountability for it.”
Wilson also addressed fears among immigrant families that enforcement actions could affect children attending public schools. She acknowledged that she needs to study the applicable federal laws but said schools must remain safe places for children.
“Now that we are in a place where families are afraid to send their kids to school because they are afraid that ICE will take them away, that’s a problem,” Wilson said.
Wilson said educators who work with young children must intentionally build trust and help them feel protected.
“It takes a lot when you’re working with elementary school children to get them to trust you, to create an environment that’s safe and to create an environment where they know they’re cared about,” she said.
Wilson said the district must examine what the law permits and find lawful ways to support immigrant children and their families.
“We’re going to have to really look at what the law allows and disallows and find ways to be able to care for these innocent children,” she said.
Declining enrollment is another issue Wilson said the next School Board member must address. She pointed to declining birth rates, families leaving South Florida because of the cost of living and the expansion of school-choice options as potential factors.
Wilson said the district should commission an independent study examining enrollment projections and the long-term use of school properties.
“We need to commission a study about the use of our facilities and determine where we’re going to be in the next decade or so,” she said. “Do we see a downward trend or an upward trend of people having more kids?”
She said possible uses for underutilized school property could include affordable housing for teachers or partnerships with other educational programs. However, Wilson said the district needs data before making permanent decisions.
“I don’t really want to guess at what are some of the best things for us to do,” she said. “I want to analyze all that’s on the table and then figure it out because change is in the air.”
Student absenteeism would be Wilson’s top priority among challenges including mental health, school safety and college and career readiness.
“You can’t help anybody that’s not there,” Wilson said. “The question is: Where are the children?”
She said parents, teachers, administrators and School Board members must share responsibility for getting students into classrooms.
“All of us have to be accountable for these children because they are our future,” she said.
Wilson also supports making financial literacy a required part of students’ education. She said children should learn early how to balance spending and saving.
“If you start out at a young age understanding that I have a piggy bank and I’ve got to save some of my money and I’ve got to spend some of my money, then you’re eliminating problems later in your life,” Wilson said.
She also wants students to graduate with practical workplace skills. Wilson said vocational courses at Miami Carol City taught her typing, shorthand and computer skills that made her employable after high school.
“I don’t know that we’re training our kids to be ready for the workplace when they graduate,” she said.
Wilson expressed support for school uniform policies, arguing that uniforms reduce distractions and help teach students discipline and workplace expectations.
“When everybody comes to school in the same uniform, we don’t get distracted by what somebody is wearing anymore,” she said. “We can become more centered toward instruction and learning.”
Wilson said expecting students to arrive neatly dressed does not require expensive clothing. Instead, she said it teaches self-respect and prepares them for environments where dress codes are required.
“If you want to be taken seriously in the workplace, if you want people to honor and respect you, it begins with you honoring and respecting yourself by the way you put yourself together when you go out,” Wilson said.
Wilson closed the interview by pointing to her experience in classrooms, school administration and district operations as evidence that she is prepared to serve District 1.
“I’ve had a lot of experience in Miami-Dade County Public Schools doing things that had never been done before, being on the front line of initiatives and being on the front line of change,” she said.
“I know what needs to be done, and I plan to do it.”
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