The race for the District 6 seat on the Broward County School Board is now a three-person contest.
Democratic tech leader Jessie Bastos, a longtime Davie resident and elected member of the Broward Soil and Water Conservation District, is running to supplant Republican School Board member Adam Cervera on the technically nonpartisan School Board.
Bastos vows, if elected, to eliminate wasteful spending by the School District, increase teacher pay, boost school safety and expand access to career and technical education.
“I grew up in Broward’s public schools and now my children walk the same halls I once did,” Bastos said in a statement.
“But I’ve seen the promise of those schools fade — aging buildings, underpaid teachers, and fewer opportunities for students. I’m stepping up because I believe our schools can do better, and I’m ready to fight for the resources, safety, and opportunities our kids deserve.”
A senior key account manager in health care mobility at Samsung Electronics America for the past eight and a half years, Bastos previously worked for more than 13 years for T-Mobile, where she rose to lead business account sales, according to her LinkedIn page.
She attended Silver Ridge Elementary, Tequesta Trace Middle and Western High in Broward, her campaign says, before earning a bachelor’s degrees in communication disorders and music at Florida State University.
In addition to her service on the Soil and Water Conservation District, where she’s held Seat 4 since January 2023, Bastos chairs Davie’s Agriculture and Environmental Advisory Committee and is a member of the town’s Planning and Zoning Board.
She also served this year on Broward Schools’ Superintendent Task Force on Structure and Policy and is a food bank community garden volunteer with The Caring Community and a member of the Davie Area Land Trust.
Bastos is one of two candidates challenging Cervera, a shareholder at law firm Becker & Poliakoff whom Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to the School Board in late April following the resignation of Brenda Fam.
The other is Democrat Roberto Fernandez III, a U.S. Army veteran and history teacher who helped write Florida’s controversial guidelines for Black history studies and now is advocating for the rules to be rewritten.
Since filing to run in February, Fernandez campaign account has raised more than $9,000, by far the most in the field so far.
District 6 includes Broward schools in Cooper City, Davie, Plantation, Sunrise and Weston.
Bastos, Cervera, Fernandez and any other candidate who files for the race will square off in next year’s Primary on Aug. 18. If no candidate gets more than half the vote, the top two vote-getters will compete in the Nov. 3 General Election.
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