Miami-Dade Schools appoints interim police chief, replaces chief who left for Doral post
Ivan Silva will be the interim police chief of the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department, replacing Edwin Lopez, who last week was hired as Doral’s new police chief.
The Miami-Dade School Board Wednesday unanimously approved the position, which serves on Superintendent Jose Dotres’ cabinet, along with a handful of other administration changes the board confirmed.
Silva, who served as a major of operations within the district’s police department, will earn a salary between $117,244 and $204,839, records show. Lopez, who has been chief since 2018, earned between $180,000 and $190,000 before leaving for Doral.
Doral’s new mayor, Christi Fraga, who stepped down from the School Board in November to run for the mayoral post, brought Lopez to Doral. The city council unanimously hired him last week as police chief.
READ MORE: Miami-Dade Schools’ police chief picked to oversee Doral PD
Board members did not discuss the appointment of Silva to the interim role, so it remains unclear how long he will serve as interim or if the district plans to conduct an internal or external search.
In total, the board approved more than a dozen assignments Wednesday, including a deputy chief of staff — a position the board withdrew in October after some members questioned its necessity or were concerned with hiring an executive amid the district’s effort to have voters increase their property taxes in a Nov. 8 referendum. The approval also included two assistant superintendent positions that had also been considered in the last semester. (Voters approved the tax increase by more than 65%.)
The assistant superintendents will earn between $108,370 and $167,690, while the deputy will earn between $103,362 and $157,465. In October, district staff defended the hiring at the top, saying it would result in a cost neutral or cost savings.
READ MORE: Miami-Dade Schools’ police chief picked to oversee Doral PD
Interim chief is graduate of Miami-Dade Schools
Silva is a graduate of Miami Sunset Senior High School and has been with the department since 1996. He has an associate’s degree in criminal justice from Miami Dade College, and earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Florida International University.
Since joining the department, he’s served as a school resource officer, a special response team member, bike patrol member and a departmental firearms and active shooter instructor. In 2007, he was promoted to sergeant, where he served as a road supervisor and shift commander in central operations, according to his biography.
As interim chief, he will take over the country’s largest school district police department, which has more than 460 officers, according to the district. Since 2018, the district hired 290 officers after voters approved a property tax referendum, which helped fund school safety and teacher pay. Each one of those officers is paid for by the tax.
This story was originally published January 18, 2023 at 8:01 PM.
