A familiar face from the Marathon City Council dais will look to earn retiring Monroe County School Board chair John Dick’s seat this fall. On March 25, former Marathon mayor and two-term councilman Luis Gonzalez Sr. officially announced his candidacy for the District 4 seat, representing the majority of Marathon all the way up through Plantation Key and the west end of Tavernier.
“I’ve never not been involved with the school system,” he told the Weekly by phone on March 31 when asked what spurred his decision. “I’m a lifer.”
A 1985 graduate of Key West High School, Gonzalez joined the MCSD staff in 1989, working at first as a teacher’s aide before transitioning into the English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and Exceptional Student Education (ESE) programs at Stanley Switlik Elementary. He later shifted to front office administrative roles before departing in 2000.
“I left full-time employment, but then I could say that I pretty much became a full-time volunteer,” he said. “We had kids in the system, I was part of PTOs, SACs and one of the founding members of the Booster Club (in Marathon). I feel like I spent my entire life either as a student, a worker or a volunteer, so this was the natural next step if I want to continue serving.”
A former co-owner of Gonzalez Brothers Landscaping, he earned his two city council terms by finishing with the highest vote totals in both the 2018 and 2021 Marathon elections. In June 2025, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him to the board of directors for the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority – a position he says he’ll maintain throughout his potential school board service. Today, he owns and operates Cuban breakfast and lunch eatery LJ’s Cafe in Marathon with his family.
He said that while the Keys have evolved and changed since his days as a student, his time spent in Key West and deep understanding of the way the small Florida Keys community rallies around student events would enable him to serve effectively from Key Largo to the Southernmost City.
“Whether it’s a band event, a sporting event, theatrical event, whatever the case may be, these communities come together for these kids,” he said.
Giving a nod to the Keys’ A-rated district, Gonzalez said his priorities include controlling any expenses “that aren’t going directly into the classroom. … Things that we want, but we really don’t need.”
“We have to make sure that we use our funds to be able to continually get the best teachers in the classrooms to make the goal of being the best district in the state of Florida attainable,” he said. “We have to have the funds available to recruit and maintain the best and the brightest.”
Citing the district’s upcoming Trumbo Point school employee housing as a major milestone for Lower Keys teachers, he told the Weekly he’d support “wherever we have an opportunity to get (more) of that housing in the ground.”
Gonzalez’s family members have maintained their own close ties to Keys schools; his sons Luis Jr. and Joey are educators at Marathon High, while his two daughters-in-law Stacie and Ryana both work at Switlik.
At press time, Gonzalez is the only declared candidate for the District 4 seat. While school board members must live in the districts they represent, they are elected by voters Keyswide. School board members earn an annual salary of roughly $38,600.
