Draft:Ethel "Jane" Stevens Roberts

Ethel “Jane” Stevens Roberts

Ethel “Jane” Stevens Roberts was a Miami Dade County School Board member and the first female chairperson. As chairperson of the second largest school system in the country, she was responsible for the second largest budget in the state of Florida (excluding the state’s own budget).

Early Life and Education Ethel Stevens was born on April 15, 1917, in the small mining town of Eckman, West Virginia to mother Rosetta Davidson Stevens (age 29) and Dr. Wilkin Blackburn Stevens (age 39). Her father was the chief doctor for a string of mining camps. She was sent to an all-girls school in Baltimore, Maryland beginning in the ninth grade. She then moved to Coral Gables, Florida in November of 1934 following the unexpected death of her father at age 17. She attended the University of Miami to study piano, theory, and harmony but left after one semester. She then attended a business school in downtown Miami with a focus on bookkeeping, shorthand, and typing. She met Lyle Roberts in 1938 and they were married in1940 in Dade City, Florida. Together, they worked in the family’s general contracting firm. They would then raise four children in Coral Gables, Florida: Nancy, Ann, Charleston, and Peggy. She would first become involved with school affairs as a PTA member at Merrick Demonstration School where she recalled making lunch for teachers, washing their dishes following the meal, and even cleaning the teacher’s lounge.

Political Career Ethel “Jane” Roberts began her political career as campaign manager for Mrs. Lucile Nether in her bid to win a seat on the Gables City Commission. Ms. Nether’s would win the 1951 bid and become the first female commissioner in the history of Coral Gables. Ms. Roberts would then co-chair LeRoy Collins' and his gubernatorial campaign in the 1954 special election. In the 1956 election, Governor Collins once again ran, won, and appointed Jane his Dade County campaign manager. That same year, the governor appointed her to the County Budget Board; she would be the first women selected to the Board in their history. She resigned from the County Budget Board in 1957 in hopes of accepting one of the two new at-large school board seats for the newly empowered Miami School Board.

School Board Career In 1957, Ms. Roberts was appointed to the Miami School Board by Governor Collins. In 1958, she won an additional two-year term at the polls. In 1960, she was reelected to serve for a further four years. In 1962, she was reelected for two more years and was also elected chairman of the Miami Dade School Board; the first women to lead the Board. In 1959, following the Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, Ms. Roberts was instrumental in integration when the School Board agreed to enroll four black children in Orchard Villa Elementary School. “The important thing now”, Ms. Roberts said to Miami Herald reporters, “is to provide the best teaching for all of our children. I don’t care what color the child is, or the teacher”. In 1961, under her leadership, the School Board continued their acceptance of students by welcoming the exodus of children from Cuba following the events of the Cuban Revolution. Prior to her appointment in 1957, Dade County was spending $47 million in education throughout 137 school buildings. By 1964, Dade County had over 208 schools and Chairperson Roberts would oversee the second largest budget in the state of Florida ($125,000,000). She would recommend the creation of the Quality Education Committee to the School Board, which studied the needs of curriculum, manpower, and housing to identify shortcomings and develop solutions to improve educational services for the children of the city. In fact, she was deemed “maybe [the] most powerful woman in Dade County” by the Miami Herald in a 1964 article. Jane Roberts would serve on the Miami Dade County School Board until 1968 when she decided to not run for reelection. “I have loved every minute of it and expect to continue loving every minute until my term expires”, she told the Miami Herald. In 1969, she would accept her last position when she became president of the Florida School Board Association.

Jane S. Roberts Elementary School Named in her honor, Jane S. Roberts Elementary School was designed by award-winning architect Hervin Romney. Delays forced its student population over 800 children to be housed at neighboring Bent Tree Elementary School until its completion in March of 1989. It opened slightly over capacity with 877 students enrolled.

Death Jane S. Roberts died on January 6, 1995. A memorial service was held for her at St. Phillips Episcopal Church on January 10, 1995.