Horace Mann Middle School Receives Innovative Space Media Center

Horace Mann Middle School is the latest Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) campus to receive a new, technology-rich media center as part of the District’s Middle School Redesign (MSR) initiative. A ribbon-cutting ceremony held this morning unveiled the school’s new virtual reality (VR) equipment, Promethean board, robotics section and more than a dozen computer stations.

Horace Mann is one of 16 Miami-Dade public middle schools having its media centers transformed into enriched innovation spaces through a $2 million partnership between

M-DCPS, the College Football Playoff Foundation and the 2021 College Football Playoff National Championship Game Host Committee (CFPNCG).

The partners will continue to unveil new projects throughout the year in support of the District’s MSR initiative, which is intended to meet the unique social, emotional and academic needs of teachers and their students.

School Board member Dr. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall; Britton Banowsky, Executive Director, College Football Playoff Foundation; Schools Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho and Horace Mann Middle Principal Dr. Ottolita Thompson are surrounded by Horace Mann students as they officiallyunveil the school’s new media center.

Seventh-grader Khali Vaquero has spent a lot of time in the space helping set up a wall of books and also as part of the school’s broadcast news team: “I feel like after all this work that many people put in, that this library is really starting to be a library; and I’m very happy about that.” 

Khali, who is going to be a library aide next year, had some words of advice for incoming students, “Be respectful, this place means a lot to a lot of students here.”

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TOP CAPTION:  Student Khali Vaquero, center, and his fellow Horace Mann Middle School classmates experience a

new reality with the Veative VR devices.