Press Release

MIAMI – The Miami-Dade County School Board agreed Wednesday to enter into a historic collaboration with the City of North Miami to build schools – an unprecedented pact in terms of its magnitude and comprehensiveness.

“This is a very, very exciting history-making decision,” North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns told Board Members. “We’re going to have four schools built in the same city at the same time.”

The joint plan developed among the School Board, the City of North Miami and the City of North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency calls for the following:

Turnkey construction by the City of North Miami of a replacement high school for North Miami Senior High on City-owned under a long-term lease agreement with the City. The school would seat 3,660 with a projected opening in 2009. The replacement school will be south of its current location at 800 N.E. 137th Street.

Turnkey construction by the City of North Miami of a second new 1,560-seat high school on City-owned land under a long-term lease agreement with the City with a projected opening in 2008. The City of North Miami also plans a state-of-the-art library facility, an Olympic-sized sports complex and a new community center adjacent to the school. The school will be near Biscayne Landing, a new development east of Biscayne Boulevard and south of N.E. 151st Street.

A new 2,100-seat K-8 center to be built on Board-owned land with recreation facilities built on City of North Miami land. The school has a projected spring 2008 opening; the recreation facilities have a projecting opening date of 2010. The school will be near Biscayne Landing.

Renovations to be made on the current North Miami Middle School. The first round of renovations has a projected finish date of the 2006-2007 school year and the second round has projected finish date of the 2009-2010 school year.

Initially, the City of North Miami considered measures that would allow education facilities impact fees to be redirected for construction of charter schools. After six months of negotiations, the District convinced city officials that it could meet the needs more efficiently and effectively.

This plan is one more example of the District’s collaborating with a local municipality. The Board received a $100,000 donation from the city of Hialeah Gardens today to fund a technology upgrade and enhancement plan at Hialeah Gardens Elementary School. Last month, the School Board approved a compact with the City of Miami and accepted a donation from Sunny Isles.

In other construction news, School Facilities will submit their first quarterly tracking reports, an important component of facilities and construction reform initiated last year by Superintendent Rudolph F. “Rudy” Crew. Quarterly reports increase the level of accountability at all levels of the capital construction process and maintenance operations.

The reports provide the Board a complete overview of each project’s budget and status of all construction projects in four areas: land acquisition; project scoping, design development and construction.

Each project manager is responsible for monitoring and updating the schedule of their projects. The goal is to complete all site acquisitions in the year they are funded, to scope and commission for design all projects in the same year funding is available and to award all construction projects in the same year that funding is available.