Press Release

MIAMI – The dirt keeps flying at Miami-Dade County Public Schools – literally. After having just added an unprecedented 18,000 student seats in time for the 2005-2006 school year, the District expects to bring in another 20,000 seats for the 2006-2007 school year.

In addition, contracts are expected to be awarded for 12 schools based on four design prototypes at Wednesday’s School Board meeting. The use of prototypes is a new approach to constructing schools, using a standardized kit of parts, or protoparts, to allow flexibility to adapt to the individual school site. This means they can be assembled in different ways, depending on site conditions and other factors.

Using these models will save the District $9.1 million and eight months of construction time. The following are the 12 new schools scheduled to go before the School Board Wednesday for construction approval:

An elementary school at N.W. 194th St. and 79th Ave. to relieve Joella C. Good, Charles D. Wyche and Palm Springs North elementary schools
An elementary school at N.W. 119th St. and 92nd Ave. to relieve Ernest R Graham and Ben Sheppard elementary schools
An elementary school at U.S. 1 and S.W. 243rd St. to relieve Naranja, William Chapman and Redland elementary schools
A K-8 center at N.E. 211th St. and 26th Ave. to relieve Virginia A. Boone/Highland Oaks and Madie Ives elementary schools and Highland Oaks Middle School
A K-8 center at S.W. 124th Ave. and 242nd St. to relieve Pine Villa, Redland and Naranja elementary schools and Redland and Mays middle schools
A K-8 center at S.W. 280th St. and 150th Ave. to relieve Irving and Beatrice Peskoe and William Chapman elementary schools and Leisure City K-8 Center
A middle school at N.W. 119th St. and 92nd Ave. to relieve José Martí and Henry H. Filer middle schools
A middle school at S.W. 26th St. and 152nd Ave. to relieve Paul W. Bell, W.R. Thomas and Howard A. Doolin middle schools
A middle school at N.E. 207th St. and Second Ave. to relieve Norland and Parkway middle schools
An early childhood center at N.W. 194th St. and 79th Ave. to relieve Joella C. Good and Charles D. Wyche elementary schools
An early childhood center at S.W. 119th Ave. and Second St. to relieve Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Wesley Matthews elementary schools
An early childhood center at S.W. 45th St. and 157th Ave. to relieve Jane S. Roberts K-8 Center and Ethel Koger Beckham and Dr. Bowman Foster Ashe elementary schools

With approval of these contracts, the School Board will have awarded almost $199 million for construction in the first two months of the fiscal year, out of an estimated $600 million planned for FY 2005-2006, which is almost two-thirds of the total money awarded last year.

In 2007, the number of new student stations will jump to 30,000 due to the innovative prototype program. In addition, 8,000 student stations in portables were removed in the last year, and 16,000 are projected to be removed in the coming year.