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M-DCPS LAYS OUT OPTIONS FOR NEW SPECIALTY HIGH SCHOOLS MIAMI – The options for high school students offered at new schools being created by Miami-Dade County Public Schools will stretch from the sky above them to the ground below their feet, according to a plan adopted Wednesday by the School Board. Aerospace Science and Real Estate, Architecture and Construction are just two of the special interests to be addressed in the new offerings, which will be created over the next four years. The others being planned are:
Over the last year, the School Board already has approved the creation of single-gender “leadership academies” for girls and boys, a math and science high school being developed in concert with the University of Miami and Metro Zoo, and a school being planned with Florida Memorial University. Transforming high schools so that they provide students with more focused, more rigorous and more personalized high school offerings is a central element of the secondary school reform proposed by Superintendent Rudolph F. “Rudy” Crew last year. Schools across the county have been planning implementation of those changes this year to implement them next school year. The school concepts approved Wednesday were proposed by a Special Interest Schools Task Force composed of District, regional, school administrators; teachers; community members; parents and United Teachers of Dade members. In a a related action, the School Board approved seeking proposals to build another specialty school, a 700-student International Studies senior high school. The new facility will relieve Coral Gables and Miami Senior High Schools. The $17 million school is part of the District’s Five-Year Capital Plan and aims to relieve overcrowding at Coral Gables and Miami senior highs. It will allow students in existing International Studies programs at G.W. Carver Elementary and Ponce de Leon Middle Schools to continue that specialty in high school. The school is expected to open in August 2008. # # # 06-LJG/175/DF |
