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SCHOOL BOARD GIVES GO-AHEAD TO PREP LAND FOR MIAMI – Miami-Dade County Public Schools dealt with new schools from beginning to end, approving the first steps to build three schools in the northwest corner of the county and naming two schools nearing completion in the southwest section of the county. Among the school designations was the first school in Miami-Dade to be named for a Cuban-American. Northwest Miami-Dade will one day have three schools – elementary, middle and senior high – on the vast 56-acre site located at the intersection of Hialeah Gardens Boulevard and State Road 25. With the School Board’s approval of a project to prepare the land for construction, the first step in making these schools a reality has been taken. The parcel of land needs extensive pre-construction preparation, including wetlands mitigation, de-mucking and filling. James A. Cummings, Inc., has received the $12.1 million contract to complete the necessary work. Once the land is ready, the first project will be State School “JJJ,” a relief senior high school for Barbara Goleman Senior High. The other two schools designated for that site are State School “MM-1” and State School “V-1,” a middle school and an elementary school. These schools are in the design phase. The Board voted unanimously to name State School “YY1,” a middle school to relieve overcrowding at Hammocks and Richmond Heights middle schools, after Jorge Mas Canosa, founder of the Cuban American National Foundation and a college scholarship fund. School Board Member Ana Rivas Logan, in whose voting district the school will sit, called Mas Canosa a trailblazer for minorities in both business and politics who grew to international prominence after coming to the United States. State School “Y1,” an elementary school that will relieve Jack D. Gordon and Dr. Gilbert L. Porter elementary schools, will be named after Norma Butler Bossard, a beloved educator and long-time head of the District’s language arts division. Both schools were chosen based on endorsements that the School Naming Committee received from the community. # # # 006-LJG/194/TEL |
