Miami-Dade County's new superintendent halted the district's school closure and consolidation review on his first day in office Wednesday.
New Superintendent Halts Review on Day One
Superintendent Rafael Villalobos announced the pause at a School Board Committee meeting, WLRN reported. He suspended community outreach sessions scheduled for September and committee meetings set for October. The move affects a review of 27 schools that the district's Attendance Boundary Committee flagged around Aug. 25.
"It's about our communities," Villalobos said. "We want to make sure that we are transparent, that we are communicating with them and that transparency is a two-way street."
Villalobos said he wants to revisit the matter the second week of October and still finish by December. He said messages would go out to families Wednesday with updated community engagement dates.
Review List Spans Miami Gardens to Homestead, Not Aventura
None of the 27 schools on the review list are in the Aventura area. The list, released by the Attendance Boundary Committee, includes schools in Miami Gardens, Opa-locka, Kendall, Homestead, North Miami and other neighborhoods. But the district-wide enrollment decline driving the review touches every corner of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, or M-DCPS, the nation's third-largest school district.
The committee's document labeled 12 schools as "reassessed" and 15 as "under review." Schools tagged "under review" face an examination of whether continuing operations serves the district's educational, operational and financial interests.
School Board Caught Off Guard by List and Pause
The list caught school board members off guard. Board member Luisa Santos acknowledged the pause was an adjustment but said families would be told one date only to have it change, calling it a "kink" to work out in a transition year.
Steep Enrollment Losses Prompted the Review
The pause comes as M-DCPS grapples with steep enrollment losses. District data shared with WLRN showed 300,509 registered K-12 students on the first day of school, Aug. 13. That is roughly 19,000 fewer than the 319,419 students enrolled last spring, according to the Florida Department of Education. Over the past two years, the district has lost about 31,000 students.
District Already Closed Nine Schools This Year
The district had already closed nine schools this school year before Villalobos took office. In an Aug. 13 interview with the Miami Herald, Villalobos said closures are "never easy" but argued that schools with 150 or 200 students cannot offer full-time PE, music and art teachers the way larger campuses can.
Villalobos Brings Decades of District Experience to New Role
Villalobos, 54, began his career as a teacher at M-DCPS and most recently served as South Region Superintendent. His contract sets his salary at $385,000. He replaced Jose Dotres, who stepped down Sept. 1 and will remain with the district as senior transitional advisor until Oct. 11.
What Comes Next
The October state enrollment survey, not the first-day count, determines how much funding the state allocates to M-DCPS. Villalobos has not announced a specific date for the rescheduled community meetings.
