Summer Recess is Almost Upon Us: The Future of School Building

By Larisa Svechin, Commissioner

(Tuesday, April 25, 2017) – Spring is finally here, which means there are 6 weeks left of school. Children are excited about summer and advancing to the next grade. Two hundred and forty-one 8th graders will be going on to high school. Parents and residents have asked about future school building plans. Recently, the Miami Herald published an article (3/31/17 City of Aventura To Get Its Own High School), and in response, many SIB parents asked, “how about us?”

On a recent trip to Tallahassee, for Miami-Dade Days, I had the opportunity to get clarification on this question from Senator Daphne Campbell and Les Winston, President of the Aventura Sunny Isles Beach Chamber of Commerce. If and when Aventura builds a charter high school, that school will initially be for 300 Aventura children, and not Sunny Isles Beach children. Mr. Winston and Senator Campbell confirmed that it was logistically not feasible for the school to allow SIB residents. It is clear that many more conversations and approvals need to happen before Aventura puts a shovel in the ground.

Sunny Isles Beach has an already approved plan for a Middle School annex, alleviating the overcrowding in our K-8. This project is on hold by resident and parent request, until we successfully weed out the non-resident population from NSE SIB K-8. We are moving ahead with responsible growth, waiting until we are sure that building a new school does not create stress on our infrastructure and quality of life.