MIAMI \u2014 Miami-Dade Superintendent Jose Dotres delivered his last \u201copening of schools\u201d address on Friday at Miami Senior High School in Little Havana.<\/p>\n
The superintendent stood on stage in the school\u2019s auditorium, at 2450 SW First St., before a crowd that included School Board members and Parent Teacher Association leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor more than 150 years, our school district has been part of the American story, a belief that individuals and institutions can learn and become better,\u201d Dotres said.<\/p>\n
The event, which also included school principals, was in preparation for the return of more than 313,000 students on Thursday, the first day of the 2026-2027 academic year in Miami-Dade. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey deserve adults who never lose sight of the power of human connection,\u201d Dotres said about the incoming MDCP students. <\/p>\n
Despite enrollment reductions, Miami-Dade remains the third-largest public school district in the nation after New York City, the largest, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. <\/p>\n
Dotres listed the district\u2019s achievements to include achieving an \u201cacademically high performing\u201d designation, leading the nation in magnet education, and opening the first district-run Innovation School of Technology at Venetian Parc Academy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a school of the future with a shift from seat time to learning time. In that school, students will not be bound by minutes of instruction in particular areas,\u201d Dotres said. \u201cIt will be about mastery and the readiness at each stage of their education process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dotres also re-introduced his successor, Rafael Villalobos, whose experience includes teaching at South Dade High School and leading as principal of John A. Ferguson Senior High School and as the South Regional Superintendent since 2022. He starts on Feb. 17. <\/p>\n
Watch a video of the event<\/p>\n
Related stories<\/p>\n
Silver Palms Elementary School to welcome more students <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Miami-Dade Superintendent Jose Dotres delivered his last \u201copening of schools\u201d address on Friday at Miami Senior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-365492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}