Every year, it\u2019s a sort of pep rally mixed with a variety show of impressive student talent. But this year, the main attraction at the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Opening of Schools event was the retiring superintendent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a packed auditorium at Miami Senior High School, the crowd of principals and administrators gave Dr. Jose Dotres a standing ovation, and it felt like a tribute after five years of leading the district.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s start by saying and recognizing that our school district surpassed the state in 19 of the 21 tested areas,\u201d Dotres said to more applause. \u201cSo this is a school district that continues to improve year by year, we don\u2019t do it by chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the news conference following the event, Dotres reflected on his tenure, a Miami High grad who rose to the top job, overseeing every school in the district.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been the honor, the privilege of my life, I believe I made my parents very proud,\u201d Dotres said, fighting back tears. \u201cThis is a position where you are fortunate because you give, you support, you elevate, it\u2019s not about what you get.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the biggest challenge for this school year will be recruiting and retaining students at a time when big city school districts are facing falling enrollment all over the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be about enrollment, and then there is a task that we\u2019re doing very carefully which is right-sizing our school district,\u201d Dotres said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That means closing and consolidating more underenrolled schools, following the nine schools which were consolidated last year. The district is projecting a loss of about 8,000 students this school year, after losing more than 13,000 last year. Much of that deficit, Dotres said, is because immigrant students did not enroll, and today he delivered a message to families, including those impacted by the cancelation of TPS for Haitians.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cParents should not keep their children at home; please bring them to school,\u201d Dotres said. \u201cAnd you as a family member, as a parent that may have concerns, that may have fears, we will provide the appropriate resources, the reach-out that you may need to resolve some of that anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dotres also said when it comes to competing for students with charter and private schools, Miami-Dade County Public Schools provide the best experience, with the most choices for every interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every year, it\u2019s a sort of pep rally mixed with a variety show of impressive student talent. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[54547,225,227,226],"class_list":["post-365950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-back-to-school","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365950","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=365950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}