{"id":378226,"date":"2026-08-22T09:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T09:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/378226\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T09:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T09:26:12","slug":"miamis-first-school-of-hope-in-old-public-school-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/378226\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami\u2019s first \u2018School of Hope\u2019 in old public school building"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Students<\/p>\n

Students greets each other at teacher Todd Rutledge’s first grade classroom at KIPP Legacy Elementary at the former site of the Poinciana Park Elementary.<\/p>\n

Pedro Portal<\/p>\n

pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n

The 6-year-olds shot out of their seats, silently pushed their chairs under their desks, lined up single file and headed to their spots on the classroom\u2019s play mat.<\/p>\n

Moments after, Bill Withers\u2019 \u201cLovely Day\u201d marked the beginning of \u201cpositive greeting\u201d time, where students hugged and high-fived each other, their instructors, administrators and even a reporter.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a different approach than what once took place in the classrooms and halls of the old Poinciana Park Elementary building in Liberty City. That\u2019s because it\u2019s a completely new school.<\/p>\n

KIPP Legacy School is Miami\u2019s first charter school to operate in an old traditional public school building under Florida\u2019s newly expanded \u201cSchools of Hope\u201d law. The law was recently expanded to allow certain charter school operators like KIPP \u2013 short for \u201cKnowledge is Power Program\u201d \u2013 to locate in vacant and underutilized school buildings at essentially no cost.<\/p>\n

KIPP, the country\u2019s largest charter operator, is leasing the space for 13 years from the district for a nominal $1 fee.<\/p>\n

Ten days into operating, the K-6 school has 200 students, already more than Poinciana Park had in its last year of operation, when the state reported it was only utilizing 20% of the school\u2019s space<\/a>. The school has capacity for almost 800 kids, so there\u2019s room to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not lost on us that this was a school that was shuttered, and now we\u2019re a charter operator and we\u2019re reopening it. We want to reopen it in a way where it\u2019s what the community wants here,\u201d KIPP Miami Executive Director Charlie Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

\"View The entrance at KIPP Legacy Elementary at the former site of the Poinciana Park Elementary. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

What does the community want?<\/p>\n

Amid the shifting tides of Florida\u2019s school choice landscape, they want school that will partner with the community and stay in the community, KIPP Legacy principal Stacie Alvarez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo come here, to partner and to stay \u2013 that has been our commitment. That\u2019s why the name is Legacy. We are going to be a school that stays,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n

The timeline to start the \u201cschool that stays\u201d was tight.<\/p>\n

Miami-Dade County Public Schools closed Poinciana Park last summer. KIPP put in its notice of intent<\/a> to operate in the school in November. In April<\/a>, the school board approved the lease beginning July 1, when KIPP began $2.4 million in renovations \u2014 namely fixing the roof and improving the cafeteria space. School started six weeks later.<\/p>\n

Several students used to attend Poinciana Park before it closed, and are glad \u201cto be home,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n

For now, the old school\u2019s sign still looms over the building.<\/p>\n

Poinciana Park was far from the only recent school closure. This summer, the school board approved plans to close or consolidate nine more campuses \u2013 the most ever in one year \u2013 as enrollment declines and ensuing financial pressures stretch the district thin.<\/p>\n

KIPP is just one beneficiary of the legislature\u2019s expanded Schools of Hope law, with New York charter operator Success Academy set to co-locate in five Miami-Dade schools starting next year. That venture has the strong backing of Ken Griffin, a local billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist.<\/p>\n

Schools of Hope are intended to operate in areas served by \u201cpersistently low-performing schools,\u201d<\/a> a designation determined by low performance on state exams or the state school grading system. A School of Hope<\/a> can also operate in a Florida Opportunity Zone, which are areas with high poverty or low median household incomes. Miami-Dade County has about 67 Opportunity Zones. Schools of Hope contracts state that the school should absorb a certain amount of students from the school zone where they open.<\/p>\n

Proponents say Schools of Hope offer parents who live in districts with low-performing schools more options, while critics say Schools of Hope are going to siphon off resources from district-run public schools.<\/p>\n

\"Teacher Teacher Ny\u2019Asiah Gordon teaches writing to third grade students at KIPP Legacy Elementary. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com What is the school like?<\/p>\n

KIPP is perhaps best known for its emphasis on behavior and structure. But KIPP officials described that emphasis as \u201cculture\u201d rather than discipline.<\/p>\n

While the organization has moved away from its famed \u201cno excuses\u201d style, and some of the more harsh disciplinary practices associated with it, the flow of class remains more structured than your average public school. The still-high level of accountability applied to students, Alvarez said, is part of the appeal for parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe merge culture with academics\u2026 We don\u2019t believe those two things are separate. It\u2019s not like when you come in here, it\u2019s all about academic instruction and we divorce your own identity, who you are and how it lives and breathes in the space. So, we try every opportunity to build really joyful spaces for kids that they can feel like learning is fun because if they\u2019re invested in the learning that we do, we know it\u2019s going to open tons of doors for them,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n

Plus, students \u201cowning\u201d their behavior gives them another area to succeed beyond pure academics, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] being the first to congratulate, but also the first to correct and hold kids accountable to high expectations and what they\u2019re capable of. I think a lot of parents, when we talk with them, are like,\u2019Thank you for creating a safe, loving environment where my kid is both held accountable, but also not seen differently when they make mistakes,\u2019\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n

Students undergo guided \u201crestorative conversations\u201d with each other when a conflict arises, she said.<\/p>\n

\"Students Students enjoy breakfast at KIPP Legacy Elementary at the former site of the Poinciana Park Elementary. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

In Ny\u2019Asiah Gordon\u2019s third grade class the class was singing a hip hop-style song about reading, writing and passing Florida\u2019s state test Friday morning. They repeated the chorus line \u201cread that book,\u201d motioning with their hands as if they were cradling one themselves, eight times before sitting down for the bulk of the lesson.<\/p>\n

Gordon used the evidence-backed \u201cscience of reading\u201d approach, where children are taught to sound out words phonetically rather than guess, also stressing that all the students \u201ctrack\u201d when one of their peers is about to answer a question. When one student is called upon, all students repeat their peer\u2019s name and turn their heads toward them.<\/p>\n

Other protocols include \u201cbuilding\u201d rather than correcting when peers are off the mark in their answers and the sign language sign for \u201cI love you,\u201d when a peer is working through a concept.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too early in the year for KIPP Legacy to have tested its students, but its Miami Dade College campus\u2019s academic track record bests most of its area peers, though it lags behind the rest of the district.<\/p>\n

Third- and fourth-graders there outperformed Poinciana Park in both reading and math in 2025, with far fewer students scoring a \u201c1\u201d on a scale of 1-5 and a much higher rate of 3s or above. Still, the school has received a \u201cC\u201d grade from the state in the last three years, showing room for improvement.<\/p>\n

In Miami-Dade, Black students make up a smaller share of charter school enrollment than of enrollment in district-run schools; same with students eligible for free or reduced lunch. Not so at KIPP, where a majority of students at both campuses are Black, and last year 99.8% of the student body at the Miami Dade College campus got free or reduced lunch.<\/p>\n

Schmidt credited, in part, the Schools of Hope law for allowing the operator to open up shop in one of Miami\u2019s historic Black neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that if this legislation allows for families to get what they\u2019re looking for and produces great outcomes for children, then that is a benefit to the entire community,\u201d Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

\"Before Before and after photos of KIPP Legacy\u2019s cafetorium space in the former Poinciana Park Elementary site. KIPP Miami <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students greets each other at teacher Todd Rutledge’s first grade classroom at KIPP Legacy Elementary at the former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-378226","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\/378226","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=378226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}