{"id":389965,"date":"2026-09-04T04:06:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T04:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389965\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T04:06:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T04:06:31","slug":"one-of-miami-dades-oldest-black-schools-faces-uncertain-future-as-district-weighs-school-closures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389965\/","title":{"rendered":"One of Miami-Dade&#8217;s oldest Black schools faces uncertain future as district weighs school closures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Newly appointed Miami-Dade County Schools Superintendent Rafael Villalobos has temporarily <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/news\/miami-dade-schools-superintendent-closure-pause-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">paused<\/a>\u00a0the process of selecting schools for closure, giving families worried about potential closures a reprieve.<\/p>\n<p>The district has lost approximately 15,000 students this school year. Officials attribute the decline to a combination of lower birth rates, private school vouchers, and families relocating due to the high cost of living or immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>One of the schools caught in the uncertainty is Paul L. Dunbar K-8 Academy in Miami&#8217;s Overtown neighborhood. The school had been placed on a &#8220;reassessed&#8221; list, a label that has historically preceded closures.<\/p>\n<p>Mekka Jeanty, a parent of a fourth grader at Dunbar, said the potential closure was a blow to a community that already lost an elementary school last year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The significance of the historical aspect of Dunbar, it holds value in our community,&#8221; Jeanty said, noting that Dunbar is one of the oldest Black schools in Miami. &#8220;It&#8217;s like, where does it stop for our kids?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On his first day, Villalobos pledged to review every school on the reassessed list before making any decisions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to make sure that I take a deep dive into all of the schools that were on the reassessed list,&#8221; Villalobos said. &#8220;I want to make sure that we have a proper set of research and communication.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Parents say they are encouraged, but the district cautioned the pause does not guarantee any school stays open. Enrollment numbers typically shift in the early weeks, and the district expects a more accurate count in October.<\/p>\n<p>For now, Jeanty remains committed to advocating for the academy. &#8220;I feel hopeful knowing he&#8217;s going to reassess everything,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newly appointed Miami-Dade County Schools Superintendent Rafael Villalobos has temporarily paused\u00a0the process of selecting schools for closure, giving&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124,1064,24085,46334,807],"class_list":["post-389965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miami-dade","tag-miami-dade-county-public-schools","tag-school-closures","tag-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389965","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=389965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}