Miami Springs High School

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Miami Springs Senior High School
File:Miami Springs Senior High 2013.jpg
Miami Springs Senior High in 2013
Address
751 Dove Ave
Miami Springs, Florida 33166
United States
Information
School type Public, high school
Established September 1964
School district Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Principal Edward Smith
Grades 9-12
Enrollment 2,470
Campus type Suburban
Color(s) Garnet and Gold          
Mascot Golden Hawk (Hank the Hawk)
Newspaper Zeitgeist
Website miamisprings.dadeschools.net

Miami Springs Senior High School is a secondary school located at 751 Dove Avenue in Miami Springs, Florida, USA; its principal is Edward Smith. The school is part of Miami-Dade County Public School's nationally-accredited magnet program, specializing in travel and tourism, the oldest of its kind in the state of Florida (established in 1987). As of 2011, Miami Springs now also offers IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) courses and the iTech academy; hosting advanced computer programming and mechanical engineering courses. Miami Springs serves ninth through twelfth grade students in the city of Miami Springs, the village of Virginia Gardens, the town of Medley, the southern portion of the city of Hialeah (south of 29th Street, and south of 25th Street after Hialeah Park) and a small unincorporated residential neighborhood east of Miami International Airport, the school used to serve the western Miami suburb of Doral until 2006 when a new high school was built in that area.

Beginning in the 2007-2008 school year, the opening of Westland Hialeah High School in the southern portion of Hialeah, removed the entire portion of southern Hialeah served by the school and located West of Palm Avenue, however, all portions of the boundary located east of Palm Avenue in Hialeah remained served by the school.

History

Construction at Miami Springs Senior High School began in 1963 with the clearing of a large wooded lot at the site of the current campus. There were no homes built directly on the site which was one of the last area of thick jungle growth in the incorporated Miami Springs. The first day of classes at Springs was delayed due to Hurricane Cleo striking Miami on August 27, 1964. Springs first opened its doors after Labor Day the following week in September 1964 as an overcrowding reliever for nearby Hialeah High School. The first school year of 1964-65 served 9th 10th and 11th grade students, and the second school year of 1965-66 offered classes for 10th, 11th and 12th grades. Therefore, the first graduating class of Miami Springs was the Class of 1966.

The school was one of three high schools in the district seriously affected by overcrowding in the early 2000s during the county's largest population growth since 1980. Its student population in the 2001-2002 school year peaked at 4,750 and in the same year it implemented a "split shifts" schedule in which 9th and 10th grade students would attend classes in the afternoons while 11th and 12th grade students as well as Student-Athletes attended in the morning. Despite being the third most populated school in the district after G. Holmes Braddock High School and Barbara Goleman Senior High School, Springs was considered most overcrowded as the school's capacity was only 2,500 students, while Braddock and Goleman's capacities surpassed 4,000 apiece. The school resumed a regular schedule for the 2005-2006 school year as overcrowding was relieved upon the opening of Ronald W. Reagan Doral High School, a school in the nearby suburb of Doral that was previously served by Miami Springs.

Miami Springs Senior High has been a Title I school since the program was expanded to Miami-Dade Public Schools in 2002, due to its extremely high rate of foreign-born students (66.9% in 2013, 70.7% in 2005 and 52.2% in 1997). In 2013, Miami Springs was ranked as the public high school with the highest proportion of foreign-born students nationwide, followed closely by Ronald W. Reagan Doral High School at 65.8% and Miami Senior High School at 61.2%.

This exceptionally high rate makes Miami Springs one of the most unique public schools in the US, with over 70% of the course offerings in either Spanish or reformulated in English for Spanish Speakers. However, this has been a boon to its extensive Advanced Placement program and Miami Springs was ranked among the top 10 high schools nationwide for Hispanic students performance in the AP program - 65% passing rate across all subjects - with first-generation immigrant Hispanic students receiving the highest scores.

The school has a strict policy to remove students not living within its boundaries. As a result, the school's overcrowding has been significantly reduced. This policy may have helped improve Miami Springs' test scores, helping raise the school from a D rating in 2003 to a B rating in 2005 and 2006. As of 2013, Miami Springs is an A school.

In 2009 Hialeah Gardens High School opened, taking attendance boundary territory from Barbara Goleman High School and Miami Springs High School. In turn, Goleman took territory from American High School.[1]

In the years prior to January 2012 many students had left, going to magnet schools and charter schools. In late October 2011 Tom Ennis, who was principal, moved to Miami Killian High School. Under Ennis's term, the school's MCAT rating went frown from B to C, and Bill Daley of the Miami Herald stated that there was a low morale at the end of his term. Anna Rodriguez became the principal in 2011. Daley stated that Rodriguez, at the beginning, "has invigorated the school."[2]

As of August 2015, Miami Springs Senior High School switched to the common 8 period, 32-credit schedule and graduation requirements to meet the standards and requests of the PTSA and other high school's in the district who had already adopted the schedule.

In 2015 a plaque honoring Bruce Wayne Carter, an alumnus of the school who became Private First Class and died in the Vietnam War, was installed.[3]

School uniforms

The uniform policy was first implemented in 2006. Miami Springs High School requires school uniforms [1]. As of August 2015, shirts need to be collared and may be white, yellow or gold, garnet, or red. Pants must be black or blue jeans or khakis.

Miami Springs is one of the few entirely closed campuses in the Miami metropolitan area. It was one of the most expensive high schools to build because it was also the first high school to include climate control (unlike the Mediterranean courtyard style architecture used in most other high schools) and thus was able to succeed in the humid, tropical climate of Miami.[citation needed]

School Administration Edward Smith, Principal Alfred Torossian, Assistant Principal Anthony Saunders, Assistant Principal Alina Valero, Assistant Principal

Demographics

In 2013, Miami Springs High is 80% Hispanic (62% Cuban, 16% South American, 2% Central American), 12% Black non-Hispanic, 8% White non-Hispanic and 0% Asian.

In 2005, Miami Springs High was 83% Hispanic (42% South American, 41% Cuban, <0.5% Central American), 9% White non-Hispanic, 8% Black non-Hispanic and 0% Asian.

In 1997, Miami Springs High was 66% Hispanic (58% Cuban, 7% South American, 1% Central American), 19% White non-Hispanic, 15% Black non-Hispanic and 0% Asian.

Just as in the city of Miami Springs, Florida, over the years the proportion of Hispanics has been steadily rising as Whites have continued to leave the area while other races have maintained stable proportions since the school desegregated in the late 1970s.

Notable alumni

Government

  • Kendrick Meek (Former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 2003, representing Florida's 17th congressional district, US Senate Candidate 2010)

Television

Media

Football

MSSH currently has produced 3 players who are currently playing in the NFL:

  • Willis McGahee (Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, Baltimore Ravens, and drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the 1st round of the NFL draft) (University of Miami)
  • Devin Aromashodu (Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, Indianapolis Colts, and drafted by the Miami Dolphins) (Auburn University)
  • T.Y. Hilton (Indianapolis Colts) (Florida International University)

Former NFL players:

Baseball

  • John Cangelosi (Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, Florida Marlins 1997 World Series Champion)
  • Yasmani Grandal (Los Angeles Dodgers; University of Miami; drafted in the 1st round, # 12 overall, of the 2010 MLB Draft by the Cincinnati Reds)

Publications

  • The school's monthly newspaper is called the Zeitgeist, meaning "Spirit of the Times" in German.
  • The school's yearbook is the Spectre, which celebrates its 50th edition in 2015.

Notable clubs and extracurricular activities

  • Mu Alpha Theta: Since the mid to late 1990s, the Miami Springs Senior High School Mu Alpha Theta chapter has had the distinction of being first in the county and ranking in the top ten statewide. In the 06-07 season, Springs Mu Alpha Theta team won 5th place in the National Mu Alpha Theta math competition, beating powerhouses nationwide. The team maintained a top-ten ranking since 2001, producing several national champions in diverse topics such as Advanced Calculus and Number Theory.
  • Thespian Troupe 1466: The school's Thespian Troupe is part of the International Thespian Society. They work in conjunction with the school's Drama club, The Golden Players. In recent years, they have won numerous Critic's Choice Awards at the district and state levels with monologues, duet acting scenes, ensemble acting scenes, and student directed scenes. Thespian Troupe 1466 also won the honor of presenting a mainstage production at the Florida State Thespian Festival with their performance of "Anatomy of Gray" by Jim Leonard Jr. In the 2008-2009 school year, they won Superior ratings at the Florida Theatre Conference and the District 8 One-Act Play Festival with their 40-minute version of "Yemaya's Belly" by Quiara Alegría Hudes. This marked the first time that the school received Superiors at both competitions.
  • National Honor Society
  • Odyssey of the Mind
  • Orchestra: This Music club performs at the annual Fall and Spring Concerts, as well as Christmas at the Circle for the past 4 years. In 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 they received 3 superior ratings and went to state competition and in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 they received 2 Superior ratings and an excellent.
  • Marching band2nd Place in 2011
  • Color Guard
  • Anchor Service Club: The Miami Springs Anchor Club is a tradition of excellence that stretches back for many years. This club is dedicated to the surrounding communities and donates time, money and their excellent volunteer group to those in need. Their annual projects range from the School supply drives and the Christmas Toys donations to the Recycling Project at the River Cities Festival and large number of Brainminders Puppet Shows they do to help promote brain safety to children of young ages. Recently in 2010 this Anchor club was awarded "Outstanding International Club of the Year" and attended the International Pilot Convention in Louisville, Kentucky.
  • Eco-Hawks Environmental Club
  • Medical Hawks
  • Winter Drumline: As of the 2010-2011 school year, the drumline has not participated in any competitions due to instructor absence.
  • Winter Guard
  • HOSA

Academics

The State's Accountability program grades a school by a complex formula that looks at both current scores and annual improvement on the Reading, Math, Writing and Science FCATs.

The school's grades by year since the FCAT began in 1998 are:

  • 1998-99: D
  • 1999-00: D
  • 2000-01: D
  • 2001-02: D (316 Points)
  • 2002-03: D (306 Points)
  • 2003-04: C (328 Points)
  • 2004-05: B (385 Points)
  • 2005-06: B (386 Points)
  • 2006-07: C (459 Points)
  • 2007-08: B (507 Points)

See also

References

  1. ↑ "HGHSBoundaryMap.pdf." Hialeah Gardens High School. Retrieved on February 11, 2009.
  2. ↑ Daley, Bill. "New principal has big plans for MSSH " (Archive). Miami Herald. January 18, 2012. Retrieved on January 11, 2016.
  3. ↑ Fleischman, Gaby. "Memory Of War Hero Lives-On At Miami Springs High School" (Archive). CBS Miami. June 3, 2015. Retrieved on November 1, 2016.

External links

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