Start of Miami-Dade public schools brings big changes, first day jitters

Thursday marked a new school year for all Miami-Dade public school students, but for some, it also meant stepping into a school unlike any they had known before.

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At Miami Springs Preparatory Academy 6-12, a new crop of middle school students have to integrate into a school that until this year had been a traditional high school. At Venetian Parc Academy, elementary students were starting the year in classrooms without individual desks, working in groups and using artificial intelligence as part of their daily lessons.

The two schools represent very different ways Miami-Dade is trying to adapt its schools to a changing district: one by rethinking how buildings are used as enrollment declines, the other by experimenting with how students learn.

Black and maroon polos: A school consolidates

Last school year, Mauro, an 11-year-old entering 6th grade from Hialeah Gardens Elementary, would have gone to Miami Springs Middle.

On Thursday, for the first day of school, he lugged his popular Sprayground backpack with the shark teeth design onto Miami Springs Preparatory Academy 6-12 — formerly Miami Springs Senior High — and sat at a patio table in the dawn half-light before first period. Groups of older students clustered at tables around him, catching up on each other’s summers.

Facing declining enrollment and tightening budgets, the district closed or consolidated nine schools this summer. Miami Springs Middle was one of four to consolidate directly into a nearby school, making the old high school the district’s second 6-12 academy and Mauro one of the youngest students at the new school.

“I’m gonna have to get used to it because it’s different,” Mauro said of the 6-12 school model. “But I’m excited to try out a new school.”

That was the theme for students, teachers and administrators at the school: This year will bring changes, some good and some uncertain.

Nearby, 17-year-old seniors Aviel and Rudy were less worried about the 11-year-olds and more concerned about how the teachers would handle a bigger and more diverse student body.

“I don’t think anything major will change. It’s just, like, I wonder how the faculty react,” Rudy said.

Middle and high school populations were mostly sticking together in the building’s cafeteria during breakfast. To more easily identify the two populations, the school has middle schoolers wearing maroon polos and high schoolers don black ones.

One junior in the cafeteria said she was “a little bit concerned” about the older kids mixing with the younger ones, but another student next to her gushed about the extracurriculars and classes that would be available to them at their new school — in one classroom, 6th graders were taking a new introduction to law studies course, which was not available at the old middle school.

Jasmine, a 10th grader who was enjoying breakfast with three friends, gave some straightforward advice to middle-grade students like Mauro: “Lock in.”

“Lock in on your grades and get your GPA, your academics really high so you don’t have to stress when you’re a junior and senior,” she said.

Superintendent Jose Dotres, who toured classrooms and spoke to students throughout the morning, said the change was a beneficial one for the district, its students and its parents.

“Trust me, more of these are to come because of the parental interest. Sometimes the transition from middle school to high school can be smoother, and when you keep the students together, that is almost seamless,” Dotres said.

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New approach at Venetian Parc

At Venetian Parc Academy, a small school west of Zoo Miami, the novelty is more about the academic approach.

The academy is in its second year and serves pre-K through 3rd grade, though it will eventually go up to 8th grade.

It’s a gem of the district, which touts it as Florida’s first-ever “District Innovation School of Technology,” a designation set by recent Florida statute offering it exemptions from certain assessment and grading rules.

The schooling model emphasizes group interaction, with no individual desks for students, more activity-based learning, constant individualized intervention and about 35 minutes daily of AI-based learning on computers. The magnet school grew from a little over 50 students last year to about 200 this school year — and there’s now a wait list, said principal Yamberli Cruz.

The difference in learning model is evident from taking a quick look at the class: the only tables that exist are large, and meant for groups of students.

“At most schools, what is happening is the teacher is teaching to the entire class. She assesses the students, and it doesn’t matter whether you got an A or whether you didn’t understand it at all. Teacher has to move on to the next concept,” Cruz said.

Not so at Venetian Parc, where a group of students at one table might be on a different level from another group in the same classroom.

On Thursday, one second grade class worked in their groups to design a device out of rubber bands and pipe cleaner that could build a tower of cups without using their hands. It’s a less academic activity, but the idea is that kind of collaboration can transfer over to core reading, math and science concepts.

“They’re not passive recipients for receiving information. Instead, they’re curious minds that have tools to learn and grow. They can learn from each other, they can learn from a teacher, and they can learn from their software programs that are safe and age appropriate for them to learn in,” Cruz said.

Dotres, when touring one class, called the opening of Venetian Parc one of his “most encouraging moments” in his roughly five-year tenure as superintendent.

Like a number of senior students roaming the halls of Miami-Dade schools, Thursday was his “last first day,” too.

South Region Superintendent Rafael Villalobos was selected to replace Dotres last month, though the details of his start date and Dotres’ end date have yet to be hashed out by the school board.

One bit of advice he shared for Villalobos: Get in the schools as much as you can.

“Pay attention to the student experience with our school district, the parent experience with our school district and the teacher experience in our school district… Being in touch with them and paying attention will really get the school district to even a higher level,” Dotres said.

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This story was originally published August 13, 2026 at 1:56 PM.