Miami Springs High School

Miami Springs Senior High School
Location
751 Dove Ave Miami Springs, Florida, 33166 USA
Information
School type	Public, high school
Established	September 1964
School district	Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Principal	Thomas P. Ennis
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 High School is a secondary school located at 751 Dove Avenue in Miami Springs, Florida, USA; its principal is Thomas P. Ennis. 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). 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, Florida 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 forcing the school to acquire a "split shifts" schedule in which 9th and 10th grade students would attend classes in the afternoons while 11th and 12th grade students 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.

The school has a 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.

In 2009 Hialeah Gardens High School will open, taking attendance boundary territory from Barbara Goleman High School and Miami Springs High School. In turn Goleman will take territory from American High School.^[1]

School uniforms

The uniform policy was first implemented in 2006. Miami Springs High School requires school uniforms [1]. Shirts need to be collared and may be white, yellow or gold, garnet, or red. Pants must be black or khaki.

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]}

Demographics

Miami Springs High is 71% Hispanic, 15% White non-Hispanic 13% Black and 1% Asian/Other. 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

• David Fumero (Soap Opera star, starred on One Life To Live; former male fashion model)

Athletics

Football

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

• Willis McGahee+ (Denver Broncos) (University of Miami)
• Devin Aromashodu (Minnesota Vikings) (Auburn University)
• Gartrell Johnson (Atlanta Falcons) (Colorado State University)

+McGahee played at Miami Springs for his first 3 years and then transferred to Miami Central for his senior season.

Former NFL players:

• Lomas Brown (Detroit Lions, Arizona Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and New York Giants)
• Reggie Kinlaw (Oakland Raiders and Seattle Seahawks)
• Orpheus Roye (Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns)
• Vince Kendrick (Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

Current NCAA College Football Players:

• T.Y. Hilton (Florida International University - FIU)
• Willis Wright (Florida International University - FIU)
• ^[2]Rakeem Cato+ (Marshall University)

+Cato played at Miami Springs for his first 3 years and then transferred to Miami Central for his senior season.

Baseball

• John Cangelosi (Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, Florida Marlins 1997 World Series Champion)
• Yasmani Grandal (University of Miami; drafted in the 1st round, # 12 overall, of the 2010 MLB Draft by the Cincinnati Reds)
• Adrian "Nini" Morales (University of South Carolina; 2-time National Champion; drafted in the 49th round of the 2011 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals).^[3]

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 celebrated its 40th edition in 2005.

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 Band
• 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
• 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

• Miami-Dade County Public Schools
• High school
• Education in the United States
• Miami Springs

References

1. ^ "HGHSBoundaryMap.pdf." Hialeah Gardens High School. Retrieved on February 11, 2009.
2. ^ http://herdzone.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/cato_rakeem00.html
3. ^ http://gamecocksonline.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/morales_adrian00.html

External links

• Miami-Dade County public schools
• Miami Springs High School alumni website
• Zeitgeist website