The day after an intense town hall meeting saw angry parents vent their frustrations over the conditions of North Dade Middle School, students were settling into class six miles away at old North Miami Senior High.
Buses brought the approximately 700 students from the old school in Opa Locka to the new school after structural concerns on the middle school's building forced officials to close most of it down yesterday.
The sudden announcement of the closure, accompanied by the sight of moving vans outside the middle school yesterday morning, sent parents and students into a tizzy.
A heated meeting was held last night, with parents expressing their anger over the lack of information, as well as the turmoil the school closure would create just days before students were scheduled for their FCAT exams.
Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho was on hand to greet parents and students at the North Miami Senior High Campus this morning and assure them that their new temporary building is safer than the old one.
He also had good news about the FCAT exams.
"I have already gotten a concession from the commissioner of education to delay the FCAT administration for North Dade Middle students for one week, and I'm flying to Tallahassee today to attempt to negotiate a longer extension for the FCAT administration," he said.
The North Miami building, unoccupied since before Christmas, got a swift makeover yesterday, and is in good condition, Carvalho said. Students will occupy most of the first floor of the massive building.
Carvalho also took time to talk about the quick decision to pull the kids from the middle school. According to Carvalho, the building had been surveyed four months ago, with bad but not catastrophic results.
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Plans to repair or replace the school were then underway, he said.
A second survey last month showed the same results of the first analysis: bad but not catastrophic. But a chief engineer reviewing the results of the second survey apparently saw something that he felt needed immediate action, and alerted the school.
"Before the e-mail there was no plan to remove the students, that's why this whole move was done in 48 hours," Carvalho said. "I was surprised about his turnabout."
Carvalho didn't elaborate on the problems, calling them "2nd floor concerns regarding the integrity of columns."
Students will be bused to the senior high building for the remainder of the year. They'll be moved to a different school for next year, and Carvalho expects the old school to be demolished and rebuilt by the start of the 2011-2012 school year.
"I know it's been disturbing, I know it's been an upheaval-like situation but there is no compromising the safety and security of our children," he said.
