Building a school planning process for Miami-Dade’s next generation | Opinion

At this month’s school board meeting later this month, I will be proposing to modernize Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ (M-DCPS) attendance boundary, student assignment and school planning processes. The goal is to create a system that is more transparent, predictable, accessible and responsive to the realities facing today’s students and families.

For 45 years, Miami-Dade’s Attendance Boundary Committee (ABC) process has helped guide decisions about school attendance boundaries and enrollment. It was built during a time when most students attended their assigned neighborhood school and school enrollment was steadily growing.

Families now navigate a very different educational landscape. Today, 65% of M-DCPS students attend schools through choice options, magnet programs or specialized pathways.

At the same time, Miami-Dade County is changing.

While our economy continues to grow and diversify, lower birth rates, reduced immigration and rising housing costs have resulted in fewer school-aged children than in previous generations. As a result, the district must plan for a future that looks very different from the one our current systems were originally designed to serve.

Like many school districts across the country, M-DCPS now has more available school seats than students to fill them. Our school planning processes should evolve alongside those realities.

I am a proud product of M-DCPS. The teachers and staff at my public elementary, middle and high schools taught me English as an 8-year-old immigrant, helped me get to college after I learned I was undocumented and showed me that schools are far more than buildings. They are places where lives are transformed.

These conversations are deeply personal. They touch neighborhoods, traditions and the futures families imagine for their children.

That’s why my proposal would create earlier opportunities for engagement, improve communication with families, increase transparency around enrollment trends and better align school planning, school choice and long-term capital decisions.

Most importantly, it seeks to ensure students, families, educators and community members continue to have meaningful opportunities to shape the decisions that affect them.

I’m also asking that we, as Miami, change how we think about these conversations.

The opportunity before us goes beyond redrawing lines on a map.

We have the chance to build a school system designed for the next generation of students and the realities they will inherit.

By aligning facilities, enrollment and programming with today’s realities, we can strengthen schools, expand opportunities for families and direct more resources toward what students experience every day: rigorous academics, arts and athletics, career pathways, student support services and modern learning environments.

By reforming this process and the way we talk about school planning, we can make strategic changes that assure high-quality public education is a reality now and for decades to come.

I know the people of Miami-Dade are willing to do hard things when they have facts, feel heard and believe the process is fair. The buildings that house our public schools belong to all of us. We have a responsibility to ensure they are being used in ways that best serve the students today and of tomorrow.

If we can modernize the way we plan for enrollment, facilities and student assignment, we can build a stronger public school system for the next generation and ensure that Miami-Dade County Public Schools continue to give the world to students every day.

Luisa Santos is the Miami-Dade County Public Schools board member for District 9.