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Miami-Dade County Public Schools had a call for grants in mid-April open to all 18 schools in the county, of which six were selected in the primary steps of becoming a Magnet School. Miami Beach Senior High School was chosen due to its low enrollment, potential for success and geographic magnet school void. The program will be sponsored by MDCPS in the grant-writing process to receive money from the United States Department of Education.  Assuming all goes according to plan; MBSH will become a magnet school by 2011.

                      The USDOE initiative to assist traditional high schools in becoming Magnet Schools provides a three year funding cycle to eligible school districts. Their goals include: reducing minority isolation, improving academic achievements of students, and sustaining a magnet program at a high performance level even after the three year government funding cycle.

                  “Of course no one can say for certain,” Andy Weiss, lead teacher of Scholars Academy expressed, “but the district has gotten the grant every time it’s applied since 1991 so I’d say there’s a very high chance that Beach will get the grant.”

The underrepresented population at Miami Beach Senior High School is currently the white, non-Hispanic students, making up 19.5% of the school, with Hispanic making up about 72% of the school population. “The active goal of the grant is to decrease minority isolation, which means for our school, increasing the white population” says Principal Rosann Sidener, “Our hope is to get the school a little more balanced.

                      Upon the school’s construction completion, there will be a holding capacity of 2,844 students, approximately 800 students more than the current attendance at Beach High. The current 71% utilization requires an increase in the number of students. “When the school is finished with construction it will seat an additional 800 kids,” Sidener explained, “and we need to fill the 800 seats.”

            By attracting students from outside the current attendance boundaries, it is the hope of MBSH that school will not only fulfill its required capacity but also fulfill the Magnet school purpose and obligation as well. Popular current Magnet programs include New World School of the Arts and Design and Architectural Senior High. “Sometimes, if a kid gets into MAST or DASH and the Scholars Academy, they’ll come here,” explains Weiss, “but many times, they’ll choose to go to DASH or New World.”

                      The federal government will allot up to $12 million dollars for transitioning magnet schools within Miami Dade County. The funds will then be divided between Emerson, and R.R. Morton Elementary schools; Homestead Middle School; and Hialeah Gardens, Miami Beach and Miami Northwestern Senior High schools.

                      The Magnet Schools Assistance Program will help fund the transformation of Miami Beach Senior High School into an academy-based institution. “We’re not going to change our [current] academies,” says Sidener, “but we may expand some of the ones we already have.”

                In addition to the primary Global Studies and Global Citizenship magnet school theme, the school will be divided into eight academies; Academy of Hospitality and Tourism, Academy of Information Technology, Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, Academy of Digital Media, Academy of Marine and Environmental Science, Academy of Entrepreneurship, Academy of World Languages, and the Scholars Academy which will soon incorporate the International Baccalaureate program.

                “Just because you’re a magnet doesn’t mean like “boom” it changes the school,” says Sidener, “kids win more awards, kids go to better colleges, kids come home and talk  about cool things that are happening in their classes. That’s how it changes.