GOULDS, Fla. – An award-winning magnet school that will soon put behind having to educate children in an environment with rotten wood, mold, peeling paint, and damaged ceilings.
The Arthur & Polly Mays Conservatory of the Arts, a magnet school at 11700 SW 216 St., in Miami-Dade County’s Goulds neighborhood has a long of programs including fashion design, visual arts, theatre, dance, music, entertainment technology, and creative writing.
Bruce Ford is among the parents who while proud of their children’s creative accomplishments at the school — fear for their safety. They have collected pictures as evidence of the lack of maintenance.
“The last concert we went to, they had a massive rainstorm. The brand new renovated auditorium leaked horribly to the point that we couldn’t use it. We had to cancel and postpone that event,” Ford said.
The school has an important history. As a married couple who owned land, Arthur and Polly Mays invested in their community and founded the school in 1914 as a haven for Black children in the segregated South.
The area’s demographics have changed and Luisa Santos, a Colombian-American former MDCPS student was elected in 2020 to represent the school’s district as a Miami-Dade School Board member.
“We have significant funding for the school, it’s just we are not seeing it yet,” Santos said, adding, “In this school, we are looking at a complete replacement.”
Miami-Dade County Public Schools plans to invest $30 million in the next five years. Santos said she has spent most of her time “coming up with creative solutions” as the process continues.
Turns out, the school is in for a $30 million state-of-the-art upgrade in the next five years, while somehow keeping its historic value. Ford said the process needs to speed up.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen without parental pressure, without teacher and staff pressure, and without community pressure,” Ford said.