Ronald W. Reagan/Doral High School

Ronald W. Reagan/Doral Senior High School is a secondary school located at 8600 NW 107 Avenue, in Doral, Florida, United States, a Miami suburb; its principal is Juan Carlos Silva. The school offers, alongside Advanced Placement courses, International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) courses, Advanced Subsidiary (AS) courses, and A-level courses, which are international examinations valid across the world.

History

The school's construction broke ground on February 1, 2005. It was built as a relief school for overcrowded Miami Springs Senior High School, which used to the serve the area.^[1] The school was also opened to relieve a distance problem, as high school students would have to commute seven to nine miles (14 km) to reach Miami Springs High School. It was named after Ronald Reagan, a former President of the United States. It opened with 815 students. The first principal, Douglas Rodriguez, was the former principal at Miami Springs.^[1]

The campus is located on 20 acres (81,000 m²),^[2] has a capacity of about 2,000 students, and contains approximately 250,000 square feet (23,000 m²) of space.^[1] Outdoor facilities include football, softball, baseball and soccer fields, as well as basketball, racquetball, and tennis courts. The facilities also include an 800-seat auditorium, a 700-seat cafeteria, a state-of-the-art Media Center, and an indoor gymnasium. The school opened its doors to students on August 14, 2006. In the 2008-2009 school year, 12th-grade students located within the boundaries of the school who used to be zoned to Miami Springs Senior High School were zoned to Reagan/Doral, making this the first year that the school had all four grade levels (9-12). Reagan/Doral's first graduating class was the class of 2009.

Reagan/Doral's athletic rivals are Miami Springs High School and Doral Academy Charter High School. A more informal rival is Mater Academy Charter School. At the 2007 homecoming pep rally, the classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011 named the mascot "Tyson D. Bison."

The school yearbook is Tatanka ("American Bison" in the Lakota language)^[3] and the monthly free newspaper is the Reagan Advocate.

In February 2008, the City of Doral Trolley began service to Reagan/Doral.

As per the November 2008 issue of the Reagan Advocate, a new building is planned to be built off campus at NW 90th St. and NW 114th Ave. Known as the Ninth Grade Center, it will house only ninth grade students, who will transfer over to the main campus after their first year in high school, alleviating overcrowding expected in the coming years. Plans for the building to have been completed in time for the 2010-2011 academic school year did not materialize and the status of this project is currently unknown.

Former Principal Douglas P. Rodriguez was named Miami-Dade County Principal of the Year for 2008 in an awards ceremony on May 6, 2008. He was also the proud recipient of the 6th Annual Leonard Miller Principal Leadership Award and the Florida Principal of the Year Award.

On December 12, 2008, Rodriguez's tenure as principal of the school ended and he became principal of Miami Central High School. Replacing him was Jacques Y. Bentolila, former principal of West Miami Middle School.^[4]

Venezuelan celebrities Chiquinquirá Delgado and Chino & Nacho visited the school in 2016.^[5]

Academic system and magnet programs

Reagan/Doral is an academy-based school. There are three academies: the Cambridge Academy (International General Certificate of Secondary Education), the Information and Communications Technology Academy (ICT), and the Classical Arts Academy. The school had added a Health Science Academy, but this option was discontinued at the start of the 2008-2009 school year. Ninth-grade students are enrolled in a leadership course, where they define their career interests and then select one of two academies (if the student chooses Cambridge, IGCSE courses begin from ninth grade, not from tenth grade). Elective classes from that academy are chosen, and the student is placed in core classes with other students in the same academy, for the remaining three years.

The Cambridge curriculum is taught in over 150 countries worldwide. Students who pass the Cambridge exams may be awarded university credit at schools throughout the US. The courses taken in a Cambridge Academy are also recognized internationally. Students follow an international curriculum, taking IGCSE courses their freshman and sophomore years, AS courses in their junior year, and can further their studies by taking A-level courses during their final year.

Alongside the Cambridge Academy courses, the school also hosts a Classical Arts magnet program open to all students in the county, similar to other magnet programs held at several high schools in the district.

The school also takes part in a Miami-Dade County Public Schools program, a dual enrollment program with Florida International University called the Academy for Advanced Academics. Participating students remain enrolled at Reagan/Doral as well as attending a full-time schedule at Florida International University. The Academy for Advanced Academics is considered one of the most rigorous programs in the MDCPS system.

Campus

The school has a mural honoring two students and former students who died in automobile accidents: 21-year old Andrea Castillo, a member of the Class of 2009 who died in 2012; and 17-year old Raphael Acevedo, a fourth-year student (senior) who died in 2014. Area artist Tony Mendoza designed the murals.^[6]

Academic achievements

• 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.
• 2006-2007: A
• 2007-2008: A
• 2008-2009: A
• 2009-2010: A
• Reagan/Doral was the only non-magnet high school within the Miami-Dade County Public School system to receive an A grade for its opening school year (2006–2007). School ranking is based on student FCAT performance.^[7]
• It is also the only school in Miami-Dade County Public Schools' history, thus far, to have received an A grade for its opening year.
• Cesar Nuñez won Most School Spirited when the class of 2014 were seniors. He went on to build his own brand called DesireImagineProsper.

Demographics

In 2013, Reagan/Doral High was ranked second nationally after Miami Springs Senior High School in percentage of foreign-born students within a public high school, with 65.8% born overseas.

In 2013, foreign-born students were primarily from Venezuela (42.6%), Colombia (8.2%), Peru (7.4%), Brazil (3.1%) and Argentina (2.8%).

School clubs

Since the first graduation in 2009, Ronald Reagan Doral Senior High TV production (RTV) has recorded all school graduations done out of Florida International University, including those of other schools. RTV began recording other schools' graduations after it discovered that nobody else was filming them.^[8]

Feeder pattern

The following schools feed into this high school:

• Dr. Rolando espinoza K-8 center
• Eugenia B. Thomas K-8 Center
• John I. Smith K-8 Center

See also

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

References

External links

• Ronald W. Reagan/Doral High School
• Ronald W. Reagan/Doral Sr. High Miami-Dade County Public Schools (Archive). Advance-ed.