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Howard D. McMillan Middle in West Kendall is the latest school to receive a new, technology-rich media center, thanks to a $2 million partnership Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) has with the College Football Playoff Foundation and the 2021 College Football Playoff National Championship Game Host Committee.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place recently to unveil the innovative space, part of the Middle School Redesign (MSR) initiative, which modernizes spaces with new virtual reality (VR) equipment, Promethean boards, a robotics section and more than a dozen computer stations.
Monique Alfonso, a junior at G. Holmes Braddock Senior High and an alumna of McMillan Middle, praised the center for giving students a place to decompress and destress.
“All these ergonomic chairs just improve the space and give students a place to enjoy instead of just having the gray classroom walls around them,” she said. “They can enjoy the colors, which will stimulate creativity. And that’s vital in both medical and robotics, the two magnets we have here at the school.”
Howard D. McMillan is one of 16 Miami-Dade public middle schools having its media centers transformed. Schools superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho, School Board member Dr. Marta Pérez and McMillan principal Dr. Felicia K. Joseph were joined by the Orange Bowl Committee’s (OBC) CEO Eric Poms and immediate past president Jeff Rubin to officially unveil the media center.
“For me, this space represents everything that education should be,” said Dale Adamson, math and robotics teacher, and nationally recognized educator. “It’s a flexible space that can be used for a lot of different purposes, and we also have the room to break out into all kinds of groups and configurations. This space really provides a hub for our students to be able to explore and innovate.”
The partners will continue to unveil new projects throughout the year in support of the district’s MSR initiative, which is intended to meet the unique social, emotional and academic needs of teachers and students in middle school.
