School Superintendent Jose Dotres targets mental well-being

The school year kicked off with a fresh new superintendent saying he’s ready to improve Miami-Dade County Public Schools and provide a well-rounded education. Jose Dotres says he’s making sure that by the end of the school year he will see a rise in student academic progress and mental wellbeing.

Mr. Dotres was chosen in January to succeed Alberto Carvalho, who left to run the Los Angeles schools. Mr. Dotres had been deputy superintendent of Collier County Public Schools after he had earlier worked for Miami-Dade’s public schools in various capacities.

He has already improved student transportation, added mental health help, hired teachers to fill vacancies the schools had been struggling with and changed instructional technology.

At an Aug. 17 conference he talked of plans for the school year, which he said started off on the right foot with many bus routes able to transport thousands of students throughout the county.

“We had 7,778 bus routes out transporting students,” said Mr. Dotres. “That is the equivalent of about 40,000 students transported on the first day.”
Academic progress, mental health, well-being and the general safety of students are atop his priorities.

On the first day, the schools served over 225,000 meals, which Mr. Dotres said is one way the school board is taking care of children by making sure they are well-fed and ready to learn.

It is also planned to provide stronger athletic programs and more general activities to take care of the mental and physical well-being of the students.
“This is a year where we get to inspire students and get to inspire our teachers in a year where we really need to connect and reconnect with each other,” Mr. Dotres said. “Moving forward, that is what we are focusing on.”

“We’ve made a lot of progress when it comes to academics, but that does not mean we are where we need to be,” he said. “It is important to address the reading proficiency in students, their proficiency in math. There is still a window of improvement there.”

For students who may be struggling harder, there will be aid such as academic intervention or additional tutoring. Also being worked on by the school board is an expansion of the role of the Parent Academy, the school system’s free, year-around parent engagement initiative that helps parents get more involved in their children’s education. Communication with parents altogether is something where improvement is planned.

“We have actually expanded our office so that we could provide more information for our parents via our website to increase the number of interactions, activities and communities that will be with them,” said Mr. Dotres.

The safety and well-being of students includes increasing security and providing mental health serviced as well. Mr. Dotres said the schools have hired 133-plus mental health specialists ready to handle any issues students may have. A security guard is to be posted at every school, important when gun violence is on the rise, he said.

“At the end of the day, we are grateful for the community that has made possible for us to hire officers and provide competitive salaries,” he said. “We’ve done a multitude of things. It is not just hiring a police officer but it is about having the same police officer at that same site, so they’re knowledgeable and know their students and they know the community.”

Over the summer, the schools’ police chief held four emergency mass casualty drills so that in an event of a tragedy, it is not just the school’s officer that responds, but also that officers in nearby municipalities can well-coordinate a response.

“In addition to that, let’s always remember that we have police officers that are also trained on mental health awareness and mental wellness,” Mr. Dotres said. “That’s part of the solution to keep schools safe and be able to know who the students are and if there are any potential threats. We have a threat assessment team that comes together to look at potential students that might have certain indicators of potential issues.”