My 40 year journey with Dade County Schools

Doris Granberry, Principal of South Dade Adult Education Center

Greetings to my many friends and co-workers whom I have met and grown to love and admire during my incred- ible  experience while being employed with Miami-Dade County Public Schools. This letter is indeed laced with many mixed emotions that can only be expressed with tears of joy and many “laugh out loud” moments.

From my beginning as a Physical education teacher at Miami Carol City Junior High School to my current position as principal at South Dade Adult Education Center, I have watched as the System evolved into a monstrous educational machine that can easily swallow your spirit and  drain your passion for serving students as the drive for performance on high stakes testing takes priority over individuality and forming future leaders who are prepared to face the challenges of an irresponsible present.

I have watched as special interests and  greedy leaders have forced the brightest and best to abandon the System for other cities and even other states. Yet, hope still lives in Dade County Public Schools because of some of the people whom I have been blessed to meet during my time with the System. As I trusted my own four children to the System, I watched as they each blossomed under the support and nurture of excellent teachers and athletic programs.

This foundation propelled them to become a pharmacist, a nurse, a school teacher and a doctor. We still have leaders who want to do the right thing for the children and have not been tainted by twisted perceptions and the quest for personal gain. To those leaders I say hold on and don’t give up because our children are depending on you.

Forty years ago, teaching was an honorable profession; today teachers are sleeping with students while fear, crime, and destruction rule our campuses. As I complete my tenure as a full time em- ployee of the system, I want to encourage teachers to take back your classroom. Students still want to be taught, respected and challenged to be more and do more. Brush up on your technology skills because that is the wave of the now. Learn as much as you can about the trends that are shaping our world, don’t stay stuck in the past. Let technology bring alive your classrooms, channel the IPods and Iphones into a positive resource for research and networking. Live a life of faith and bring back the basic principles behind “God Bless America”.

Leaders, know what is in your heart that can bring out the ethical leader in you. Know that you have been endowed with the awesome responsibility of leading for change, for without change we die. Do not be afraid to trust good conscious, and touch the child with love and patience.

Finally, as I go the way of many thousands of others, I will trust the God in me to lead me in the path of righteousness for His Name Sake. I will take away with me the many wonderful memories of trials and conflicts, of successes and near successes. I will cherish the administrative team meetings and the support and trust that my administrators placed in me to lead with heart and good sense. To the many community leaders who have supported me and my staff, I say thank you.

To my Continental Sisters, I can now devote more time to the great mission of serving our children when we go into the schools and be whatever is needed at that time. To my Pastors  who have been an understanding support when I had to miss meetings in order to be available for evening meetings and some times weekend assignments, I say thank you. And to this wonderful community voice, THE SOUTH DADE MONITOR, I say stay strong and continue to speak the truth against all odds.