Raised and educated in the Miami-Dade County school system, Dania Garcia finds herself at the helm of one of the Grove’s most venerable institutions.
Each weekday at 7:45 a.m. as the gates swing open – just as they have for more than 100 years – Dania Garcia takes her place at the entrance to Center Grove’s Coconut Grove Elementary School.
Outside, a stream of kids and parents arrive through all manner of transport – scooter, skateboard, golf cart, bicycle, automobile, and on foot. Garcia, the school’s newest principal, greets them with a smile.
“I feel very, very fortunate and very lucky to have been selected to be here,” Garcia said.
As the students shuffle in, some, including fourth-grader Talia, share a hug with Garcia.
On this day, Garcia is wearing heels and carrying a walkie-talkie.
But years earlier, Garcia was just like Talia – another fourth-grade student walking into a Miami-Dade County elementary school. It was also the year the seed would be planted in her journey to becoming an educator.
Math problems had grown in complexity, Garcia recalled, leaving some students struggling. But their teacher – Mr. Randall – adjusted his teaching approach, taking the time to work with each student until they had mastered their lessons.
“He just did not give up on anyone,” she said.
Mr. Randall had instilled in Garcia a love for equations, but also an appreciation for the impact one teacher could have on a student’s life.
After graduating from Miami Springs Senior High, Garcia chose to pursue a career in education, receiving a bachelor’s degree in education from Florida International University. In 2004 she landed her first teaching job, with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and quickly fell in love with life in the classroom surrounded by children.
“They’re positively contagious,” Garcia said. “They don’t have a lot of worries other than getting picked up on time, right? Children bring joy. There’s no other way to slice it.”
Eager to climb the ranks of public education in Miami-Dade, Garcia eventually accepted an assistant principal post, and was later promoted to principal at Melrose Elementary School. She left that school, in Allapattah, earlier this summer to take the position at Coconut Grove Elementary (CGE).
Founded in 1887, CGE is Miami-Dade County’s oldest, continuously operating school. Its primary classroom building — still standing and very much still in use today — was built in 1911.
CGE’s deep history and connection to its community are things Garcia intends to celebrate, declaring the school’s theme for the coming year to be “legacy in motion.”
And while history is important, her first concern is always the students.
“My primary motivation is the impact we have on our students’ learning and consequently their life,” she said. “Knowing that I am contributing to their future, and by extension, to our community and to the world overall, it’s what drives me every day.”
On any given day, Garcia visits classrooms, checks in with the janitorial staff, and pops in to see how the cafeteria is running.
“She’s a great asset. The energy is like light,” assistant principal Dr. Anjanette Hallman said. “I think the staff and the team and the students are gravitating to her.”
Only in her fourth week since the school year began, Garcia’s days are non-stop. From the time she drops her youngest of three children off at school, until well after her students have wrapped up their instruction, she’s finding ways to better the school.
Garcia is intent on maintaining CGE’s A-grade ranking, a process which requires continual monitoring of teacher instruction and evaluation of student performance.
Fortunately, CGE has been spared (for now) some of the struggles facing other Miami-Dade public schools, Garcia explained.
While overall student enrollment in Miami-Dade has declined about four percent for the current school year, CGE’s student body remains stable at about 500 students.
Unlike some schools, CGE does not qualify for school choice, meaning it exclusively serves students from the surrounding neighborhood.
Funding has also remained steady, Garcia said, helped in part by volunteerism and fundraising by a robust parent-teacher association.
But some challenges remain unexpected, including a multi-hour, campus-wide lockdown a week into the school year, prompted by a massive police chase in the Grove for a suspected car thief.
Fortuitously, perhaps, the school had conducted a lockdown drill only the day before.
“Since we practice, they know exactly what to expect,” Garcia said.
Just across the street looms another disruption to CGE. Construction is slated to begin on the 1.7-acre Ziggurat mixed-use project in coming months, with no set completion date. A proposed makeover of the adjacent Kirk Munroe Park may cause additional headaches during school drop-off and pick-up.
But such projects are inevitable within the center of a vibrant and highly desirable village center.
Running a school in the heart of downtown Coconut Grove, as opposed to being tucked away in suburban school, has become a joy for Garcia. She lives an hour away, but has no regrets about the daily commute to CGE.
“It’s just refreshing,” Garcia said. “Watching the community, whether they’re working out, grabbing a coffee, or walking their dogs.”
