A new dark blue fence cover installed along Oak Avenue behind Coconut Grove Elementary School has upset nearby neighbors, who now “wake up to a stingray.”
Last week, Patti Highfield stepped out the front door of her Oak Avenue home – as she has for more than seven years — and locked eyes with a cartoon stingray.
The smiling stingray is a part of a new fence cover that lines the back perimeter of Coconut Grove Elementary School – much to the chagrin of neighbors who border the school property.
“I thought, well, that’s really large and intrusive, it can’t be permanent. But it was,” Highfield said.
The dark blue fence cover – plastered with blown-up school logos and large-scale text promoting the school’s bilingual and international studies programs – was likened by neighbors to a “construction site” or a “billboard.”
“It’s cute, but it looks like it belongs more on a thoroughfare,” Highfield said. “They are looking to grab motorists’ attention, and it just doesn’t fit the scale of our block.”
The fence covering was installed on April 13. Neighbors immediately began pushing for its removal. A Change.org petition was created by Highfield the next day. By Thursday morning this week, the petition had gathered 85 signatures.
Gailen David, one of the owners of Palm Produce Resortwear on Main Highway, said it’s not only residents who have something to lose from the school’s choice of fence covering – but children, too.
“The children deserve more than a banner that looks like another construction site,” he said. “We’re being inundated by development right now and it’s just overwhelming, and I’m sure it’s overwhelming for the kids. It would be nice if they were dropped off to something soothing and welcoming.”
The fence cover was installed as part of a privacy initiative, according to a Miami-Dade County Public Schools representative.
“The intent of that (covering) is for the safety and security of the students since it’s an open area where the playground and P.E. field are,” the representative said. “The branding is just nice as the school goes.”
But it’s not the privacy barrier that bothers neighbors – it’s how starkly the covering stands out from the surrounding landscape.
“I don’t think anyone meant anything malicious by this; it was just done quickly without much thought,” David said. “The printing could have been greenery or something that was more reflective of Coconut Grove and they could have still put their school logo and stingray on there, but in a more tasteful way.”
According to M-DCPS administrative director Alejandro Pérez, the fence covering “was implemented with the support of the school’s PTSA (Parent, Teacher, and Student Association) and in compliance with district guidelines.”
Not so, according to the PTA president Liz Butler. “The PTA would like to clarify that we had no prior knowledge of the fencing being installed at the school,” Butler said in a written response.
Highfield, whose daughter attended the Coconut Grove Elementary for four years, wondered why neighbors weren’t consulted before the covering was installed.
“For a community that has supported the elementary school for so many years, we cannot understand why the school will not support the community,” she said.
Fellow neighbor Claudia (who asked to be identified by her first name because of her connection with the school), said the issue likely would have been avoided altogether had residents been factored into the discussion.
“If they put something up that was aesthetically more pleasing we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now,” she said.
In remarks addressed to the school board on Wednesday evening, Highfield suggested the school should swap out the branded cover for alternative, natural privacy buffers, such as hedges, or a neutral covering.
“Many of us have invested significantly in our homes and in this community. This is not what we envisioned for our residential street,” she told the board.
Asked whether the district would reconsider the coverings in response to residents’ complaints, a school district representative said it’s not likely.
“As of right now, that is not the plan,” the representative said.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a response from Liz Butler, the president of the school’s PTA.
