Miami Palmetto Senior High School is a public high school located at 7431 S.W. 120th Street in Pinecrest, Florida. The school is on 23 acres (9.3 ha) in southwest Miami-Dade County, and is part of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools district. Miami Norland Senior High is Miami Palmetto's sister school by original blueprints. The school has been named a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. Its principal is Victoria Dobbs.

The school serves several areas: Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, and sections of Kendall, West Perrine and Palmetto Estates.

History

Miami Palmetto was built in 1958. Miami Palmetto had a cost of $1,654,400 (equivalent to $13.4 million in 2023). The expected enrollment was 1,500.

It serves a culturally and socioeconomically diverse population. Miami Palmetto is the home school for the residents of Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, West Perrine, and Palmetto Estates. The school enjoys strong support from the municipal governments of the two primary areas zoned to Palmetto Senior, the Village of Pinecrest and the Village of Palmetto Bay. Both provide noteworthy cash or in-kind donations and have active Educational Advisory Compact agreements that facilitate working with MDCPS. Pinecrest gives $10,000 to the school every year, and Palmetto Bay in 2015 sponsored a community-wide 5K Color Run fundraiser benefit. An active PTSA also contributes substantial resources (funding, programming, volunteer manpower). Palmetto, for years, was a three-year high school, but after the 1997 addition, it expanded to be a four-year high school. In the school's history, a few scandals have surfaced, one in which lacrosse players shared racist remarks through a group chat to later be counseled, and an incident where a student stabbed a classmate and her teacher with scissors. Miami Palmetto is currently participating in a pilot program of AP Capstone.

In 2017, Miami-Dade Public Schools began an extensive three phase reconstruction of the school which was originally budgeted to cost $44 million. The overall remodel includes 120,900 square feet of new construction including a new three-story building to house administrative offices; student services; vocational labs, such as Web Design, drafting and design, health science, and business technology. The remodel also includes a new art wing, photo studio lab, gymnastics space, dance room, music room, and black box theater; new cafeteria building, technology labs, and an indoor and outdoor dining facility adjacent to a central courtyard. The new building, which was completed as Phase 1 of the project, opened in January 2020.

School trends

Academics

The curriculum offers a choice of twenty-eight AP courses, and students have the highest pass rate for AP exams in the county. The school's pass rate for AP Chemistry for the 2015 exam was the highest in the State of Florida. Over 50% of students take at least one AP class, and over 50% have a GPA higher than 4.0. Graduates are admitted to a wide variety of the nation's top colleges and universities. Miami Palmetto students score higher on other state and national assessments than other standard (non-magnet) public schools in Miami-Dade County. In addition, as a neighborhood (non-magnet) school, Miami Palmetto serves all student populations. The school's Special Olympics athletes win at state level competitions every year. According to Newsweek's 2001 List of the 1,000 Top U.S. Schools, Miami Palmetto is ranked at 251 in the nation (23rd in the state of Florida). According to the 2007 list, the school is ranked at 72 in the nation. This ranking is based on self-reported statistics, including:

• On-time graduation (91%)
• Graduates immediately enrolling in college (95%)
• Various standardized test scores (45%)
• AP/IB/AICE courses offered per graduate (5%)

Miami Palmetto media

Miami Palmetto has three publications: the newspaper, The Panther, the morning announcements and television production, Panther TVP, and the yearbook, Palm Echo. They are all managed by student staffs.

Athletics

International championships

• Coed sailing – British Schools Dinghy Racing Association Team Racing Champion (by invitation) – 1994

National championships

• Coed sailing – National High School Dinghy Championship (Mallory Trophy) – champion 1994; runner-up 1997
• Coed sailing – national high school team racing champion (Baker Trophy) – 1994
• Single-handed sailing – national interscholastic sailing association champion (Cressy Trophy) – 1989

Notable alumni

This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (February 2019)

See also

• Miami-Dade County Public Schools