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Architecturally, the school was constructed in the typical Spanish
style of the late 1920s in south Florida. Most buildings are two-story
structures with some gardens and courtyards between. The grounds and
buildings appear to have been maintained within a limited budget. The
office has been renovated; most classrooms look as they probably did
20 years earlier. According to a former teacher of the school, the
first buildings for this school plant were opened to children in 1929.
With minor exceptions, all additions were completed before World War II.
The airport noise is one of the biggest factors influencing
changes in the school and community. People who could afford to move
have left the area. As lower-priced housing became available, retired
and low-income people moved into it. Many of the teachers and staff
employed at the school have continued to live in the general vicinity.
Seme of these teachers had worked at the school a long time and were
reluctant to move. With each passing year, the noise had become more
continuous as increasing numbers of planes took off and landed. Although
some would like to move, they feel financially trapped. They continued
to live nearby and work at the school.
After regular school hours, the school site was funded as a com
munity school. It provided many educational, athletic, and cultural
events and classes, including ESL classes in the evenings. Functioning
as a junior high school, the school sponsored many afterschool activities
such as sports, choral and band groups, and a monthly newspaper. The
school in both its roles as a community school and a junior high school
was a hub of activity reaching out into the community.
The population change observed in the local community was reflected
in the population of the school as seen on Table 4-18. Once an all-white,