Miami Central High School

Miami Central Senior High School, commonly referred to as Central Rockets, is a secondary school located at 1781 NW 95th Street in West Little River, Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. Its current principal is Gregory Bethune.Miami Central opened its doors in 1959. Its school mascot and colors were chosen in honor of NASA and the inception of its space program, which was an event at the time of the school's opening.In the early 1990s, the school acquired a computer science magnet program, placed as part of the district's initiative to devote school space to certain magnet programs so as to attract minority students to less diverse schools.The school serves most of the northern fringes of the city of Miami, as well as parts of North Miami, Opa-locka, the village of Miami Shores, and the village of El Portal.HistoryKathleen McGrory wrote in 2009 that Miami Central was "historically beset by chronic truancy, declining enrollment, dispirited staff and general disrepair". That year the school was under threat of being closed and/or having special programs taken away under federal mandates that would penalize the school for a sixth failure on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT); for the five previous consecutive years it had received "F" grades.In 2009 Doug Rodriguez, who previously served as the principal at Ronald W. Reagan/Doral High School, volunteered to become the principal of Miami Central.