'Little School,' big mission

By Rocio Granados - La Voz Catolica

Photographer: ROCIO GRANADOS | FC

Archbishop Thomas Wenski blesses Little School, a new De La Salle Brothers school that will begin operating for grades pre-K-4, on Aug. 18, 2024, at the De La Salle Education Center at the South Dade Migrant Worker Camp in Homestead.

MIAMI  |  When the De La Salle Brothers visited St. Ann Mission in Naranja in late May to announce they were opening a Catholic school in the area, Yoeri Mosquera became interested in the idea of sending her two children to the school, “because I had heard about De La Salle in the Dominican Republic,” she said.

Her children, Jaden, 6, and Emily, 8, were attending public schools, and the girl was doing poorly academically.

“There were too many kids,” Mosquera said, adding that the noise and yelling of the other children “didn’t help her daughter’s development.”

The new Little School would help not only with education, but also with values and faith. “That’s something that really concerns us, because as they get older, they lose what you teach them,” Mosquera said.

Another draw for her was that the Step-Up scholarships offered by the state of Florida covered their entire tuition.

Encouraged by all she heard, Mosquera filled out the application, “and I think they were the first two to enroll,” she stated.

To become acquainted with the new school, Mosquera’s children participated in the eight-week summer camp offered by the the De La Salle Educational Center where Little School is now located. “They loved it. We are very happy,” shared Mosquera on August 18, 2024, after the Mass for the blessing of Little School. The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Thomas Wenski at the De La Salle Educational Center, located in the South Dade migrant worker camp in Homestead.

“We are making history here today as we launch this ‘Little School’ sponsored by the La Salle family,” Archbishop Wenski said during his homily at the Mass which also marked the beginning of the 2024-25 academic year for the archdiocesan schools.

After his homily, he symbolically blessed the new school’s facilities from the adjacent sports field.

During the inauguration ceremony of the new school, Brother Robert Schaefer, provincial of the eastern district of North America, pointed out that “the school is a holy place, and so, the families here deserve a good Christian education in the faith and in an atmosphere that builds them up.”

He explained the center has been the work of the Lasallians since it was established 33 years ago by the alumni of the the De La Salle school of Cuba and associated with the De La Salle Christian Brothers District of Antilles-South Mexico. Four years ago, it was transferred to the District of Eastern North America of the De La Salle Brothers.

Brother Schaefer remembered Brother Victorino De La Salle, founder of the Catholic Action movement (Acción Católica Cubana), “because we have Catholic action here. This work is worthy of all our efforts,” he stated.

Michael Scaramuzzo, president of the La Salle Center, thanked archdiocesan schools superintendent Jim Rigg for his support, and “all of our benefactors, supporters and everyone who has worked tirelessly to make this dream a reality.”

A HAVEN IN HOMESTEAD

Little School is the only Catholic school in the Homestead area. The school is under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Miami, but is independent of the archdiocesan schools. It is part of the De La Salle Brothers, the largest religious order dedicated exclusively to the Christian education of disadvantaged youth. There are Lasallian schools in 80 countries around the world.

“This school is not made for all kids,” observed Monica Lauzurique, former director of the La Salle Educational Center and current administrative coordinator of Little School.

The school was established with the children of migrant families in mind, who attend the La Salle Center’s after-school program. Parents had lamented the little attention their children were receiving in the public schools.

“There are kids who are in third grade, but they are reading at a kindergarten level,” explained Brenda Blanton, a phonics and reading teacher at Little School.

Blanton, who started working in the after-school program four years ago, noted that these children continue to move up through the grades, “but they can’t read; they can’t do math at that level, because they need to read.”

“You can’t blame the public school system,” Lauzurique said, explaining that classes in the area’s public schools are too large, and children who have just arrived from other countries don’t have time to learn the language in order to understand the lessons.

“Also, there is little or no support for the families. We have parents who don’t speak the language and have no interaction with the teachers,” she added.

After learning of this situation, the center’s director and teachers who helped in the after-school program last year sent a proposal to the De La Salle Brothers to open a school in the camp for a small number of students to provide them with a more personalized education.

The approval came in April of this year.

“We organized everything in two, three months,” said Brother Peter Nguyen, director of Little School, who came to the La Salle Center as a teacher two years ago.

With the help of volunteers residing at the camp, Lasallian schools, and the entire community, they remodeled the center into a kindergarten through fourth grade school that opened its doors Aug. 19, 2024, for the 2024-25 academic year.

The school’s capacity is limited to 30 students; 23 are currently enrolled because “the idea is to provide an individualized, small-group education,” Blanton said.

Ninety percent of the new students attended the summer camp which helped bring them up to grade level.

The teaching system proposes a rotating schedule so that they learn with their teachers during the day, but that they also can have independent learning, peer learning, and grandparents’ participation.

“You have to reach the children where they are, not where the school board says they have to be,” Brother Nguyen observed.

The school has five teachers, including both lay and religious, with a variety of specialties.

The after-school program will continue for children in the community who need support and are unable to attend school because they are beyond the fourth grade.

All students receive Step Up scholarships, but the school is financially supported by the De La Salle Brothers and “many benefactors in this area, Lasallian alumni and people who believe in the mission,” Brother Schaefer said. “It’s a day of hope and that is what this school is all about, meaning that these students here, in front of us, are not going to disappoint us when they receive a great education. They are going to do wonderful things for the world and for their families,” he added.

Little School is the sixth international project of the De La Salle Brothers.

Plans are underway to build a traditional school through 12th grade, “because, as Archbishop Wenski said, there is a desert of Catholic schools here in Homestead,” Brother Nguyen said.

 

 

TO KNOW MORE

Little School began in what was once the La Salle Educational Center, founded more than 30 years ago with the support of the alumni association of the De La Salle school in Cuba and the De La Salle Brothers of the Province of Mexico to provide catechesis to the young people of the farm workers' camp.

The La Salle Center "was born out of St. Ann's Mission, when we began to build chapels in the fields," said Father José Joaquin Espino, administrator at that time of St. Ann's Mission and current rector of the Shrine of  Our Lady of Charity.

Over time, what is now the new Little School became an arts and crafts center for adults, and then an educational center with after-school programs for children living in the camp.

"Today the project bears fruit in a school. I feel very happy, but this is the fruit of so many people who have worked and kept it open from the beginning," added the Lasallian alumnus priest who initiated the project.

The La Salle Center is also a Farm Share food distribution center that serves about 300 families living in the camp.

 Freelance reporter Cristina Cabrera-Jarro contributed to this article.