Students at J.C. Bermudez Doral Senior High now have a three-story building, a 2,000-seat gymnasium and a black box theater on their campus. Miami-Dade County Public Schools held a ribbon-cutting at the school on Thursday morning, Oct. 15, to mark the end of a $36.2 million renovation and expansion at 5005 NW 112th Avenue in Doral.

The district's media advisory listed School Board members, district representatives, Principal Edward R. Smith, staff, teachers and students as the people taking part. The ceremony closed out a construction project that broke ground in January 2025 and was paid for through the General Obligation Bond that Miami-Dade voters approved in 2012.

What the new building holds

The centerpiece is a new three-story building of about 85,000 square feet. When the district laid out the scope at the groundbreaking, it listed what goes inside:

  • A gymnasium with seating for 2,000 people, plus varsity locker rooms for boys and girls
  • A Little Theater, also called a black box theater, for drama and performances
  • A gymnastics and dance studio and a multipurpose room
  • Four vocational and business technology labs
  • 12 general classrooms and four science classrooms

The existing Building 2 was also part of the work. The district's plan called for kitchen improvements, a covered dining area, a weight room and an upgraded wrestling room there, along with new covered walkways across campus, a larger parking lot, air-conditioning upgrades and other infrastructure work.

Room for about 600 more students

Capacity is the practical change for Doral families. The district counts seats in student stations, and the campus had 1,193 of them in two buildings before construction began. The new building adds 617, which brings the school to 1,810 when the project is finished, according to the district's description of the job.

That matters in a city where the school itself is new. J.C. Bermudez Doral Senior High opened in October 2020, when the district converted a former middle school campus into a high school. It started that fall with ninth graders only and added a grade each year after. The original district buildings on the site date to 1998.

The school carries the name of Juan Carlos Bermudez, Doral's founding mayor, who joined district leaders at the 2020 opening ceremony. The school calls its campus the home of the Thunder.

From groundbreaking to ribbon

At the January 2025 groundbreaking, Superintendent Jose L. Dotres, Chief Facilities and Design Construction Officer Raul F. Perez, School Board member Danny Espino and Principal Smith gathered with students to start the work. Pirtle Construction Company held the construction contract, and the district set June 2026 as its target for completion.

During that ceremony, Dotres pointed to the gym, the black box theater, the dance studio and the weight room as the pieces that would round out student life beyond the classroom, saying athletics and activities are part of how students thrive.

Construction ran while classes continued on campus. The ribbon-cutting on Oct. 15 came about four months after that target date, early in the 2026 to 2027 school year.

Part of a larger bond program

The 2012 General Obligation Bond totaled $1.2 billion. The district has used it to modernize and build schools across Miami-Dade, add student capacity, improve safety and upgrade technology. Doral has drawn on it more than once: the same October 2020 ceremony that opened J.C. Bermudez Doral Senior High also opened Andrea Castillo Preparatory Academy, another new Doral school built with bond money.

For families

J.C. Bermudez Doral Senior High is at 5005 NW 112th Avenue, Doral, FL 33178, and the main office number listed on the school's site is 305-715-3600. The school's website, jcbdoralthunder.com, has links for new student registration and parent choice, along with its upcoming events calendar.

Families weighing high school options for next year can also note that Miami-Dade County Public Schools opened enrollment requests for its magnet and voluntary prekindergarten programs on Sept. 30 for the 2027 to 2028 school year. Details are on the district's news site at news.dadeschools.net.

Sources