SCHOOL HISTORY

Oliver Hoover opened in 1982 with 355 students housed in 27 portables.  The permanent facility was built to house 950 students but began with 1,303.  Hoover was built to relieve overcrowding at Calusa Elementary. Oliver Hoover opened its doors in 1982 with a new principal and 345 students from about 25 different schools, their parents and fewer than twenty teachers.  The school began as a portable school. The school was constructed while the students were housed in portables.  The school capacity is 900 students. The cost of the school was $6 million and took two years to build.

Mr. Samuel Jerkins was named the first principal of Oliver Hoover when he was 48 years old.  Jerkins began his career in 1963 as a elementary school teacher, later as administrative assistant then Assistant Principal at Redondo Elementary.  He took his first job at Perrine Elementary where he taught 6^th grade for eleven years.

In 1987-1988, the school expanded to two campuses to relieve the overcrowding.  The  Primary Center campus for 
K & 1 students was located next to Hammocks Middle School. It was a 16-portable classroom annex on the park grounds.  There were 208 kindergarten students and 108 first grade students.  The Assistant Principal was Clarice Boyd. The Oliver Hoover Primary Learning Center is now a permanent facility located approximately one mile from the main campus. Pre-K and Kindergarten students are housed in this facility with an Assistant Principal.

At times, the school attendance soared to 1800 when the community was in transition and schools were being built to handle the soaring population boom.  The school was 165% over its capacity. Claude Pepper and Dr. Gilbert Porter Elementary were built to relieve the overcrowding. Oliver Hoover at one time was one of the largest schools in Dade County.

Hoover was one of the first schools to establish School-Based Managed/Shared Decision Making under Mr. Jerkins' leadership. The school won the Golden School nine straight years. This award recognized schools with volunteer hours at least double the student enrollment. At this time, Oliver Hoover has maintained its "A" School status for eight consecutive years.  In addition to this, it has been recognized two times as one of the top performing elementary schools in Region VI.

The school is named after Oliver Hoover. Hoover was born in Miami and a graduate of Dade County schools: Shadowlawn Elementary, Miami Jackson Junior and Miami Edison Senior High.  He worked for several years for the Florida East Coast Railway as a machinist before entering the University of Miami.  He has a Bachelor of Arts degree and Master’s Degree in education from the University of Miami. 

Hoover accepted his first job as a substitute teacher at Miami High School and stayed for 17 years, 15 as Dean of Men from 1930-1945.  He then became principal of Coconut Grove Elementary School until his retirement.  Mr. Hoover also assumed many leadership roles in the community, including positions with the Boys Scouts, the University Baptist Church and the Lions Club. The school is named after a long-time dean of boys at Miami High, a Boy Scout leader and a member of the University Baptist Church in Coral Gables.  Members asked the School Board to name a school after Hoover who died in 1972 at the age of 84.

The computer lab began with AppleIIE’s.  Eventually these were replaced with MacCentris computers as students moved from skill practice to developing multi-media projects.  Today the computer lab is a model for the county.