The Miami-Dade School Board has dropped the other shoe in the debate over how to avoid overcrowding at Sunny Isles Beach Community School next year when the two-year-old school is scheduled to add eighth grade.

The district is proposing pupils from Eastern Shores, a small community between the Intracoastal Waterway and Maule Lake just west of Sunny Isles Beach, shift to Ojus Elementary. Parents will have the chance to speak on the proposed change in a series of public hearings, but the district’s options appear limited.

On Oct. 29, a school district administrator outlined the problem in a presentation to the Sunny Isles Beach City Commission. Paul Greenfield said with the addition of seventh grade this year, the community school is already operating at 96 per cent of capacity. Something has to give before next August and he promised any boundary change wouldn’t affect pupils living within the city of Sunny Isles Beach.

Both Sunny Isles Beach Community and Ojus Elementary are ‘A’-rated schools, according to the state.

Other new schools in the area – notably Aventura Waterways K-8 and Mourning Senior High – also face overcrowding issues when they add all authorized grades.