272 students have returned to Miami School for the fall along with 15 newcomers. Most of the classes have an average of 20 to 25 students each.

"You wouldn't know it as you drive by on the highway, but there's a lot going on at Miami School," says Principal David Langill.

Being in a smaller community gives the students have the opportunity to travel to other schools within a close distance and take music, athletic, and student leadership trips.

This year they welcomed a new Vice-Principal, Steve Doell, to the office.

Langill says, "he's been on staff for quite some time and now fills this really important administrative role, and we're just so happy to have him [as] part of the admin time here at the school."

He says the "fantastic staff" at the school are a huge benefit to their student's learning and help them focus on the divisional goals of strong numeracy and literacy education.

"One of the things that we're really proud of that we want to continue is at the provincial exam level, both in English, Pre-Calc, Applied, and Essential math, Miami has a tradition of 100 percent pass rate. We're very proud of that particular statistic and we'll try to service our twelfth-graders as best as we possibly can, as they get out into the big, wide world."

The Marlins golf and volleyball teams are beginning practices for the seasons, but they're also welcoming a new sport.

"Brand new to the school is going to be a wrestling program. We've kind of broken the water last year and taught the kids a little bit about wrestling, but this year our plan is to have some of our athletes compete at the provincial championships this year, so we're pretty excited about that new program," says Langill.

Last year Miami also hosted students from Morden that are part of their own wrestling program to try an make connections, and expand the sport in the Pembina Valley.

"Back in the day it was viewed as being just a sport for males, but it is really - especially Canada on the International scene - our female wrestlers do really really well. Any notion that this is a gender-specific activity is just not accurate. Our girls will be very strong competitors out of Miami as well."

Langill says that overall, he looks forward to another great year of helping kids transition through school, and see off another 25 graduates in June.

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