You’ve seen him in the halls, you see him in Mr. Edwards’ old office, and you notice his tall stature. Mr. Dwight L. Arscott is Stingtown’s new eleventh grade assistant principal, and he plans to bring some change to Miami High.

Teaching Career

Mr. Arscott started his teaching career in 2007 at Robert Renick Educational Center in Miami Gardens. He then went on to teach at Parkway Middle for three years, then became the science coach at Parkway Elementary.

Afterwards, he began working for the district as a curriculum support specialist in the area of science where he went around to different schools, which were identified as the lower 300 schools, and assisted the fifth grade teachers with their science curriculum and lesson plans.

He’s taught elementary school math, science, and reading as well as high school language arts, and some social science. He’s also taught sixth grade science.

What led him to a career in education? “The college I went to (Florida Memorial University) had a real good education school, and that’s the only subject I was really interested in,” he said.

Out of all of the school jobs he has had, he liked curriculum support the most because there were a lot of teachers who weren’t good at teaching science, so he was able to help them, and, therefore, they were able to help their kids, so it helped a lot more kids in the end.

Besides Teaching

In 2009, he also worked for the State Department as a diplomatic officer, where he had high level clearance to provide security to those within the State Department as well as the diplomats that came to visit. He also secured special events such as the meeting of the United Nations along with other classified events in Washington, D.C. At times, he did counter-surveillance work where he would blend in with regular civilians and survey from a far.

At Norland High School during 1998-2000, he studied aircraft mechanics, worked in the paint shop at the school, and bought the parts needed to complete the assembling of an airplane. “I loved fixing things. For airplanes, I didn’t need any sort of degree to fix them as I was still in high school plus the hours were good and they were paying about $9 an hour, which eventually moved up to $14,” he said.

Does he ever miss his past occupations? He says that although those jobs paid well, you really didn’t have to do any thinking and they were pretty monotonous. “I have a brain, and I like to use it,” he said.

Miami High Assistant Principal

Mr. Arscott officially began working here as an assistant principal on August 5^th, 2015. As an assistant principal at Miami High, he has many responsibilities. He handles discipline for 11^th graders, Title I programs, substitute teachers, the supervision of security, the clinic, transportation, the parent access center, the math department, and athletics.

Being an assistant principal is new to Mr. Arscott. “The only thing I would say that I don’t like is not being in the classrooms teaching the kids because I like to teach and share,” he said.

As for what he likes about the job, he says, “Favorite thing would be actually getting to know every student because as a teacher, you only really know your class or your classes so now you get to see all the students. I like that a lot and how you can have an influence on everyone instead of just your classes.”

Miami High is different from other schools where Mr. Arscott has worked. “Here, it’s more of a family-oriented style, and the school pride here is incredible.” Mr. Arscott, who says he brings a lot of energy to his job, is just as excited about succeeding in sports and academics as the rest of us here at Miami High.

Education

Mr. Arscott was born in and attended school in Jamaica until he was five, when he came to Miami. From then on, he went to Norland Elementary, Highland Oaks Middle, and then Norland High School.

Some of the clubs and activities Mr. Arscott were involved in high school include football, basketball, volleyball, baseball, water polo, and the Environmental Club.

His most memorable classes in high school were biology and chemistry. “Not because of the classes themselves, but because of the teachers I had,” he said. He also remembers winning districts in basketball against Miami High during the last seconds of the game.

With a basketball scholarship, he attended Florida Memorial University where he got a bachelors degree in psychology with a minor in adolescent education. There, he participated in Psi Chi, a national honor society for psychology, and an Alpha Greek letter organization. He was also named scholar athlete every year in college while playing basketball.

He didn’t pursue basketball after college because they weren’t paying well and he got injured. A team in the Dominican Republic offered him $600 a week to play over there.

After getting his bachelors degree, he matriculated at Nova Southeastern University for his master’s degree in educational leadership. He eventually wants to get a doctorate in math but while working at a university so he wouldn’t have to pay for it.

Personal Life

Dwight L. Arscott has been married to his wife, Loreal, for nine years and they have two children, a five year old daughter and two year old son. He has five brothers and a sister. In his free time, he likes to spend time with his family or take his daughter to the park while he plays basketball.