Who Is Eneida Hartner?

ENEIDA MASSAS HARTNER, SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR

Eneida Massas Hartner was born February 12, 1943 in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico. When she was 6, her father found work in the steel mills of Gary, Indiana and the family moved. In the early 1960s, she worked as a school secretary while taking college classes. She graduated with degrees in education and Spanish literature, and started teaching Spanish to high school students in Indiana.

In 1970, she and her husband Roger moved to Miami. Mrs. Hartner began developing programs for Miami-Dade County Public School’s (MDCPS) bilingual education department, eventually becoming project director. When MDCPS began a pilot program for bilingual education, Mrs. Hartner wrote Spanish curricula for elementary schools and traveled the country, training other teachers. The bilingual curricula she first developed for elementary schools in MDCPS were later implemented in other states. “She was always interested in the growth of students, in teaching them how to read, as well as for keeping everyone on task with a loving heart”, her husband said.
Mrs. Hartner later served as principal of Buena Vista Elementary from 1978-1980. She was the first woman, Puerto Rican, elementary school principal. In her last position as a North Central Area director, she oversaw certain schools in Northwest Dade.

In 1986, she was diagnosed with cancer. She continued working until last March, when she took disability retirement. She used nutrition, mediation, exercise (walks on the beach) active family, social and spiritual life, and healing prayer to live with multiple myeloma. Mrs. Hartner passed away on February 19, 1989 at the very young age, 46.