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Minutes 11-07-02 MINUTES OF THE EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING HELD IN THE LIBRARY PROGRAM ROOM, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2002 AT 6:00 P.M. Present Beverly Agee, Chairperson Lillian Artis Dr. Floyd Bell .lean Cairo l~rene Latour Revia Lee Randy O'Hara Rae Fellows, Alternate 3oan Pleasants, Alternate Virginia Farace, Board Liaison T. Cell to Order/Pledqe of Alleqiance Chair Agee called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. and led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. The visitors to the meeting were given a warm welcome. They were: Mr..loseph Schneider, Assistant Principal at Poinciana Elementary School Mr. Leon 3enkins, Faith-Based Community Development Corporation Mr. Steve Miller, Faith-Based Community Development Corporation The visitors were at the meeting to speak about the Heart of Boynton Youth Leadership Program called "The Peacemakers." Roll Call The Recording Secretary announced that the entire Board was in attendance. III. Minutes of September 24, 2002 Motion Ms. Latour moved to accept the minutes of September 24, 2002 as written. O'Hara seconded the motion that carried unanimously. Mr. The minutes of the October 22, 2002 special meeting indicated that there was no meeting due to lack of a quorum. Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 7, 2002 IV. Chair's Report 1. Special Meetings Chair Agee stated that the attempts to handle the Board's business through calling special meetings and extra meetings had not worked out. She stressed the importance of having all members commit to attending the regular meeting on the first Thursday of every month. 2. EAB Newsletter Chair Agee advised that the grammatically incorrect version of the newsletter was not distributed and that a corrected version was distributed to the Board members. She asked to be notified as soon as possible if any of the listed SAC assignments were incorrect. 3. Youth Expo Chair Agee thanked Randy O'Hara, .lean Cairo, loan Pleasants, and Irene. Latour for their assistance at the event and Ms. Farace for her assistance in preparation for the event. The physical surroundings were much too noisy to encourage communication with the parents or solicitation of volunteers; however, the EAB made its existence known and this was positive. V. City Liaison's Report 1. Chamber Disbanded Education Committee Ms. Farace advised that the Chamber of Commerce had disbanded the Education Committee due to a lack of commitment on the part of the Board of Directors and an insufficient mix of representation on the Committee. Ms. Farace announced this with sadness since she had previously chaired the Committee for nine years up until one and a half years ago. She gave the Chamber of Commerce handouts about the Education Advisory Board including its dates and times of meetings and invited them to attend the meetings, submit names for vacancies on the Board, and serve on Board committees. 2. State Budget Request for Libraries Ms. Farace distributed the Friends of the Library fall newsletter, pointing out the insert pertaining to library advocacy and soliciting the assistance of the Board to write letters to Governor Bush urging support of the Secretary of State's Legislative budget request for libraries. Also, the Governor should be advised of 2 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 7, 2002 the Florida library community's opinion that the State Library, or Division of Library and Tnformation Services, should continue to be part of the Department of State. 3. Advisory Boundary Committee Priority Ms. Farace advised that there was a great need for someone to volunteer to be active on the Advisory Boundary Committee (ABC) at the District level. The EAB had been told that there would be no changes to any of the Boynton Beach schools this year; however, the newspaper reported that one SAC of thirty children was going to be taken out of Rolling Green Elementary and put into Freedom Shores Elementary, even though Freedom Shores was over capacity and in spite of existing boundary plans pertaining to Rolling Green and Galaxy Elementary Schools. The ABC is going to be appointing or re-appointing members to their committee in the very near future. The EAB needs to recommend someone for a position on this committee to get more control over boundary issues. Ms. Farace suggested that David Fellows would be an excellent choice for this position. Ms. Fellows offered to ask him whether or not he would commit to serve in this capacity and let Ms. Farace know the outcome. The representative would support the concept of economic diversity in the consideration of boundaries, as espoused recently by Dr..lohnson. Ms. Farace reminded him that he had first heard this expressed by the EAB in an eloquent presentation by David Fellows. Over the last two years, the EAB has promoted economic diversity in the schools but the School Board has not been sure whether it wanted to have this or not. The Board expressed concern that some 200 students who had been slated in the boundary plans to go to Galaxy Elementary had not shown up when school started. Somehow, other boundaries were drawn and those children are now going to other schools. The Board expressed frustration at having worked so hard on trying to get economic diversity for Galaxy Elementary when the boundary decisions were not carried out. They were disappointed that Galaxy was now left with a student body representing the lower income strata and the Iow-performing students. Another problem mentioned was vouchers and the fact that private schools get the voucher money and then send the students back, with no explanation necessary, leaving the "home" school with too many children and not enough teachers or financial support. Ms. Revia Lee, Board member and Principal of Royal Palm School, expressed her deep concern over the pattern that she saw developing in the Boynton Beach schools. She saw development going on out west and the people and money following, leaving the coastal schools with primarily African American children. Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 7, 2002 The African American children can definitely learn, but they have not been given the support that has been given to the other children and as a result, are behind academically. With the exodus of the higher performing, economically advantaged children, the African American children were being sent a message that they could not learn. Ms. Lee was deeply concerned about this and the Board was concerned also. It was felt that the City Commission needed to be made aware of the far-reaching consequences of the recent boundary changes and given a recommendation for action. Ms. Farace felt that it was important to address the problem by getting membership on the ABC group, expressing the community's concerns about economic diversity, and advocating boundaries that would ease this problem. The Board decided that it would wait to see what the boundaries were going to be before making a recommendation to the City Commission. It was also agreed that the Board would need to speak with one voice to instigate action on the part of the City Commission on behalf of Boynton Beach's coastal schools. The Board discussed some of the effects that the recent boundary actions taken by the School Board would have on Boynton Beach. For example, it was felt that if the situation were to continue, that Poinciana might follow in the footsteps of Rolling Green, Forest Park, and Galaxy, and lose its magnet status. Ms. Fellows was in favor of making an emphatic recommendation to the City Commission about this serious community issue. She favored involving the newspapers and suggested that Ms. Sharon Colvecchio had been sympathetic to the EAB's concerns in the past. She was concerned about people "going around the system" and putting their children wherever they wanted them to be, in spite of the agreed-to boundaries that would have alleviated this issue. Chair Agee said that the Board already had a mandate from the City Commission to do whatever is best for the Boynton Beach schools. Ms. Cairo was in favor of bringing this issue up at all the SAC meetings. She also suggested having an EAB meeting in a place that would invite more community/family participation such as the Hester Center or St. John's Missionary Baptist Church. The importance of soliciting family input when going before the School Board on boundary matters was discussed. VI. Public Audience Heart of Boynton Youth Leadership Program - Project Name "The Peacemakers" Mr. Leon Jenkins and Mr. Steve Miller spoke as representatives of the Boynton Beach Faith Based Community Development Corporation and its subcommittee, 4 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 7, 2002 The Peacemakers. They distributed a handout that explained the program. The initiative is aimed at the application of early intervention and prevention strategies that support family, school safety, reduction of neighborhood violence, juvenile delinquency, and drug abuse. The group's activities will support the development of emotional, physical, social, and educational well being for the participants. The participants will be tracked and monitored throughout their school lives and will be encouraged to serve as future mentors, tutors, and role models for the Peacemakers in training. The group will serve youth who meet four or more of the following criteria: 1) Involvement with local Department of Juvenile Justice 2) Reside in a single parent home and/or live in neighborhood 3) Experience academic failure 4) Experience poor attendance 5) Have four or more discipline referrals 6) Are poorly motivated 7) Are in grades 3 - 5 a high-crime The program will serve 40 students and will begin as a Pilot Program at Poinciana Elementary School. Mr. ]oseph Schneider, Assistant Principal at Poinciana Elementary School, came to the meeting to demonstrate his school's support of this effort. Mr. Schneider noted that Mr. Miller had been volunteering at Poinciana for about a year now and the administration was hoping to expand upon his efforts and initiate a pilot program at their school. It was hoped that next year, the program could be taken to all the schools in Boynton Beach. He felt that the program catered to the "At Risk" students that are now falling through the cracks - the ones who are not getting the support they need at home. Mr. Jenkins advised that the program was in need of $17,000 in order to fund the program. He asked for the Board's endorsement of the program, believing that this would help them in their fund raising activities. Ms. Farace noted that the City already supports the Governor's Mentoring Initiative and allows City employees to volunteer up to one hour a day. She suggested that they speak with Mr. Wayne Segal about this. She also thought that this might be an opportunity for the area businesses since the Chamber's Education Committee had been disbanded. She suggested that they speak with Ms. Diana Johnson at the Chamber and possibly make a presentation at one of the Chambers' regular Board meetings. 5 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 7, 2002 Ms. Farace suggested that this group apply to Octavia Sherrod for a Community Development Block Grant but Mr. Jenkins advised that "The Peacekeepers' were a committee within the Community Development Corporation, which was already a recipient of Block Grant funds. Ms. Fellows mentioned that her husband had started the On Campus Intervention Program and that it did similar things but had professional social workers and was more expensive. The program was approved for twenty schools but was operational in only two schools due to a loss of funding for the MSWs. Mr. Jenkins thought that the OCIP program was great but that their community-based effort might be more effective in dealing with the alienated parents and students at the home level. Mr. Hiller noted that there had been a lack of leadership in the African American community and that they were stepping up to fill that void. Ms. Fellows stated that she did not envision that "The Peacekeepers" program was in any way contrary to the OCIP program and would provide the much-needed participation that the coastal schools required. Chair Agee stated that their effort went hand-in-hand with the Board's priority of focusing on the needs of the east coast schools. Chair Agee felt that the Board members would want to read the handout presented by Messrs. Jenkins and Miller and come back to the next meeting to have a discussion about this program. Motion Ms. Fellows moved that the Board take a vote on its stand regarding this program in preparation for making its position known to the City Commission. There was no second so the motion died. The general feeling on the Board was that they wanted to read and digest the handout about the program first before voting on their position. Mr. Miller stated that they had a meeting the following week with Commissioner McCray on this subject. He had also been talking with Dan DeCarlo for the last year but had not yet seen any funding. They had received 100% support from Reverend Cheney at St. John's Missionary Baptist Church and believed that they might receive $10K from this source. Hr. Jenkins stated that if time were a problem, the handout could be shortened to include just the Benefits and Concepts portion of the document. Time was short and they hoped that the Board could give them a vote of support at this meeting. Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 7, 2002 Ms. Farace envisioned expressing support for the "The Peacekeepers"" but did not see this as a request for the City Commission to fund it. Motion Ms. Fellows moved that the EAB support the Boynton Beach Faith Based Community Development Corporation in its efforts to have a pilot program at Poinciana Elementary School modeled alter the concepts presented to the Education Advisory Board at this meeting. In making this statement of support, the Board also considered the fact that the Principal of Poinciana Elementary School sent a representative to the meeting in support of it. The Board believes that this program supports its priority focus on the coastal schools. Mr. O'Hara seconded the motion that carried unanimously. Messrs. Jenkins and Miller thanked the Board for their motion of support and for putting them on the Board's very full agenda. Mr. Schneider also thanked the Board and offered to help the EAB in any way he could. VII. Priority - East Coast Schools Chair Agee stated that the boundary situation had really impacted the east coast schools and that the Board was looking for ways to improve the situation for the children at these schools: Galaxy, Rolling Green, Forest Park, and Poinciana Elementary Schools. The Board discussed with concern the newspaper article dealing with the loss of the Music program at Galaxy Elementary. Chair Agee expressed her belief that music, art, math, and creativity go together and she wanted to see the music program reinstated. Ms. Lillian Artis, a member of that school's SAC, stated that Galaxy was under pressure to raise scores on the FCAT test. Since most of the higher-performing students were taken away and sent to other schools, most of the remaining students are performing at under third-grade level in reading and FCAT tests begin in the third grade. The children cannot read very well and they are going to be tested in science soon. Galaxy has directed the music teacher to provide extra help and one-on-one instruction to the students with the greatest need. The music teacher is certified in elementary education and the gifted program and Galaxy felt that she would be a great help to the Iow-performing students. Galaxy is considering adding another hour to the school day to give the children intensive tutoring and were considering using Title ! money to fund this extra hour. They were also considering the possibility of having intensive tutoring on Saturdays. They are giving up their parent liaison in an effort to make more money available for tutoring. The administrators of Galaxy feel that at the 7 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 7, 2002 moment, the changes they are making are in the best interest of all of their students. Mr. Schneider stated that the decision to switch the focus of the music teacher from music to tutoring was a joint decision between the Principal and the SAC. Chair Agee asked what the Board could do to assist Galaxy. Ms. Artis stated that Galaxy was looking for tutors. The Board discussed the possibility of placing tables at places like Leisureville at their Board meetings to actively recruit tutors for Galaxy. Other suggestions were to do the same thing at Quail Run and Alterra, the assisted living facility. Ms. Artis felt it was important to let the volunteers know that they would be working with one student at a time. The Board wanted more information from Galaxy about what the volunteers would be doing before recruiting them. Ms. Artis thought it would be important to find out the components of the reading questions in the FCAT tests since the students needed to raise their reading abilities. Ms. Farace pointed out that all the schools had asked for volunteers, not just Galaxy. Each school might have different needs. Ms. Farace stated that the volunteers would get more information when they actually went to the school in which they wished to volunteer. She indicated that the Board's consensus in the past had been to act as liaison between the school and the volunteers - to make sure that when someone showed up at Galaxy, for example, that someone did meet with the volunteer, talk with them, and use them. The Board thought it would be a good idea to take the Volunteer Coordinators from the various schools with them when they went out to recruit tutors. The Board did not feel that it was ready to make a motion about this but realized that it had to be accomplished as soon as possible. A subcommittee was set up to consider this between now and December 5. The subcommittee is comprised of Rae Fellows, Joan Pleasants, Lilian Artis, and Jean Cairo. Chair Agee asked the subcommittee to notify the City Clerk's office of the date and time of their meeting so it could be noticed 24 hours in advance. VIII. Other Priorities Chair Agee stated that they had already discussed volunteering, mentoring, boundaries, and the east coast schools. IX. Principal for a Day Proqram Chair Agee brought two newspaper articles generated by Delray Beach for this activity. Ms. Pleasants noted that they had Principal for a Day at Spady Elementary School and Office Depot gave a large sum of money to their chorus. 8 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 7, 2002 B.l's is supporting Galaxy Elementary. The Board recognized that it was too late for this year but discussed having the event in 2003 on the same date as that of Delray Beach to maximize publicity. The Board decided that even though the Chamber had disbanded the Education Committee, they could still approach individual businesses for support. Ms. Cairo felt that it was a big project and that if the Board committed to it, they would probably need a lot of help such as photographers, video people, and business partnerships. Coordination with the Advisory Board on Children & Youth was suggested as a possibility. They were having an Awards meeting on December 12, 2002 at 7:00 p.m. in City Hall Chambers. Chair Agee suggested that the EAB should get on their agenda to discuss this item and solicit their cooperation. Ms. Farace thought the Board should get on their agenda to ask for help with volunteering and mentoring. Dr. Bell stated that he had gone to the Community Relations Board meeting and identified himself, telling them of his intention to maintain contact between the EAB and the CRB. He suggested that the Senior Advisory Board might be another Board that could help with volunteering and mentoring. Their next meeting will be on ~lanuary 6, 2003 at 3:00 p.m. at the Senior Center and Ms. Fellows volunteered to attend. X. Newsletter Chair Agee thanked Randy O'Hara for his hard work in getting the newsletter out. The SAC meeting time for CrossPointe is 6:00 p.m. and not 7:00 p.m. and Chair Agee will issue an errata statement about it. Chair Agee suggested that having a quarterly newsletter might be more manageable. After some discussion and tentative motions, the Board came to the following motion. Iqotion Ms. Latour moved that the Board would issue a newsletter as needed but not less than quarterly. Ms. Cairo seconded the motion that carried unanimously. X:[. SAC Reports SAC Reports were submitted in writing for Citrus Cove Elementary School and Galaxy Elementary School. X:[:[. Five Star Award and its Relationship to Board Members Ms. Latour reported on her attendance at a Five-Star Award workshop, and distributed copies of handouts. The School District Area Volunteer Coordinator asked why Citrus Cove and Forest Park had signed business partnering 9 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 7, 2002 agreements and other City entities had not. Ms. Farace stated that the answer was simple - they were never asked to sign them. One issue was that the Five Star Award sponsors would call the Education Advisory Board a business, for example. Chair Agee asked Ms. Latour to call the Five Star Award representative and advise them that this Board looks upon themselves as individual community members and not as a business. They were willing to sign agreements as individual community members but could not sign for the City. XII. New Business None Chair Agee commended the Board members for their passion and commitment and expressed appreciation for the full attendance at this and all meetings. Since there was no further business before the Board, the meeting was duly adjourned at 8:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Susan Collins Recording Secretary (two tapes) (110802) APPROVED: Chairperson 10