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Minutes 03-06-03MINUTES OF THE EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING HELD TN THE LTBRARY PROGRAM ROOM~ 208 SOUTH SEACREST BOULEVARD~ BOYNTON BEACH~ FLORTDA~ ON THURSDAY, MARCH 6~ 2003 AT 6:00 P.M. Present Beverly Agee, Chairperson Lillian Artis Dr. Floyd Beil .lean Cairo .loan Pleasants, Alternate Altagrace Medastin Absent Virginia Farace, Board Liaison Rae Fellows, Alternate Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag Chair Agee called the meeting to order at 6:15 p.m. and led the Board in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. She introduced the Board members to two prospective Board members, Irene Emmert and Dennis Osborne. TT. Roll Call The Recording Secretary called the roll and declared that a quorum was present. III. Minutes of 3anuary 9, 2003 and February 6, 2003 Ms. Farace will bring some corrections to the .lanuary 9, 2003 minutes to the April meeting. The minutes of February 6, 2003 were accepted as written. TV. Chair's Report Chair Agee stated that this would be her last Board meeting as Chairperson and member of the Board. She thought that the Board had a lot of responsibility in the upcoming year and required Board members who had the time and the commitment to participate. Chair Agee spoke of the challenges before the Board in 2003 such as the Principal for a Day program, FCAT, Volunteering in the Schools, and the boundary issues that would come about as a result of the rapid increase in Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida March 6, 2003 building in Boynton Beach and the concomitant need for more schools. The issues of safety and transportation were highlighted in the past year and the Board was able to work with the City to make sure that the traffic lights would be up on time, and related issues. The Board worked extensively on obtaining volunteers for the area schools to assist the teachers who were swamped with FCAT issues. :In 2003, the main project will be the Principal for a Day program in which principals of businesses go into the schools and become the principal for a day, unless the new Board decides to focus on something else. Chair Agee believed that the Board had done an excellent job in the past year and thanked them for their efforts and cooperation. V. City Liaison's Report Ms. Farace introduced herself and offered to lend any possible assistance to the prospective Board members who were at the meeting. She advised them of the Florida Sunshine law and its effect on Board members and their communication with each other. ~[n response to questions, Ms. Farace indicated that the Board had been in existence since 1991 and its purpose was to advise the City Commission on education-related issues that would involve its residents. Ms. Farace gave a status report on six tasks the Board had suggested at its February meeting. l) P/ace an advertisement on the City's marquee that would read, "Volunteer at Your Local School" during the week of February lO through February 14. The marquee was not available during this time and would not be free until the week of March 24. The Board decided to have this message displayed on the marquee on March 24. This could bring in volunteers for the rest of this year and for the fall semester. schools. P/ace a message on the water b/lis about volunteering at the The water bills were already filled with other messages but would be available after IVlarch 21. The Board decided to request space on the August water bill for this message. 3) Have the Neighborhood Specialist include information on volunteering in communications sent to the neighborhood homeowners associations. 2 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida March 6, 2003 Mr. DeCarlo stated that he did not do mailings on a regular basis but would be glad to include an insert for the Board whenever he does a mailing. ,t) Add the words to the City's marquee: "Volunteer at your Local School-Cai/ Today." The contact number would be for Ms. Shelley Parpard, Coordinator for the Volunteers in Public Schools Project. Ms. Parpard gave Ms. Farace her telephone number and was glad to do this. Ms. Farace reminded everyone that this was a great service but that the Board would not get any feedback from Ms. Parpard about whether the callers heard about it from the ad on the City's marquee or from another source. 5) Ask the Chamber of Commerce to include an art/de on volunteering in their newsletter. Chair Agee indicated that the Chamber of Commerce deadline for their newsletter was the 15th of each month. Ms. Pleasants will write a "blurb" about Volunteering. Ms. Cairo will work on an article for Principal for a Day. 6) Include an article in the City's FunFare I~lagazine. Ms. Farace commented that articles to be published in the fall issue of FunFare had to be written and turned in by June 1. There was room on the Library's two- page allotment of space for a message about the Volunteers in Public Schools project and the Principal for a Day program. Ms. Farace will wait for Ms. Cairo's article on Principal for a Day and try to have it included in the FunFare magazine. VZ. Public Audience Chair Agee recognized the presence of Ms. Pamela Owens, Principal of the Boynton Beach Charter School and arranged to have her speak to the Board after the regular agenda was completed. VZZ. Volunteer in the Public Schools Committee Ms. Farace stated that the Board had asked her to contact Ms. Shelley Parpard about setting up a workshop on how to solicit volunteers. This would equip the Board with the necessary knowledge and skills to be used in recruiting out in the various communities, if the Board decided to pursue this. There was at least some consensus about the Board's future direction regarding the Volunteers in the Public Schools program. Although the new Board may wish to change this, the current Board generally felt that it wanted to play a more 3 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida March 6, 2003 informal role in this issue, acting as facilitators rather than "experts." Instead of actively going out to the homeowner's associations and retirement communities to solicit volunteers directly, they decided to continue their efforts of advertising it on the City's marquee, in the Chamber of Commerce newsletter, in the FunFare magazine, and on the water bills. Ms. Pleasants felt that the new Board might wish to have the formal training offered by Ms. Parpard and form a kind of "speaker's bureau" on the Board. Ms. Farace suggested that the training session could be opened up to the public and offered at the Library and interested Board members could attend. The Board liked this idea. The Board felt that the recent newspaper article had generated 20 to 30 volunteers for the schools and they had done some visiting of retirement communities. Now, they could and should switch their active focus to the Principal for a Day and other programs that needed attention, while continuing their recruiting efforts on a more informal basis. VIII. Principal for a Day Program Ms. Farace reported that she had talked to the Area II Superintendent, Ms. Elizabeth Decker, about this program and advised her that Boynton Beach would be working with Delray Beach on this project. Ms. Decker supports the program and on April 24 will inform the area principals about what to do and expect. She will tell them that the Principal for a Day Program will be held at their schools on November 13. Ms. Cairo mentioned that at the previous Board meeting, she had given the Board members a list of potential Principals for a Day and asked for their approval of the candidates. She had also asked for suggestions for other candidates. She had not spoken to the Chamber of Commerce yet. At the moment, Ms. Cairo indicated that she had more names than schools. Ms. Farace noted that she had added Mr. Doug Dennison from Keyes Realty. Dr. Bell suggested Steve Siebold. A question was raised about using the City's logo on some letterhead that the Board hoped to create. Ms. Farace indicated that they were free to create stationery for the Principal for a Day program but could not use the City's sailfish logo. If the Board wanted to put the logo on a particular document, Ms. Farace would be glad to discuss it with Mr. Wayne Segal and seek his approval. The Board questioned whether the City was supporting the program. Ms. Farace offered to prepare an agenda request asking the City to become an official sponsor of the project but the Board did not wish to move ahead with the agenda request at this time. 4 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida March 6, 2003 Ms. Artis suggested looking for celebrity sponsors such as Venus and Serena, the tennis stars. Chair Agee asked that someone make up a letter specifically for the celebrities. The Board agreed that when it was time to match the school with the Principals for a Day, that the school's principal should be asked whether they wished to designate a particular person as their Principal for a Day. IX. Boundary Update Ms. Farace explained that a new school boundary cycle was about to begin. She reported the results of a meeting she attended on the subject the previous week and spoke of the issues that were involved. She asked for volunteers for a subcommittee to assist her in working on boundary issues. Ms. Farace called for a meeting during the weeks to come to study the newest boundary maps and discuss the ramifications of the new schools and the changes at Atlantic High School and South Technical Community High School. All Board members were invited to attend and assist. VI. Public Audience (out of agenda order) Ms. Artis introduced Ms. Pamela Owens, principal of the Boynton Beach Charter School. Ms. Owens had presented the Charter School details to the Board before they became established. The Board was pleased to get an update from Ms. Owens about the progress of the school. The Boynton Beach Charter School is operating in the Boynton Beach Mall and has grades K-3 at present, and hopes to expand through Grade 12 in the years to come. :It is privately owned but sponsored by the Palm Beach County School Board. Their dedicated teachers are certified and they are required to follow the Florida standards for core content. ]~n addition to this, they have adopted the curriculum of the Henderson Lab School at Florida Atlantic University and have an emphasis in foreign language, technology, and cultural studies. At present, they offer Spanish and French and hope to add Japanese next year. They have 100 students and an average class size of 22 students. Computers are used in their classrooms but the technology component will not be fully implemented until they receive additional grant funds to purchase more computers. They are required to administer FCAT tests but are not required to use the District's grading system. Dr. Beil was pleased with charter schools since two of his children were enrolled in them, improving D and F grades to A and B grades. He believed that the charter school approach had helped them achieve this. 5 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida March 6, 2003 The Board thanked Ms. Owens for coming to the Board with the update and wished her well. Ms. Owens invited the Board members to visit her school. X. SAC Reports Ms. Pleasants will provide a report on the Crosspointe Elementary School's SAC meeting at the next meeting. She asked for the assistance of the other Board members to find more representatives for the Crosspointe SAC. The meetings are held on the first Monday of the month from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Ms. Farace tried to copy the Boynton Beach High School's SAC report but it had been done on colored paper and did not reproduce well. Ms. Medastin will ask them to produce the report on plain paper in the future. The Student Council attended the District Convention in Lake Placid, Florida to compete for the first time. They came back with six awards. Ms. Medastin spoke of Seuss-a-thons where the older students go into the elementary schools and read Dr. Seuss books to the children. XI. Unfinished Business A) New Board Members The Board will continue to look for new Board members to fill the vacancies. The prospective Board members, ]:rene Emmert and Dennis Osborne, introduced themselves to the Board and offered some information about their interests and history. B) FCAT Ms. Pleasants spoke about her third grade daughter and the difficulties she had experienced due to the FCAT testing. She strongly believed that the emphasis on FCAT testing was depriving the students of a well-rounded education. Ms. Farace indicated that the EAB could draft a resolution and send it to the City Commission, asking them to adopt it and send it to the School Board. Or, the Board could issue a statement about the EAB's position and simply forward it to the City Commission and the School Board. There were several alternatives. The Resolution should contain all of the arguments pertaining to the issue. She asked Ms. Pleasants to do this and bring the draft to the next meeting, when the other Board members would discuss the issue and decide what to do. Chair Agee stated that it was not the County, the School Board, or the State. The FCAT was in response to a Federal law that requires standards. Ms. 6 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida March 6, 2003 Pleasants stated that the School Board had just voted not to accept one of the alternates proposed by the District to allow students to progress. C) Beacon Schools Ms. Artis stated that she believed either Galaxy Elementary or Forest Park Elementary Schools would be Beacon Schools. She wanted to know more about this program. As she understood it, the concept was that the school would be open from morning till evening and be put in place where there were at-risk students or in schools that served at-risk students. She believed the program was in place at Westgate, South Grade, and Pahokee. Ms. Cairo stated that she would bring it up at the next SAC meeting at Forest Park and report back to the Board. XII. Adjournment Since there was no further business before the Board, the meeting was duly adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Approved: Susan Collins Recording Secretary (one tape) (030703) EAB Chairperson 7