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Minutes 12-01-05 MINUTES OF THE EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING HELD IN THE LIBRARY PROGRAM ROOM, 208 SOUTH SEACREST BOULEVARD, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2005 AT 6:15 P.M. Present: Jean Cairo, Chair Susan Buchanan Marlene Ross Maria Ferreira, Alternate Virginia Farace, Board Liaison Absent: Floyd Beil, Vice Chair Melinda Mallon Patricia Lashley Christine Moeller Cheryl Black, Alternate Anthony Gaspard, Student I. Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 6:25 p.m. II. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag The meeting room did not have a Flag, so there was no Pledge of Allegiance. III. Approval of the September 1 and October 6, 2005 Minutes There were no additions, deletions, or changes to the subject minutes. Motion Ms. Buchanan moved to approve the September 1, 2005 and October 6, 2005 meeting minutes. Ms. Ross seconded the motion that passed 4-0. IV. Public Audience There was no public audience. v. Chair's Report Chair Cairo recommended the School District's Web site as a good source of information for all the Board members. She downloaded a copy of the School District of Palm Beach County's Board Agenda Item Summary, "Consider Preliminary 2006 Legislative Proposals" document, which will be distributed to the Board members with the minutes. Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida December 1, 2005 One item of interest was a Position Statement to allow the use of verifiable alternative assessment measures as an alternative to FCAT in measuring and rating student progress by individual student, teacher, school and district. Quoting from the document, "Such a measurement system should be allowed, in particular, for any student attending an identified alternative education program, regular school or charter school. Subsequently, such alternative schools should be graded on student learning gains, rather than static FCAT scores." This was welcome news to all, since this Board previously recommended a Resolution to the City Commission in opposition to using the FCAT scores as the sole basis for determining student achievement. The City Commission adopted the EAB's resolution. The document also referred to revising the FCAT to make the results available expeditiously. At present, it can take months before the results are sent back to the schools. Two other requests for the Legislature were: 1) to provide a contractor sales tax exemption on materials/supplies used in school construction projects as a cost savings to school districts, and 2) to authorize school districts to allow commercial advertising on the outside of school buses. Both ideas were well received by the Board, except there were some questions on the school bus advertising item. Would the advertising be "G" rated? Would it be child-friendly? Would there be advertisements for tobacco and alcohol? In general, all thought school bus advertising would be a marvelous revenue generator for the Palm Beach County School District and all counties in Florida. The School District Agenda Summary contained an intent to oppose any unfounded mandates or mandates where money would be taken from other existing programs. They requested the State provide full funding for existing mandates such as the cost of building or modifying public schools as emergency shelters when designated as such by the State. A discussion will be held at the next meeting to determine whether the EAB wants to make any recommendations to the City Commission in support of any of the legislative requests being considered by the School District. VI. City Liaison's Report . Art Wittman: Schedule Presentation on School District Demographics/5 Year Capital Plan . School meeting locations Guidelines were discussed for having EAB meetings at the schools. There was some feeling the principals should be asked if they still wished to do this. Galaxy Elementary expressed interest recently, so the EAB meeting in January will be held at their school. The meeting scheduled for Poinciana Elementary in October was "rained out" by Hurricane Wilma. It was agreed all principals interested in hosting the EAB meeting should be given a range of from 4 to 10 people who could be in attendance. Also, they would be assured that it was not necessary to provide food, entertainment, or presentations. These off-site meetings were meant to give the principals an opportunity to address their issues and needs to an interested audience who might be in a position to step in and assist. Most schools would feel a tour was 2 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida December 1, 2005 necessary. Ms. Farace hoped that all Board members would make a special effort to attend the off-site meetings. Chair Cairo will have a broadcast E-mail sent to all the schools in the District to determine which schools want to host a meeting with the EAB. Ms. Farace thought it would be best if each Board member then contacted an interested principal to try to make this happen. The next EAB meeting was to be on January 5, 2006, but Chair Cairo was going to be out of town. It was decided to have the January meeting on January 12, 2006 at Galaxy Elementary School at 6: 15 p.m. The Board hoped that Mr. Wittman could come to the meeting on January 12, 2006 at Galaxy. If not, he would be invited to the EAB's February 2006 meeting. Everyone looked forward to hearing a very informative presentation from an extremely knowledgeable individual. VII. Principal for a Day (PFAD) Chair Cairo envisioned rescheduling the Principal for a Day program for the first or second week of April 2006. The October program had to be cancelled due to Hurricane Wilma. Chair Cairo cancelled all the arrangements and sent letters of apology to all the participants. It was quite disappointing for the Board to have to cancel a program in which they had invested such a huge amount of planning and preparation, but it was entirely unavoidable. There were two principals who did not seem to get the word about the program initially, in spite of extensive contacts using various modes of communication. It was thought that in February, each Board member could meet with several of the 23 principals personally. It was acknowledged that principals are bombarded with mail from many places and mail sometimes gets buried, with even the best intentions. In some cases, well-meaning office staff could decide not to pass some mail on, for whatever reason. The Delray Beach PFAD program focuses on the town meeting part of the plan instead of what takes place at the schools, and holds it at the Marriott Hotel. All the Delray Beach City officials speak and Dr. Art Johnson is usually the keynote speaker. It was agreed that this type of event would probably call for Chamber of Commerce backing and/or a corporate sponsor. The idea of securing Benvenutos for the town meeting was brought up and it was noted reservations had to be made a long time in advance. Chair Cairo asked about having a link to PFAD on the City's Web site and Ms. Farace thought this had already been done, as she requested. The School District could also arrange to have a link to PFAD on its Web site, possibly through Miss Ann Killitts, Dr. Johnson's Administrative Assistant. VIII. SAC Assignments Board members discussed their difficulties in getting minutes from SAC meetings sent to them and in having telephone calls returned from the schools in relation to SAC. For the benefit of new members, the initials SAC mean School Advisory Council, at least in the context for which it is used in the EAB. The normal format of the meetings is a discussion of each school's School 3 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida December 1,2005 Improvement Plan. Ms. Farace hoped the Board members could spread the word about PFAD at the SAC meetings. Ms. Buchanan reported on her two experiences at the Rolling Green Elementary school SAC meetings. Two Haitian couples and a Mexican couple were in attendance at each meeting with interpreters. It was a little slow with the interpreters having to explain each discussion as it took place. Ms. Buchanan did not believe the parents were really getting very much out of the meeting, but their effort to take part was laudable. The school was doing a nice job of trying to explain things and the principal had been present at both meetings. The school has made considerable progress on the FCAT and Florida WRITES! They do a lot to help the students such as after-school and weekend tutoring. Recently, they had a school carnival to raise money for the students who wanted to go a Safety Patrol convention in Washington, D.C. The cost of that excursion had doubled and even tripled in recent years. Ms. Buchanan suggested meeting with the principals individually and asking them directly if this program was of value to them. It may happen that the EAB would end up working with fewer principals and business partners, but more mutually committed ones. In the case of interested principals, the EAB could suggest ways they could get more out of the program. IX. New Business None X. Next Meeting The next meeting will be January 12, 2006. XI. Adjournment Since there was no further business before the Board, the meeting was duly adjourned at 7:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, ~ti<<~J Susan Collins Recording Secretary ( 120205) 4