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Minutes 11-02-00MINUTES OF THE EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING HELD IN THE LIBRARY PROGRAM ROOM, NOVEMBER 2, 2000 AT 6:00 P.M., BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA PRESENT Also Present Diana Tedtmann, Chair Judith Braswell, Alternate Ronald Ehster Rae Fellows Aly Gore, Student Arlene Greenberg Michael Hazlett Dorothy Howard Revia Lee Caroline Roter, Student Virginia Farace, Library Director Garfield Hamilton, Advisory Boundary Committee PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Chair Diana Tedtmann called the meeting to order at 6:05 p.m. and led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Chair Tedtmann welcomed the members of the public in attendance and asked the Board to introduce themselves. II. ROLL CALL The Recording Secretary called the roll and it was declared that a quorum was present. III. MINUTES APPROVAL-OCTOBER9,2000 The following changes were made. Page 2, second paragraph, second line, should read: "The Board decided that Rae Fellows would represent the Education Advisory Board at Santaluces." Also, Page 2, third paragraph, was changed to read..."they only knew the percentages of black and "other". In the next line it was changed to read ...going from 38% black to 97% black .... "Chair Tedtmann declared that the minutes were approved as amended. Mr. Ehster commented that Forest Park SAC met the same night as the Education Advisory Board and that it was difficult to attend both, Ms. Greenberg volunteered to represent the Education Advisory Board at Christa McAuliffe. IV. CHAIR'S REPORT Chair Tedtmann remarked that in the month she had held the position as Chair, the activity had increased significantly and that there were many issues before the Board, with the boundary issues being paramount. The concerns before the Education Advisory Board were as follows: Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 boundary issues facility issues at Galaxy; Rolling Green and South Tech science infusion at new high school and interaction with the magnets at Poinciana and Congress in-school suspension the number of suspensions of minority students in Palm Beach County the increase of 1,000 or more ESOL students V. CITY LIAISON REPORT Ms. Virginia Farace, Library Director, mentioned the importance of this meeting. The City Commission asked that the Board give them a recommendation on the boundary issue by their next meeting on November 8, 2000. The Board was seeking community input on the boundary issues to assist in the formulation of its recommendation. VI. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A) SCHOOL BOUNDARIES Chair Tedtmann opened the public audience and welcomed the public to air their feelings about the boundary issues and ask questions of the Board and the Advisory Boundary Committee representative, Mr. Garfield Hamilton. A member of the audience asked for a brief history of the boundary issue. Chair Tedtmann stated that the Advisory Boundary Committee (ABC) had been meeting through the year on the issue and that the focus of the ABC had been to reduce capacity at area schools to relieve overcrowding. In doing that, they were no longer looking at busing to achieve racial balance. The School Board hired legal counsel to review the proposed ABC boundary recommendations and to answer the question of the extent to which racial balance could be considered in boundary decisions. She mentioned a meeting held the previous month with the Community Forum where the positive and negative aspects of the neighborhood school approach were discussed. Chair Tedtmann asked Mr. Hamilton which group in that meeting had come up with some proposals on the boundaries? Mr. Hamilton said it was the Coalition for Black Student Achievement that had developed some proposals concerning the boundaries. Mr. 'Garfield Hamilton approached the podium to answer this question more fully. He stated that the proposals contained ideas for ways the community could try to help improve the schools in this area. The input was not that of the Coat on for Black Student Achievement alone. They took the input from the last meeting and tried to develop a ~;et of Action Points that the community could examine and attempt to achieve. They looked at some of the programming at Galaxy, or lack thereof, and other desired improvements, some of which are in-plan now such as the expansion and modern~zabon of Rolhng Green and the fact that the modernization of Galaxy was not included. Mr. Hamilton met with Mr. Harry Fix and Mr. Russell Feldman to see what could be done to improve the situation based on the input that was received at the last meeting. The ABC had no purview over the programs. Ail they could do was come up with suggestions and offer a route whereby the public could achieve some adjustments Meeting Minutes -'- Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 in the boundaries. Chair Tedtmann said she wanted to see everyone work together to come up with one plan between the recommendations Mr. Hamilton made and the recommendations the Education Advisory Board would be making. She also hoped that this single set of recommendations could be presented to the School Board by a united group of the various interested parties. Mr. Hamilton said he would be glad to present all the information he was given to the ABC and help craft a recommendation that would stand a good chance of acceptance. He mentioned that ABC was comprised of about 25 people but ten to twelve individuals would be most involved in the decision process. Any recommendation must meet with the School Board's mandated objectives of removing the pocketed areas and reducing overcrowding. Chair Tedtmann asked Mr. Hamilton if he were a member of the Coalition for Black Student Achievement and he replied that he was not but he worked with Dr. Robinson, who was also on the ABC. Dr. Robinson had informed him of many opportunities for change in Boynton. Some of the ideas in the proposals came from Dr. Robinson and some came from conversations with Mrs. Harris at Galaxy Elementary. Mr. Hamilton, while not a member of the Coalition, did support its aims. There were currently two Boynton Beach representatives on the ABC: Mr. Hamilton from the east and Ms. Ispanich, representing COBW~, from the west. Chair Tedtmann stated that she had reviewed Mr. Hamilton's proposals and agreed with them for the most part, but needed clarification on a few items. She asked Mr. Hamilton what Boynton Beach input had been used in the formulation of the recommendations? Mr. Hamilton said it was not something that had been taken to the public. They received the public information and then sat down and brainstormed. They considered the five- year plan and the modernization of Rolling Green in 2005, which was far in the future. Ms, Arlene Greenberg mentioned reading a memorandum referencing ten criteria that the ABC considered when setting the boundaries and asked what the criteria were? Mr. Hamilton stated they had several considerations, not stiff requirements, for each boundary change decision: and that the ABC expected to get guidance from the legal counsel on these considerations. Ms. Farace read the ten criteria for boundary zones. Ms. Farace expressed her understanding that when boundary changes were made, the ABC had to fill out a sheet that compared the change to these ten criteria and Mr. Hamilton affirmed this. Chair Tedtmann mentioned that the proposed boundary changes excluded the north end of Boynton Beach and the south end but went all the way out west. The Board was considering making a recommendation that everyone in the City of Boynton Beach be allowed to attend the new high school, with some of the western students being sent to Santaluces. Chair Tedtmann stated that next year, three schools would be opening, an elementary school on Hypoluxo and Congress, the new high school, and a new middle school. This would cause drastic changes next year and that is why boundaries had become such an issue. A lot of students would be shifted around to different schools. The following year one more elementary school would be added which'would be located on Congress just south of Golf Road, and they would shift again. Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 Ms. Susan Gold, a concerned parent with a child in Congress Middle School, asked for more understanding on the issues. She asked what indications defined a balanced school? She preferred a multi-racial environment. She also did not understand why, since she lived less than a quarter of a mile from the school, her child would no longer be able to go there. She asked if multi-racial schools were possible? Chair Tedtmann said it would probably not be possible to have equally mixed schools and also have neighborhood schools because the big issue had been busing children from one neighborhood several miles to achieve racial balance. She said it was made clear at the last Education Advisory Board meeting that people really wanted neighborhood schools. They did not want their children bused any more. The Office of Civil Rights states that the black community should not bear the burden of achiewng racial balance in that their children are bused all over the place to achieve racial balance. That was in part why the district came up with magnet schools to attract white Students into primarily minority schools. Mr. Hamilton said that distance to the school was one of the criteria used to determine which students get moved. In some cases that criteria had to be considered along with other criteria. They try not to move students that are within two miles of a school. Ms. Gold was concerned about moving children from school to school and spoke out against it. She expressed hope that they would be lucky enough to finish off in a school without being moved again because West Boynton was being completely built out. Mr. Hamilton said this was a consideration at the high schools because of capacities and growth. They did have to move in those western students to the new high school to balance off Santaluces. He said he did run the proposal of pulling in the western boundaries by Mr. Fix and what they saw was a capacity issue. He said that some of the students out west actually go to Atlantic. If they all went to Santaluces they may have been able to move it in, but since they go to Atlantic, those students would have to be moved twice. They could always look at it next year after they see what the growth looks like out there and what the capacities are looking like. He said they would not have to wait for five years to do something if they saw that the new school was not going to be overcrowded. Mr. Richard Kabinoff, a teacher at Congress Middle School, said they had 17 buses that pulled in to Congress Middle School from downtown Boynton. Their two-mile radius was not bused. Their two-mile radius was a racially balanced area. If they were to pick up the pockets they were scheduled to receive, they would have to be bused to them. They were being bused to Christa McAuliffe currently, four and a half miles away. Mr. Kabinoff questioned the concept of "community" displayed by the Boundary Proposal, saying he had never seen a community that stretched from Woolbright Road to Hypoluxo Road. He had never lived in an area that huge that was considered a community. Why was the community broken off at Gateway? Why was the community broken off at Miner Road? A particular community has been going to Congress Middle School for 27 years and they are no longer in the Congress Middle community and have to go somewhere else. Ms. Farace asked Mr. Kabinoff for a positive recommendation that the Board could take to the City Commission that would help solve the Congress Middle School problem. Mr. Kabinoff said they needed to hold on to their existing south-end SACS, which presently Meeting Minutes ~ '~ Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, .Florida November 2, 2000 extend down to Bethesda Hospital. He thought, also, that an alternative could be for the north end to go to Christa McAuliffe and contribute to their racial and economic mixture. Ms. Farace said that could be done by taking the top two or three SACS, but that if some of the top SACS went to Christa McAuliffe, then Christa McAuliffe would have to lose some of its SACS to Boynton Middle (because it is already overcrowded) in order for Congress Middle to pick up those southern SACS. Mr. Kabinoff also commented that Palm Beach County did not support the transportation for the magnets to come to Congress but would bus students from Loggers Run to the Middle School of the Arts. Ms. Farace asked if this were something that should be included in the recommendation to the City Commission? Mr. Kabinoff said definitely, because a magnet program could be lost without sufficient support. Mr. Kabinoff said they could grow to 110% of their population and the school could handle and absorb it. They preferred staying a little overcrowded and retaining what they had versus giwng it up. He also said that Congress Middle had lost students through the opt-out program also and the County was letting the students do that. The boundaries will be shifted and they will be able to opt out to go back to the schools they came from last year. An 8th grader is not offered a bus courtesy but an opt out is. You have the option of not attending the school of your boundary because it is a full magnet school. You can choose to attend the one school they permit you to go to which last year was Christa McAuliffe. This year Congress lost 60 students that chose to go to Christa McAuliffe. Chair Tedtmann asked Mr. Kabinoff if he had some specific boundaries he wanted to recommend? Mr. Kabinoff asked if the Education Advisory Board could take the information and put it before the decision-makers? Chair Tedtmann said they would make a recommendation based on the information gathered that would go to the City Commission next Wednesday, and they would have an opportunity to take that to the school district. Mr. Kabinoff asked if the Palm Beach County School Board would eventually have a hearing that everyone needed to attend? Mr. Hamilton said there would only be a public hearing if there were a change to existing boundaries and only for the parents who would be affected by it. Ms. Lee said that on November 27, the School Board had a workshop at 3 p.m. and that the first public hearing on the new revisions would be on December 4 at 6 p.m. and the second and final public hearing and adoption would be on January 22, 2001 at 6 p.m. Ms. Farace announced that the Advisory Boundary Committee (ABC) was meeting the following Thursday in School Board Chambers at 6:30 p.m. and that interested parties could attend. She said they always had public hearing before they conducted their meetings. The Education Advisory Board, through the City Commission, would be speaking on the City's recommendations. Mr. Hamilton said that the boundary changes should be brought to him for analysis and comment. If the boundary changes could be brought to the superintendent and the superintendent's acceptance obtained, that would help considerably, he said. Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 The Board discussed strategies. Mr. Ehster recommended avoiding the economic approach, focusing instead on keeping the area to the south of Congress. Ms. Lee stated that Carver had taken the racial approach and she was uncomfortable with that. She said there were four items that were racial in the ten guidelines and that it should not come down to that. She said the City could end up with coastal cities representing a single race and economic segment of the community. Mr. Ehster said the issue should not be looked at as a one-year issue, since in 2003 State law would dictate that all schools would be smaller. If one could look beyond: this year and beyond the economic factor, a better sales pitch for the new boundaries could be made. He also suggested going to the meeting en masse, wearing the same type of t-shirts. Mr. Hamilton said the ABC would be convinced by facts. If an intended boundary recommendation did not create a pocket within its boundary and gave the desired balance, then that boundary recommendation would be considered. Mr. Fellows said that there had been a lot of growth and redevelopment in Delray Beach and that much of it had depended on quality schools. He said that as much as the City of Boynton Beach had done in contributing computers to Congress Middle School and money to OCIP, the City needed to be more committed to the public schools in Palm Beach County. He continued, saying that it was all about economics. He stated that the Boynton Beach schools mirrored schools in economically disadvantaged communities and that the proposed boundary changes would worsen that situation. He mentioned schools as resources, saying that there had to be a quality physical plant and quality teachers who want to come to the school because of the academics being offered. Also, there are students and families that are attached to the schools. Mr. Fellows continued by saying that when the consequences for a community were considered, Boynton Beach had one of the highest tax rates in the County, not because it had a lavish municipal complex, but because it was in an economically impoverished community. Property values are Iow. The City is spending a tremendous amount on downtown redevelopment and property values will go up, but what will make the downtown redevelopment work is if there are economically viable communities surrounding that downtown that can frequent the businesses, the shops, and the marina. When new businesses and new families move in, the first question is, "tell us about your schools". If they have the perception that Boynton Beach does not have quality schools, there will be a problem. Our property values are going to erode, and we are not going to have the viable communities around the downtown area. We will end up with impoverished areas on the coast and affluent areas out west. Our west is not part of Boynton Beach, so if our property values go down, our tax base goes down and it will hurt this community financially. One solution could be to look for a way to use a stratified, horizontal zoning instead of square zoning, so we could include a broader spectrum of economics in a school zone. If we allow our schools to become economically disadvantaged, we will make a hole that will take us a long time to dig our way out of. Student member Aly Gore voiced disagreement with having students who lived in the Atlantic High School community sent all the way to Santaluces. Those kids can walk to school, she said, and should have an opportunity to attend a Boynton school if they so desired. Ms. Gore mentioned the voucher system as a possible solution. Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 Ms. Fellows noted that the group that had attended the previous boundary meeting had been mostly black, from the eastern part of town, and very vocal. She regretted their absence at this meeting. Others mentioned the general lack of involvement of Boynton parents, saying that their SACS and PTSAs were populated mainly by teachers. The comment was also heard that a lot of people had said that they did not care if their schools were not racially balanced, they wanted schools that had the same computers, the same programs and the same excellence in teaching and facilities. Ms. Sarah Williams of the Boynton Beach Community Forum Family and Friends Network approached the podium to speak. She thanked the Board for the opportunity to speak and applauded the Board for hosting a community boundary meeting with the Community Forum. Ms. Williams, in commenting on some of the discussion at this meeting, said she never thought she would live to see a white person raising the banner for integration. She never thought she would see a white person say that diversity was the strength of our nation and our community. She said she would not and could not sacrifice integration for segregation. She said she had seen better, and had learned better and that America and Boynton Beach were better because of integration. She said it was not like Riviera Beach, the original proponents of neighborhood schools. In Riviera Beach neighborhood schools might work but in Boynton Beach, as spread out as it is, neighborhood schools would be impossible. She said that if one considered the neighborhood of Congress Middle School, the senior citizens from Leisureville would be attending it. She said it was about excellence and quality in education. If they had to ride a bus 15 or 25 miles, they preferred quality education to no education, right at their doorstep. She said that in her group they had all agreed to that. Also, she was concerned about the value of public input. She asked the Board how much they valued the input of the community? She said lots of people felt that their input was not acceptable, that they would not be listened to, and therefore, why come to the meetings? They felt that the Board would do whatever it wanted to about the neighborhood school concept and that they had little chance of influencing any decisions that might be made. She believed that the parents, the community, the leaders, and the people of Boynton Beach would let the Board know what they would like to have in the way of education for their children and she hoped that the Education Advisory Board would take that under advisement and make a recommendation to the City Commission that reflected their input. She expressed grievance over seeing a Black Coalition group coming to Boynton Beach to promote the neighborhood school concept. The Black Coalition group said they wanted equal resources. If Poinciana or Galaxy Elementary went from 50% black to 95% black, that equity might not happen, she said. We in the neighborhood have to change that but you cannot get blood from a turnip. The school is in crisis just like the homes in the community - they all are needy. We all know the more you have the more you can get. The less you have the less you get. If you take a school that has tried so hard to get from an F to a D on the FCAT and change it to 95% black, guess what is going to happen? The FCAT scores will be right back down and those teachers who have worked so hard to get them from F to D will get an influx of children who do not speak the language and that will also have an impact. Right now we are bracing in Boynton Beach for a high influx of Haitians and other minorities coming 7 Meeting Minutes 'f Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 into the schools. Schools are bracing with alternative education programs. They have no gifted programs and we are looking at stereotyped schools. The ABC should go to the malls and observe the young people coming together as one if they believe all black schools are going to make it. This coming together is happening all across America. When you start talking about segregation again, a lot of anger and division is created. We can do these things but the children know better and they are going to be rebelling because they are going to say, that's my friend, this is my social circle, this is my team, this is my identity and you can't separate it and you will not separate it. So you can draw all the boundaries you want to, but you can't separate love, you cannot separate care. Ms. Williams sent a copy of her speech to the ABC group. Ms. Williams did not like to hear the lack of parental input being emphasized. She had been to the former meeting and said there had been plenty of black and minority attendance, She declared the meeting had been marvelous and there had been a good mix of people. We all gave the same input. It was strange. We all said the same thing, regardless of what color we were. We had a meeting at St. John's Baptist Church Community Forum and input was given at this meeting about the school boundaries. We talked about the high school and the need for diversity. Ms. Williams read portions of her speech from the October 9 boundary meeting. Ms. Farace said she interpreted Ms. Williams' input as a recommendation that racial balance was very, very important in this community? Ms. Williams believed that it was very important, based on all the input she had heard in the City and in her neighborhood forums. She said their opinion was that the neighborhood school concept did not fit the City of Boynton Beach. Wilfred Hawkins spoke eloquentlY about it. We feel that we should try to maintain the racial balance of our schools. We are already dealing with impoverishment. We should not do anything to make it worse, as Mr. Fellows said. The neighborholod concept is going to cause depression and stress. It is hard enough now to find and maintain good teachers and stability of staff, resources and materials. When we are together as a multicuitural group we seem to get better resources and educational opportunities. I don't care how much you modernize, unless you have a good teaching staff and a good mix of children, we cannot forward excellence in our schools and that is what the people are saying. Some people say they don't care if they have neigh~borhood schools as long as they have equity in resources but that was not the sentiment she was hearing expressed in her forums. She said that the best should come to Boynton - that everyone had worked so hard to get that high school, and al children in Boynton should have a chance to attend that school. Galaxy is going to be a bus stop where they come to pick up children and take them to other schools, nicer schools. Sihe or he will be left with a stereotypical feeling. We can hurt self-esteem by imposing these boundaries that cause segregation. She returned to the parental input theme, saying that the people in this community wanted information, but they were working people and had single parents leading homes. Th~ey had no t me for meet ngs but they still loved their children; they wanted the best educalion for their children. Those who have the time and energy to take on the role of parental involvement should take it on. She hoped that the needs and desires of the people who could not be present would be considered and that the Board would work hard in support of their families and children, regardless of whether they happened 8 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 to be at this meeting or not. She thanked God for the people who had attended the meeting tonight. Ms. Farace announced that this was not the first and only input meeting the Board had. It started with a meeting on August 31 with school principals, the City Commission and City Manager, four school board members, and the Board of Directors of the Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce. These issues were put on the table for the first time at that meeting. The Education Advisory Board then had its meeting last month that was co-hosted with Ms. Williams' group, and there was a good representation from the community in attendance at that meeting. Following this the Chair of the Education Advisory Board put together a document and took it to Neighborhood Summit where the leaders of all the Neighborhood Associations received the information to take back to their neighborhoods. This was the fourth Education Advisory Board meeting and the first where some of the new board members were able to hear input. Input was received from a broad spectrum of the community, This meeting is the final input session because the Education Advisory Board wants to be able to go to the City Commission with a recommendation, and its recommendations. The Board talked to the community, heard their input, and hoped that everyone would attend the ABC meeting. An audience member stated that she thought that many of the issues that had been brought up could not be dealt with at the local level and even at the district level. She pointed to the issue of what the State of Florida generated when it came to revenue per child in the nation, saying that Florida was like third or fourth from the bottom. She believed that this was the reason why Boynton Beach, as well as schools from around the State of Florida, were so impoverished when it came to the things needed in the schools. If someone needs something in Boca and he or she writes out a check, that ~s not representative of the rest of Palm Beach County. She stated that she was SAC Chair at Crysta Lakes Elementary, a PTSA board member at Triple H, and President of PTSA at Christa McAuliffe. She believed in community schOols. During the last seven years of serving on the SAC at Crystal Lakes, she had seen that there were two pockets of SAC areas from east Boynton that get bused into Crystal La kes and that these areas had been underrepresented. They had tried to increase involvement by sending letters home and actively pursuing individuals to attend, but she did not believe that driving out to West Boynton at night was attractive to the parents. She believed that having a local school might help to increase opportunities for involvement. Student member Caroline Roter said that there was a problem with students wanting to go to cleaner, nicer schools. She did not understand why all the money was put into building new schools and not fixing up anything at the old ones. If the environment at Atlantic were better, she believed the attitudes would be better also. She commented that they did not even have grass at their campus. She understood that the new schools were being built to relieve overcrowding but said that money should be put into the older schools that needed fixing up. Mr. Hamilton stated that Atlantic would be modernized in a couple of years. Ms. Braswell stated that in the eight-year plan, all of Atlantic would be torn down and rebuilt. Ms. Williams asked about COBWRA and its role in the boundary issues? Mr. Hazlett mentioned that in his role on the Board at the Chamber of Commerce, he was trying to build a bridge for the COBWRA representative. He said COBWRA was interested in 9 Meeting Minutes .... Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 what was going on politically and in the redevelopment, but he did not see that merging into one Boynton Beach was something that would be happening in the near future. Mr. Fellows commented that he was pleased that a Boynton Beach person was on the ABC and that if the rest of the Committee shared Mr. Hamilton's character, they would come up with something that would be fair and equitable. He believed they would listen with open minds and hearts to all requests put before them. He hoped the Education Advisory Board would do a good job in reflecting the sentiments that had been expressed from the community in all the meetings. Ms. Farace asked Mr. Hamilton if, from the ABC point of view, when they went to next Thursday's meeting, it would be sufficient to say that racial diversity was very important, or would something more specific be required? Mr. Hamilton said they had guidelines but that they may change based on what the lawyers say. The ABC needed alternative boundary strategies and they have to be in before Thursday so Mr. Fix can put them in everyone's packet and also, get it on the agenda. Public comment is only twenty minutes so even if 100 people come, it will still only be twenty minutes. Ms. Arlene Greenberg asked Mr. Hamilton how the Education Advisory Board could justify the ABC boundaries which showed Galaxy ending up with 18 white students in three years? Mr. Hamilton said it depended on whether the issue was that having 18 white students made that a bad school, or that there weren't enough programs at Galaxy. Galaxy doesn't have the type of programs that other schools around it have - no Pre-K, no gifted, and they have an alternative program and sit on a campus that over 30 years old. Schools that are 30 years old and older must be on the modernization list and Rolling Green is but Galaxy is not. If we make Galaxy a neighborhood school does that make it a bad school? Does it have the programs necessary to make it serve the kids who go there? Does it have the community support, extra help, and parental involvement needed to make it work? Having 18 white students there did not matter to him if he could find a way to make that school's students achieve at a high level. It came down to student scores. He looked at student scores around the district. He contended that the black student's scores on the FCAT and other tests were in the lower quartiles no matter where they went to school. Ms. Greenberg said that she felt that the parents of these 18 white children were not going to be very happy. Mr. Hamilton said he had a business as a programmer and he wanted to be able to hire students that were capable of performing and that there was a deficit of people to take high-technology jobs. He asked if students were ready to take advantage of these opportunities? According to a lot of the test scores they were not, he said. He believed that the most important issue was not the identity of a student's schoolmates, but the level of their performance. Several persons expressed that having racial balance in the schools would be desirable. It was generally felt that being around a mixed population would make for better citizens of society. A woman stated that if the schools became predominantly black or white, poor or rich, the children would suffer, because it did not represent reality. Ms. Farace summarized the input that had been received during the last few months on this issue: 10 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 1) Educational - what is the impact on learning? What do these boundary changes imply for learning? 2) 3) Social - racial balance, diversity versus the neighborhood school concept - what is our position? Economics - resources for older schools, resources SACS and PTA's can bring to the schools, resources from the community, resources in manpower, resources we as individuals have to use to tutor students, and the economic impacts for the City as far as the redevelopment issues. Ms. Williams asked that transportation be added to the list. Ms. Farace said that they needed to give Mr. Hamilton something to work with. Ms. Williams asked for some more SAC information so that they could put more detail in their recommendations. Chair Tedtmann said that the Board had hoped to get the recommendation written during the meeting but that it had become evident that this would not be possible. She said a subcommittee would meet on Monday, November 6, in the same place at 5:00 p.m. to actually write the recommendation. She asked all that were interested to attend. Mr. Hazlett said it was not his impression that people wanted community schools in Boynton Beach. He said the people who did not want busing were not looking at all that went with it. He also stated that racial balance was recommended in the original OCR agreements and that it had fallen by the wayside. The new high school is very balanced and it is placed right in the middle of the area where people live. The boundary is large enough to capture the eastern and the western people. Ms. Sarah Williams stated that Mr. Hamilton had come to their meeting and heard some input. She asked Mr. Hamilton if he had taken that information forward and he said he had given the data to Mr. Fix and Dr. Robinson and that input would be available to the ABC at their next meeting. He alluded to the input, saying it had to do with using the SACS out. west to load Santaluces to balance bringing people from the north in. He said they had received input from the parents in the southern tip of Boynton that they wanted to stay at Atlantic, so they only considered bringing the top part of Boynton Beach in. Chair Tedtmann closed the discussion on the boundary issue and said the discussion would continue in the same place on Monday, November 6. B) BLUE RIBBON SCHOOL Ms. Fellows stated that on June 1, 2000, the Board was made aware that Christa McAuliffe had been awarded the Blue Ribbon Award and she drafted a Proclamation for the Mayor to support that and make January 21 through 27, 2001 Christa McAuliffe Community Middle'School Blue Ribbon Celebration Week. She asked people to be there in support of this action. Ms. Fellows read the Proclamation, which is attached to the original set of minutes in the City Clerk's office. 11 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 Motion Ms. Fellows made a motion that the Education Advisory Board present the Christa McAuliffe Community Middle School Blue Ribbon Celebration Week Proclamation to the Commission. Mr. Hazlett seconded the motion that carried unanimously. VII. NEW BUSINESS A. Five Star Schools Chair Tedtmann announced that the Five Star School Award had been given to several schools in Boynton Beach recently. The schools receiving the award were: Citrus Cove, Christa McAuliffe, Congress Middle School, Crystal Lakes, Manatee and Coral Reef. The Board expressed its congratulations to those schools. VIII. COMMITTEE REPORTS Chair Tedtmann said that these reports would not be presented at this time. IX. ANNOUNCEMENTS Chair Tedtmann announced the ABC meeting would be on November 9 in the School Board Chambers at 6:30 p.m. The next regular Board meeting will be December 7 in the Library at 6:00 p.m. X. ADJOURNMENT Motion Ms. Fellows made a motion for adjournment at 8:30 p.m. Ms. Braswell seconded the motion that carried unanimously. Respectfully submitted, Recording Secretary (3 tapes) 12