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Minutes 06-22-06 MINUTES OF THE EDUCATION & YOUTH ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING HELD IN THE COMMISSION CHAMBERS, CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ON THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 2006 AT 7:00 P.M. Present: Susan Buchanan Mary Morera, Vice Chair Hattie Miller Stephen Waldman, Chair Christine Hogenkamp, Regular Voting Member Robert Chiste, Regular Voting Member Alyssa Ewing, Regular Non-Voting Member Sherri Claude, Board Liaison Absent: Melinda Mallon Marlene Ross Loretta Wilkinson I. Call to Order Chair Waldman called the meeting to order at 7:08 p.m. II. Pledge of Allegiance/Moment of Silent Reflection The board recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and engaged in a moment of silent reflection for those serving in the armed forces. III. Approval of Minutes of May 25, 2006 Ms. Claude indicated Lori Wilkinson's name should be added to the list as absent at this meeting. Also, in regard to the comments on the bowling tournament, the $20 was for a team of two, not four. There were no other changes to the minutes. Motion Vice Chair Morera moved to accept the minutes as amended. Ms. Hogenkamp seconded the motion that passed 6-0. IV. Approval of Agenda By consensus, the board agreed to hear from the Tennis Pro, Bob Howell, at the beginning of the meeting. Motion Mr. Chiste moved to approve the agenda as amended. The motion was duly seconded and passed 6-0. Meeting Minutes Education & Youth Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida June 22, 2006 VIII. New Business A. Tennis Carnival (heard out of order) Bob Howell, Tennis Pro at the Boynton Beach Tennis Center, spoke of plans to have a Tennis Carnival at the Boynton Beach Tennis Center on Saturday, November 11, 2006 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. This would offer the residents a second tennis event similar to the one held each spring at Hunter's Run. They hoped to attract 40 to 50 participants. The program would be free to area residents. Sponsorships would be needed for the drinks, t-shirts, and so forth and Vice Chair Morera would join Mr. Howell on a sponsorship committee to handle this. The Tennis Center already had about 40 tennis racquets, but if the participants wanted to bring their own, that would be all right also. Chair Waldman suggested contacting the Sports Authority to obtain a donation of racquet(s) for the event. If they chose to do so, they could be raffled off to start a fund for this event. The committee will update the board. Vice Chair Morera asked if Mr. Howell recommended putting a registration form and announcement in the Fall Fun Fare, and he responded affirmatively. Chair Waldman mentioned some flyers should also be prepared. The board was very pleased at the idea of having this event and thanked Mr. Howell for coming to speak about it and help with it. V. Announcements/ Presentations/ Correspondence Ms. Claude distributed information she found entitled, The Top Six Facts About Youth Volunteers & Suggestions for Ways to Recruit and Engage Youth Volunteers. Ms. Claude had seen an item in the Neighborhood Post about the Bob Borovy award and the board was pleased to hear it. The Recreation & Parks Department was excited about submitting their application for national accreditation. The department had been working on the self-assessment for two years. The self-assessment provided proof they met or exceeded national standards in over 150 different areas. Three professionals in the field were planning a site visit, at which time they would go through the documentation, meet with administrators, the City Commission, and staff, and look at the City's facilities. They would then report back to the parent agency that confers accreditation. Hopefully, they would achieve this in October. Less than 2% of the Recreation & Parks agencies in the country now had accreditation. The Chairs of the boards with whom Recreation & Parks works were to be invited to a small reception during the site visit on July 18. Chair Waldman would be invited as well as the Chairs of the Cemetery and Senior Advisory Boards. Chair Waldman introduced the new member, Susan Buchanan, formerly of the Education AdviSOry Board. Ms. Buchanan indicated she had served for one year on the Education Advisory Board and thanked the Children & Youth Board for including them. Her background was in education. She had been a member of the Palm Beach County school system for a number of years, following a stint in the private sector. She missed teaching and had gone back to teaching at Palm Beach Community College. Ms. Buchanan thought the second Tennis Carnival at the Tennis Center was a great idea and believed the Chamber of Commerce would be glad to 2 Meeting Minutes Education & Youth Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida June 22, 2006 put this in their newsletter as well. _Chair Waldman introduced himself and each board member introduced him or herself in turn, for the benefit of Ms. Buchanan. The board welcomed Ms. Buchanan. VI. Public Audience None VII. Old Business A. Sister Cities Ms. Claude indicated she had invited Jeanne Heavilin to this meeting, but she was unable to attend and will try to attend the board's July meeting. B. Teen Center Ms. Claude reported there was nothing new on this item. The Madsen Center was still available, although it was being used as an office for one of the recreation supervisors and for some recreation programming. Professional Development used it one or two days a week also. If requested to do so, Ms. Claude would make inquiries about the use of the Madsen Center. C. Youth Volunteer Bank/Bob Borovy Award Ms. Claude indicated they would be sending more information to Youth Volunteer Bank members to keep the Volunteer Bank in their minds and remind them to record their volunteer hours. Her goal was to try to make this program more active. She sent a flyer recently about the Sand Sist-ers Sifters, a beach cleanup program at Oceanfront Park. Ms. Claude did not know if the board wanted to come up with some new activities or just provide information on known activities to the membership. Ms. Hogenkamp thought it would be a great idea if the students were given a paper containing volunteer opportunities in their area. In her school, they did not know where to go to get community service hours. Ms. Claude indicated this was part of the application form, but it was probably outdated. The board could do some research to find good volunteer activities and from that, a new list could be generated. Ms. Buchanan asked if this could be put on the City's Web page when completed. Ms. Claude responded they wanted to put a lot of things on the Web site, but they were still working on improving the Web site to make it more user-friendly. Chair Waldman mentioned a volunteer opportunity presented by the U.s. Congress and he had distributed this information to the board members at a previous meeting. The program leads to giving medals to youth for volunteer service for such diverse activities as volunteering to raise a mule deer for a zoo, physical fitness, expeditions, study trips, and various explorations with a public service in mind. Chair Waldman suggested all the members bring their ideas to the July meeting. If each member came up with five volunteer opportunities, he thought it would be enough for a start. 3 Meeting Minutes Education & Youth Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida June 22, 2006 D. Fundraising Ideas It was clear this issue needed further research. The board wanted to determine if there were any grants available for the types of projects sponsored or encouraged by this board. The State was one possibility as well as Target and WalMart, who were known contributors to various community projects. Chair Waldman wanted grant information for children and youth also so that information could be brought to their attention - grants to which children and youth might be attracted if they knew of them. Ms. Claude mentioned the board had previously discussed trying to obtain sponsorships. They had also discussed getting involved in already-existing activities such as selling something at a concert or soccer game, but it had not gone beyond the idea stage. Previous discussions had included the idea of continuous, small fundraising projects to fund the Bob Borovy award. There was enough money in the account for about two years, but it would have to be replenished eventually. Chair Waldman asked the members to think of a short and long range plan for fundraising and come to the next meeting prepared to discuss it. E. Youth Expo Ms. Claude announced Youth Expo would be being held on October 14, 2006 from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Boynton Beach Mall. She invited interested board members to attend the next planning session at the Madsen Center on June 27 at 1:00 p.m. VIII. New Business A. Tennis Carnival Event (heard earlier) B. Bowling Tournament, AMF Lanes, July 23, 2006 Chair Waldman announced he would be unable to attend the event this year and would have to rely on others to help, especially someone knowledgeable about figuring averages and handicaps. The bowling alley gets $2.25 per game and would provide free shoes and sixteen lanes. The entry fee was $20 for a team. Vice Chair Morera agreed to obtain the trophies. Registration was at 1:00 p.m. and the games would begin by 1:30 p.m. Ms. Claude distributed some flyers to the board members, asking for their help to publicize the event. She also sent out a press release. The event usually nets about $200 for the Bob Borovy award. Ms. Buchanan volunteered to assist in whatever way she could. Vice Chair Morera responded there was a need for someone to check the teams against a list, show people where the shoes were, and so forth. C. Elections - tabled on May 25, 2006 Motion Ms. Ewing moved to remove this item from the table. Ms. Hogenkamp seconded the motion that passed unanimously. 4 Meeting Minutes Education & Youth Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida June 22, 2006 Mr. Waldman and Ms. Morera both agreed to continue as Chair and Vice Chair respectively, if nominated. Motion Ms. Miller moved to elect Mr. Waldman as Chair. Ms. Buchanan seconded the motion that passed 6-0. Steve Waldman was elected the Board Chair. Motion Ms. Buchanan moved to elect Mary Morera as Vice Chair. The motion was duly seconded and passed 6-0. Mary Morera was elected the Vice Chair. General Discussion Vice Chair Morera asked former Education Advisory Board (EAB) member Susan Buchanan if there were any EAB projects on hold that needed to be continued by the new board. Ms. Buchanan responded the biggest project was the Principal for a Day Program modeled after the New York City program called PENCIL (Public Education Needs Civic Involvement in Learning). The purpose of the program was to initiate and coordinate meaningful civic involvement in public education in Boynton Beach to improve student achievement. It paired willing business partners with local school principals to form a partnership in which the schools could learn from the business partner the skills needed in order to be employed in their businesses. It was hoped the business partner would provide mentoring and donations of products or services to the schools. The program was held successfully in 2003 and 2004 and was scheduled for October of 2005, when Hurricane Wilma intervened. It was rescheduled for the spring of 2006, but it conflicted with school testing dates. Subsequently, the Education Advisory Board found itself with less than a quorum. If anyone wanted to find out more about this program, the following Web addresses were pertinent: htto:llwww.ofadbovnton.oral and htto:llwww.oencil.ora. Ms. Buchanan commented the EAB also had an annual roundtable with the area principals and representation on the local School Improvement Committees (SACs). She did not know whether it would be feasible for this board to take on the SAC representation since there were a large number of schools and this board was smaller than the EAB, when it was fully represented. Chair Waldman thought the SAC representation could continue, but with a smaller number of schools, possibly just one to start. Ms. Buchanan thought the board might consider contacting the Area Superintendent of Schools, Ms. Carole Shetler, to ask how this board could best assist them. Perhaps they would come up with something that would be doable for this board. At least they would know the City had reached out. Chair Waldman thought that contact might also lead to more volunteer contacts. Ms. Buchanan said the Chair or Vice Chair could handle the contact in an informal way. Chair Waldman preferred to invite people to speak to the board in person, although he would do this in any way the board wanted it done. IX. Future Meeting Dates: July 27, 2006 August 24, 2006 5 Meeting Minutes Education & Youth Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida June 22, 2006 X. Adjournment There being no further business before the board, the meeting was duly adjourned at 7:55 p.m. Respectfully submitted, n //YJ ~~ L6J::24,; Susan Collins Recording Secretary (062806) 6