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Minutes 07-01-99 MINUTES OF THE EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD MEETING HELD IN LIBRARY PROGRAM ROOM, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA ON THURSDAY JULY 1, 1999 AT 6:30 P.M. PRESENT ALSO PRESENT David Fellows. Vice Chair Ronald Ehster Virginia Farace, Education Advisory Harvey Oyer, III Board Liaison Heidi DeVries, Student Lora Edwards, Student ABSENT Michael Hazlett, Alternate Revia Lee Eddie Mitchell Margaret Newton Dawn Russell, Chairperson Diana Tedtmann, Alternate ALSO PRESENT Arthur Rowe I. GREETINGS Ms. Farace stated that Chairperson Russell would not be present this evening. II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Members recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag led by Vice Chair Fellows who also chaired the meeting. III. ROLL CALL a quorum was not Ms. Farace called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m. and noted that present. Ms. Farace requested that the members meet as a workshop. IV. MINUTES APPROVAL- June 3, 1999 Postponed CHAIR’S REPORT MEETING MINUTES EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA JULY 1, 1999 Vice Chair Fellows read the Chair’s report, which included highlights of the Four-Board Forum held on June 19, 1999 as follows: The Community Relations Board will hold a S.T.A.R.’s Planning Workshop on July ? ththth 8 at 7:00 p.m. The S.T.A.R.S. Program is scheduled for October 9 and 16; The Community Relations Board is planning a Multi-Cultural Music Festival in April ? 2000; The Children and Youth Advisory Board is sponsoring a youth/adult bowling ? th tournament on July 25 at the AMF Lanes on Boynton Beach Boulevard. The fee is $20.00 and registration begins at 12:30 p.m.; The Children and Youth Advisory Board is planting a Butterfly Garden near the ? thth American Legion on August 7 and 14 at 9:00 a.m.; Ms. Chris Noelle was the guest speaker who spoke on shelters for veterans in Palm ? Beach County. VI. CITY LIAISON REPORT No report VII. COMMITTEE REPORTS A. Alternative to Suspension Program Vice Chair Fellows reported on the following: The School District has cancelled the contract with CARP for the counseling ? services at Congress Middle School and Santaluces High School. Vice Chair Fellows prepared a proposal for funding, which he presented to the Palm Beach County Health Care District to fund the counseling component of the Alternative to Suspension Program. Vice Chair Fellows was asked to include himself in the grant proposal as the expert person on how the program works, which he has done. Vice Chair Fellows also included the OCIP Budget for the entire Program. The estimated cost for funding is $56,000 per school for the first year: $56,000 for ? Congress Middle School and $112,000 for Santaluces, because of the size of the school. He will be meeting with Mr. Tim Henderson, the CEO for the Quantum Foundation to ? discuss the proposal and the possibility of Quantum funding the Program. Commissioner Denahan will also be in attendance together with Hugh Grady from the Area 2 Superintendent’s Office, Glen Heyward, the Principal of Santaluces High 2 MEETING MINUTES EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA JULY 1, 1999 School and a representative from the School District’s Alternative to Education Program. Copies of the proposal have been given to Mr. David Harris of the McArthur ? Foundation. If funds for the counseling aspect of the Program are secured, the Program should ? be up and running at the beginning of the school year. Said he started the program in 1994 and has done everything on a volunteer basis, ? which has caused his family to suffer. He has been encouraged by some agencies to include himself in the grant for compensation so that he could oversee and supervise the implementation of the Program. The cost of inclusion of Mr. Fellow’s involvement would amount to $8,500 per school for his time and efforts. As a result, he is now in a financial gain position if approved and could mean he has a conflict of interest as Vice Chairman of the Education Advisory Board. Presented a copy of a letter that he sent to the City’s Assistant City Attorney ? regarding his involvement in the Program. Attorney Igwe is researching the legality of his involvement and believes Vice Chair Fellows has one of two choices: (a) he could resign, or (b) he could excuse himself from voting on any agenda items that would involve the Program. Stated that he will no longer use the City stationery when sending out ? correspondence on the Program and will be using his personal stationery. Mr. Oyer asked Vice Chair Fellows for clarification on the “Indirect Administration costs of $5,000” on his budget for the program and asked how he arrived at this figure. Vice Chair Fellows said it was for the costs of indirect overhead such as expenses for the CEO who would be running the program and could include insurance, advertisement, etc. Vice Chair Fellows said he researched other bids from Family Resources and followed that same format. Mr. Oyer asked about the Clinical Supervisor only spending 45% of his time on the Program and Vice Chair Fellows said that he would have other projects to supervise under other grants. Vice Chair Fellows said that the non-profit agency bidding for the Program would have the staff to supervise the Program. Mr. Oyer asked what the funding period request would be and Vice Chair Fellows said he was asking for three-year funding. Mr. DeRuve asked what involvement CARP had with the program and was informed that CARP provided the counseling component last year. 3 MEETING MINUTES EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA JULY 1, 1999 B. Raising Test Scores Ms. Newton was not present to make her report. C. “Gathering Storm” Issues Ms. Farace distributed copies of the report that Mr. Mitchell had discussed at the June meeting on the Gathering Storm. Ms. Farace said a copy would be placed in the Library’s Reference Department. D. Parental Involvement Chairperson Russell was not present to make a report. E. School Concurrency Mr. Ehster recommended that the School Concurrency issue should be considered complete. Mr. Ehster said there are plenty of funds for five years that would be available for building purposes. Ms. Farace asked if the County Commission would be adopting any type of document prepared by the Consultant, Leo Noble. The legislative issues at the State, City and District level are taking place at this time and the State should be acting on it in September. Ms. Farace said she would keep the item on the Agenda in the event something occurs in the newspapers that might be of interest to the Board. Mr. Ehster said he has more important issues that he would like to discuss with the Board and would like to devote several efforts to Forest Park Elementary School, as well as Rolling Green School. Forest Park School is on the “F” list and this Board should look at ways to help Forest Park, which could tie in with the gifted school program. At the last meeting Mr. Mitchell said there was a need for a gifted school program to be included in schools where minorities are unable to participate. Mr. Ehster would like this Board to lobby the School Board to make Forest Park one of the 10 new gifted program schools. Efforts should be made to get 100% testing at the School. This should also include Rolling Green if that School is near “F” on the list. Mr. Ehster noted that the 10 best school districts had less than 37,000 students per district. Boynton Beach’s district has 140,000 students and smaller districts should be created. Also, consideration will have to be given when vouchers come into effect next year. F. Administrative Area Issue 4 MEETING MINUTES EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA JULY 1, 1999 Ms. Farace said the Resolution was adopted by the City Commission and asked if the City Clerk’s Office had followed through on distributing a copy of the Resolution to the School Board and Superintendent of Schools of Palm Beach County. (The Recording Secretary followed through on this request and informed Ms. Farace that copies had been forwarded as requested.) Mr. Oyer asked who the Area Superintendent was and was informed it was Ms. Elizabeth Decker for Area 2. However, there are two schools in Area 1 and Carole Shetler is the Superintendent of that Area. G. Legislative Issues No report H. SAC Representatives Ms. Farace said it was intended that members would be choosing their schools tonight. Mr. DeRuve said he would like to serve on the Congress Middle School SAC. Mr. Oyer said he would serve on the Forest Park SAC. Ms. Farace said SAC assignments would be further discussed at the next meeting. Mr. Ehster recommended that due to the poor attendance at this meeting, that the Board’s July meetings be cancelled in the future. Ms. Farace asked members if they would prefer to cancel the August and September meetings. Ms. Farace suggested meeting one Saturday in August for the purpose of having a priority setting planning session. PlanningWorkshop on Saturday, August After discussion, it was decided to hold a thth 7in lieu of the regularly scheduled Thursday, August 5 meeting . The workshop 9:30 a.m. through 3:00 p.m.in the Library Program Room would take place from and a facilitator would be utilized. VIII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Principal Roundtable Ms. Farace suggested keeping this on the Agenda to discuss at the planning session. Vice Chair Fellows said there would be four new Principals in the following Boynton Beach Schools: Galaxy School South Technical Congress Middle School 5 MEETING MINUTES EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA JULY 1, 1999 Atlantic High School Members discussed the testing scores and rankings of the City’s Schools. Ms. Farace suggested that during the planning session emphasis be placed on raising test scores. X. PUBLIC AUDIENCE Mr. Brian Edwards addressed the Board and stated he was very impressed with the Board. Ms. Farace said at the planning session that the priorities set by the Board last year should be re-addressed and it should be determined which ones need to be dropped and which ones need more improvement. Ms. Farace announced that the contract with Centrix-Rooney for the construction of the Boynton Beach High School had been approved by the School Board. XII. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 7:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted _______________________________ Barbara M. Madden Recording Secretary (one tape) 6