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Minutes 03-05-98 MINUTES OF THE EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD MEETING HELD IN COMMISSION CHAMBERS, CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1998 AT 6:30 P.M. PRESENT Nellie Denahan, Chairwoman Wilfred Hawkins, Mgr. of Support Anne Centi, Vice Chairwoman Services Muslima Lewis David Weinstein David Brownstein, Alternate Falechia Price, Student Heidi DeVries, Student ABSENT Ronald Ehster Stephanie Murray Dawn Russell Lannette Seabrook, Alternate I. GREETINGS: Chairwoman Denahan called the meeting to order at 6:37 p.m. A. Acknowledgement of Guests Chairwoman Denahan acknowledged the presence in the audience of Eric Schnetzer, a member of the Community Relations Board. B. Welcome New Members Chairwoman Denahan announced that the two new board members, Lannette Seabrook and Stephanie Murray were expected to be present this evening. However, they had not yet arrived. II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Ms. DeVries led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. III. ROLL CALL The recording secretary called the roll. IV. MINUTES APPROVAL – January 8, 1998 Vice Chairwoman Centi moved to accept the minutes of the January 8, 1998 meeting. Ms. DeVries seconded the motion that carried unanimously. While awaiting the arrival of Commissioner Bradley, and due to the fact that both David Weinstein and Anne Centi had to leave the meeting early, the board agreed to address Agenda Item VII.C – “Charter Schools Opinion by David Weinstein”. 1 MEETING MINUTES EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA MARCH 5, 1998 C. Charter Schools Opinion by David Weinstein Mr. Weinstein is opposed to charter schools for a number of reasons. He feels the schools must improve the teaching, dedication and curriculum within the school system. People within the academic system have indicated their own shortcomings and failures by applauding charter schools. If a charter school can function on the same per-student basis, make a profit and produce a better result, then the teachers have indicated their own failures. The schools must start from the beginning to recreate an educational environment that is better. The most important reason Mr. Weinstein opposes charter schools is that they will be selective and able to siphon off the best students in the public schools. If the schools are not producing top quality students now, what will happen to those schools when the top students go to charter schools? If a disciplinary problem surfaces in the charter schools, the students will be thrown out of school. Those students will then be thrust upon the public school system. At that point, the public school system will be in worse shape. The public schools must redirect their approach to meet academic standards and get the education system back on sound footing. Proponents of charter schools claim they can avoid nonsensical legislation. If legislation contains requirements that are nonsense, the legislation should be changed. If that legislation is valid, charter schools should not avoid it. Mr. Weinstein feels charter schools will have a very serious affect on the public school system. Chairwoman Denahan requested that Mr. Weinstein collect information on charter schools to be presented to the board members and discussed at the April meeting. Vice Chairwoman Centi pointed out that Commissioner Jaskiewicz met with Jeb Bush regarding charter schools. She recommended that Chairwoman Denahan invite Commissioner Jaskiewicz to the next board meeting to give her an opportunity to share information on this subject. Chairwoman Denahan acknowledged the arrival of Commissioner Bradley and Wilfred Hawkins. V. FAREWELL TO COMMISSIONER MATT BRADLEY Chairwoman Denahan expressed pride in all that Commissioner Bradley has been able to accomplish in the City of Boynton Beach. He is now moving forward to touch the lives of many more children in Evergreen, Colorado. The Education Advisory Board has had the privilege and honor of working with Commissioner Bradley on many issues in this City. Commissioner Bradley was chairperson of the Education Advisory Board prior to becoming a City Commissioner. At the City Commission meeting held on Tuesday, March 3, 1998, Virginia Farace recognized Commissioner Bradley for his dedication to education and service to the community. In addition, Mike Bottcher, Chamber of Commerce, did the same. The Education Advisory Board is so proud of all of Commissioner Bradley’s accomplishments and would like to recognize them. Vice Chairwoman Centi thanked Commissioner Bradley for working along with Arline Weiner and Wilfred Hawkins to get Poinciana School where it is today. She also expressed her appreciation for all of the things Commissioner Bradley has done to help educate the educators and for the time, years and effort spent helping the children. She praised Commissioner Bradley for apologizing when he made a mistake and she believes he will be a hard act to follow. Vice Chairwoman Centi presented Commissioner Bradley with a trophy-like award. Commissioner Bradley believes the leaders in this community are beginning to understand the importance of education. Education has become a very big priority. The Commission understands the importance of 2 MEETING MINUTES EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA MARCH 5, 1998 education to community redevelopment. If education is not top notch, all other monies expended on redevelopment will be wasted. The critical piece to quality education is involvement. Business involvement is most important because they must take a bigger view of ownership in a school. Plans are being developed. The framework for business/school partnerships is promising. Most of the work is done. However, we must create sustaining partnerships. The remaining work involves going out to talk to the businesses. Five meetings have been set up to date. It is hoped that once those businesses get on board, they will talk with five additional businesses. Commissioner Bradley is very excited about the tremendous opportunities for partnerships in Boynton Beach. He urged the members to keep “plugging away” with respect to the feeder schools. He commended the members for the great work they do and thanked them for their participation and efforts. VI. PUBLIC AUDIENCE None VII. OLD BUSINESS: A. COMMITTEE REPORTS: Atlantic Community High School Ms. Lewis reported that there have been a couple of meetings and the discussion centered on the School Improvement Plan presentation at Old School Square in Delray Beach. Ms. Lewis spoke with Ms. Shetler about a presentation to the Education Advisory Board. The principals and SAC Committees are interested in giving a presentation. Chairwoman Denahan reported that Ms. Shetler has expressed her feelings on this subject. Christa McAuliffe Middle School No report Citrus Cove Elementary School No report Congress Middle School Congress Middle School receives a tremendous turnout on the SAC Committee. The meeting is held on the second Wednesday of each month. At the last meeting, they discussed the status of the magnet school and advised that this issue had not reached fruition. However, according to Chairwoman Denahan, Congress Middle School has been designated a magnet school. Mr. Weinstein reported briefly on the meeting. In response to Chairwoman Denahan, he reported that there was no discussion on the issue of truancy. Chairwoman Denahan thanked all members for calling the City Commissioners prior to the second Commission meeting in February to provide their opinions of the $100,000 seed money for Congress 3 MEETING MINUTES EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA MARCH 5, 1998 Middle School. She commended David Brownstein for speaking in defense of this expenditure during the City Commission meeting. Mr. Weinstein left the meeting at 7:00 p.m. Chairwoman Denahan acknowledged the presence in the audience of Shanna St. John, Chairwoman of the Advisory Board on Children and Youth. Vice Chairwoman Centi left the meeting. Crystal Lakes Elementary School No report Forest Park Elementary School Ms. DeVries advised that there have been two meetings since the last Education Advisory Board meeting. They are working on the School Improvement Plan. She circulated a copy of the Plan. Galaxy Elementary School No report Hagen Road Elementary School No report Lake Worth Christian School No report Lake Worth Community High School No report Poinciana Elementary School Chairwoman Denahan reported that brainstorming was in progress at Poinciana Elementary School this week. Rolling Green Elementary School Chairwoman Denahan reported that the SAC is trying to narrow the scope of goals to two. Santaluces High School Ms. Price reported that the objective plan was revised. There is a stabilization of 3,100 students and five new portables that will be filled. A new school nurse is now in place. Santaluces participated in “Food for Families” and collected approximately 6,000 pounds of food. In an effort to encourage the use of seat belts, a candy cane was given to everyone wearing a seat belt as they left the school. Santaluces accepted delivery of 20 new computers and laser printers. When a parent became concerned about not 4 MEETING MINUTES EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA MARCH 5, 1998 being informed about what is going on at school, a program was implemented whereby a newsletter is published and sent home to the parents advising them of programs in the school. Another parent expressed concern about the greeting that is recorded on the answering machine. Because of that complaint, the principal requested that the teachers identify themselves in the recorded greeting. B. Multi-Board Forum – January 30, 1998 Chairwoman Denahan thanked Vice Chairwoman Centi, and Messrs. Brownstein, Ehster, and Weinstein for representing the board at the Multi-Board Forum at City Hall in the Mall. She also commended Shanna St. John C. Charter Schools Opinion by David Weinstein This item was addressed earlier in the meeting. D. Education Advisory Board Goals Chairwoman Denahan expressed the importance of updating the board’s goals and is hopeful a revised edition of the goals can be developed prior to the next board meeting. She distributed copies of revisions she made to the goals without board approval. She advised that Vice Chairwoman Centi requested this item be tabled until the next meeting. VIII. NEW BUSINESS: A. G.A.L.A. The City advisory boards will share a table at the G.A.L.A. and will hand out pamphlets. All members are encouraged to sign up for a two-hour shift. She reminded the members that they could bring along a companion. Mrs. St. John advised that a survey would be prepared to disseminate to the public seeking input on issues of interest to them. Chairwoman Denahan thought it would be a good idea to have a show board to demonstrate the boards’ accomplishments. However, this is an idea that will be kept in mind for next year’s G.A.L.A. B. Updates on Explorations ’97 and megaskills by David Brownstein This is a cooperative effort developed by Motorola. It is an educational process whereby they strive to develop educational techniques in schools. They are working on an exploratory K-12 curriculum. There have been three meetings since the last board meeting and five critical areas of improvement in the education process have been identified. They are developing a game plan to work toward those goals. This will be a three to five year project because there are so many schools involved. In response to Chairwoman Denahan, Mr. Brownstein believes membership is confined to those involved in the schools. He was invited to participate. At the present time, Poinciana, Congress and Santaluces are involved in the process. At the beginning, the focus was to apply for an Annenberg grant. It is a $1.5 million grant and the requirement is that one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school are involved. 5 MEETING MINUTES EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA MARCH 5, 1998 Whether or not the grant is received, it has been determined that changes need to be made. Explorations ‘97 is committed to working on accomplishing those changes. One of the hurdles will be the feeder pattern. In order to prove the success of this, a clearly defined feeder pattern is needed. Motorola has assigned two full-time employees to work only on Explorations ‘97. The School District has done the same. Megaskills Mr. Brownstein advised that Dr. Dorothy Rich has identified 10 critical components of life-long learners. The megaskills program is one whereby a series of activities performed by children at home will bring these skills to the surface. A task would be showing a child how to bake a cake and showing the child that time management is critical. These are family type activities that bring the family closer together and instill these 10 qualities. Mr. Brownstein is a licensed megaskills facilitator and he has begun to work with Chairwoman Denahan to find money to provide test pilot programs in some of the schools in the Boynton Beach area. He is hoping to set up these programs in three or five schools. Chairwoman Denahan pointed out that Dawn Russell, Lannette Seabrook and Stephanie Murray would be present at the next meeting. She recommends discussing this program with them prior to the next meeting. Mr. Brownstein will provide literature on this program prior to the next meeting. C. School Improvement Plan Presentations Program Chairwoman Denahan reminded the members that this board discussed and approved the idea of a School Improvement Plan presentation. She attended the Delray Beach SAC presentation at the Tennis Center. Each school had ten minutes for their presentation. There are 12 schools that Boynton Beach children attend. The Woman’s Club has agreed to allow the Education Advisory Board to use the facility for this purpose. However, the Club will not be available on a weekend. Chairwoman Denahan offered to arrange a date for this event, but advised that she cannot undertake this project at this time. Mr. Brownstein agreed to contact the schools. Ms. Lewis believes the schools prefer making presentations to a group rather than having people moving from table to table. Mr. Brownstein explained that having to listen to 12 schools’ presentations is a very long process. Chairwoman Denahan suggested allowing the schools five minutes each for their presentations. Mr. Brownstein questioned whether the schools could adequately present their plans in that amount of time. Ms. St. John recommended setting it up like a fair and designating time slots for each of the schools so that parents are aware of the presentation time and can wander through the fair until the time of the presentation. Ms. Lewis recommended forming a committee to talk about how to make this event manageable while still accommodating all of the schools. Chairwoman Denahan, Ms. Lewis, Ms. DeVries and Ms. Price will contact schools and provide Mr. Brownstein with a contact person and phone number. Mr. Brownstein will contact Poinciana School and Galaxy Elementary School. He will also contact the Area I Supervisor to see if the date can be extended for the public presentation of the plans. 6 MEETING MINUTES EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA MARCH 5, 1998 Chairwoman Denahan recommended including the Explorations ‘97 representatives as invited guests. Ms. Lewis recommended beginning the program late in the afternoon and having it last for two or three hours. D. Future Speakers Chairwoman Denahan would like the board to begin exploring preschool development. She was of the opinion that the Advisory Board on Children & Youth was organized for the purpose of investigating preschools in the Boynton Beach area. She asked for an update from Mrs. St. John. Mrs. St. John explained that this has not been done since the 1980s. Child Resource and Referral can provide information about every daycare and preschool in Boynton Beach. Mr. Brownstein requested a status report on guidelines on what a four-year old child should know prior to entering Kindergarten. Mrs. St. John advised that the School Board has a list available. She recommended contacting any School Board member for a copy of what is required for every grade level. That list explained what a Kindergarten child is expected to know before entering Kindergarten and what that child will learn when Kindergarten is completed. IX. CORRESPONDENCE AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: A. High School Update th On the January 20 City Commission meeting, Virginia Farace provided the first high school update. On January 30th, Chairwoman Denahan participated in an event with many School Board members who agreed that Ms. Farace presented an accurate update. As of today, the schedule remains accurate. Mr. Hawkins advised that there might be some differences in the final dates after the meeting that is scheduled on March 16th. B. Boynton Beach Community High School Planning Forum and List of Invited Guests This was a very well organized forum. The facilitators were excellent. Anyone who attends is included and the community is encouraged to participate. Follow up information was included in the back-up material. The high school steering committee meetings are open to the public. C. World Class Schools Seminars are being provided on world-class schools. Anyone interested should contact the Chamber of Commerce. D. Advisory Board on Children and Youth 1. Youth Volunteer Bank Ms. St. John advised that an awards ceremony would be held on May 7th. The Advisory Board on Children & Youth fosters children who provide community service. Their hours are banked and they are recognized with awards at a banquet. There is $1,500 to be awarded in scholarship dollars. The Advisory Board on Children & Youth needs volunteers to help serve food, set up and clean up. There are currently 65 to 70 children enrolled in this program and it is anticipated that approximately 20 additional children from Santaluces will also enroll. This will be an ongoing program. The board is working with the United Way on developing ideas. They are hoping to get sponsorships to cover the cost of a small pin. 7 MEETING MINUTES EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA MARCH 5, 1998 2. Youth Council The Delray Beach Youth Council made a presentation to the Advisory Board on Children & Youth. Some research was compiled and is being transmitted to Virginia Farace. A mentor is ready to work with the children when this Council is established. The children in the Youth Bank will be the first to be targeted to join. The Delray Beach Youth Council is not an official part of the City of Delray Beach. However, they are funded through one of the City’s department at $1,000 per year. When the Council needs more money for a project, the City matches the funds. The Youth Council also conducts fundraisers. The Advisory Board on Children & Youth has done the background work on this item and is turning this information over to the City. Mentors are needed. The Youth Council in Delray Beach meets twice a month and approximately five to fifteen people attend those meetings. Ms. St. John reported that in Delray Beach, two members of the Youth Council attend Commission meetings to address items of interest to the youth of the City. Ms. DeVries and Ms. Price agreed to join the Youth Council. 3. Expo at Boynton Beach Mall – Fall ’98 Ms. St. John explained that a Youth Expo was conducted two years ago. The Expo included an art contest, and contests in creative writing and drama. There were also groups on stage. The board awarded savings bonds. The theme was multicultural. This year’s theme will be “Volunteer - Make a Difference”. Chairwoman Denahan reminded the members that the Education Advisory Board agreed to disseminate information on this Expo to the schools. Ms. St. John explained the importance of getting the information to the teachers and making sure the students know this Expo will take place. Chairwoman Denahan announced that Jeb Bush would be at Boynton Beach Leisureville on March 11th. She encouraged everyone to make an effort to meet Mr. Bush. Chairwoman Denahan read a letter from Dr. Voss of Rolling Green Elementary School thanking the Education Advisory Board for its commitment to education and for recognizing the efforts of the staff at Rolling Green Elementary School. Falechia Price announced that she would not be reapplying for membership to the board because she will be leaving for college. X. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the board, the meeting properly adjourned at 8:20 p.m. Janet M. Prainito Deputy City Clerk (Two Tapes) 9/26/08 4:24 PM \\ch\main\shrdata\cc\wp\minutes\eab\030598.doc 8