Loading...
Minutes 03-04-04 MINUTES OF THE EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING HELD IN THE LIBRARY PROGRAM ROOM, 208 SOUTH SEACREST BOULEVARD, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ON THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2004 AT 6:00 P.M. Present Beverly Agee, Chairperson Jean Cairo, Vice Chairperson Lillian Artis Joan Pleasants Floyd Beil, Voting Alternate Absent Jacqueline "Kelly" Daniels Erica Hammond Phyllis Pacilli, Voting Alternate Kyle Dencker, Student Virginia Farace, Board Liaison I. Pledge Chairperson Agee called the meeting to order at 6:20 p.m. and led members in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. II. Roll Call The Recording Secretary called the roll and declared that a quorum was present. III. Welcome Chair Agee welcomed Ms. Stephanie R. Stewart, Community Organizer for the Community Alliance for Reform in Education (CARE). IV. Minutes - February 5, 2004 There was some question about whether the minutes had actually been sent out, although Dr. Bell received them. The Recording Secretary will arrange to send them out again and this item will be put on the agenda for the next meeting. V. Public Audience None Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida March 4, 2004 VI. Chair's Report Chair Agee introduced Ms. Stephanie R. Stewart, Community Organizer for the Community Alliance for Reform in Education (CARE), who gave a presentation on the zero tolerance policies regarding misbehavior being implemented in various school districts today. Through these policies, children are being arrested and put into the juvenile justice system for minor offenses. They are not talking about the cases where the children are actually chronic behavior problems. CARE is trying to increase community awareness about this problem and hopes to eventually effect positive changes in the School District. CARE has managed to obtain the pertinent arrest statistics and now needs to match the statistics with the names, faces, and stories behind them. Ms. Cairo asked if the names of the children would be used and Ms. Stewart indicated that they would not. They are in the information-gathering phase of their project and hope to obtain referrals for stories. At the end of the project period CARE will work with the school districts to, hopefully, effect change in subject policies. They are interested in such things as, 1) the way students are questioned after getting in trouble, 2) the presence of a parent during questioning of students, and 3) how the SAC Committees at each school can get involved. In the Palm Beach County School District, between the years 1999 and 2000, there was an arrest rate of 11%. There were 1287 arrests during the period, mostly for fights and miscellaneous infractions, which includes disorderly conduct and disruption. :Instead of teaching conflict resolution skills and trying to de-escalate issues, the kids are just arrested. It is like a police state. Ms. Stewart offered some examples: 1) A 15-year old boy carrying an egg in his pocket was charged with a felony, carrying a deadly missile), and 2) A six year old received trespass charges for cutting across school property after hours. :In yet another example, Ms. Stewart stated that a young man, who speaks English as a second language, was walking in a hall at a high school. He got shoved and fell down the stairs and was doing nothing. He fell into a teacher who was at the bottom of the stairs. The Police Officer called to the scene encouraged the teacher to press charges against the child. The child has a record and can't communicate too well. When this sort of thing happens now, children are taken into a room and questioned and the parent is not always called. Ms. Pleasants stated that the Montessori school at which she teaches, Spady Elementary, has a very active conflict resolution/peace program. Still, there are times when there is a problem with bullying and so forth. However, if a student is violent on a 2 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida March 4, 2004 repetitive basis, something has to be done. She thought it was important to stop the problem before it gets started. Ms. Stewart talked about in-school suspension. Ms. Farace recalled the very good program that the FAB had supported that lost its funding. As a means of furthering her work, the Board suggested that Ms. Stewart take a booth at the South Florida Parenting Fair being held on April 24 and 25. She was also referred to the Recreation & Park Department and the Advisory Board on Children & Youth in regard to getting the youth recruits she is looking for. Also, Chair Agee suggested that the Board members raise this issue at their SAC meetings to determine which schools have the zero tolerance policy or something similar. Ms. Stewart thought that the SACS could possibly set up subcommittees that would monitor referrals to the school police so patterns could come to light. Various people mentioned the tracking systems in place at local schools regarding incidents of fights and other behavior issues. It seems that the interpretation of the tracking system reports differs from school to school. Chair Agee asked Ms. Stewart to update the Board on her progress and thanked her for bringing this matter into focus. FCAT Commissioner McKoy has a copy of the FAB's resolution pertaining to FCAT and asked Ms. Farace to E-mail it to the League of Cities to someone who wants to use it and present it. Ms. Farace will ask them to E-mail her with any changes they might make to it. The League will probably disperse it to all the cities and use it for the State. They also learned that on Tuesday, St. Johns Missionary Baptist Church had a busload of people going up to Tallahassee to lobby against FCAT. Ms. Farace stated that the FAB had done a great job with the FCAT issue. Ms. Cairo thought it was important to stay on top of this for the next year and commit to it. Board Applications Chair Agee stated that the applications for Board members whose terms were expiring were due before the end of March. Members were encouraged to solicit new members for the FAB. Merging the Boards Ms. Farace thought that if the FAB lost its identity and focus on education through a merging of the Boards, that it would not be a good thing for education in Boynton Beach. She mentioned that other cities were starting up Education Advisory Boards, and Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida March 4, 2004 not "diluting" them. The EAB has a full agenda as it is and can barely get through it in the allotted time. A discussion of the consolidation of the non quasi-judicial boards is on the Future Agenda Items for the City Commission. Ms. Cairo thought that if each of the combined boards were to have their own subcommittees, the end result would be the same as it is now. Ms. Farace hoped that the City would look at making some adjustments to the charter of the EAB that would help them in the administration of its task, such as: 1) reducing the requirement for a quorum to a simple majority like other Boards, 2) allowing persons with students in the Boynton Beach schools to be full board members and not just alternates. She thought it would be useful to allow businesspeople to serve, whether they had children in the schools or not. These changes alone would make a big difference. VII. City Liaison Report-Virginia Farace Modernization of Galaxy The modernization of Galaxy Elementary School was discussed. Ms. Artis explained that she had been at a School Board meeting on Monday with Ms. Farace, Commissioner McKoy, the City Manager, and Sara Williams. They talked about the need at Galaxy and the fact that it was misplaced on the list due to an error in its age. It was pointed out, however, that there were other schools that had been misplaced on the list also. It ended up that another presentation would be made to the Board so that Galaxy can be moved up on the modernization list, even though this would still mean about 7 years before it could be done. Ms. Farace stated that there had been a little piece in the newspaper that City and community leaders had presented their points of view and made some impact at this meeting. South Technical Community High School Ms. Farace learned at a School Board workshop that South Tech would not be sharing its site with the Delray Full Service School, which will stay in Delray Beach at its current location. It is unknown at this time whether Village Academy will go through the 12th grade. South Tech is still working out the specific agreement for the conversion. The District is trying to standardize the agreements for all the conversion charter schools. West Boynton Beach High School West Boynton Beach High School is behind schedule. There is some concern about whether it will be ready to take on 2000 students in August of this year. 4 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida March 4, 2004 Sunshine Law/Public Records A presentation on this topic was given at the EAB's last meeting. The Board had asked Attorney David Tolces to verify the fact that all meetings had to be in the sunshine. Attorney Tolces addressed a letter to Ms. Farace saying that "whenever two or more members of the same board gather to perform any function related to the board's dut/es, the meet/ng /s subject to the Sunsh/ne Law. Consequent/y, the meet/ng must be open to the pub#c, properly not/ced, and m/nutes must be taken." The Board discussed the constraints imposed by the Sunshine Law on their committee work when doing projects such as Principal for a Day. ]:t was decided that this was an important program that is covered under the mission statement of "engaging the community," and the Commission and the EAB are in agreement that it should be done. The EAB decided to continue this program, observing all necessary Sunshine Law requirements. Chair Agee will revisit the Sunshine Law and speak with Attorney Tolces again for clarification of the position on things such as two members getting together to stuff envelopes, for example. She will report back to the Board at its April meeting. Read Together Palm Beach County Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Ms. Farace reported that Governor Bush had also chosen this book for Read Together Florida. She had three copies of it for anyone who might wish to make a donation to the Friends of the Library so they could have a book of their own. The first discussion group will take place at the Library at the Literacy Coalition Luncheon on March 12. On March i9 at the Library the American Association of University Women will be leading a book discussion. On the first Saturday of April, the African-American Book Club will be discussing the book. Ms. Farace suggested reading it out loud since the dialect was a little difficult to get used to. She said there were some lyrical and poetical passages in it that were well worth reading. Chair Agee read a passage from the grandmother when she said to .lanie, "Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy .lanie, I'm a cracked plate." The Board will have a brief discussion of the book on April I at its meeting. VIII. Principal for a Day Program Earlier in the meeting the Board had decided to continue its effort on the Principal for a Day program. Ms. Cairo said that in following up on this with Forest Park Elementary, their Principal for a Day, Kenneth Gary, had sent them lots of books and computer programs. They were very pleased. 5 Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida March 4, 2004 Ms. Cairo said she was invited to be a judge for the science fair for Boynton Beach Charter School next week. South Florida Parenting Party Ms. Cairo said she needed some more applications. Forest Park said they did not get them and Galaxy did not know anything about it. Ms. Pleasants will give the information to Crosspointe in the morning. Ms. Cairo will put the pictures from PFD on an easel to display at this event. Ms. Farace reported that Boynton Beach High School would be participating in this, although she was not sure whether it would be as entertainment or for a booth. Dr. Beil reported that Citrus Cove Elementary and the Survivor Charter School would be participating also. Citrus Cove has cheerleaders that will perform. Ms. Artis gave Galaxy Elementary the information. Ms. Cairo asked about the Charter School and thought that perhaps they could have their science fair winner or something. Ms. Farace reminded people that Doug Dennison wanted to hear from someone about this on his radio show. Ms. Cairo agreed to contact Mr. Dennison. Chair Agee stated that there was one more meeting before the April 24-25 event. SAC Reports Chair Agee said that Dr. Beil always did his SAC reports in writing, as requested. Dr. Beil said that the EAB was supposed to be a conduit between the schools and the Commission. He hoped the Board could re-emphasize its focus on this aspect of its activities. Ms. Farace asked if anyone wanted to undertake the writing of an article about SACS and the importance of serving on them. The article would explain what SACS were and how people were very much needed to serve on them. Ms. Farace will submit this to the City newsletter that gets mailed to everyone's home. Ms. Pleasants said that people felt that they were going to a meeting of administrators and teachers making decisions about things. Part of the problem is that it was not parent-run. They did not feel there was a "place" for them in the SACS. Meeting Minutes Education Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida March 4, 2004 Dr. Bell mentioned Citrus Cove's Expansion Plan. They were originally going to re-do Citrus Cove, but then they were told that the new school would relieve the pressure on them and they would not need to expand. The SAC got in an uproar and said they needed it. Ms. Pistey, SAC Chair, sent a letter from the SAC to Mr. Sanchez to that effect and now he is coming to the school's next SAC meeting to discuss this. Ms. Farace said that compared to Galaxy, Citrus Cove was a new school, since it was built in the 70's and Galaxy was built in the 50's. New Busines.______~s · Class Size Reduction Ms. Cairo stated that the citizens did not want the State to make any changes to the Class Size Reduction Amendment. :In the State of the State address, they spoke of bringing up legislation that would make it more difficult for grass-roots and community- based groups to ratify the laws. Chair Agee mentioned that the State was considering: l) requiring a larger number of signatures on ballot initiatives, 2) not allowing paid signature gatherers, and 3) requiring an impact statement on all ballot petitions. Chair Agee wanted the Board to collectively keep an eye on this issue. ]:X. Adjournment Since there was no further business before the Board, the meeting was duly adjourned at 8:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Susan Collins Recording Secretary (o3o9o4)