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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes EAB 111898a CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS EDUCATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD CITY HALL — 7:30 P.M November 18, 1998 _ I. Call to order %% Eileen Stephenson, Building Dept. �. % H. Listing of those present (5 minutes) 7:35 III. Approval of minutes from the last regular meeting (5 minutes) 7:40 IV. Guest Speaker – Dr. Cover, Principal of Allamanda Elementary (20 Minutes) 8:00 �d V. Committee reports (20 minutes) 8:20 S; D& A. Public Liaison - Mary B. Boundaries - Ron C. Curriculum – Al D. Partnership – Leslie E. Membership – Eric VI. SAC Member Reports (40 minutes) 9:00 19,"4Z • A. Allamanda Elementary – Lisa/Wayne B. Palm Beach Gardens Elementary – Allen/Anne q : 00 C. Timber Trace Elementary - Ron 9 01 D. H.L. Watkins Middle - Mary 9 0 S' E. Watson B. Duncan Middle - F. School of the Arts Middle - Jan q e D? G. Palm Beach Gardens High – Scott/Leslie q., 09 H. William T. Dwyer High – Ilene/Jordan ._. I. Suncoast High - — J. Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr. School of the Arts - Eric q ,.2 D K. School Board Report - VII. Old Business (15 minutes) 9:15 Ci . a S® VIII. New Business (30 minutes) 9:45 q A. School uniforms – Alan Sara IR. 3 (g B. Using past members as dresource for our Board q ; 37 C. Guest speaker for next meeting - D. Date for next meeting – December 9, 1998 E. Other business q'. Lt 0 IX. Adjournment 9:45 R; q5 w; • CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD NOVEMBER 18, 1998 The November 18, 1998, Regular meeting of the City of Palm Beach Gardens Education Advisory Board was called to order at 7:30 P.M. in the Council Chambers of the Municipal Complex located at 10500 North Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The roll was called and the following members were found to be in attendance: Alan Adams, Chair Wayne Anderson, Anne Berg, Scott Blake, Mary Inglis, Vice Chair Leslie Millar, Murtaza Kakli, Jan Porter, Ron Sedaka, and Alan Sara. Two student members, Adam Allgood and Jordan Everett, and City Council Liaison Eric Jablin were also present. Absent from the meeting were Monika Adams, Ilene Gerber, Nona Helsel, Deborah Martel, George Mastics, Lisa Ridgely, Karen Robinson, and Tesula Stewart. Chair Anderson announced that the Board was honoring retiring Board Members. Alan Adams reviewed the history of the Board and explained that the experience he had gained working on the Board would allow him to continue working at a district level. Mr. Adams urged the Board to contact him if he could help them in any way. Mary Inglis, another retiring Board member, was present. City Council Liaison Eric Jablin thanked Board members Alan Adams, Monika Adams, and Mary Inglis for their work and presented each with a certificate of appreciation. It was announced that refreshments had been provided by Mrs. Jablin. Cindy Harvey, Administrative Assistant to the City Manager, distributed information regarding dates each member of the Board had begun their terms and their expiration dates, and explained corrections that had been made. During ensuing discussion, City Manager Herakovich commented that the City planned to evaluate all advisory boards to make terms uniform. Mr. Adams expressed his opinion that most of the confusion had resulted from members filling unexpired terms. The Board took a short break for refreshments. The minutes of the October 14, 1998 meeting were reviewed. The following changes were requested: Mr. Blake requested that on page 7 wording be changed from "funding had been received to allow two staff members to work extended hours" to "funding had • been received to allow two staff members to work from 1 to 5 p.m." Alan Adams requested that on page 5 the word "forum" be changed to "quorum ". Scott Blake • City of Palm Beach Gardens Education Advisory Board November 18, 1998 Page 2 made a motion to approve the minutes of the October 14, 1998 meeting as amended. Ron Sedaka seconded the motion, which carried by unanimous vote. Chair Anderson reminded the members who made and seconded motions to state their names, and explained there would be no guest speaker at tonight's meeting. Public Liaison Committee Re oo Chair of the Public Liaison Committee Mary Inglis reported that the committee had met and reviewed suggestions for sustaining the Board, had submitted articles to��ur weekly papers, had sent a thank -you note to Amelia Astrotsky, and had called ee e to remind them of tonight's meeting. Chair Anderson commented that additional members were needed for this Committee. Jordan Everett volunteered to serve. Chair of the Boundary Committee Ron Sedaka requested that a report be given by Scott Blake, who had attended a meeting held the previous day regarding a concurrency agreement proposed by Leo Noble for the public school system. Mr. Blake reported Board representatives had been assured that the goals of all involved entities were the same as theirs, and had been comfortable with the proposed agreement. City Councilman Eric Jablin reported that the proposed agreement would be presented at a public meeting scheduled for November 30 at 3 p.m. at the School Board. rr a •uu M :-.•r Curriculum Committee Chair Alan Adams reported that the committee had met and elected a Chair, Wayne Anderson, and had formulated a plan for the Committee for the coming year, which would be presented to the Board for review. Business School Partner shi,� • Vice Chair Leslie Millar reported she was, working with the new manager of R. J. City of Palm Beach Gardens 18 Education Advisory Board November 18, 1998 Page 3 Gators and was asking them to participate with all Palm Beach Gardens schools. Vice Chair Millar reported six students with coupons had contacted Lens Crafters at Palm Beach Gardens Mall and that the Gardens Mall Lens Crafters had also provided glasses in an emergency to a student at the school where she worked. Ms. Millar explained that all school principals had been contacted regarding this program, and requested that Board members remind school principals to have all children in their schools complete the eye screening program. "Gift of Sight" containers were to be placed in schools to collect old or broken glasses which could be donated to those who could use them. Chair Anderson explained the business school partnership program. Membership Committee City Council Liaison Eric Jablin reported eight regular members were present plus students which counted as one, and ten were absent, and solicited ideas for the desired • number of Board members. Discussion ensued. A suggestion was made to interview and add volunteers to the Board as they were available and not to wait until several had applied. Concern was expressed regarding having a quorum. Support was expressed by several members to keep the current 19 board positions to fill the need to have a representative on each SAC, to add North Tech to the SAC list, to have more than three people on each standing committee to distribute the work load, and to have an active Board. City Council Liaison Jablin suggested raising the number of alternates from the present four to six and lowering the number of regular members from the present fifteen to thirteen in order to make the number required for a quorum less. Ron Sedaka made a motion to lower the number of regular members from fifteen to thirteen and to increase the number of alternate members from four to six. Jan Porter seconded the motion. City Council Liaison Jablin clarified that this motion would lower the number required for a quorum from eight to seven. Motion carried by unanimous vote. Council Liaison Jablin stated he would present this request to the City Council for approval. Chair Anderson explained that Board actions must be approved by the City before becoming effective. • City Council Liaison Jablin explained that he and the Chairman would conduct • City of Palm Beach Gardens Education Advisory Board November 18, 1998 Page 4 interviews and requested the Vice Chair to sit in. Recent applicants were discussed. All interested students were asked to fill out a form to serve on the Board. It was reported that letters were sent to members who had missed three or more consecutive meetings, and Lisa Ridgely, Tesula Stuart, and Karen Robinson had resigned. Nona Hensel had been out of the country and would be contacted upon her return to see if she wanted to remain as a member of the Board. Retiring members Alan Adams and Mary Inglis were announced, as well as members Monika Adams and Deborah Martel who had resigned. City Council Liaison Jablin explained he always recommended to the City Council to move alternates into regular board positions as regular positions became available; and that he had requested standardization of all advisory board terms or that exceptions be noted in an Ordinance. Jan Porter requested a written addition to the Board's documents that people would be added to the Board as positions became available rather than waiting for several people • to volunteer. Chair Anderson explained that he would stress during interviews that Board members needed to be active on SACs, and reviewed the Board members and their present SAC assignments. Chair Anderson requested a volunteer to monitor the televised broadcast of School Board meetings. It was recommended that a floating committee be established to attend SAC meetings at magnet schools when they had a problem; and Chair Anderson advised he would request copies of SAC meeting minutes from magnet schools and other schools which did not have a representative from this Board. A student from Suncoast volunteered to serve on the Suncoast SAC. SAC Committee Reports Chair Anderson reported the Allamanda SAC had met, and had discussed last year's reading program in which volunteer student Board members had tutored students, whose scores had risen 50 %. Four to eight dependable students were needed for this year's program. Details of the program were discussed and reviewed for the benefit of the students present. Chair Anderson reported Allamanda was setting up its third computer lab in the past two years, and was working out a safety program for car pick- ups. Chair Anderson reported Riviera Beach planned to build a new elementary school • within two years and wanted Riviera Beach students now attending Palm Beach • City of Palm Beach Gardens Education Advisory Board November 18, 1998 Page 5 Gardens schools brought back to their own neighborhood, which would lower student capacities in Timber Trace, Palm Beach Gardens Elementary, and Allamanda. Chair Anderson recommended that the Boundary committee monitor this situation, which could be a problem for Allamanda, so that boundaries might need to be changed in the future. Mr. Adams reported Palm Beach Gardens Elementary SAC had met and discussed providing new reading programs for quartile one students. ' IS Mr. Sedaka reported Timb+ace ]Elementary SAC had met and had reviewed dkeir school improvement plan and goal report. The existing peak hour traffic problems had been discussed, representatives from the Police Department had attended and provided input, and improvement had been made by police directing traffic in the morning and afternoon. Plans were made to adjust the traffic light and designate turn lanes. Other safety issues had been discussed and addressed by the Police Department. Mary Inglis reported she had been unable to attend the SAC meeting at Howell Watkins Middle School, but reported the letters soliciting Education Advisory Board members had been placed on the agenda and distributed. Ms. Inglis commented this was a good SAC to serve one and they had been very appreciative when she had attended. Chair Anderson reported he had contacted a new Duncan Middle School SAC member who might be interested in joining the Board and had also handed out applications at Allamanda. Jan Porter suggested high school starting times be earlier than those of elementary schools. During discussion it was pointed out that some already had the starting times she recommended and they were not possible at other schools because of bussing. Ms. Porter reported Middle School of the Arts SAC had met and discussed how their students were accepted into high school, and that they wished to have automatic acceptance of all their students. Roberts Rules had been discussed and it had been • decided to refer topics brought up at meetings to a committee instead of addressing City of Palm Beach Gardens Education Advisory Board November 18, 1998 Page 6 them at the meeting. Leslie Millar reported she had attended the Palm Beach Gardens High School SAC meeting, and the gathering storm report had been discussed, and a decision made to have a core group review their school improvement plan to determine whether revisions were needed to agree with the gathering storm report. Ms. Millar reported discussion of 805 referrals during the first nine weeks of school, with 450 of those attributed to the 9th grade, which the principal had assured the SAC were not a major problem. Ms. Millar reported she had prepared a flyer announcing the meeting and felt it had resulted in more parent participation. Scott Blake expressed his opinion that opposition was not toward the intent of the gathering storm, which was to raise student achievement, but only toward the vehicle chosen by Dr. Kowel to collect the information. Language changed in objectives was reported as well as changes in strategies. Alan Adams • reported the same thing had been discussed at their SAC but no objectives had been changed, only strategies added. No representative was present for the Dwyer High School SAC or Suncoast SAC. Mr. Jablin reported he had attended the Dryfoos School of the Arts SAC meeting, where there had been discussion regarding lack of preparedness of 9th grade students from the Middle School. Lack of a proper TV studio for Communications students and ways to obtain a new studio was also discussed. Mr. Jablin volunteered to attend the Duncan SAC meetings. Andrea Kenneth requested a list of SAC meeting times, which Chair Anderson stated he would provide. Mr. Adams reported the School Board had installed new Board members, who had actively participated during the meeting, and elected Sandra Richmond as Chair and Tom Lynch as Vice Chair. RA I: _W1 19 There was no old business to come before the Board. • City of Palm Beach Gardens Education Advisory Board November 18, 1998 Page 7 Alan Sara reported a drastic reduction in vandalism, other crimes and discipline problems within a year at various schools around the country as a result of instituting a program requiring school uniforms. A voluntary program at one school which had not worked well was discussed. Pros and cons were discussed, including how requiring uniforms could be enforced. The majority of students present favored uniforms; however, one expressed his opinion that voluntary programs would not work and another expressed her opinion that some students would not like uniforms. A criticism was that an opt out policy must be provided for students because of the ACLU, and it was pointed out that students who objected to uniforms because they could not express their creativity could express it in other ways, and also that uniforms might not be appropriate for certain schools. Chair Anderson reported some schools • were presently looking into this issue. It was stated that the School Board's policy on uniforms was that it was up to the schools. Chair Anderson announced that Allamanda School Principal Dr. Cover would be Guest Speaker for the next meeting on December 9, 1998. Mary Inglis volunteered to call the members of the Board to remind them of the meeting and to contact Jordan Everett to see if she could call the students. A request was made to place on the agenda for the next meeting discussion regarding adding more schools to the ten already on the school list, and to add an agenda item for Board member's comments before adjournment. Mr. Kakh volunteered to take Mary Inglis' place as representative on the Howell Watkins SAC. Mr. Sedaka cautioned against giving student representatives too many jobs which could lead to bum -out. Mary Inglis suggested that Alan Adams could be on the membership interview committee even though he was retiring from the Board, and that she would also be willing to do that. Mr. Adams cautioned against not keeping the students busy enough, and suggested a contact Board member for the students. Leslie Millar volunteered to be the liaison for the students. • City Council Liaison Jablin thanked the retiring Board members for their service and • City of Palm Beach Gardens Education Advisory Board November 18, 1998 Page 8 encouraged them to attend future meetings and participate. Appreciation was expressed to the students for their participation and new students were encouraged to participate in the future. There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m. 0 0