Education Advisory Board Meeting - September 17, 2009

The Education Advisory Board met on Thursday Sept. 17th in the Commission Chambers.  There was a Quorum & the Chair Jacqueline Ackerina welcomed a new member John Sykes.

The first discussion was the addition of a student member to join EAB. This has been discussed before but no decision had been made. It was approved to add a student from each of the 3 Ft Lauderdale High Schools to serve 3 month terms on a rotating basis. The student should be a Junior on either Student Council or other activity specified by the Principal or Guidance Councilor. The student should participate in the meeting, bring info from the school & report back to the school info from the meeting. Representatives were selected to contact each school.
Bill Borawski  Stranahan
Dr. Maureen Persi  Dillard
Lillian Small  Ft.Lauderdale

They will try & get this all approved by the October meeting.

The next item for discussion was the 3 adopted schools & the committees who had volunteered to work with each.
Sunland Park- Lu Dreamer, chair had met with the Principal & had some suggestions as to helping the school. Ms. Allen the Principal had attended the school so is aware of the needs of this school. This is a school with a dictated curriculum & has an accelerated program for reading & math. They need board games in good condition, checkers dominoes,hula hoops,balls & such equipment. The students can earn goodie points & redeem them at the Goodie Store. Items there can be pencils, erasers, or small items such as those you could get from Oriental Trader. They were happy to say a student from American Heritage School had adopted them & donated back packs & school supplies. Now that she has an idea what can be done ,the committee .Bill Borawski, Dr. Persi, Laura Clark,& Linda Cooke will try to arrange some type of meeting with staff in October.

Lauderdale Manors- chair is Lillian Small with Edna Elijah.   They did not have a report as yet.
Arthur Ashe-chair is Dr. Magdalene Lewis with Lillian Small. They have had no luck as yet meeting with the new Principal.

The next item for discussion was a presentation last month by Kapow Learning for Success. The Board had wished to look into this further before they made a recommendation to the Commission. After much discussion. it was agreed not to advise Commission for budget consideration on this item.
Report from Charles Webster,BCPS Liaison- He announced a student died this morning at West Broward High. he hit a tree  & was killed. A sad day at the school.
He reported that the Million Dads March last month had 36,785 Dads participating which was a record. The National PTA President was in attendance who was a good influence. He hopes this is an indication that Dads will realize the importance of helping with schools He was happy to announce that Broward Schools had not won the $million dollars for Urban Education but did receive $250,000 in scholarship for graduating seniors. The school in Houston that won had been a 4 time finalist for the award. Broward is looking forward to next year but it is an honor to be considered & to be  a finalist.
The Chair Ms. Ackerina reported that there is to be an Education Summit in Hollywood on Sept 26 at McNichol High School from 6-9. It is sponsored by Hollywood & the African American Council.
Staff Liaison, Julie Richards brought greetings from Mayor Seiler to attend Dolphin Day on Sept 18th from 4:30-8:00 There was quite a discussion on the Sunshine Law & how sub committees can meet. Julie Richards had given copies of the Law by email to all the members previously. There were still questions which she will get answers before the next meeting especially for the groups who have been formed for the individual schools need to get together. It has tentatively been decided to meet prior to next meeting if space is available & if a transcriber is available.
The meeting adjourned at 8:20