HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-04-01 Education Advisory Board Minutes CITY OF DANIA BEACH
EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD – DRAFT MINUTES 04/01/2024
SW COMMUNITY CENTER
230 S.W. 12th Avenue, Dania Beach, FL 33004
1st , April 2024 – 5:00 P.M.
Board Members:
Samantha Bostwick – Present
Mary Jane Guerra (Chair) – Absent (Excused)
Polly Jones - Present
Heidi Romer – Absent
Patricia Silva Magliocca – Present
Principal Tracy Jackson (Collins Elementary) - Present
Principal Lewis Jackson (Dania Elementary) – Absent
Principal Janet Giancarli (Olsen Middle School) – Absent
Interim Principal Galina Markevich (Dania Elementary) - Absent
Assistant Principal Chad Constantine (Olsen Middle School) – Absent
Alberlean Pollard – Administrative Coordinator for Parks & Recreation & Board Liaison
– Present
Guest:
Armando Arana (Governmental Affairs Coordinator – Legislative Affairs and Community
Relations) for Broward County Public Schools – Present
Louis Rosas-Guyon (Eureka-North Shore Masonic Lodge) - Present
I. Roll Call was taken & meeting was called to Order at 5:00 p.m.
II. Minutes: Approval of Minutes from February 5, 2024
A. Motion to Approve Patricia Silva Magliocca; 2nd: Polly Jones Mosley
- Board Member Magliocca made a correction to the minutes on page 3 changing RDT
to RBT (Registered Behavior Tech.).
III. Citizen Comments – None
IV. Old Business
A. Broward County School Board to advise if someone from Broward
County Community School can come into the board to advise what
programs are offered.
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- Mr. Armando Arana apologized for not responding sooner. He stated
that Parent Community Involvement is a task force which is an advisory
board. They have been operating for a long time. It meets after this
meeting tonight. There is one other program called Parent University
which they help kindergarten. They will be hosting Parent University on
April 8th (see attached Flyer). This meeting will talk about and discuss the
new system. It will address the new system Parent Portal.
- Principal Tracy Jackson added that Parent Portal will be a one-stop-shop
for everybody including parents and teachers. This is opposed to using all
the current systems like Virtual Counselor, Pinnacle, Turn, etc. It is good
that parents get acclimated to the system now because it goes into full
force at the beginning of the next school year. She thinks the District has
done a wonderful job phasing the different parts of it face-to-face.
- Mr. Armando Arana continued in stating the April 8th meeting will be
held at 6:30 p.m. and will provide an introduction to the new Focus
Student Information System which will replace Pinnacle and Virtual
Counselor. It will centralize all applications used by parents into one
District wide system incorporating attendance, gradebook, scheduled
report cards, transportation, and communication.
- Principal Tracy Jackson asked Food and Nutrition also? She stated she
has not heard that part.
- Board Member Magliocca asked how is the word getting out to all the
parents?
- Mr. Arana answered he believes this has already went out to parents right
before spring break. This message actually went out today via email,
mailouts, and broken test.
- Principal T. Jackson stated they have been sending it out.
- Mr. Arana stated he can send it to board liaison Abbey to circulate.
- Board Liaison Pollard responded sounds good.
- Principal T. Jackson introduced herself as the principal of Collins
Elementary. She mentioned she thinks their colleague here had a very
good point because the robot calls are getting out to parents. The staff
knows about it. Everybody in the District knows about it, but not the
community. People who don’t have children in there who may be looking
to come into Broward County. They need to know that these are taking
place as well. I know the hope is for us at the schools to pass that
information along. But we too are passing it along to our parental
community but not to people like Ms. Polly Jones, who is a community
advocate who can get it out to the community.
- Board Member Magliocca stated that is one of the challenges, sometimes
for the parents who get the robot call and the email; but somehow, they
just didn’t get it.
- Mr. Arana added it is ongoing for kindergarten event. We have to be
creative with putting this information out. Because he even saw if for his
child’s daycare where they sent out an email. He was like wow, he put
that into place.
- Board Member Magliocca added even if it’s three emails or whatever it
is. When Dania Elementary has their Parent Connections at their school
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for the parents and children with special needs, they send it out three, four,
and five times. I get a full house if I send it out twice.
- Mr. Arana added there’s social media and the municipalities and they’ve
engaged with the chamber of commerce. So, you know we’re doing our
best. If there’s specific ideas, we’re happy to hear them.
- Principal T. Jackson asked what do you think would be the best avenues
to get it out in the community?
- Mr. Arana asked if the city has a little flyer to add?
- Board Liaison Pollard advised Mr. Arana to reach out to the city’s
marketing manager to do a city-wide email blast. She informed him that
there is an approval process for all information distributed via the city.
Nannette Rodriguez, who is the city’s marketing person, is who you will
contact for information blast. I will send you an email with her contact
information.
- Mr. Arana stated for instance, the mayor of Plantation has a newsletter,
and he includes BCPS information.
- Board Liaison Pollard stated she thinks it is a great idea that Principal T.
Jackson mentioned to reach out to the Dania Beach Chamber of
Commerce as a means to get information out into the community and she
will email him the chamber’s contact information.
- Principal T. Jackson mentioned a lot of cities have ministerial alliances.
She knows its kind of touchy, but I do know that Superintendent Locata
does meet with several pastors, and she do believe that’d be a great avenue
to get the word out. We as the district, we have lost the “by any means
necessary” what avenues we have in order to expand our scope of
influence. So however, we can get the word out. We need to get the word
out.
- Mr. Arana thanked everyone for their ideas and suggestions. He
provided a copy of the BCPS, Redefining Our Schools, School Board
Workshop Part 1 PowerPoint slide for the meeting that was held on
03/20/2024. The objective was to recap the board directive, explain
repurposing options, review and discuss approach, summarize community
input, discuss criteria and considerations, and superintendent’s
recommendations.
- Board Liaison Pollard asked if the information collected on the parent
surveys, is that the data that BCPS are using to determine what schools are
going to be restructured?
- Mr. Arana stated yes, there’s the community conversations, questions,
and feedback. Data is there, it’s public.
- Board Liaison Pollard asked how likely is the parents and community
members feedback is considered during the consideration or objective of
closure of certain schools?
- Mr. Arana responded that is a good question. He doesn’t know how,
what weighs more than what because there’s just a number of factors that
he mentioned. He wants to mention since February, the City of Dania
Beach Mayor A.J. Ryan and City Manager Ana Garcia have also been
involved in participating directly in the school board with the
superintendents. He doesn’t know about the other commissioners and
council members, but he knows they’ve been involved and voicing their
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concerns. There have been conversations with the county as well. If they
are going to close some of the schools, maybe some of the land will be
sold or leased. There’s also a mix of things. There is conversation about
affordable housing for teachers. There is a lot in the mix and being
discussed. They are trying to make things that are public and available to
you. But to answer Ms. Pollard’s question, he really doesn’t know.
- Board Member Jones added if you’re gonna get the survey of the parents
and the community, the community is definitely going to want to see that
the school board is going to try to do their very best to try to keep the
schools and keep the community safe. And you know, for the
transportation and the movement of students. So, she’s pretty sure they
really want to make sure that the schools stay open. There’s a lot of
weight in that.
- Mr. Arana stated you can imagine the challenge when they are over 200
million in deficit. That is what 50,000 empty seats is. He brought the
presentation (see attached presentation). So here you can see, 50,000
empty seats that BCPS are paying for. It represents about $207 million in
the deficit.
- Board Member Magliocca asked do you think that the charter schools is
what mostly causing this?
- Principal T. Jackson stated she really do believe that.
- Mr. Arana stated even the students staying home. They think oh we can
get the money. He continued with the BCPS updates. There is a Regional
Monthly Newsletter (see attached) that regional superintendents are
providing now. There’s in terms of schools, school safety. He doesn’t
know if you saw but metal detectors were approved in the last board
meeting. So, during the summer, two (2) schools: Flannigan and
Taravella High Schools will be getting metal detectors. And there’s
another eighth level rollout of other high schools throughout the District
that will get metal detectors installed. The schools are also increasing the
random wands (hand metal detectors). BCPS partnered with Broward
Sheriff’s Office and did a stint of talking about the dangers of drugs and
alcohol in the community. This was at Plantation High School as well.
He doesn’t know if anyone saw the Vice President Kamala Harris visited
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on the 23rd and talked about gun
violence and all of that. So, to the forefront always safeties that they are
currently enforcing. He believes that is the word for it.
- Principal T. Jackson stated she believes that is the word.
- Mr. Arana responded right. How did that roll out?
- Principal T. Jackson responded it’s been good for them considering
they’ve only had three (3) students.
- Mr. Arana stated this is obviously a state mandate.
- Board Member Magliocca stated we had a few parents that the total
opposite.
- Mr. Arana stated it was in the 1000’s he believes, he doesn’t know the
exact number, but we just have to do it. Obviously, they’re allowed to go
into NACA with the waivers. Those are still religious and still allowed,
but we are enforcing. You’ll probably hear some reports tomorrow.
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BCPS continues to do parent surveys and that goes on until April 30th. Si
they encourage everyone to please do the surveys.
- Board Member Jones asked for copies.
- Board Liaison Pollard stated she can get copies.
- Mr. Arana stated he will send links. He mentioned he is not going to get
into the legislative session, but he hears the use the official report on the
laws, the budget, and the laws that were passed this session. He
mentioned three (3) fundings they received: $800,000 for adults with
disabilities program, $250,000 for athlete mentoring pilot program, and
$300,000 smart fast pilot project. BCPS on waited full time were the links
to funding increased to 15%. Number of new laws, the social media this is
not educational, but a child is under 14 years old – they are not allowed to
have a social media account. So, they’re working with the platforms is on
the laws called Online Protection of Minors. Also, HB1317 Patriotic
Organization authorizes school districts to provide patriotic organizations
with access to public schools. All of this one, they have to put it into
rulemaking. But these are just some of the things that are going to affect
BCPS. HB931, school chaplains authorize schools, school districts, and
charter schools to adopt policies along with volunteer school chaplains to
offer support and services to students. And while they’re at it, they can
share a look at the hotspots for members, as we call 64, history of
communism mandates instructional posts in public schools on the history
of chronic communism and establishes the institute for freedom in the
Americas and so forth.
- Board Member Magliocca asked the program for adults with disabilities,
what does that look like? What is that, like job coaching? Or just further
academic skills? Or like what is it about because that is a lot of money
allotted.
- Mr. Arana stated he believes it is for staff.
- Principal T. Jackson added let’s see this because in the service, they’re
going to get older and there’s that transition of how to understand their
own human behavior and how it connects with the world.
- Board Member Jones stated that is a lot of money.
- Board Member Magliocca stated it is and she just hopes it goes to what
it’s intended for.
- Principal T. Jackson continued with it would be nice for the District to
understand the influence that churches have. That is why she suggests for
them to always be apart of these conversations. They have people there
who are doctors, lawyers, etc. They’re looking for nice communities that
are helping to make their communities better. And when you have the
influence of the church, she thought of change, the impact of the church.
It really does matter. We just need to get the information out to as many
people as possible who can help to get our kids back.
- Mr. Arana stated at the end of the day they’re with the public, in part.
Absolutely. In terms of last time, he mentioned they are having the
elections on March 19th. So that came and everything went fine. Theyu
did have the elections in 93 schools, Olsen Middle School was one of the
schools. BCPS is currently promoting their partnership with the elections
department. They are promoting high school voter registration drive in all
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the high schools. The goal is that this year, we’re gonna register 10,000
students. So 15, 16, and 17 year olds can pre-register. 18-year-olds can
register (attached high school voter registration flyer and locations).
Here’s the press release, and the list of schools with the dates. This is
going on throughout the month of April.
- Board Member Jones asked 16 and 17 year olds can pre-register?
- Board Liaison Pollard asked if the students’ contact information is kept
in a database?
- Mr. Arana answered correct. This is kind of like a marketing campaign.
- Board Member Jones stated at 16 and 17 years old, they live with their
parents. Therefore, they are gonna be doing updates to addresses on the
phone.
- Mr. Arana stated so August 20th seems far away, but in the blink of an
eye it’ll be here. The primary elections will be full of law. Schools that
operated as precincts for March will operate on August 20th. For the
November elections, there is a teacher planning day.
- There was some conversation amongst the board about the age of the
pre-registering of teens.
- Board Liaison Pollard asked is it cross referencing the address that the
student registered school with? Like is it some kind of algorithm that
compares information?
- Board Member Jones stated she understands where you’re coming from
with the pre-registering because you got a lot of young adults at the age of
18 and 19 year olds that are not registered to vote. So, she can agree in
some parts about that.
- Mr. Arana said yes. So, just to close off some things on the calendar,
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month (see attached flyer) with a series
of activities that BCPS will have going on at some of the schools. It’s also
National Assistant Principals Week. They are very happy about. It is also
Food Waste Prevention Week.
- Board Member Magliocca stated that April is also Autism Awareness
Month.
- Mr. Arana continued with on April 5th at Broward College the Broward
Youth Policy Summit Expo will take place. This is an organization will
be hosted by Close Up Foundation and have been working together for a
number of years. BCPS partner with their colleagues that took students to
Tallahassee, but they have another program with this foundation that took
300 ESOL students to Tallahassee (see flyer attached).
V. New Business
A. Guest Speaker: Louis R. Guyon from Eureka-North Shore Masonic Lodge
- Mr. Louis Guyon introduced himself to the board. He mentioned he had
an opportunity to visit Collins Elementary for their fantastic anniversary
celebration and it was a wonderful time. He thought the children’s parade
was absolutely one of the most uplifting things. He agreed that the
situation with the playgrounds is not the worst he has ever seen, but they
are pretty bad. The playground looks like it was built about 34 years ago.
He has a committee looking at the different local building codes, statues,
laws, school board regulations, etc. He has another group looking at
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identifying financial sources, donating to donors, grants, etc. He’s
spearheading this one a little bit, well, shepherding he says, because he has
found this one to be particularly of interest. He had a very long
conversation with a child psychologist. And she very politely explained to
him that we invested in more of the same types of playgrounds, that would
be better off being set on fire in the middle of the parking lot. She
explained that these types of classic traditional playgrounds that you'll see
in schools deemed as “safe playgrounds” are developmentally one of the
worst things you can do. This is her statement. This caused him to kind of
do a little bit more digging, and he has learned that there's others in her
brain. He’s going to try and organize a conversation with a series of
different child development experts, get them together, and just to give
them a series of recommendations. And then see how we can get that to
jive with the laws of the state of Florida, the rules of the school board and
the law, and the building codes and all the other restrictions that we have.
The goal being that the difficulty is the traditional playgrounds that you
have even the small one, the smallest one will cost around $35,000. That's
without labor installation. That's just the boxes being delivered to Collins
Elementary, gotta pay men or women to build it, anchor it, and so on and
so forth. Plus, building permits, and there's a lot involved. What's
fascinating is that the one playground design that he’d seen recently is the
same on the child psychologists recommended playground in Portland,
Oregon. Which I don't remember the name off the top of his head. The
playground is actually more popular than the normal playground and no
more formal playground across the street. More kids actually prefer this
playground because it gives them a lot more freedom and a lot more risk
or perceived risk. He thinks it is a better way of describing it. The reason
why they're developmentally difficult is because risk assessments have
been taken out of them. Children don't develop because they're not forced
to adapt and adjust in a play environment to their environment. It's just the
same, you know, the same stairs, the same soft slide, the same little thing.
After a while there's no challenge. There's no interest in this and it's
actually counterproductive. This lady actually sent him a barrage of
papers showing how a lot of the different growing consensus about how a
lot of current cases - when I was a kid, they called it a hyperactive
disorder. When you're hyperactive and you're hyper ADHD. How they're
actually finding that a lot of ADHD may be linked to the overly safe play
and get hurt if they fall down. They can't get hurt if they do this. So, it’s
very interesting.
- Principal T. Jackson asked who is this psychologist?
- Mr. Guyon responded she is a child development, something down at
Pine Crest. Pine Crest is a private school in Dade County.
- Principal T. Jackson asked further what her credentials were?
- Mr. Guyon stated he is not aware, but he knows she is a psychologist.
He apologized for not having that information.
- Principal T. Jackson stated it is ok.
- Board Member Magliocca asked why can’t you just copy something that
has already been established and approved?
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- Principal T. Jackson added this depends on what the District wants to
see.
- Board Member Magliocca added don’t reinvent the wheel.
- Principal T. Jackson continued with she knows in the past they asked
were the playgrounds functional. And if the functional element can be
updated. So, the conversation is what can be put there in time for
students?
- Mr. Guyon responded that the good news is that the school board and the
state of Florida requirements on playgrounds are actually very variable.
There are no swings, nothing with chains, nothing with climbing nets,
nothing with spins – nothing that will end up causing broken arms and
things like that. Other than that, that’s the majority of the requirements.
They also require a sand pit and a few other little things. He described the
prior example playground. It’s not that complicated in the environment.
But he doesn’t see how that costs $35,000 even if you’re really trying.
- Principal T. Jackson thanks Mr. Guyon for his efforts. Maybe what they
can do is have another time to discuss it. She understands what Mr.
Guyon is saying about the psychological piece of it because today’s child
is very different than when we were children. And each child requires an
extra element of this. That makes sense. When we were children, we
were more collaborative. But today’s child can be collaborative, and by
themselves. Because the science, the way science and technology has
come into our lifestyle, she just wants to make sure they have a
playground that allows children to just discover play.
- Mr. Guyon added that is the goal without breaking the bank. The
ultimate goal has shifted to starting an even longer conversation with the
lodge. Their goal is to hopefully deliver frogs and then package this
concept and spread it to other Masonic lodges all over the country and
throughout the state of Florida to take over the maintenance of
playgrounds. He has a team at Broward College right now of students
working on six or seven different designs within certain parameters and
certain regulations. He just gave them a list of ideas to run with to see
what they can come up with.
- Board Member Magliocca suggested maybe Mr. Guyon can get some
ideas from their playground at Dania Elementary. They are renovating the
pre-K playground right now. So, she is not sure what the big deal is about.
- Mr. Guyon responded with a terrible statistic that he saw is that over
50% of the school country does not have good quality, serviceable, safe
playgrounds which is staggering.
- Principal T. Jackson added that our children now don’t know how to
play.
- There was conversation amongst the board recalling childhood memories
on playgrounds and free play as a child.
B. Board members to vote for a board co-chair (moved to May 6, 2024, EAB
agenda)
C. Planning for Teacher Appreciation Week
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- Board Liaison Pollard asked the board to think about some ideas and
suggestions for Teacher Appreciation Week and bring those to the next
meeting.
- Board Member Magliocca asked is it about Teacher Appreciation Week
or the ceremony that the board does for the teachers?
- Board Liaison Pollard responded whatever ideas you as the board may
have and what you would like to do to honor those teachers.
- Principal T. Jackson added it would be nice if we could offer our
teachers something where they would get 10% off at Hobby Lobby or
restaurants, movie theaters, etc. If they could do something like a special
passport that they could use in Dania Pointe from May 1st to May 31st.
Just something to show appreciation to those teachers.
- Board Member Jones wanted to add a guest Stacia Delgado who has an
organization called Equal Path to the next EAB agenda.
- Board Liaison Pollard asked Ms. Jones to email the information.
- Principal T. Jackson stated that Dania is a part of the South Broward, all
schools in Dania Beach are a part of the Hollywood Hills and South
Broward High School zone. They are getting ready for their iZone Parent
meeting which is all tracking transition in Broward County. What is going
to happen in this meeting is to give parents insight into what is going to
happen next year with teaching and learning on all levels. So, thinking
about Stacia, she might be able to be a part of that. Principal T. Jackson
can talk to Alex Francios, who is the principal at South Broward about her
being a part of it to see if there is some way they can fit her in. She will
forward to Ms. Jones a copy of the flyer. It is scheduled for Tuesday,
April 23rd at 6:00 p.m. at Awesome Olsen Middle School.
- Board Liaison Pollard stated once she receives the information/flyers, all
will be included in these minutes.
- Board Member Jones asked which school was having Career Day
because she can ask Stacia to come speak there too.
- Board Member Magliocca answered Dania Elementary, and she can ask
Principal Lewis Jackson.
D. Steps for the board to take to address the “Redefining Our Schools”
initiative by Broward County Public Schools (moved to May 6, 2024,
EAB agenda)
VI. Discussion/Action –
- Board Liaison Pollard asked the board if there were any further discussions.
- Board Member Magliocca asked about the beach clean-up for Earth Day. She
mentioned that she wanted to something for Autism Awareness tied into Earth Day.
- Board Liaison Pollard stated she would email her the contact information.
- Mr. Guyon stated he wanted to honor teachers with a gift certificate or something.
- Board Liaison Pollard stated she would provide him the names of those teachers via
email.
- Board Liaison Pollard asked was there anything further from the board.
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▪ Meeting Adjourned: 6:15 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Alberlean S.L. Pollard “Abbey”
Parks & Recreation, Administrative Coordinator II and Board Liaison