Showing posts with label education policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education policy. Show all posts

Thursday, October 3, 2013

What will Peter Deutsch do Thursday night to try to win over angry Hollywood neighbors/residents who want no part of any Doral Ben Gamla Preparatory Academy in their neighborhood -or the arrogant Ben Gamla parents and their galling sense of entitlement and antipathy towards others? My educated guess is that Deutsch doubles down and is as arrogant as ever

"The turnout was very passionate on both sides," Hernandez said after the meeting. "The parents from the school seem to have had a plan, and that was to hijack the town hall meeting in order to bring their point across, discarding the many concerns from the district's neighborhoods."
-Hollywood City Commissioner Pete Hernandez, Miami Herald, April 1, 2013
Most of you readers coming to the blog today would probably guess that given all the previous fireworks involved, as well as the particular narrative and physical circumstances involved with this school controversy in Hollywood, literally, right across the street from Hollywood City Hall, to say nothing of the many and impassioned fact-filled blog posts I've had here about him and his Hebrew Charter School empire, it'd really be quite a feat of gall for Peter Deutsch & Co. to try to play the Jewish card again at this late date, when some of the leading opponents of the expansion of this charter school at this site are Jewish themselves, including my friend, longtime Broward civic and education activist Charlotte Greenbarg of Hollywood, the president of the Hollywood Council of Civic Associations.
(Once-upon-a-time, Charlotte and her family lived in North Miami Beach, just like your faithful blogger when he was a kid in the 1970's.)

 But to think such a thing only means that you haven't been following Deutsch as closely as you needed to, and for that, I largely blame the local Miami and Fort Lauderdale newspapers and TV stations for failing to do their jobs fully, since whatever else he is, Peter Deutsch is consistent about always trying to play the angles, no matter how distasteful it may appear to outsiders, in order to gain an advantage.

 Given that fact, at tonight's 6 p.m. meeting, you mustn't discount either Deutsch's ability or willingness to play dirty or do whatever it takes to get what HE wants, which is implicitly what he told outraged residents of Hallandale Beach to their face a few years ago -when he tried to shoe-horn a high-school into a single-family Northeast HB residential neighborhood- and told them that -to repeat myself from many previous posts in this space- it didn't matter what they or their neighborhood thought or wanted, or even what HB's elected officials thought or wanted, he'd get what he wanted.
That's who he is.

 The fact that the South Florida news media clearly shied-away from showing the full extent of that unattractive side of his personality and tactics, plus, never showed video examples of the sheer arrogance and galling sense of entitlement of many of the Ben Gamla parents at the required public meetings when they had their chance to speak, only confirmed many things that people I know and respect have long thought about the majority of Miami's news media.
Simply put, many of them, but not all, are afraid of genuinely rocking-the-boat and holding people with power or influence to account publicly, whether that's a former South Florida congressman or 'concerned' drive-by parents, who live far away, who think nothing of bad-mouthing and trashing an entire neighborhood or city simply because the people actually living there DON'T want to play the role of dupes in an encore performance of what has already happened repeatedly at other Academica charter schools, as I've previously noted. 

 Like in my August 27th post:

As Wednesday night's Town Hall meeting at Hollywood City Hall re Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School looms, more and more people are raising and asking tough-but-reasonable questions about the use of Broward taxpayer money for more of Peter Deutsch's Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter Schools. Some even dare to wonder how high those management fees Deutsch and his business partners pay to Academica really are, and whether taxpayers will find out

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/as-wednesday-nights-town-hall-meeting.html

 * Reminder as you read the following: The Doral Academy network is one of four large South Florida charter-school chains run by Academica, the state’s largest charter school operator. These four school networks -the Doral, Mater, Somerset and Pinecrest academies are owned by nonprofit companies that are managed by Academica, a for-profit company based in South Miami, which is the state’s largest charter school management company and led by Fernando Zulueta. 

 -----
Press Release from City of Hollywood last week read as follows:
The Department of Planning and Development Services is hosting two separate community meetings on current development proposals.  The first meeting is on the proposed Sheridan Station Development.  The second meeting is on the proposed Doral Ben Gamla Preparatory Academy. 
The community meeting for the Sheridan Station Development will be held on Thursday, September 26 at 6:00 p.m. in the City Commission Chambers, Room 219, Hollywood City Hall, 2600 Hollywood Boulevard.  This meeting will provide City staff with public input as the project begins the Development Review Process which includes public hearings.  This is not a meeting where any decisions will be made.  It will be an opportunity for the the public to get an update on the status of the project slated for the area just east of I-95 between Sheridan Street and Taft Street.  Some of the topics will include:  proposed changes to the project, update on number of units and amount of commercial space, update on the Florida Department of Transportation's role in the project and the status of off-site/on-site improvements.
The Community Meeting for the Doral-Ben Gamla Preparatory Academy will be held on Thursday, October 3 at 6:00 p.m in the City Commission Chambers, Room 219, Hollywood City Hall, 2600 Hollywood Boulevard. This meeting will allow the public to find out more about the proposed expansion of the charter school, ask questions about the development proposal and provide feedback that will be considered as the project moves through the development review process.   This is not a meeting where any decisions will be made.  The proposed location for the school is 2636, 2648 and 2650 Van Buren Street, near the charter school's current campus.
Both of these meetings are open to the public and interested residents are encouraged to attend.  For questions about either project, please contact the Department of Planning and Development Services at 954.921.3471.   
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Miami Herald
In Hollywood, fight over charter high school gets noisy
By Carli Teproff, cteproff@MiamiHerald.com
October 1, 2013
Every morning when school is in session, traffic along Hollywood Boulevard and the surrounding streets slows to a crawl as parents drop their children at the Ben Gamla Charter School, which houses kindergarteners through eighth-graders.
Nearby homeowners say the traffic is unbearable. And it's going to get a whole lot worse, they insist, if a proposal to build a high school across the street serving 1,050 students is approved by the city and the school board. 
Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/01/3663977/in-hollywood-fight-over-charter.html
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 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Passionate response to plans - Community meeting on Ben Gamla school expansion planned for Thursday
By Sara Shell, Staff Writer
September 29, 2013
When Hollywood City Commissioner Peter Hernandez took office, he promised constituents he'd have regular town hall meetings to discuss the happenings and get feedback from District 2.
There was no shortage of feedback during his second town hall meeting of the year, focusing on the proposed expansion of the Ben Gamla charter school. More than 300 residents showed up, creating an overflow crowd at City Hall, and another community meeting on the subject is planned for Thursday. 
Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hollywood/fl-cn-gamla-0929-20130927,0,585149.story
NBC6 video: Church-State Separation Issue at Hollywood's Ben Gamla Charter School Revived After Comments by Founder Former congressman Peter Deutsch was quoted as saying the school, which teaches Hebrew language and culture, builds Jewish identity among its students 
By Ari Odzer, Tuesday, Sep 17, 2013, Updated 2:01 AM EDT
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Church-State-Separation-Issue-at-Hollywoods-Ben-Gamla-Charter-School-Revived-After-Comments-by-School-Founder-224003041.html





This includes the reader comments at the Miami Herald website





JewishTelegraphicAgency news
Jewish public schools? Hebrew charter franchises offer radically different models 
By Uriel Heilman 
July 1, 2013 2:36 p.m.
http://www.jta.org/2013/07/01/life-religion/jewish-public-schools-hebrew-charter-franchises-offer-radically-different-models





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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Are zero-tolerance policies at American schools targeting harmless kids and actually backfiring? Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit blog is spot-on in his assessment: YES. NEXT QUESTION?; Rules-are-rules, and optics are optics. But at The White House, it's all fun and games with plastic guns with our do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do president!





The sort of plastic gun you see above gets you suspended or expelled from lots of American schools these days, no matter how young or innocent you are, or even whether what's in your hand is actually a Pop Tart.
Really.

 Rules-are-rules, and optics are optics. 
But at The White House, it's all fun and games with plastic guns with our do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do president!

Prof. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit blog is spot-on: YES. NEXT QUESTION? 
Are zero-tolerance policies at school targeting harmless kids and actually backfiring?

 Deseret News
Are zero-tolerance policies at school targeting harmless kids?
Compiled by Eric Schulzke, Deseret News
June 11 2013 12:05 a.m. MDT
School officials around the country have been reacting to the specter of the Sandy Hook shooting by targeting harmless behavior among some very young students, University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds argued in a USA Today op-ed.
The most recent case Reynolds cites was a Maryland kindergartner suspended for 10 days after being interrogated and wetting his pants because he brought an orange-tipped cap gun on the bus to show a friend.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865581435/Are-zero-tolerance-policies-at-school-targeting-harmless-kids.html

 The Blaze
8TH GRADER SUSPENDED, ARRESTED OVER NRA T-SHIRT NOW FACES $500 FINE AND A YEAR IN JAIL
By Madeleine Morgenstern
June. 15, 2013 3:55 p.m.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/15/8th-grader-suspended-arrested-over-nra-t-shirt-now-faces-500-fine-and-a-year-in-jail/
Fox News Channel
Gun play: 'Zero tolerance' toward schoolkids could backfire, says expert
By Perry Chiaramonte
Published June 11, 2013, 
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/11/gun-play-zero-tolerance-toward-young-schoolkids-could-backfire-says-expert/
Reason Magazine
Zero Tolerance Watch: Teen Faces Felony Charges for Science Experiment 
By Jesse Walker
May. 1, 2013 9:45 am  
http://reason.com/blog/2013/05/01/zero-tolerance-watch-teen-faces-felony-c

 Orlando Sentinel
Kiera Wilmot will not be expelled from school, attorney says Polk County teen was suspended for mixing chemicals on campus, causing firecracker-like 'pop'
May 29, 2013
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-05-29/news/os-kiera-wilmot-not-expelled-20130529_1_alternative-school-leah-lauderdale-school-police-officer

 -----
Glenn Reynolds is at http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/

 @instapundit  https://twitter.com/instapundit
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Monday, April 29, 2013

Having a long tradition of 'White Flight' and a large part of Hallandale Beach's community, essentially, boycotting the local public high school, Hallandale High School, is nothing to brag about. Unfortunately, it's been the sad reality under Mayor Joy Cooper; One of the persons at Hallandale Beach City Hall most-responsible for nothing changing for the better on this issue, Jennifer Frastai, will speak at Tuesday's meeting re education policy in Broward, at Hollywood City Hall at 6 pm. But Frastai won't talk about the real problems here -anything but that!; @MayorCooper


Above, as it has been for many years, one of my three photos of Hollywood City Hall that are three of the first six photos you see on Google Images when you look up Hollywood (FL) City Hall
It's currently #2 after having been #1 for years. I'm always surprised that there aren't more older, historical photos of this or the previous Hollywood City Hall listed on Google. Looking west towards Hollywood City Hall from the half-circle in front of the Hollywood branch of the Broward County library. June 2, 2008 photos By South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
I realize that for some of you, much of the following will seem like ancient history once again repeating itself, and some very bad history at that, but stay with it.
Most people don't know the same facts that you do, and they deserve to.

My comments are after the announcement.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: News and Announcements <listserv@civicplus.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 10:51 AM
Subject: Hollywood to Host Consortium of Broward County Education Advisory Boards

Email Notifications
The City of Hollywood Education Advisory Board is participating in a forum of 16 education advisory boards from throughout Broward County to exchange information, explore issues affecting education, and discuss new Broward County School District initiatives. A meeting of the Consortium of Education Advisory Boards will take place Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. in Room 215 at Hollywood City Hall, 2600 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood. Meetings of the Consortium are typically held on a quarterly basis.

 One of the topics that will be discussed during this meeting is the Hollywood City Commission’s recent passing of a resolution opposing the practice of high-stakes testing in the public schools. Donna Greene, vice chair of the Hollywood Education Advisory Committee, will make a presentation about the process of gaining Commission support for the resolution. Additionally, Jennifer Frastai, assistant city manager of the City of Hallandale Beach, will discuss the reorganization of the Hallandale Beach Education Advisory Board and Renee Grutman, chair of Cooper City’s education advisory board, will discuss Cooper City’s Resource Fair.
You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to News and Announcements on www.hollywoodfl.org. 
If clicking the link doesn't work, please copy and paste the link into your browser.
Since I'm on the mailing list, why am I getting this announcement for the first time the day before it happens?

Do you recognize that name above, Jennifer Frastai?

 She's one of the two Hallandale Beach Assistant City Manager whom I and many other concerned HB residents and small business-owners hold personally responsible for much of what doesn't work or has seldom-if-ever worked properly within the City of Hallandale Beach's inefficient and bewildering bureaucracy, few of whom actually live here.

 (The other is Nydia Rafols, whose fingerprints, like Frastai's, are all over the lousy public policies currently pursued here, and the self-evident problems that never get resolved, esp. involving the city's Dept, of Public Works, which is forever chasing its tail and making no progress on matters, years after-the-fact.)

In my own opinion, and in the opinion of many other Hallandale Beach residents who actually pay close attention to what actually happens in this city -an effort in contrast to the local South Florida news media, print or TV, or the taxpayer-supported faux newspaper that was specifically and negatively cited by the Broward Inspector General in his report on corruption at HB City Hall, the South Florida Sun-Times- Frastai is someone who has largely escaped the sort of negative public scrutiny that in many other parts of the country would be hers, given her very mixed -at best- track record.
Especially given how many things Frastai has touched over the many years that are no better now than they were years ago.

 Given the important topic under discussion on Tuesday night in Hollywood, Education Policy in Broward County, it's important to note that she's the same HB city employee who spent almost 25 minutes of a recent HB City Commission meeting talking about the high-minded "changes" to the HB Education Advisory Board when it needed, maybe, 10 minutes.

 I know because I was there in attendance and taped it on my camcorder.
I deleted it once I got home and listened to it again because of how ponderous and unrealistic it all seemed given where we are and given her own record while acting as the city's liaison for education for years.

 The faux earnestness with which she spoke was especially meaningless and even irritating given how this city currently operates, a point that was hammered home subsequently by Mayor Cooper herself, as if I could have written it any better, complete with punchline.

 Mayor Cooper has wasted little time and has promptly and predictably shown how little regard she had for this high-minded effort to reach out to new faces and new people in the community and get them involved.
People with varied backgrounds and perhaps even some educational/childcare expertise on the Education Advisory Board.
Yeah, it sounds great in the abstract, but what about in reality?

Mayor Cooper showed her true colors and provided the punchline by re-naming her tennis pal, Barbara Southwick, to the same Education Advisory Board that she's already been on for years.

So much for dynamic changes!
So what was all THAT talk about positive changes and new faces, then?

 Yes, Joy Cooper, the longtime Hallandale Beach mayor who has NEVER once publicly called for or even convened a single community-wide meeting or forum, say on a Saturday morning morning, that dealt exclusively with any of the myriad of difficult education issues and very real challenges facing this city.
A city where hardly any kids who live east of U.S.-1 -where most of the population is- actually go to the public high school that's in this city.

Having a tradition of White Flight and a large part of the community, essentially, boycotting the local public high school, Hallandale High School, is nothing to brag about.

 (And who has been the Education point-person at Hallandale Beach City Hall while all of this was allowed to happen, year-after-year?
Jennifer Frastai.) 

Real estate brokers covering S.E. Broward sure don't boast about THAT fact it when talking to families considering a new home in HB, esp. those moving to the area from out-of-state, do they?
And why would they, since the basic facts would cause most reasonable people to question why they should want to move here if the people who already live here WON'T send their own kids to Hallandale High School.

But then that's been Hallandale Beach City Hall's modus operandi for so many issues under Joy Cooper the past ten years -if she pretends the problem doesn't exist, it doesn't.
And you can be pretty sure the news media will ignore it completely, too, which makes everything worse, since there's no public pushback against bad public policy that doesn't help anyone, yet continues year-after-year.

For those of you who don't already know, Jennifer Frastai, one of the speakers Tuesday night is the same person whom I spoke to for almost an hour to in the HB City Manager's conference room four-and-a-half years ago with another HB Assistant City Manager present who hasn't been around for years, Franklin Heileman.
Yes, just the three of us in the HB City Manager's conference room.

I described to her in detail just about every single problem and every single example of HB City Hall's longstanding myopia, incompetency or lack of oversight that I'd personally observed -and taken photos of- one neighborhood at a time, and placed on my blog.
That's why it took almost an hour.
The truth is, though, there were always a lot more photos and examples I didn't post but could have.

And just so you know, just as I reminded them that wasted afternoon, everything I mentioned was something I'd already communicated to the very people at HB City Hall who were supposed to be in charge of that, so I already followed the chain-of-command.
But it was broken, apparently, permanently.

Even though no organizational flow-chart of the city or even a complete list of areas of responsibility existed then or even currently at HB City Hall or on the city's website, I made an effort to find out who the right person to talk to was.
And in ZERO instances did any of the city employees I communicated with actually do anything to resolve the problems facing HB residents, taxpayers and small business-owners.
Really.

Why do you suppose I started my blog in the first place, anyway?
Simply to complain about stuff?
Hardly.

At one point, about ten minutes into this, after writing some things down, Frastai put her pen down and looked at Heileman sitting right next to her at the other end of the conference table, and asked if all the things I was saying were true, and, implicitly, whether I'd really mentioned the problems and posted these photos on the web.

I'll give Heileman credit at least for being honest about that, since he just nodded, because he knew it was all true.
She seemed a bit stunned.

We then went mentally thru a tour of a city where City Hall couldn't or wouldn't see longstanding problems right in front of residents' noses every day, inconvenient reminders that city employees ignored problems that needed to actually be solved.

Well, despite my reminding Frastai that photos of everything I said were already on the Internet, with its location, length of the problem, et al, on my blog, in case she wanted to confirm my comments, and despite my having given Frastai multiple ways of contacting me my phone or email to let me know what she'd done, she NEVER did anything about the problems I mentioned to HER that afternoon.
She never contacted me, either.

Frastai's the same person whom former City Manager  Mike Good put in charge of making sure that the newly-purchased recyclable bins were placed on the beach in places where beach-goers could use them, to make it as easy as possible, after I criticized both of them at a City Hall budget meeting in 2009.

(Yet it still, needlessly, took many months and even now, is inconsistently done, and seems to be organized in such a fashion to make it for the convenience of city employees, NOT actual beach-goers, the same way the city continues to mis-allocate picnic tables down at South Beach, while there are only two at North Beach, which are often monopolized all day.
The city has foolishly re-purposed hundreds of the recyclable bins to be used for regular garbage and city employees actually hide them, which is why you don't see recycling bins near the baseball stands at Blusten Park all these years later, while they remain next to the fence on S.W. 5th Street, some of which have not moved in years.
Why did taxpayers pay for something that the city has no clear intention of using properly and with common sense?)

Most of which I mentioned here last June 15th,
Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's old threats & lawsuits re-emerge as Hollywood's  Beach One Resort sues over its access to the beach, the latest shoe to drop in The Related Group's Beachwalk project that'd make HB's North Beach a defacto private beach for The Related Group's properties, NOT a public beach for HB residents

By the way, I think it's awesome that this Education meeting in Hollywood tomorrow is scheduled for the same time and date that the City of Hallandale Beach is hosting their beach re-nourishment meeting over at The Hemispheres Condos.

Yes, the meeting with responsible federal and state officials who, presumably, know what they're talking about and who'll be straightforward with those of us who show-up, creating a real nice contrast with what we usually get at most HB meetings, where blame is placed on outsiders -or those of us here in town who favor genuine reform and transparency- is thrown, to say nothing of the mis-direction, half-truths and spin dumped by the barrel-full.

But NOT a forthright discussion about public policy where ALL the germane facts surrounding an issue or vote are publicly revealed -or even given to the City Commissioners by the city staff, as CRA meeting of February proved- and of the problems that are before us.

 Because, apparently, the unvarnished truth seems to really hurt someone's feelings at HB City Hall, so instead, we get the charade of democracy, not the real thing.
Year-after-year...
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Monday, February 25, 2013

Important day of reckoning for Broward County Schools, taxpayers and parents is at hand: Wednesday's coming clash in Plantation between Broward County's eastern schools and western schools on boundaries -and which schools, if any, need to be CLOSED or consolidated due to costs and students leaving for charter schools; BCPS Public Hearings to Discuss 2013-2014 School Attendance Areas, Usage Recommendations

Above, screenshot of Broward Schools Superintendent Robert W. Runcie, from a May 2012 Channel 10/WPLG-TV newscast on the necessary budget cuts and changes that he needed to institute throughout Broward to make the school administration more accurately reflect the smaller student population and need for paring the budget.

Important day of reckoning for Broward County Schools, taxpayers and parents is at hand: Wednesday's coming clash in Plantation between Broward County's eastern schools and western schools on boundaries -and which schools, if any, need to be CLOSED or consolidated due to costs and students leaving for charter schools; BCPS Public Hearings to Discuss 2013-2014 School Attendance Areas, Usage Recommendations

I received the following very important message this afternoon via email from the City of Hollywood that should be of more than passing interest to the residents, taxpayers and parents of Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach and other communities in eastern Broward County, who for so long have complained about the Broward School Board's expenditures flowing to the western part of the county that were growing in population, even as the eastern schools were being "neglected" from their point-of-view.

In Hallandale High's case, it not only was demonstrably true, but well-documented, as I've made perfectly clear in the past here on the blog, thanks to the diligent and thankless efforts of a few, including my hard-working friend, Catherine Kim Owens.

Well, that looming date for a battle over which Broward schools are doing well enough to be kept largely as they are, and which ones that are consistently under-performing, for so long, an academic question with a date far in the distance, seems to finally be at hand.
As all who follow education policy hereabouts must admit, many Broward schools are increasingly empty, since as of May of 2012, Broward Schools has lost 35,000 students in the past 5 years, many to private schools and Broward's charter schools.

It's Wednesday.
Don't doubt for a moment that some very unpopular lines may finally be drawn in the sand and made permanent.
-----

The Broward County School District has scheduled two public hearings to discuss 2013-2014 school attendance areas and school usage recommendations for all elementary, middle, high and combination schools. The District will hold the at the Plantation High School Auditorium at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 and Wednesday, April 3, 2013.

WHO: Broward County School Board Members, Superintendent, 
          Demographics and Student Assignments Staff, District Staff, 
          Parents and Community

WHAT: Broward County Public Schools Public Hearings on
           2013-2014 School Attendance Areas and School Usage  
           Recommendations 

WHEN: Public Hearing I – Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at 5:30 p.m.
           Public Hearing II – Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 5:30 p.m.

WHERE: Plantation High School, Auditorium
             6901 NW 16th Street, Plantation 

The Superintendent’s final 2013-2014 school boundary recommendations based on community and School Board input can be viewed at the Demographics & Student Assignments website (http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/dsa). For additional information, contact Jill Young, director, Demographics & Student Assignments at 754.321.2480.
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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Speaking of diversity and backsliding on ethics, Broward County School Board becoming an all-female enclave is NOT good news for concerned taxpayers & parents: expect even more micro-managing and time wasted on trivial matters made melodramatic because these particular people, literally, can't help but pander; Broward Schools Supt. Runcie in Hollywood on Thursday night at the Boulevard Heights Community Center

 
Speaking of diversity, as a result of last Tuesday's election results, the Broward County School Board will now be an all-female enclave: expect even more micro-managing and time wasted on trivial matters made melodramatic because these particular people, literally, can't help but pander; Broward Schools Supt. Robert W. Runcie to be in Hollywood on Thursday night at  Boulevard Heights Community Center
I was going to post this collection of news and tidbits last Friday afternoon but thought better of it since I thought few would see it then, and as you'll see, I'm glad I waited, since in the time since I first typed some of these words last Friday morning, I've already seen others in the community and in the press writing about the composition of the new School Board who, in my opinion, lack appreciation for why having an all-female School Board is not exactly reason for taxpayers or students to celebrate.

 Based on my own observations and what others who are much closer to all things education in Broward County have shared with me about some of the people elected, I think Broward taxpayers and parents have good reason to be concerned about backsliding on ethics.

 While I could always turn out to be wrong, my overall sense of things is that this new crew might not only be more spiteful than professional at times, and attempt to make far too many issues that come before them personal, but also indulge a bit too much in creating straw men for them to attack when the Board is being properly chastised by the public or the news media, or otherwise held to account for inaction or bad judgment or lack of fidelity to rules and procedures.

 I also suspect that there will be more instances than perhaps need be when after talking for hours, Supt. Robert W. Runcie will say that it's time to stop the talking and time for voting and actions.
This particular crew seems destined to try to talk everything to death, as if that wasn't already enough of a problem with the current crew of characters.

 As most of you already know by now, here's what happened last Tuesday:
District 4: Abby Freedman defeated Shelly Solomon
District 5: Rosalind Osgood defeated Torey Alston
At-Large District 8: Donna Korn defeated Franklin Sands
At-Large District 9: Robin Bartleman defeated Barbara Houston Wilson
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/FL/Broward/42272/111826/en/summary.html#

Over the past 2-3 months of observing political campaigning all throughout Hallandale Beach -and Hollywood- such as it was, given that there were never any chance there'd be actual bona fide candidate debates of the sort that everyone here desperately wanted, owing largely to Mayor Joy Cooper, Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and former Comm. Bill Julian desperately NOT wanting to be a part of any event in the city that they could not control, where they'd be forced to answer pointed questions from well-informed citizens, I only once saw a re-elect Robin Bartleman yard sign in a HB resident's front yard.

 As it happens, it was located in a front yard in Southwest HB of someone who also had one for do-nothing Comm. Sanders, so you can well imagine what I thought every time I drove past it,
just off of S.W. Third Street -it's not exactly the sort of illustrious company you'd necessarily choose to be associated with.

 While I was certainly glad that Bartleman attended the educational forum in HB in June of 2011 on what was REALLY going on at Hallandale High School with respect to what the School Board was doing to remedy longstanding problems that led to a lawsuit that the School Board lost, a forum that my friend, Catherine Kim Owens hosted and superbly moderated, THE first such serious meeting on education in this city during the eight years that I'd lived here up to that point, despite how crucial that subject is in this community for reasons I've previously mentioned here -and yes, Ann Murray was a no-show at that meeting in HB (again) just like Jennifer Gottlieb was!- considering what I'd seen and read about Barteleman's involvement and performance during the disturbing Douglas High School cheerleading coach saga, I'm not sure if her winning was really such a great thing for Broward taxpayers and parents long term.

 See my post on that subject from October 8th, titled,
Dynamite! Bob Norman adroitly uses facts and context to lower-the-boom on the Broward School Board for their abysmal handling of the purported Douglas H.S. cheerleader coach 'scandal" -and drops School Board member Katie Leach squarely on her head; One month before the election, docs show Donn Korn opponent Franklin Sands funds his race with lots of money from his stepson’s lobbying firm -shocker!; @mattgutmanABC
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/dynamite-bob-norman-adroitly-uses-facts.html

 Last Wednesday I received the following message from the City of Hollywood with the subject header: Meet and Greet Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie
City of Hollywood residents and members of the community are invited to meet Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie on Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. at the Boulevard Heights Community Center, 6770 Garfield St. in Hollywood. Mr. Runcie will be available to answer questions from the public about local public schools and other education issues. Members of the public who are interested in attending and asking Mr. Runcie a question are encouraged to arrive early to fill out a question card. 
Light refreshments will be provided. 
For more information, contact Donna Green at hollyed1@aol.com.
I've now seen and heard Broward Schools Supt. Robert W. Runcie three times in person since he was hired by the Broward School Board -twice in Hollywood and once in Hallandale Beach.

 (Surprise! Not present at that meeting in HB was School Board Chair Ann Murray, who is this area's representative on the Board, but whom as I've mentioned here so many times, has assiduously avoided showing her face in public in Hallandale Beach for well over a year.)

 I've personally videotaped Runcie all three times -and have taken plenty of photos, too- though I've chosen not to post them here or on my YouTube Channel.

 At this point, I feel fairly confident that I can tell what direction he's going to take a discussion based upon what the question posed to him is.
That's actually part of the problem -how the questions have so often been posed to him.

 I don't know who first told told Mr. Runcie that the idea of having Broward taxpayers and parents write questions via index cards -read by someone else- was a great idea, but it's not.
I see it as both patronizing and condescending and it's precisely the sort of awkward attempt at (mis)communication that the Broward Schools needs to get away from -quick.

 Mr. Runcie is very articulate and an agile conversationalist who can talk about a host of issues for long period of time if he wanted to.
He does not need -nor do taxpayers want to see- someone there as a handler, largely to translate what are almost always very understandable questions.

 If I'm going to show up for something like this, I think I can also pretty well frame a relevant question for him in the hours and days leading up to the meeting. 
Maybe several, and having attended three of these before, I also know what NOT to ask.

 For those folks who show up and can't ask a question in the form of a question, it's not my problem.
Everyone there can either laugh at them or ignore it, but I have to say that this notion that so many School employees are necessary to be present at these get-togethers, to form a phalanx of protection, is getting more preposterous with each passing meeting.
One person will do, nicely, thanks!

If you ask me, that same person could/should also pop a videocamera onto a tripod and point and then get out of the way.
That there hasn't been at least one person within the school system who had the common sense to tape the remarks he's made at any of the dozens of places he's been and put them online on a School system website or a YouTube Channel for taxpayers and parents to see, is ridiculous.
Not tape every meeting but at least one of them?

 I seem to personally have more of them on DVDs near my computer than the entire Broward School system does.
What gives with all the continued indifference and half-assed effort?
Where are the signs of those positive changes we were promised? 

 Some content originally contained in this post has been moved to: 
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/more-business-as-usual-at-broward.html
More business-as-usual at Broward School Board is NOT good news for students, parents or taxpayers; Why the need by Broward Schools officials to impose omertà on school volunteers in Broward?; the very curious Hallandale High School roof situation reveals much about School Board's culture; Why is South Florida news media largely ignoring Broward Schools Diversity Comm. and their Audit Comm.?

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Sunday, November 4, 2012

More fact checking of the Miami Herald for signs of commitment to real journalism reveals self-evident bias: It's almost as if Miami's Downtown Business Establishment ordered Herald to print swooning love letter to Miami-Dade Schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho on front page, 2 days before public votes on bond issue Carvalho and Herald champion -Herald enthusiastically salutes idea and only shows readers more proof of why it can't be trusted to objectively report local news in South Florida


July 3, 2011 photo of Miami Herald vending machine in Hallandale Beach, FL by South Beach Hoosier. The Herald continues to show that there are lots of news stories in South Florida that it can not be relied upon to report accurately or honestly © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

More fact checking of the Miami Herald for signs of commitment to real journalism reveals self-evident bias: It's almost as if Miami's Downtown Business Establishment ordered Herald to print swooning love letter to Miami-Dade Schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho on front page, 2 days before public votes on bond issue Carvalho and Herald champion -Herald enthusiastically salutes idea and only shows readers more proof of why it can't be trusted to objectively report local news in South Florida 

 Like 99% of all the stories the Miami Herald has run about Miami-Dade Schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho the past few years, today the Miami Herald's reporters and editors have once again refused to put away their pom pons and bias while pretending to be real ink-stained wretches -and perform some real acts of random journalism- by refusing to make a serious effort to perform basic journalism tasks like finding anyone critical of this poorly thought-out bond effort and why it should be any better managed than the last one.

 And who's doing the polling for these smug characters who think nothing of using tax dollars to lobby for a yes vote?
Hmm-m...yes, it's such an obvious question given that all of the stories on this issue inevitably involve quoting one of the handful of Miami pollsters who work for everyone in town, but the Herald's guileless reporter seems to have never considered the possibility that one pollster might sandbag another in an article like this and is laughing their ass off at the fact that they got away with it.

Taxpayers with a yen to save money rather than get their news straight might well feel "Who needs PR spin doctors at the School Board when the Herald will it do for free?"

I last wrote about education policy, the M-D School Board and this reporter in particular on September 10, 2012 in a blog post titled, Fact checking the Miami Herald's dubious claims on Education: Over the weekend, I unexpectedly found myself forced to 'school' the Herald's Executive Editor after she bragged about the Herald's coverage of Education. I had to bring up some inconvenient facts rebutting that claim

Miami Herald
Miami-Dade Superintendent Carvalho not on ballot, but stands to win big  
Miami-Dade superintendent Alberto Carvalho staked his prestige on voters approving a $1.2 billion bond issue to fix schools. The bet looks like it’s about to pay off.
By Laura Isensee
November 4, 2012
One of Miami-Dade’s smoothest politicians just might persuade tax-weary voters to OK a $1.2 billion bond issue to finance school and technology upgrades, repaid with property taxes.
And he’s not even elected.
(If you can believe it, the article actually gets MUCH worse from here on in. The only thing that isn't done in this sycophantic story is a long description of the sort of suits Carvalho wears, and maybe something faux insider about how he keeps his physique, with more details on both than anyone could possibly care about.)

Read the rest of the article, if you can call it that, at:

For more on what's going on these sorts of issues at the School Board, go to the Miami-based Audacious Lady blog, by Natasha Alvarez, at http://www.audaciouslady.com/
See a list of projects that the bond will address

Most news articles that appear in the Miami Herald disappear within 10-14 days of their first appearance on the website and proceed to their Paid Archives where most will never be seen again.
It's a sign of how much the Herald and its top management support this particular bond issue that they seem to have changed their own extant corporate procedures by keeping ALL of the links to stories on this subject LIVE. 
What does that tell you?
Correct, the newspaper is NOT an objective source of news on this subject.

Campaign for school bonds starting in Miami-Dade
One pollster believes the bond referendum has a good chance of passing. Voters will be asked if they want to borrow $1.2 billion to upgrade school buildings and technology
By Laura Isensee
August 31, 2012
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/31/2978752/campaign-for-school-bonds-starting.html


PAC names leaders to support Miami-Dade school bond vote  
On the roster: former elected officials, business leaders, a community activist and an ex-Miami Heat player.
By Laura Isensee
September 14, 2012
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