2009-1029 Special Commission Meeting

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Summary Minules: Special City Commission Meeling Oclober 29, 2009 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida a new school, they project, they look at mapping software that they have, and they look at existing numbers of students that are attending other Miami-Dade Public Schools, but they don't have the number of students attending private schools or Charter Schools. Four years ago when the boundaries were drawn for Sunny Isles Beach Community School, 800 students were projected to attend from Kindergarten to 61h grade, plus 100 students from private schools, and the school opened with nearly 1,100 students and is still growing. Mr. Greenfield said Bob Welsh attended the ABC Committee meeting and made an outstanding presentation of the unique situation involving Sunny Isles Beach, and the Committee supported it, and Sunny Isles Beach is now a targeted school for a boundary change for the 2010/2011 school year. He said they will not break up in any way the City, it will remain in tact. They are looking to make changes, maybe targeting children in the lower grades although they may have siblings attending and they don't want families sending children to different elementary schools, and so they will make some exceptions. Sunny Isles Beach Community School is at about 96% of capacity right now. Public Speakers: Paul Greenfield; Bob Welsh Vice Mayor Thaler said one thing not covered is the children that are already in the school and shouldn't be that are using addresses of other people, or rented apartments in this City that are legal or not legal, how do we stop that? Mr. Greenfield said it is an ongoing fight in every great school, the mapping software that we use to draw boundaries are also used to identify students attending a school who do not live within the boundary. We provided a list of names and addresses to Principal Weisman to identify, and she got back to him and said virtually all those names with the exception of three, are staff member's children, and normally the District does honor these children. For other children they send out mass mailings, and the ones that come back, they follow up on and ask for identification and proof of address. When they are identified, there is no grace period, they are drawn out of that school and sent to the school they should attend. However, they don't have the manpower to follow-up on them, and visit their homes to make sure they do live there. Commissioner Goodman said there are many ways to research these children, ie. the parents deduct them from their income tax as their dependents. Vice Mayor Thaler said we have an IT Department that is available to set up programs and to work with the school in dealing with some of these people that are there illegally. Mr. Greenfield will mention it to Dr. Weisman and any assistance that the City can give they would be open to. Mayor Edelcup said Mr. Greenfield's comments today have demonstrated that they are on top of the situation and that is what we were really asking for. Knowing that we may be in a situation resulting in overcrowding, he would like them to consider keeping the special rooms in the school, the art rooms, the music rooms, and the special facilities that makes us a special school. Mr. Greenfield said it is their intent, even ifthere is slight overcrowding next year, to never do anything that would damage the integrity of the educational programs, both in the arts as well as the regular classroom. Mayor Edelcup said that this City will always try to support the School Board and its decisions, and at the same time look out for the benefit of our own residents. He is also predicting that in the future when all the apartments are sold on the east side of Collins Avenue and young families move in, we could have a situation where the school can't accommodate all the children, and maybe we would be fortunate to find more land but that that would happen in the future and we will deal with it at that time. 7