Around the District

Stranahan High Wins
"Florida's BEST" Award
Currently in only its second year, a recognition program called Florida's BEST - Business and Education Partnerships, spotlights and promotes the replication of best practices in business and education partnerships. Stranahan High School's partnership with an engineering company called CHWMHill earned it a Southeast Region Florida's BEST award this year. Partnerships competing for the awards are judged on measured outcome, originality and innovation, benefits to students and major stakeholders, development of long-term relationships between business and education, applicability as a prototype for other partnerships and inclusion of a student's success story to demonstrate the student focus of the project. Stranahan's partnership was formed to bring real-world applications to the education of pre-engineering students. With financial support from CH2Mhill, Stranahan students worked with the company's employee mentors, guest speakers; software and supplies to complete the Water Works 2011 Construction Bid.

Broward Dominates With
Little Red Schoolhouse Awards
This year, only six schools statewide were honored with Little Red Schoolhouse Awards - and Broward County boasts the majority of those winners! Not only that, but Wilton Manors Elementary School's "Passport to Peace" program received the John Gardner Award, given to the school whose programs ranks at the top! Congratulations to Wilton Manors Elementary as well as the following elementary schools on winning Little Red Schoolhouse Awards: Manatee Bay, Indian Trace, Tradewinds and Oakridge. Little Red Schoolhouse Awards are sponsored by the Florida Association of Elementary and Middle School Principals in an effort to recognize exemplary programs in the areas of curriculum and organizational development. Programs are judged on a variety of criteria, including uniqueness and ability to be replicated at other schools.

One Picture Book, One Community
"Reading is Fun, Share it With Everyone!" That's the message of "One Picture Book, One Community," an outreach project initiated last year to promote early childhood education and literacy. The main objective is to invite young children and their families to collectively read the same picture book with the goal of uniting the entire South Florida community in acknowledging the importance of early childhood education and literacy. This year, No Dogs Allowed by renowned children's television personality Sonia Manzano is being featured; Ms. Manzano portrays Maria on Sesame Street. The kick-off will take place on September 30th and will be televised live on closed-circuit television in first-grade classrooms in both Miami-Dade and Broward counties. "One Picture Book, One Community" is sponsored by Broward County Public Schools, WLRN Ready to Learn, Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami-Dade College, The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation, Miami-Dade County Public Schools and The Miami Herald.

District Honored For Its
Financial Reporting
For the fifth year in a row, Broward County Public Schools has been honored for financial reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA). The organization awarded the District a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) submitted for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2003. This is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting. The CAFR was selected for clearly communicating the District's financial position to the community.

Teacher Welcomed Back From War
on Terrorism

Liberty Elementary School Principal Freeland (left) presents welcome back gift to teacher Cynthia Chevrestt

Eighteen months ago,
first-grade
teacher Cynthia Chevrestt
from Liberty
Elementary
School in Margate was called up for duty in the United States Army Reserves. As a Staff Sergeant and Transportation Deployment Coordinator, Ms. Chevrestt first traveled to Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia, then on to Fort Eustis in Virginia and finally she was attached to the 179th Transportation Brigade stationed in Qatar and Kuwait. Upon her return to school this year, she was surprised with a luncheon in her honor attended by her children and sister featuring a color guard, a video made for her when she left and skits and presentations in honor of a true school hero. It's only fitting that a teacher who served her country in the U.S. Army Reserves works at a school called Liberty!

Christine Miller Scholarship Fund Established at FAU
A scholarship fund has been established at Florida Atlantic University in memory of the late Christine Miller. Ms. Miller was principal at Cresthaven Elementary School and - at the time of her passing - was a doctoral student in Educational Leadership as part of a cohort. Cohort members spearheading the scholarship have set a goal of $10,000 to endow the fund. Donations may be made to FAU Foundation/Christine Miller and sent to: Dr. Gina Eyerman, Principal, Fort Lauderdale High School, 1600 NE 4th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33305. Please include your home mailing address with your donation. Donors will receive a confirmation letter acknowledging their tax-deductible donation and a letter will be sent to her family acknowledging individual donations. Questions can be directed to Dr. Eyerman at 954-765-6921.


CAB CORNER
With at least a year of the CAB E-mail system under our belts, each of us would probably say that the District's E-mail system is better than ever before. It offers convenient, user-friendly access to E-mail from desktop computers, laptop computers ... and hand-held wireless devices, too! Dr. Katherine Blasik - Associate Superintendent of Research Services, Evaluation, Student Assessment and School Boundaries - and her management team have been accessing the CAB E-mail system via their palm-held computers with great success and convenience. "By wirelessly accessing our E-mail, we can respond to inquiries more immediately and with less disruption," explained Dr. Blasik. "It's made us more efficient and is invaluable to those of us whose positions require us to work away from our desks much of the time." Dr. Blasik also touts the ability for sender and receiver to communicate directly, negating the need for middlemen. "If I'm in a meeting and need a file that's on my computer in my office, I can E-mail my office and have that information sent directly back to me via E-mail; I can even respond to urgent messages while in a meeting by text messaging. Gone are the days when secretaries had to interrupt meetings to hand urgent messages to attendees!"