Record
Number of Schools Earn Five Star Award From State
The Florida Department of Education recently designated
64 Broward County schools as Five Star School Award recipients
for 2001/2002. These schools are among 633 who share Florida's
most prestigious award for community involvement. This is
a record number of Broward public schools to earn the award
in a single year. To qualify for the Five Star School Award,
each school must meet 100% of rigorous criteria that requires
the full engagement of business partners, volunteers, students,
families and the School Advisory Council in the educational
process.
Students Travel to Japan -
Without Leaving Their School
"Konnichiwa" means "good afternoon"
in Japan. "Ogenki desu ka?" translates to "How
are you?" These are just a couple of the phrases that
adventurous student-travelers heard recently when they took
an excursion during the 2nd Annual Japanese Immersion Day
at Pompano Beach High School. Throughout the day, students
toured the "city sites" and saturated themselves
in ancient customs as they participated in a traditional
Japanese Tea Ceremony, calligraphy, origami, anime creation
and cultural cooking classes. Students from Hallandale,
Deerfield and Western high schools; Crystal Lake Middle;
and several Miami-Dade County high schools that also offer
Japanese in their curriculum were invited to "pack
their bags" for this exciting journey. The immersion
day benefited students as they prepare for the statewide
Japanese language and speech competition being held in March
2003.
School District Honored With
2002 Brio Achievement Award
Brio Software, Inc., a leading provider of next-generation
business intelligence tools, has announced the winners of
the First Annual Brio Achievement Awards. Co-sponsored by
Forbes, Computerworld and Intelligent Enterprise magazines,
the awards focus on the outstanding achievements in applied
business intelligence. Awards were given to those companies
that demonstrated return on investment, impact on strategic
objectives, impact on business processes, innovation, applicability
and pervasiveness. Broward County Public Schools was honored
with the award in the education category for its outstanding
use of a Data Warehouse to increase the availability of
student information to the schools in the district. A distinguished
panel of highly respected journalists, computer scientists
and consultants judged applications against a set of criteria
to determine winners for this and other categories in the
competition.
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North Lauderdale
Elementary Applauds Foster Grandparents
Students have great things to say about their
Foster Grandparents. "I love to come to school
to be with my Grandma because she helps me with work
I can't get," declares Bryton Robinson. "She
helps me with my reading and gives us love,"
exclaims Rochelle Foy. And Beatrice Dorestil says,
"Grandma helps me so I can get better with my
work."
Goal 4, Objective 10 of the Strategic Plan encourages
schools and the District to implement collaborative
relationships with community-based organizations.
The Foster Grandparent Program fulfills that objective
while making both students and teachers very happy.
This 28-year-old organization currently provides 207
volunteers to 43 elementary schools in Broward.
One Foster Grandparent school is North Lauderdale
Elementary School which is among the 104 Broward Schools
that received state recognition funds for its performance
on last year's FCAT. Foster grandparents have been
assisting teachers at the school for the last six
years and are considered an important part of the
reason that the school received those funds. "The
volunteers provide much love and gentle discipline
and are a major reason why many of the students want
to come to school and try their best," says SAC
Chair Susan Slimack.
These senior citizen volunteers provide one-on-one
tutoring; work with small groups and individuals to
strengthen reading, writing, and math skills; and
go over assignments with the students. When at the
school, parents often want to meet the Foster Grandparents
they hear so much about.
Kathy Slater, the school's program coordinator, says,
"This is a win/win situation for all. Foster
grandparents make a big difference turning kids around."
According to Muriel Campbell Sykes, the first foster
grandparent at North Lauderdale, even when the students
move on to Silver Lakes Middle School, they come back
just to see the grandparents.
If you would like more information about Broward Foster
Grandparents, please call (954) 524-3222. Questions
about the Strategic Plan should be directed to Judy
Zinn, Director of Strategic Planning, at (954) 712-1547.
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