School custodians win White Glove Awards

Twentynine Sarasota County Public Schools custodians were recognized with "White Glove Awards" at the September 18 Board of Education meeting for what Sarasota School District Facilities Director Jody Dumas called a "phenomenal job of getting campuses ready for students" in the weeks before school opened in August. "Every school in the Sarasota county district has less custodial staff than it did two years ago," Dumas said. "yet customer service is being rated higher than it has ever been."

Awards were presented in 10 categories, including Cleanest School over 10 Years Old, Best in Zone, Most Improved and an Above and Beyond Award for custodians at schools that had major construction done over the summer or other challenges to getting the buildings ready to open for students.

The Platinum Award for the best overall job and cleanest school in the district went to Denny Johnson, head custodian at Venice Elementary School. Dumas said he inspected the school himself could only find one point to count off: a small cobweb behind a door.

Honorable Mention award winners

NeXt Generation Learning • School Community Forums

Every public school in Sarasota County has scheduled a community forum before Oct. 18 to help parents and other community members better understand the school district's NeXt Generation Learning initiative and to engage in a dialogue about their neighborhood schools. Each school will contact parents about the date for its forum. The full schedule is available below.

The suggestion to conduct individual school forums came from a series of community-wide forums the School Board hosted in April and May. Many participants in the spring forums suggested that inviting the community to engage in a continuing dialogue about schools would be valuable both to the participants and the district. Research indicates that community engagement with schools is an essential element in student success.

The forums will have two important purposes. The first will be to provide information about NeXt Generation Learning and what it means to each school and student. The second will be to engage school staff with parents, guardians and other community members in a dialogue about what is going well at their school and what could be improved.

Each principal has worked with his or her school community to set up the meeting at their school. District staff has provided the schools general guidelines to ensure consistency in the meetings, including a brief presentation on NeXt Generation Learning and sample questions for small group discussion.

The meetings are to last about 90 minutes. During the first half hour, principals will explain what NeXt Generation Learning is and what it means to individual schools and students.

The second part of the meeting will be an hour of small-group discussion during which participants will be asked to consider three questions: 1.What can we do to better serve you or your child? 2. What can you do to help us achieve the vision? 3. What else can we do to move forward together?

A facilitator will be assigned to each small group to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate and that all suggestions and ideas are recorded. The ideas from the forums will be incorporated into planning at individual schools. They also will be compiled into a general report to identify trends across the district to be considered in planning and policy making.

Community members who do not have students in school are welcome and encouraged to attend. Anyone with questions about the forums may contact their school or call the district Communications Department at (941) 927-4009.

Florida Supreme Court chief justice presides over local civics lessons

Middle-school students in Manatee and Sarasota counties got a lesson in real-life legal issues Sept. 14 from an expert teacher: Florida Supreme Court Justice R. Fred Lewis. The chief justice's visit also included a workshop for teachers Sept. 13 at the Herald-Tribune building in Sarasota.

The classes and workshops were designed to foster a better understanding of the American justice system and the workings of state and federal courts. They were developed to support the Florida Legislature's new mandate for more civics education in middle schools.

Chief Justice Lewis was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court in 1998 and became the state's 52nd chief justice in July 2006. The position rotates every two years among the seven members of the court.

Known as "the education justice," Lewis frequently travels around the state to promote civics education to teachers, administrators and students. "The importance of civics education," said Lewis, "is that without a populace informed about their civic duties, the rights and freedoms promised by our constitutional structure may not be realized."

The chief justice spoke to approximately 75 teachers from Sarasota and Manatee counties Sept. 13 at the Herald-Tribune's headquarters in downtown Sarasota. He spoke about teaching justice in the public-school classroom and led an in-depth study and teaching exercise about a Florida case involving federal protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis leads a civics discussion at Booker Middle School.

On Sept. 14, Lewis spoke to students at Booker Middle School and Braden River Middle School, Bradenton (Manatee County Public Schools). In the interactive sessions, the chief justice gave students at both schools a taste of what it's like to be part of an actual case in the state's highest court, prompting spirited discussions about constitutional rights.

"Under the Second Amendment's rights guaranteeing free speech, do you have the right to say anything you want?" asked Lewis. "Does that include shouting 'fire!' in a movie theater?" In another exercise, he asked students, "Do you think the death penalty is 'cruel and unusual punishment' in and of itself?" "Do certain methods of administering the penalty, such as the electric chair, fit the 'cruel and unusual' description?"

Prompted by these and other probing questions from the chief justice, middle-school students debated where one citizen's rights end and another person's rights begin.

The local events were sponsored by Manatee County Public Schools, Sarasota County Public Schools and the Herald-Tribune Media Group's Newspaper in Education (NIE) program. The Florida Law Related Education Association helped facilitate Lewis's visit.

In conjunction with the chief justice's visit, the Herald-Tribune's NIE program published a 16-page student tabloid featuring information and activities about U.S. government and its history. It was delivered to all area middle schools on Sept. 11 to assist local teachers in meeting state and national education mandates for Florida's Celebrate Freedom Week, Sept. 24-28, and national Constitution Day, Sept. 17.

"We are very excited to be working with the Manatee and Sarasota school districts to help bring Chief Justice Lewis to the area," said Mary Charland, Newspaper in Education manager for the Herald-Tribune Media Group. "It's a great opportunity for teachers and students to hear first-hand how our judicial system works."

School board contracts with Pines for care of special needs children

The School Board of Sarasota County has contracted with Pines of Sarasota, a private, non-profit long-term care community near downtown Sarasota, to care for up to 16 special needs children in its nationally accredited Child Care Center.

The arrangement is helping the school board meet the requirements of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA), which stipulate that special needs children comprise no more than 50 percent of a class they attend.

"We contract with some other organizations to fulfill IDEA requirements, but when we needed additional assistance for the 2007-08 school year Pines of Sarasota was the only child care center to step up to the plate," noted Mike McHugh, the school board's executive director of Pupil Support Services. "We expect this to serve as a model for other communities to follow in addressing the requirements of pre-schools for children with special needs."

Pines of Sarasota CEO John W. Overton said, "When approached by the school board, we recognized that Pines of Sarasota was in a unique position to help. We are pleased to partner with the school board in what we hope will be a model for other communities faced with the same IDEA requirements."

Special needs children receive speech, occupational and physical therapy in the Ann and Alfred Goldstein Rehabilitation and Therapy Center while at Pines of Sarasota. All children attending the Child Care Center also enjoy intergenerational activities with seniors living at the Pines. The interaction enhances the children's social development; their youthful exuberance brightens the lives of the residents.

"It is a win-win for all involved, for Pines of Sarasota, for our residents and especially for the children, and we are grateful to be in a position to support our public school system," Overton said.

For more information visit http://www.pinesofsarasota.org/ and click on Pines in the News.



Wells Purmort, Vice Chair, Pines of Sarasota; John W. Overton, CEO, Pines of Sarasota; Connie Snyder, Pines Child Care Director; Mike McHugh, Executive Director, Pupil Support Services, School Board of Sarasota County