Community SchoolsAs many other communities have experienced, proposed Community Learning Center would integrate the school within the fiber of our community by bringing together partnerships to offer a range of supports and opportunities to children, youth, families and adults — before, during and after school, seven days a week, 365 days a year. These partnerships will work to achieve, among others, these key results:
Advantages to the Key Biscayne Community:Besides academic and social advantages for our children, there are many ways in which the Community Learning Center will nourish our community. It will promote civic participation, will foster community cohesion and become essential to our community’s long-term sustainability. Civic Participation Decision-making authority for the school will be transferred from a removed and bureaucratic entity directly to our community, the same way the police and fire rescue services where transferred from Miami-Dade County to our Village after its incorporation. We, as local residents, will have a say over such matters as curriculum, educational standards, budgets, and teacher qualifications, and be involved in the day-to-day school operations, giving residents the opportunity to be involved in education decisions from which we are removed today. Community Cohesion The Community learning Center provides us with the opportunity to bridge intergenerational gaps by bringing together residents of all ages and backgrounds for a variety of activities and services. Adults can participate in mentorship programs at the High School and children can contribute through community-based service learning opportunities benefiting the entire community. The School can become a place where residents of all ages can attend social, cultural and recreational activities in an environment providing encouraging lifelong learning activities. A place where generations come together and where community identity is forged. Promoting intergenerational practices will bring people from different generations together in purposeful, mutually beneficial activities which will promote greater understanding and respect and contribute to building an even better Key Biscayne. Our own local school can educate generations of friends, family, and neighbors, providing a shared experience and continuity from one generation to the next. Our local school will have much to do with Key Biscayne’s sense of its own identity. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the affiliation that may result with a school’s sports teams (including tennis, golf, beach volley ball, sailing and rowing) or the school’s music band. As practical examples, the Florida Intergenerational Orchestra of America brings together the generations of Boca Raton, FL (ages 8 through 88) with music and musical performances. This orchestra environment encourages, nurtures and promotes closer relationships between the generations and contributes to a better understanding among children and adults. http://www.flioa.org/. Other examples of how the school can benefit the community can be seen here. Our retail business understands students attending schools outside their community are doing most of their shopping around their commute, as well as parents of these children do today around their pick up and drop off schedules. A significant amount of retail business and services goes across the bridge today. For an isolated island bordering one of the largest and most cosmopolitan cities in the country, sending our own retail business away from the village is cause to wonder from what school of economics have we been educated? The relationship between schools and economic well-being of communities is amply documented, and particularly so for isolated communities such as ours. A high quality school can be among our community’s most important assets by driving community’s overall quality of life, economic sustainability of our retail business and increasing / maintaining property values. Why is a community school important in educating our youth?Besides the core components of a rigorous curriculum, education should develop active, engaged citizens who are able to participate in and contribute fully to a democratic society. In order to learn how to be citizens, students must act as citizens. Therefore, our school must connect subject matter with the places where students live and the issues that affect us all. One of the objectives is for our school to provide an environment that fulfills the basic necessary conditions for learning and being civic minded and responsible citizens in today's complex world |
