Stakeholders, Council face off on dates for school workshops
Islander News. September 11, 2008. By Kelly Josephsen kjosephsen@islandernews.com
There is no doubt the Village will hold workshops about opening a municipal charter high school on the island, but when those sessions will take place is becoming a hotly-debated issue.
The for Key Biscayne High School Stakeholders Group is pushing the Village Council to schedule workshops right away, saying that's the only way a school can open for the 2009-2010 academic year. Council members, however, say the process is already moving at warp speed, and throwing together workshops in short order would keep some residents out of the loop and force later interruptions.
School proponent Angel Martin accused the Council of doing an abrupt turnaround on the workshops.
Martin said Stakeholders Group members left a July 22 Council meeting with an understanding that the workshops would start in October. Therefore, he said, they were shocked when the Council voted August 26 to start the sessions early next year. He said the Stakeholders are in the process of transcribing video of the July 22 meeting to prove their point.
"We aren't happy with the discrepancy. When the Village Council promises something and doesn't deliver, it worries us a lot," Martin remarked.
But Mayor Robert Vernon said the Council simply wants a responsible, thorough process — which is best accomplished by waiting until 2009. He said local leaders' reasons seem to be falling on deaf ears.
"We're moving this process faster than anything we have done since I've been on Council — by far," Vernon said. "Angel continues to berate the decisions the Council's making, continues to incite people into thinking we're delaying this process. It's not the truth. If he wants to continue down that road, there's nothing we're going to do or say that is going to convince him otherwise."
Indeed, there is a wide gap between the views of the Council and those of the Stakeholders.
Martin said the key issue is that starting the process next month will allow the school to open next year. He stressed school proponents are perfectly willing to wait for a 2010 opening if the process indicates that is what is most feasible, but said it's irresponsible to not at least try for 2009.
Delaying the talks any further will cause the knowledge base that has been built in the community to dissipate, he added, and put at risk taxpayer money the Council already spent to file an application with the state and Miami-Dade County to allow the Village to open a charter high school next fall.
"A delay will interrupt the process," Martin said. "There is no reason why Council is reacting this way."
Vernon, however, said the Council was told filing the application didn't commit it to anything — and was clear that was the only reason it agreed to do so.
"We submitted an application without knowing anything, on the basis that it didn't commit us to anything. Now we're being committed to a workshop schedule. If the application doesn't commit us to anything, what's the rush to have the workshops?"
Vernon said it makes more sense to wait until' next year.
For one, he said, snowbirds will be back on the island and able to participate. "Workshops are usually not well-attended to begin with. Why not have them when the most people can attend?"
But Martin said that's a "disingenuous" argument. He noted the Council gave the "same excuse" when it declined to hold workshops this past summer based on the fact that a lot of families go on vacation. If there is always some demographic out of town, he wonders if there will ever be a time to seek input.
Martin added the earliest workshops would be information-only in nature —meaning snowbirds will be in town when decisions are made early next year.
Vernon, however, doesn't want a gap in the middle of the public process.
If informational workshops take place now, he said, too many people will forget what they learned by the time decisions need to be made next January or February.
Furthermore, Vernon added, two new Council members will be seated in November, and they should have the chance to fully participate in the workshops.
Martin pointed out the new Council members have already been chosen because they ran unopposed, so they could easily take part ahead of being seated.
However, Vernon said he doesn't "have one iota how they feel about the Charter school," and added when the Council decided on the 2009 time-frame for the workshops, it was also awaiting closure on a Miami-Dade County fire-rescue consolidation proposal that could have cost the Village $8 million and severely impacted the community's ability to, undertake any new initiatives, including the school.
Still, Martin said the Stakeholders feel like the Council is being "irresponsible and irrational" by failing to call for immediate workshops. He worries that without a quick start to the public process, the Key will become a breeding ground for misinformation: "That's the last thing we need."
Vernon countered, "This is not an effort in any way to derail any momentum or anything they feel they have. I think the Council has bent over backwards to move this process forward. Frankly, it's getting a little disappointing when Angel says stuff like this, that in my opinion has no merit whatsoever."
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