| | Newsletter - Review of March 24 Council meeting - | April 4, 2009 |
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"A high school will anchor our property values by making the Key more desirable to families. As a Key Biscayne resident, I believe we will benefit from intergenerational relationships that we develop with the youth of Key Biscayne."
Carlos & Marianne Coto, grandchild Gabriela (6th generation resident)
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"Key Biscayne has the ability to offer an excellent high school education to its students within their community without the constraint of Miami-Dade school district politics, on a scale that is manageable and at a reasonable cost.
A prudent investment in education pays the highest dividend ."
Ed and Claire London
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| Dear neighbor,
As a member of this community, we know you care about the affairs impacting our Village and that you would also like to be more involved. But time is a rare commodity and following complex issues can be very time consuming.
To help you in shifting through the maze, we have summarized the March 24 Council meeting, where the school initiative was discussed at length, and created mini video clips highlighting the most relevant events (complete and unedited video of the meeting can be watched at this link of the Village's website).
Let us please know of any questions you may have, and don't forget to visit our updated web site, particularly the Frequent Q&A section.
Thank you,
Steering Group,
Key Biscayne Charter High School |
School advocates address Council
Angel Martin reviewed what we have learned about the school deficiencies and clarified why only a municipal charter school can guarantee to be a school for the children of our community as a regular charter school would be open to the entire Miami-Dade County and not give admission priority to our children.
Charles Viscito encouraged Council to appoint the already approved Charter School Advisory Board, providing with a forum for residents to cooperatively define a project meeting the needs of the community.
Chris Blackman addressed facilities and financials. Parking lot at Village Hall would be an option at a a cost of less than $100 per resident (infact, less than $60).
Gretchen Clark reviewed the ongoing role of the Education Task Force in developing the educational and curriculum plans.
Other residents spoke in support of the initiative.
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Council member Mike Kelly goes up against seeking funding from the stimulus package and moving forward with proposed charter school
Council member Kelly spoke at the March 10 Council meeting against submitting the school project as part of the Village's "wish list" of projects seeking potential funding under the Federal stimulus package (watch video clip). At the March 24 Council meeting, council member Kelly presented the motion for our local government not to be involved in the proposed municipal charter school. The motion failed to pass, with 3 council members voting in favor and 4 against. Watch video clip of motion.
Should our council members just support their own views, or should they represent the welfare of the majority of residents in the community?
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Council member Garcia opposes school proposal and labels advocates "a pain in the neck"
Opposing a municipal charter school for the children of our community, council member Garcia suggested advocates to seek a solution of their own with Miami-Dade and labeled school advocates "a pain in the neck" while claiming priorities of Council should be on "solving" problems such as the turtle nesting mitigation and expansion of the Community Center and disregarding severe public education issues in our community.
Is Council member Garcia representing the true needs of our Village? Watch brief video here. |
A segment of Key Biscayne past establishment decries school
It would appear that the five ex-council members speaking at the meeting have not and will not acknowledge the shift in the demographics of Key Biscayne towards a much younger population and the new needs of our community. We applaud these ex-council members for their past service to our community but, do they represent the community's best interests of today or tomorrow?
Most of the ex-council members, and the vocal minority opposing the school, attempt to suggest that education is a priority, but that our government, our community and our rights to obtain our autonomy from a failing school district should not be part of the solution impacting over 3,4000 children, their families and many other residents supporting the school initiative.
Are they right and do they represent the voices of today's Key Biscayne?
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What are our Mayor and other council members position on the process of pursuing proposed school?
The majority seem to recognize the need for the school with the expressed main concerned being potentials costs and the unfavorable economy. We share their concern and reconfirm school operations, as a premise, must be self-funded with no subsidy from the Village. Debt service for construction must also be capped, at approximately $50 per $500,000 of assessed property value. These premises provide a perspective for residents to evaluate the real potential financial impact to our Village.
Watch brief video clips of Mayor and individual council members speaking about the initiative at their March 24 meeting. Davey. Gusman. Mendia. Thornton. Vernon.
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What are the proposed next steps in the school and lifelong learning center?
Advocates will continue to work in developing the educational, curriculum and business plans over the next few weeks and invite the community at large to participate in the process.
Plan will be independently validated and presented to our Council and the community to ensure that an educated opinion can be formed by all interested parties.
We would then expect for our Village Council to be open to a dialogue and, working with the advocacy group, to send the proposal to a fair vote of the community.
Our children and the community at large deserve a transparent and democratic process.
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"Schools should be a point of unity, not division, between and among generations"
- Joe Perkins, past president of the AARP |
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