Judy's Journal

Dr. Judith S. Stein

Welcome to the 2007-2008 school year. It is a time of new beginnings and a fresh start. As I write this, my first article for the Florida School Choice e-newsletter of the Florida School Choice Resource Center (FSCRC) for the 2007-08, we are pleased to continue our work for school choice in Florida. This Center was developed under the Voluntary Public School Choice grant (VPSC) from the United States Department of Education which was provided to the State of Florida in the 2002-2003 school year to expand, reinstate or improve school choice in Florida. This grant provided five-year sub-grant to Nova Southeastern University, Fischler School of Education and Human Services (FGSEHS) which provides for the increase of initiatives of the National Institute of Educational Options (NIEO) which has been part of the FGSEHS since 1998.

NIEO has worked nationally on facilitating, developing and/or implementing school choice or educational options—magnets, charters, home schools,

Opportunity Scholarships, virtual schools and career academies for parental involvement and student academic excellence.

Last November we proudly announce that Dr. Carlo Rodriguez, former Administrative Director of Miami-Dade Public Schools’ Charter School Operations Office had been appointed the new Executive Director of the Office of School Choice and Parental Options. We said farewell to Virginia Gentles who left for Washington, DC after the State of Florida Charter School Conference on November 29, 2006. So it is with great sadness that we feature Dr. Rodriguez in this newsletter after his untimely death in June of this year, after only serving eight months in the office. Carlo was an innovator, visionary and server of the children of Florida. Most of all, he was a true advocate of all school choice and a fighter for truth. Please read the poem that Rose Raynak, our State of Florida choice leader wrote after the tribute to Carlo in Tallahassee on Thursday June 28, 2007check date.   We of the FPSCC will never forget him. Our work on school choice and our Parent Advisory Council as well as an upcoming Choice Summit will forever have his hand prints on them.

The VPSC grant has provided for many new initiatives and partnerships in Florida and nationally. This was the first grant to a non-profit university for school choice. Much has happened since we received this sub-grant in the field of school choice. Many innovations have been begun by the Center. We have developed on-line courses for Diversity and Equity, magnet schools 101 and family involvement as well as credit courses ad part of a Masters’ in Charter School Education and Leadership. We have developed the first joint school district and university Parent Resource Centers (PRC’s) by the FSCRC and

The Miami-Dade Public Schools and Office of Parental Involvement. We have staffed 

Outreach centers in the minority communities we serve in Opaloka, Homestead and Little Havana with partner organizations such as the Resource Room, Children’s Psychiatric Services and the Cuban National Planning Council. These Centers provide community services for school choice to the many neighborhoods in Miami in addition to those centers in the university: North Miami Beach and Kendall Student Education Centers. We have opened new Parent Resource Centers with community organizations in Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and Orlando, Florida.  

On the secondary school reform front, our partnership with the University of West Florida (UWF) in Pensacola Florida has flourished. A national Career Academy Survey was developed by our partner Dr. Wally Holmes-Bouchillon, and all academies in the United States are submitted the survey on-line. Interesting statistics have been gleaned. We also ran the National Career Academy Coalition (NCAC) and the conferences for the organization in San Francisco, CA and St. Louis, Mo. as well as another partnership with the Small School Workshop (SSW) under the leadership of Michael and Susan Klonsky who were instrumental in the development of the USDOE Smaller Learning Communities grant.

This summer, we co-hosted the Florida Summer Conference for the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) through the SE CES which is at the Tampa campus for Nova Southeastern University.

The Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova Southeastern University hosted this symposium and reception for CES highlighting latest techniques in school reform for this major national organization. Our FSCRC administrator in Tampa Kathy Harris is one of the national consultants for this organization. For more information, see www.southeastces.org and www.essentialschools.org. Kathy is working with many school districts on the Smaller Learning Communities grants as well as she has reviewed the Project SUCCEED grants for Florida’s funding for Career Academies. 

The large portion of the five year grant was the work with mentors and mentees and this has led to many workshops and meetings such last summers annual Florida Public School Choice Consortium (FPSCC) Conference in Tampa, this time with Magnet Schools of America (MSA) and their Summer Magnet and Related Training (SMART) conference where we honored MaryEllen Elia the Superintendent of Hillsborough County and Past President of MSA.

The other meetings for the year included the meeting in January 2007 at the Small Schools Conference in Miami, July 2007 in Jacksonville for the Florida Career and Technical Association (FACTE) conference and Sunday September 30 until October 2, 2007 for the FPSCC Third Annual Meeting in Orlando at the Caribe Royale Hotel. See http://www.fpscc.net

And speaking of the State Conference, it falls on the last day of the five year grant. We held our breath during this last year to see if we could continue our work for the USDOE and the Florida Department of Education. At the urging and with the vision of Carlo Rodriguez, the competitive grant application was submitted by his department the Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice on April 2, 2007. We waited and waited…..One Friday, July 28, 2007, almost four months after submission, we got the news!!!! FDOE was funded as one of three grant in the State of Florida (Miami-Dade and Hillsborough counties also were funded) among only fourteen grants in the nation

Under the VPSC program. This proves that FLORIDA   is a “bell weather state” for School Choice which includes charter schools, private school choice including Opportunity Scholarships and McKay Scholarships for Special Education students, as well as

Public choice such as Magnet Schools, Career Academies, NCLB Choice (this is the choice which is provided for students in low performing school who are able to transfer to higher performing public schools)   and SES Choice (which provides choice by way of tutoring by private and public supplemental service providers) and virtual schools and home schools.  This grant to the FDOE has a large sub grant to Nova Southeastern University, Fischler School of Education and Human Services. The state piece is to develop a competition for “interdistrict choice” to enhance and expand it in Florida and also to develop new Parent Resource Centers in Tallahassee, Palm Beach, Broward and on the Seminole Reservation in Okeechobee County.    

Finally we are happy to announce that we have filled out our staff in South Florida with the hiring of a Professional Development Coordinator Dr. Patricia Grimsley, a 36 year veteran and former principal and district administrator in Miami, our charter school Coordinator for the Center Katy Twist, and two new Parent Liaisons—Soraia Cruz in North Miami Beach and Maria Rivera (who was our administrative assistant in NMB) and now is housed at our Kendall campus. We have had our grant from Title I in Miami-Dade renewed until 2009. This funds two of the parent liaisons.  

Expect to read about the new PRC’s and their development, about the conferences and institutes of our partner organizations, the Magnet Schools of

America, the National Career Academy Coalition and the Small Schools Workshop, as well as our own Florida Public School Choice Consortium; and learn about some of the promising practices in school choice and district leaders implementing innovations and diversity efforts in the twenty-two mentor and mentee districts which have been implementing novel school choice programs in the State under the No Child Left Behind law.

We hope to assist you in learning more about how school choice helps educators, parents and students with school climate; security; student achievement and educational excellence in 2007 until 2010 and beyond. Visit us in Florida.

Have a successful new school year.

Judith S. Stein Ed.D.

Principal Investigator/Project Director

Florida School Choice Resource Center--

State of Florida VSCP grant of the USDOE

and Executive Director of the National Institute of