School Board Meeting

I attended a Pinellas County School Board Meeting on November 9th, 2010. Pinellas is the county that I currently live in. The meeting was in Largo, which is in the middle of the county, making it easier for those who live in north county and those who live in south county to commute. The meeting was called to order, and then a Reverend delivered an invocation which I found surprising, given this was a government event. Roll was called, and those who sat at the front answered. The jobs that those in the front held was the Superintendent, Deputy Superintendent, Board members, chair members and a vice chair member.We stood for the pledge of allegiance and then the meeting really began. The first people to present were students from Countryside High School. They came before the board to speak about clubs and organizations at their high school. They currently have over twenty five clubs at their school, such as the Robotics Club. Next, a paper was read from Gov. Charlie Crist about designating a time period called " Florida Engagement in Education month". Gov. Crist believes that parents need to be involved in their child's education, and that this month would bring awareness to that fact. A Japenese exchange teacher was then introduced to the crowd and to the board. The city in Japan that the teacher is from, is the sister city of one of the cities in Pinellas, called Clearwater. The board then "approved" the minutes of previous meetings. I do not completely understand why this is done. " Requests" were then read and debated upon. The superintendent made recommendations about various issues, and then the school board voted whether or not to consent or not. Most of the time they agreed with what the superintendent had proposed. The board decided to terminate two people who worked for the schools. One was a bus driver, who did not take her designated route to pick up children. She was also talking on her cell phone, and even put tape over the camera that would film her. The other person that was fired was a janitor who was selling cocaine. After the board voted, new requests were read, and would debated at the next meeting. These requests included approval of an application from a charter school, called Plato Academy. Audience members were then asked to present any information that they wished to share with the board. No one did, so the meeting went on so that board members could introduce new information to the board. Then the meeting was officially adjourned. The meeting was very professional and no one spoke out of turn. There were more people in the audience than I expected, given it was in the morning.

Student Museum

          The Student Museum is located in Sanford Florida, off of French Street/ 17-92, between 7th and 8th. The building is beautiful, with brick and iron gates. The museum features a garden that visitors can walk through to access the parking lot. The original purpose of the building was a High School. The original part of the building was constructed in 1902. In 1911, Seminole High School was built, thereby making the old high school a grammar school. When the building became a grammar school, wings were added as well as plumbing and electric. The grammar school was used until 1984, and was then converted into a museum because the building was so beautiful. The museum is now open to the public between 1:30 and 3:00, and in the mornings is used for 4th graders, as that is the year that public school students learn FL history. The interior of the building is like stepping into the past. The dark wood floors creak as visitors walk around to see all that the museum has to offer. The museum is  currently funded by Seminole County Schools.                       
          The first room the tour guide showed our group was the Indian Exhibit. This room featured floor to ceiling murals of what life was like for the original peoples of FL. The exhibit had a canoe, and various stuffed animals. The next exhibit was the pioneer room. This room featured a log cabin that was only shrunk down by 1/4 of the actual size that people would have lived in at that time period. The house was very tiny, and our guide pointed out how people only had one peg to put their clothing on. She remarked that the 4th graders usually have a hard time wrapping their heads around that fact, given they have entire closets. The cabin featured a book that I found amusing. It was entitled, The American Frugal Housewife: Dedicated to those who are not ashamed of economy. The next exhibit was the classroom, which was interesting to me, because that would have been the way my late  great grandmother would have attended school. What I noticed about this room was how tiny everything was. I am a tall person, and I most likely would have been a giant back then. The teachers desk featured old books, and ink quills, which the teacher had to fill every morning. Outside of the classroom was a list of rules that teachers had to obey by. All the rules were humorous and ridiculous, but the one that was most interesting was " a man shall save a quarter of his earnings, so that he does not become a burden to society in his later years." The next room was grandmas attic, which featured relics from the turn of the century, to the 1950's. There was an old wheelchair, a telephone. clothes, dolls an oven, and a washboard among others. The last room was the georoom, which featured a geochron. This room had a model of the state of florida, showing what each piece of the state is used for. By far, the room that I enjoyed the most was the turn of the century classroom. It was so different from classrooms today. It did not seem inviting for the students.