August 2008 Update

The Council wishes all Florida schools a successful 2008-2009 school year. We also welcome all of our new PASS© and Executive PASS© partners to the Council.

Congratulations to all Council program schools and their partners, which made gains and increased school grades on the 2008 FCAT. Eighty percent of the Council’s PASS schools earned an A, B, or C or increased at least one grade level. Five current PASS schools increased to an A. They and their PASS CEO’s are: Winston Elementary in Polk, Publix Super Markets Charities (Hunt Berryman); Clearview Avenue Elementary in Pinellas, Progress Telecom (Senior VP Elizabeth Vanneste); Lincoln Elementary in Palm Beach, CSR Rinker-Florida Materials Division (Sharon DeHayes); Hialeah Elementary in Miami-Dade, Weeks Gas (President Jeffrey Miller); and Manatee Elementary in Collier, Fiddler’s Creek (President Aubrey Ferrao). Thank you to PASS CEO’s, the Florida Department of Education, and statewide PASS sponsor Raymond James Financial for their support. We also appreciate the support of the districts who helped implement PASS.

Special PASS events will help kick-off the school year. At Gulfside Elementary in Pasco, a PASS celebration  will introduce the model to the school, staff, parents and community, during the opening school activities on Aug. 27-28. This PASS is sponsored by the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay. The business mentor, Lew Friedland of Jireh, Inc., partners with Principal Christopher Clayton.  Holmes and Hialeah elementaries will kick-off a new year together, as their PASS models continue. The event will be held at Don Shula’s restaurant in Miami-Lakes on Aug. 15.  Both of these PASS schools are sponsored by CEO Jeffrey Miller, President of Weeks Gas, who works with Principals Carolina Navieras (Hialeah) and Dahlia Gonzalez (Holmes).

Kudos to: Larry Plank on his appointment as Secondary Science Supervisor for Hillsborough Schools. Larry was a mentor for new teachers at Robinson High in the Council’s Teachers and Teaching Initiative (TTI) funded by the Wachovia Foundation. He was also the school’s Science Department Head and helped boost their science ranking from 24 out of 25 schools, to the top ten, with the highest science gains in the district…Susan DiFederico, a TTI Mentor of Distinction. She was appointed head of Robinson’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program…Robinson Principal Laura Zavatkay for empowering these teachers and for achievement gains. When Robinson started their PASS in 2004, the school was a D, and this year it is a B (2 points from an A). Their PASS was sponsored by New York Life Insurance. VP Thomas Toomey served as the CEO mentor for the school.

Some 120 participants--teams of Principals, Assistant Principals and Teacher Leaders--from across the state attended the Florida Department of Education’s William C. Golden Professional Development Program Florida Leadership Academy©, conducted by the Council. This was the Council’s second Academy this year, held from July 13-18 in Tampa. The Academies, in their 6th year, are generously sponsored by corporate benefactors: Akerman Senterfitt, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, Darden Restaurants Foundation, Publix Super Markets Charities, Inc., and Washington Mutual. Academy sponsors Sharon Miller, the Executive Director of Publix Super Markets Charities, and Sheila McDevitt, Akerman Senterfitt attorney in Tampa, addressed the group. Ms. McDevitt was recently elected Chair of the Board of Governors of the State University System of Florida. 

The Boca Ciega High School PASS partnership sponsored by Council Board Member Dr. A.K. Desai and mentored by Donald Doddridge, CEO of Florida Blood Services, recently celebrated the completion of three successful years.  At a special event at Florida Blood Services on June 17, Boca Ciega Principal Paula Nelson recognized business mentors Don Doddrige, Valerie Werner, and over 30 mentors who volunteered at the school. In July, Florida Blood Services hosted a planning meeting for the Boca Ciega High instructional leadership team to continue PASS inspired school improvement activities for the new school year.

Applications for the $10,000 Leonard Miller Principal Leadership Award with $5,000 awards for the Gold Medallion Winners (all personal use) will be available online at the Council website, www.changeducation.org, Aug. 20. The awards are for Principals who have participated in a Council activity, who have raised student achievement, empowered their staff and engaged in meaningful community and parent engagement. Principals--don’t miss this opportunity to have your accomplishments rewarded!

The Council has helped match and unite corporate and school partners, throughout Florida, infusing almost $15 million into educational improvement over the last 5 years, and prior, as the $100 million South Florida Annenberg Challenge. From this experience we learned how best to support and work cooperatively with schools, districts and partners, meeting needs and providing accountability through evaluation.

How best do we support schools so that they maintain and increase achievement gains and improvement? We are posing this question to districts, educational leaders, teachers, parents and community leaders, and we want to hear from them. 

Our purview and expertise is the development of business-education partnerships and the preparation and empowerment of educational leadership. Leadership is the key to achieve student success. Now more than ever, schools and districts need outstanding educational leaders and it is our Council goal to develop and support current and future leaders to enhance student performance and build a world class school system in Florida. 

As an independent organization, the Council for Educational Change functions as a catalyst to stimulate educational improvement. We will continue to do so and vigorously pursue partnerships to support this work and to channel the right partners to the right needs. The Council encourages our current partners to continue their commitment and to recruit new partners to join their ranks. We, and those we serve, are grateful for the generous contributions of our supporters which have impacted student success. Thank you.

I invite corporate/philanthropic partners and school/educational leaders to contact me, Dr. Elaine Liftin, 954.727.9909 (eliftin@changeeducation.org), to discuss how the Council could help.

Budget limitations will loom large this year--this is reality--but we must not let them define the 2008-2009 school year or diminish the quality of education that our students deserve. Let’s work together.