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MAY 18 - 24, 2010
KFHA attendees split on capping class size
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BY RICHARD YAGER
near overflow audience of more than 100 educators, teachers and residents split a straw vote 50-50 on whether or not to reduce school class sizes as currently required by a 2002 Florida Constitution amendment. The straw vote during a Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations (KFHA) town meeting on May 11 ended more than two hours of discussion of a Florida Legislature-approved voter referendum that will go on the Nov. 4 general election ballot. It would ask voters to approve modifying state-mandated class sizes set to become effective this October. Florida voters in 2002 overwhelmingly approved capping class sizes throughout the state at 18 students for kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eighth grade, and 25 in high school. The amendment on the November ballot would roll back those requirements so that class size would be calculated at a gradelevel average, not an individual classroom cap, the legislature’s answer to disrupting budgets during the down economics of today. The amendment will need 60 percent voter approval to permit class sizes above the 2002 mandated levels by up to three students per
Class size caps were discussed during a KFHA town meeting on May 11 by panelists (l-r) Dr. Richard Hinds and Irada Montez-Cartaya, Miami-Dade school administrators; Rep. Anitere Flores, District. 114, and Rep. Erik Fresen, District 111.
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KFHA, page 4
4-H ‘Bug Camp’ creates buzz with local students
Killian grad boosts turning life around BY RICHARD YAGER
Adrian Hunsburger, Florida Yards & Neighborhoods Agent, distributes bug-collecting gear to fifth graders. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
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BY RICHARD YAGER 4-H “Bug Camp” on May 11 at a West Kendall elementary school created the kind of buzz that kids enjoy. It all came about after a teacher affiliated with 4-H Club activity and environmental causes decided a hands-on, outdoor lesson could create more interest than classroom lectures. Xonia Perez, who organized the 4-H Club at Oliver Hoover Elementary School in The Hammocks about 18 months ago, connected to Alex Diaz, agent for the Miami-Dade 4-H Extension and its extension programming. “With cutbacks in school funding, local organizations are coming up with creative tools to expose our kids to high-
er learning,” said Sonya M. Perez, spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Consumer Services Department, which helps fund and operate the Cooperative Extension Service and its 4-H program. As the program’s local spearhead, Perez said she wanted “to get other non 4-H club members in our school excited about environmental sciences.” For four hours, the fifth-grade students took turns in the school’s outdoor yard, learning about vegetable and butterfly gardening after creating their own sites under Perez’s direction. This was to prepare them to “meet their new creepy-crawly neighbors.” Included were such items as “some kind of little green thing,” as described
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BUG CAMP, page 4
A 1992 Killian Senior High grad urged 37 Miami-Dade students “to turn your life into a success by doing what you do best —and sticking to it.” That was the advice from Dr. Billy Jones, divisional chair for Reading and Writing at Miami Dade College’s Kendall. “Learn what you can, but apply that learning to make a significant impact on someone — just as you have been recognized for what you were able to do for yourself,” said Jones, a former English professor and leadership development teacher in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system for eight years. Dr. Jones addressed the 28th annual Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations (KFHA) Operation Turnaround Awards Luncheon on May 13 as deserving elementary, middle and high school students were honored for scholastic excellence to achieve higher class standing, often overcoming personal hardships.
“Just do it!” echo KFHA Operation Turnaround seniors (l-r) Geraldine Salinas (Coral Reef), Osuni Valdivia (Ferguson), Courtney McGuire (Killian), luncheon speaker Dr. Billy Jones, Gilbert Mclean (Sunset) and Christopher Alvarado (Varela).
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GRADS, page 4