TWENTY FIVE POINT PROGRAM
OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT
December 2, 1996
To: Mr. Demetrio Perez, Jr., Vice Chair
School Board of Dade County, Florida
From: Alan T. Olkes, Superintendent of Schools
SUBJECT: TWENTY FIVE POINTS PLATFORM
I have carefully read through your 25-point platform and have shared it with appropriate senior staff members who need to respond to the individual points. I believe, however, that most of these responses will come at a time after the change in superintendents and therefore, feel it more appropriate that Mr. Cuevas respond to the memo in general.
On November 29th, you submitted a memorandum to me requesting my recommendations on issues concerning the safety in our schools and the external audit. On the external audit question, we will be holding a conference session with the School Board on the December 11th meeting. At that time, you will have the opportunity to get an overview of the total financial program, including those safeguards that are built-in through an internal and external audit. Should you have further questions following that conference session, then I believe Mr. Cuevas will be prepared to take whatever actions the Board Chooses.
As to your request for a response regarding the issue of safety in our schools, I am asking Ms. Carol Cortes, Deputy Superintendent for School Operations, Mr. Roger Cuevas, whose current assignment includes responsibility for our school’s incidence, to prepare a report to the Board indicating those areas which, by statistical data, have problems and, recommendations for the solutions to those problems.
There is no question that are members of the public who perceive our public school system as being generally unsafe, if they were to look at the actual data available, they would see that very few of our schools truly have serious safety problems.
There is no questions that there are members of the public who perceive our public school system as being generally unsafe, however, if they were to look at the actual data available, they would see that very few of our schools truly have serious safety problems. However, even one incident is more than we would like to see. Personally, I think the Board will have to come to grips with the overcrowded situation plaguing all of Dade County before it can satisfactory address the school safety issue.
There in no question in my mind, that as long as we continue to over enroll individual schools in order to cope with the continuous growth throughout the county, that our safety issues will increase proportionately. Research has shown that small schools do a much better job of socializing students and providing an atmosphere that is free of fear and abnormal social behavior.
By action on the Board and in agreement with the teacher’s union, each school will be electing Educational Excellence Council prior to the winter break. This council has on their membership teachers, administrators, parents, students, and interested community leaders. That group, beginning its work in January, will be the one to identify the needs for improvements in that particular school, using consensus management. We believe these groups will bring to the forefront both the problems and the plan of action to solve problems within each school community.
Even though I am stepping down from the superintendence and on an official basis, leaving the school system, I would hope that I will have the opportunity to assist in the training of these councils so that they may address problems such as those raised in your 25 point platform.
________________________ATO
ATO: ae
L-7062
a:212
cc: Mr. Roger Cuevas
Ms. Carol Cortes
Dr. Marilyn Neff