SARASOTA COUNTY TECHNICAL INSTITUTE

School Advisory Council

Minutes

January 10, 2005

 

 

Members Present:  Bruce Andersen, Peter Straw, Mickey Anderson, Ed Carthew, Javier Brito, William Costello, Jerome Greenstein, Mike Holloway, Harriette Laronge, Lydia McTeague, George McGonagill, and Roland Piccone

 

Members Absent:  Capt. Mike Holloway, Louis Maltaghati, Regina Stinson

 

Guests Present:  Ken DeVeau, Raul Amill

 

I.                   Welcome

Peter Straw called the meeting to order at 5:37 p.m.  He welcomed the group, and requested each member of the group to state their name and area for the guest present.

 

II.                Minutes

The minutes were approved as presented; a motion was made by Jerry Greenstein and seconded by Mickey.

 

III.             Director’s Report

Focus on the Future:  A dialog on Career Technical Education’s role in economic development. The date for the event, “Focus on the Future” has been changed from January 21st to February 18th from 7:45 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.  Due to the expansion of the focus of this event, which will be Focus on the Future – A Dialogue of Career & Technical Education’s Role in Sarasota, necessitated that the event date be moved to a later date of February 18th and Dr. Norris, the school Superintendent will be one of the presenters.  One of the issues will be what are the economic demands and the role that the technical school will participate in meeting those demands.

 

A member of the council inquired as to how many people were being invited and the number was given at around 40. 

 

Plans are being made to invite members of the Economic Development Council, members and directors of the Chamber of Commerce, County Commissioners and other members from the area’s business community.  Bruce requested if SAC members thought that there was anyone else that should be included; please let him know so that they could be added to the invitation list.

 

The plan is to have a buffet style breakfast from 7:45 – 8:00 followed by an hour of dialogue and ending around 9 a.m.

 

Special Program Focus:

Still running special advertising for the focus programs, Legal Assistant is offering an evening class, which is offered one evening a week for people who are working during the day and need an evening class.  There are around seven new students who have signed up for the class. More information will be provided at the next meeting.

 

Enrollment 2005-06:

The enrollment summary was deferred to the next meeting, as copies of the report were not provided at this meeting.  No changes -- everything is going fine, January had an increase in enrollment.  Plans are being made to add two additional high school automotive sections.  This is in response to the demands of additional high school enrollment. There will be one more offered in the morning and one more in the afternoon, which will give three automotive technology classes in the morning and three in the afternoon. 

 

Jerry Greenstein inquired as to where the classroom will be for the automotive technology classes that are being added and was told that the classroom used for the electrical wiring class which is no longer being offered is being considered by Construction to be outfitted for the automotive class. There is a canopy there and it is across from Javier Brito’s automotive technology class in building 9.

 

This year’s (2004-05) high school enrollment is 20% larger than last year (2003-04).  It is anticipated that next year’s high school (2005-06) will increase 12% over current year enrollment.

 

Budget Update:

A proposed timeline for the budget was distributed.  The week of the 21st of March is a four-day work week for staff so our budget will not be completed by March 24th.  The SDMT will receive the budget on March 22nd and will have if needed the 23rd  & 24th to work on it.

 

A special SAC meeting may need to be called to meet to discuss the budget.  The SAC committee is requested to reserve March 28 as a possible meeting date to discuss and approve the budget. The budget will need to be delivered to the Landings by April 4th.  It is due earlier this year than in previous years.

 

 

IV.              Old Business

Technical High School

·         Peter reported that the letter to Dr. Norris regarding the need for the technical high school from the manufacturing community was sent and inquired from Roland Piccone about the status of the letter from the engineering community and from Ed Carthew about the status of the letter from the health care community.  Both replied that they are working on them and will have them completed in the next few weeks..  Peter stressed the importance of sending those to Dr. Norris.

 

Marketing Plan

·         Marketing Plan: A paper was prepared by Andy Fox and distributed by Bruce in Andy’s absence.  Peter asked the members to take it home, review it and share any questions or concerns electronically with Bruce.  Bruce will send copies electronically to all members not present at tonight’s meeting.    Andy will be asked by Bruce to respond electronically to all queries and issues raised by SAC members.

 

·         Bruce stated that our intent (SCTI) is that when adults are looking for schools, we want SCTI to be the one that they will be considering.

 

·         George Mc Gonagill expressed concerns that issues raised at the last meeting were not addressed in this paper prepared by Andy and referred to the 19 point items and the status of those items.  We see the issues, but we should see the details and the solutions.  Peter wants to see the status of those items addressed and reported. 

 

·         It was stated that Dr. Norris has said that every high school student will be in a Career Academy.  Our school will be different from the Career Academies in the high schools.   There is a district wide focus on establishing career academies for all students.

 

·         Fire Chief Costello questioned whether there is a way that SCTI is being covered with the development of the career academies in the high schools.

 

·         Bruce discussed SCTI’s  participation in the Riverview H.S.’s Madame Currie Academy:  Eleven junior year students from the Academy are now attending SCTI all day in the PN program.  They will complete the full PN program in one year and will return to Riverview for the second semester of their senior year.

 

·         Jerry Greenstein discussed the newsletter put out by the Sun Coast Workforce Development Board and that MTI schools will be patterning themselves along the lines of MCC.

 

·         Raul Amill (guest – to become SAC member) inquired if we are targeting ways to compete with the schools that Andy has listed in his report and how are we doing this.  He sited examples from his community business area and how they look at their competition.

 

·         Peter requested information about what has to happen to cause an increase in high school enrollment to occur.

 

·         Bruce discussed the idea of the proposed “Wall of Fame” where alumni who have been very successful in the business community would be featured at a reception. This is proposed to take place possibly around the 20th of May to honor these individuals.  We may start out honoring 4 or 5 members this year and increase the number next year.

 

Workforce Summit

·         Peter Straw would like to create a statewide Workforce Summit that would be held someplace in Sarasota either in June or later in the summer.  Sarasota would be the host site for the event. Mary Helen Kress said that the Workforce Board would be willing to host the summit.  It was suggested that participants should be educators and employers.

 

V.                 New Business

·         Peter reported that he has been unsuccessful in making contact with David Winterrowd and we may need to fill that position on the council with someone else.  He has spoken to Hugh Middlebrooks from Williams, Parker, Harrison, Dietz and Getzen about becoming a member of the Council – but without success.  Peter encouraged other Council members to consider who might be willing to serve as a SAC member that would benefit the school and invite them to attend a meeting.

 

VI.              SDMT

·         Harriette reported that the SDMT met in January, newly elected members started serving on the team and new officers were elected.  Suggestions for improving the appearance of an area of the campus and planning time for teachers were issues raised at this meeting.  Minutes will be available when they have been approved by the SDMT. 

 

VII.         Additional Business

·         Mickey Anderson discussed an activity that he thought might be something that SCTI might want to consider doing that relates to professional and/or career type of development that is going on out in the community.  We could be an information resource for the public who would want to know what professional and/or career type of events or activities were taking place in the community.

 

 

Adjournment:  Peter Straw called for a motion to adjourn the meeting; motion was made by George McGonagil and seconded.  It passed unanimously.  The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m.

 

The next meeting will be February 14, 2005 at 5:30 p.m.

 

 

The Sarasota County Technical Institute provides quality technical education to meet workforce development and community needs.