Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Kids back in classrooms
Facebook Live discussion receives praise
First day of school in Palm Beach County is mostly smooth.
Although some buses were late or did not show up, the first day back at school went fairly smoothly in Palm Beach County.
The school district reported 90 percent of buses were on time — a contrast from two years ago, when 70 percent of buses were late or did not arrive.
Still, several parents complained about their children’s buses during a Facebook Live discussion conducted by Superintendent Robert Avossa on Monday afternoon.
Parents at Loggers Run Middle School, west of Boca Raton, and Suncoast High in Riviera Beach said their children’s buses never showed up
“The first 10 days of schools are always going to be a little hectic,” Avossa said while touring Carver Middle School in Delray Beach. “But this was one of the smoothest openings of school we’ve ever seen.”
In one major glitch, he said the air conditioning collapsed over the weekend at Boca Raton Middle School. But a temporary fix was in place by the time school started.
Avossa said the district has about 193,500 students at 180 schools, down slightly from 194,146 reported last October. Almost 800 students this year switched to district schools after attending charter and private schools.
District officials said they expect more students as the school year proceeds.
Carver is among the schools trying to lure back students. There were 820 students last year, even though there is room for 1,534.
Many families for years avoided the
school, concerned about low test scores, teacher instability and racial imbalance. But the district has installed several programs designed to attract high-achieving families: Sixth-graders will get iPads, and an academic coach will help integrate science and technology into the curriculum. The school also will get a science lab and a foreign language lab.
Principal Kiwana Alexander-Prophete said she is thrilled there were 850 students on the first day of school, when projections had shown only 774 would attend.
“We sent letters to everyone who lives in the neighborhood about all our new programs,” Alexander-Prophete said. “We knew there would be parents who would be interested.”
Sixth-grader Fearless Straghn, 11, said he looked forward to attending the school’s International Baccalaureate program, which encourages critical thinking.
“I can tell they are going to pick my brain and see what I know,” he said.
Straghn had just met his sixth-grade math teacher, Edward M. Harris II, who asked his students to refrain from saying “like” and “um” mid-sentence.
“I am trying to remove those words from their vocabulary,” said Harris, 33, a Carver graduate whose parents were Palm Beach County principals. “‘Like’ is pretty much for Facebook and Instagram.”
Still, the school system is paying attention to social media. Avossa received praise from parents for leading a first-day Facebook Live discussion Monday afternoon. And the district is about to introduce a new phone app that will allow parents to see their children’s grades, lunch menus, school directories, sports scores and calendars. They also will be able to email their teachers and follow news about their schools, spokeswoman Amity Schuyler said.
Also new this year: Longawaited renovations, including new roofs at Carver and Lantana Middle, and a newly paved and striped parking lot at Del Prado Elementary in Boca Raton.