February 2022
City collaborates on education initiatives
to help Fort Lauderdale families
One of the most important factors to the long-term prosperity of a community is the quality of education offered to its children. That’s why increasing the city’s role in education has been a major goal of this City Commission.
 
Our first step three years ago was to hire the city’s first ever chief education officer and task her with finding ways to expand the city involvement with the school district and local colleges and target areas where we could help make improvements.
 
We are committed to being a community with world-class schools and a great place to raise a family, so we are proud to have seen a lot of success in this initiative.
 
The efforts undertaken have drawn accolades within the education world. The state Department of Education recognized the city of Fort Lauderdale last fall with its 2021 Commissioner’s Business Recognition Award. This honors organizations that have brought positive change to education and helped implement bold and innovative approaches to improving academic performance.
 
So what has the commission been doing with the help of Zoie Saunders, the chief education officer, and our Education Advisory Board? Let me share the details…
 
The Bezos Academy
 
The city is working to expand early education for our residents through a unique partnership with Bezos Academy and the school district. The Bezos Academy was started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and provides full-day, year-round preschool for underserved communities without any tuition fee.
 
Our staff worked with principals and the community in the site selection process and we believe this program will have a tremendous positive impact on early childhood education.
 
The School Board will soon review the proposal at a workshop, its first look at it. We hope the terms are close to being finalized and that we can look forward to launching the Montessori-inspired program at select schools in the city in the near future.
 
 
The Global Institute of Sport
 
I was honored recently to join with Jorge Mas, one of the owners of the Inter Miami soccer team, to launch a campus of the Global Institute of Sport at DRV PNK Stadium.
 
This is the Global Institute of Sport's first full campus in North America and will provide educational programs for students interested in pursuing careers in sports business. When fully established, the campus could bring a total of 300 jobs to support more than 1,500 students a year.
 
This is a great project that will expand education opportunities and bring economic growth to our community.
 
From the beginning, I said that our partnership with David Beckham to bring pro-soccer to Fort Lauderdale was more than about sports entertainment. He and his partners built a stadium at no cost to taxpayers, but they also brought their soccer academy, training facility and corporate headquarters here.
 
Now, we have more to show for this partnership -- a stellar educational campus of international repute.
Summer and after-school programs
 
Last summer, our community faced an unprecedented learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. About a third of students in Fort Lauderdale were identified as failing, which educators largely attributed to the impact of remote learning.
 
As a result, the city partnered for the first time with the school district and the county’s Children’s Services Council to run a specialized summer program as a compliment to the school district’s free, six-week summer academy. Thanks to the city’s efforts, every summer school location in Fort Lauderdale offered an aftercare component. Our programming filled a gap for working families, allowing them take advantage of the school district’s summer program.
 
The city also provided academic enrichment during our traditional Parks & Recreation summer camps.
 
We had amazing results.
 
Assessment tests showed more than three-quarters of campers maintained or improved their ranking in literacy and math. Those students who tested at the beginning as in particular need of assistance made even greater improvement with more than 8 out of 10 of them maintaining or improving their math and literacy rankings.
 
As with summer school, after-school care is an area where the city can readily step in to supplement the work of the school district.
 
We have used funding from the federal CARES Act to outfit community centers with iPads and MiFis and are now applying for additional funding to expand internet connectivity. These efforts help students have greater ability to access online content after school.
 
Another significant accomplishment is that the city was selected by the Barbara Bush Foundation to start Book Explorers, a literacy program as part of the aftercare program with funding coming from the state Department of Education.
 
Aviation career programs
 
With our community’s location between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and our own executive airport, this commission recognized that we have a golden opportunity to become a worldwide hub for aviation education.
 
Aviation job projections in Broward County are expected to increase substantially in the next five years. We intend to create multiple education paths for students to move into the high-demand and cutting-edge fields of aviation.
 
Our first such effort was the launch of an avionics program at Atlantic Technical College in partnership with the school district, local colleges and the business community.
 
The curriculum was customized to meet the specifications of industry partners. Avionics is the specialization in the repair and maintenance of a plane’s electronic instruments. The increased use of digital technology on aircraft has meant more time is spent maintaining computer systems, and that has created a greater need for avionics training.
 
Our second step is to create an aviation workforce training facility. We hired a consultant to conduct a feasibility study and needs analysis for a training program and will soon receive their final report. The findings should further clarify the demand and need. 
 
Stranahan High School
 
The aging condition of Stranahan High has been a long concern to the City Commission, with the state of its cafeteria being the most recent issue. It’s the oldest cafeteria in the school system, cannot handle the student capacity and has no air conditioning in the kitchen.
 
The school district kicked around ideas for almost two decades about what to do, but agreed to build a new cafeteria following interaction with the city and community leaders. We are hopeful that the facility will be open for the start of the 2023-24 school year.
 
This is extremely important in that Stranahan not only educates children of many Fort Lauderdale families, but is home to outstanding engineering and hospitality magnet programs. The school is also part of city history, having been built on land donated by Ivy Stranahan.
 
Expanded parks and recreation opportunities
 
When voters overwhelmingly approved a bond issue a couple years ago to improve the city’s park system, one of the promised focuses was to create more opportunities for collaboration between the school district and the park system.
 
Through joint use of space, more students would have access to play areas during school time and families would have more access to park space nights, weekends and summers. We identified more than a dozen opportunities for new or expanded joint use of space and have committed more than $10 million from the bond issue to make improvements.
 
The city’s Education and Parks & Recreation advisory boards have drawn up a plan, and the City Commission is expected to vote on it next month.
One example from the proposed plan is Thurgood Marshall Elementary. Children have trouble accessing nearby parks because of the busy Powerline Road and Sunrise Boulevard thoroughfares. The project scope at the school encompasses a playground, basketball court and walking trail that families can use.
 
Another example is Stephen Foster Elementary, which is not near any city park. The city will update the school’s playground and soccer field and create a walking path with fitness equipment.
 
There are other initiatives beyond these signature ones.
 
We’ve partnered with the Children’s Services Council on a project to address education equity issues. And, we are working with the school district to promote education successes with residents, businesses and civic associations. This has included publicizing Heilange Porcena of North Side Elementary as principal of the year and Esther Charles of Sheridan Technical High and Elizabeth Fahy of New River Middle as teacher of the year finalists. 
 
In closing, I’d like to congratulate Dr. Vickie Cartwright on becoming Broward’s new school superintendent. I look forward to continuing our education partnerships with her, the school district and others to ensure Fort Lauderdale continues to be a great place to raise a family and a great place for our children to return and find good jobs. 

Yours,


Dean
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