Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Open Board of Directors
San Bernardino Community College District
114 S. Del Rosa Drive
San Bernardino, CA 92408
Minutes
Present: Pete Aguilar, Dimitrios Alexiou, Peter Barmack, Carole Beswick, Tom Brickley, Ann Bryan, Rachelle Bussell, Ken Coate, Bill Easley, Ray Gonzalez, Patricia Harter, Fran Inman, Mark Kaenel, Neil Macready, John Mirau, Lou Monville, Mike Page, Bev Powell, John Prentice, Ty Schuiling, Kristine Scott, Larry Sharp, Paul Shimoff, Shelli Stockton, Carlos Valdez, Stan Weisser.
Guests: Patricia Mora, Mayor Pat Morris, Joe Richardson, Gary Thomas and Ellen Weisser.
Announcements: 1) A reception honoring the Californian Transportation Commission will be hosted by Inland Action, Monday Morning Group, Mobility 21 and the Greater Riverside Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at the Mission Inn from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Members will receive the invitation by e-mail with a password protected response. 2) Time-Warner is hosting a televised discussion of Inland Empire regional issues on Friday, December 2, 2011. Inland Action has been invited to participate. Interested individuals should contact Carole Beswick for more information. 3) There will be an Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
M/S/P: Minutes of the November 15, 2011 meeting
Stan Weisser introduced Jim Morris, Chief of Staff, San Bernardino Office of the Mayor; Mike Gallo, Member-Elect SBCUSD and Rick Piercy, President/CEO Lewis Center for Educational Research.
The panel discussed Charter School concepts and challenges.
The Norton Space and Aeronautics Academy (NSAA)
NSAA provides a curriculum that attempts to prepare children to compete in the 21st century global economy by a focus on STEM and language skills. Problem solving requires communication skills so NSAA uses dual emersion with Spanish. They recently became 1 of 3 schools in Southern California to be selected as a partner with UCLA’s Confucius Institute for teaching Mandarin Chinese. This tri-lingual education starts in 5th grade and accelerates through middle and high school. Using portables that are behind warehouses and a Community Center on the former Norton AFB, children are preparing to be global citizens, ready to compete in the 21st century global economy. NSAA has partnered with NASA and the Lewis Center’s GAVRT (Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope) program and use project based education. Future partnerships, like with the U.S. Dept. of Fish and Game, are being explored.
San Bernardino
Successful schools are an important component of a healthy city. Revitalizing and providing sustaining communities includes a healthy educational system. Charter schools have no funding for facilities so they have been shoehorned into whatever available space they can find. The City is working to help identify potential space. Partial usage of a park area where multiple schools would share a single campus is one suggestion that is being explored. Collaboration and partnerships between charter schools and the school district are obtainable. The school board however must first unify. They need to agree on core values to build the foundation of a system that will drive their mission to their objective. We should stop asking, and begin demanding, that civic leaders make this collaboration a reality.
Students consistently complain that their studies lack relevance. Using best practices and incorporating meaning and hands on application help to address this issue. All education areas improve when multiple senses are integrated into the learning experience.
The United States has always been on the front line providing inventions and innovations. We need to continue in that leadership role. Educating our children for jobs that have not yet been created for technology that has not as yet been discovered is our challenge.
Meeting adjourned at 8:40 a.m.