Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Open Board of Directors Meeting
San Bernardino Community College District
114 S. Del Rosa Drive San Bernardino, CA 92408
Minutes
Present: Don Averill, Deborah Barmack, Tom Brickley, Erin Brinker, Ken Coate, Bill Easley, Scott Hofferber, Mark Kaenel, Al Karnig, Lowell King, Temetry Lindsey, John Mirau, Tom Nightingale, Bev Powell, Larry Sharp, Paul Shimoff and Phil Waller.
Guests: Nadia Flores, Frank Reyes, Lisha Smith and Greg Young.
Announcements: 1) Committees were asked to submit their white papers for the Washington, D.C. issues as soon as possible. 2) Sponsorship is still available for the annual Inland Action dinner in Washington, D.C. The event will be held at the Credit Union House on Tuesday, March 19th with a reception at 7 pm and dinner at 8 pm. 3) The March 12th Randall Lewis series seminal held at UCR will feature John Husing and Larry Sharp who will examine “The Bankruptcy of the City of San Bernardino: Its Consequences and Solutions”. Further information will be e-mailed to IA members. 4) The Grand Opening of the Norton Air Force Base Museum will be on Wednesday, March 13th from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Norton Regional Event Center located at 1601 E. Third Street, San Bernardino. Details will be e-mailed to IA members.
M/S/P: Minutes from February 26, 2013.
Dr. Al Karnig introduced Dr. CynDee Zandes, Chief Program Officer, THINK Together.
THINK Together is a non-profit after school program for K-12 students delivering tangible positive academic results in California. THINK represents the business of Teaching, Helping, Inspiring and Nurturing Kids to become productive responsible adults who are contributing members of society.
Their broad base of operation spans six California counties and continues to grow as school districts recognize that their effective afterschool programs can be a powerful asset in the collective efforts to close the state’s achievement gap. African Americans and Latinos in California represent disproportionate numbers of children living in poverty; they are also more likely to begin school at a disadvantage. The demographics of today’s student population in K-12 indicate that 52% are Latino and 5% are African American. These groups totaling 57% of our students are on the wrong side of the achievement gap. Extended learning time provides an ideal venue for the development of 21st Century skills through project-based learning, group work and reciprocal teaching.
California students are in school approx. 6 hours a day for 180 days which equates to less than 20% of their waking hours. Student achievement can be increased by making the hours outside of the school day more productive. THINK Together provides a standards based curriculum that aligns with core instruction that occurs during the school day. Students learn from program leaders who work along with community volunteers and are supervised by a full time coordinator. Homework assistance is provided to students individually or in small groups to help them understand and complete daily assignments. Language skills are promoted through fluency-building strategies and they focus on strengthening skills in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics).
The program began in 1994 in the Shalimar neighborhood in Costa Mesa, California in response to the plea of the mothers in Shalimar for a safe, quiet place for their children to study and get help with their school work. The mothers organized after a series of shootings to take the neighborhood back from the gangs. Since that time the organization has grown into one of the nation’s largest non-profit providers of extended learning time programs, serving more than 100,000 youth at over 400 locations in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties, in partnership with a wide variety of public and private agencies, including over 30 school districts. In addition to the core after school program, THINK Together offers summer learning opportunities, small group tutoring, early learning programs, and school-age child care.
A Q & A period followed.
Meeting adjourned at 8:35 a.m.