PALM BEACH AND MONROE COUNTIES CONTINUE AS PARTNERS FOR
THE VOLUNTARY PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE (VPSC) GRANT
Article Submitted by: Liz Shapiro
On Thursday, June 11, Yolanda Miranda-Hill and the University of South Florida Evaluation team visited Marathon High School to tour the culinary facilities and to discuss activities with Palm Beach and Monroe County who are partners of the VPSC grant. The University of South Florida Evaluation Team interviewed key Palm Beach County personnel involved with the VPSC grant in Palm Beach County on Wednesday, July 23.
The first day of school, August 24, Chef Green, at Marathon High School, welcomed the first Choice Culinary Career Academy students. Chef Linda Pearson, at West Boca Raton High School, selected her second hour Choice Culinary Career Academy students as the class to “buddy–up” with the Marathon High School Culinary students. The first opportunity for the students to meet each other was September 9 when the West Boca Raton High School Culinary students travelled to Marathon High School. As soon as the students arrived, they were lead on a guided tour of the school by members of Student Council. The tour ended at the culinary lab and classroom. Chef Green, originally from Jamaica, involved the students in an icebreaker activity. He proceeded to demonstrate how to prepare some of his native foods such as: barbequed gizzards, chicken livers and sautéed tongue with all students encouraged to taste a sample of each. After the cooking demonstration, lunch was served by the Marathon High School culinary students. Lunch menu was Black Bean Soup, Chicken with Rice and Strawberry Shortcake. All students participated in cleaning up the lab or classroom. As the Marathon High School left to go to other classes, students bid each other farewell till Marathon High School’s visit to West Boca Raton High School on September 16.
Members of the West Boca Raton Culinary Academy team and Marathon High School Culinary Academy team participated in a two-day Career Academies and Small Learning Communities Scheduling Workshop on September 3 at Eissey Theater on the campus of Palm Beach Community College in Palm Beach Gardens. The workshop was conducted by Mike Neubig, a leading Small Learning Community Career Academy Scheduling Consultant. At this workshop Mr. Neubig’s presentation focused on flexible scheduling groundwork, essential planning, course sequencing and coding, the scheduling process, and bell schedules and strategies to support career academies. The teams were given assignments to work on. Upon completion, the teams discussed their assignments with Mr. Neubig.
West Boca Raton High School was the location for the second workshop on September 4. During this workshop, Mr. Neubig addressed each school’s problems and answered questions. He then worked with each team to personalize their schedules according to their population, academy programs, electives, academics, and faculty. Breakfast and lunch were prepared by the West Boca Raton Culinary Academy students. The Marathon High School Culinary Academy team toured the state of the art culinary facilities after the workshop ended.
