A snapshot from one of two Panel for Educational Policy meetings about school closures in 2011.
Boisterous protests against school closures have long been accused of lending a circus-like atmosphere to the annual meetings where the Panel for Educational Policy votes on closures. This year, though, the opposition will actually have three rings.
Three separate groups are planning protest actions during tonights PEP meeting, where the citywide school board is set to vote on — and presumably approve — 23 school closures and truncations. (Changes to two schools were taken off the table yesterday.)
City officials have vowed not to let the protests disrupt the panels proceedings, suggesting that panel members and protesters alike could be in for a long and potentially combative night. Last year, the panel approved 22 closures in two separate meetings that each lasted well past 1 a.m. In 20
ARCADIA — What started out like a close basketball game the Muir High School boys basketball turned into a track meet in the third quarter.
The visiting Mustangs used their trademark swarming defense to create scoring in transition, going on a 20-3 run and never looking back to dispatch Arcadia 77-64 on Monday night in Pacific League action.
The latest result was nowhere near when the teams met in the league opener, Muir (19-1, 8-0) needing overtime period and 38 points from Jelani Mitchell to get past Arcadia (9-11, 2-6).
This time, Mitchell and the high-flying Mustangs showed their defensive prowess, limiting Arcadia to empty baskets on nine of 10 possessions and five turnovers during Muir’s offensive spurt that started with the Mustangs leading 36-33 with 6:58 left in the game.
“I didn’t know all of those numbers but I did think the guys played with a lot of energy in that third quarter,” Muir coach Gamal Smalley said.
With Premont High School facing the prospect of closing because of financial and academic problems, it has decided to cut its sports programs for this spring semester and the fall semester of 2012, reports The Caller.
Premont is a 2A high school. Think of Premont ISD as the now-defunct Wilmer-Hutchins ISD. It has long been struggling academically and also has some economic hurdles to clear. The district will save about $50,000 each semester by cutting sports and plans to open two new science labs with the money.
“Our urgent situation requires swift and drastic action,” Superintendent Ernest Singleton said to the Caller.
WEST PALM BEACH — The battle to build a charter school on preserve land inside one of the county’s last agricultural enclaves came to an abrupt end Tuesday, after a Sunrise-based homebuilder said it had found a 14-acre site for the project inside one of its future developments.
The announcement by GL Homes means that Palm Beach County commissioners will no longer have to consider a controversial change to the county’s long-term growth plan that would have allowed the school to rise in the 20,500-acre Agricultural Reserve west of Boynton Beach and Delray Beach.
Commissioners last month authorized county planners to start working on the change and were scheduled to hold a public hearing on it later this year. But the seven-member board on Tuesday unanimously agreed to withdraw its request after GL Homes said it found a site for the school within its Amestoy project, near the northwest corner of Boynton Beach Boulevard and Lyons Road.
The county has already approved 785 homes as part of the project, which also sits inside the county’s Agricultural Reserve. K
