The Mims Institute

January 15 School Board Meeting

• Tampa Bay Academy of Hope contracts for at-risk students at Jefferson, Blake, and Middleton High Schools – Agenda Items 5.18, 5.19, 5.20

http://www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/boardagenda/search/Cover_Standard_Print.asp?AICS_ID=5979 and http://www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/boardagenda/pdfs/BD20080115_285/Attch_20080115_285_A5.18.pdf

Others from the community are likely to speak to this agenda item.  I applaud the School Board for listening to requests from the community to reinvest Title I and other dollars by allocating funds to local community-based and faith-based organizations to help students dream of going to college.

I recall the days since 1998 when the School District of Hillsborough County had no funds for such things.  It is certainly a sign of progress that Title I high schools now have $11,000 and $12,000 to spend on less than 15 at-risk students.  

I eagerly await seeing resources targeting minority students with strong reading skills, especially black males in zip code 33610.  The ones whom I know may live in a low socio-economic environment, but getting them to graduate reinforces low expectations.  They may have the ability to “graduate from high school prepared to earn a four-year college degree in four years or less.”   

Examples:  A black male from zip code 33610 graduated from the University of Notre Dame in May 2007.  Another from zip code 33603 will graduate from Notre Dame in May 2008.  Both were recipients of over $140,000 in “other people’s money.”  They dreamed big and dared asked for admissions after making use of the rigorous academic opportunities offered in Hillsborough County Schools.

There are others sitting in our high schools and recent graduates who have benefited from encouragement to dream big.  Perhaps the superintendent and senior staff will someday ask, “What are we doing for and with minority parents who still live in our community after helping young people succeed in our schools and go on to America’s top national universities?”

• National Council of Negro Women Recognition of Visit Your Child in School Day  http://www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/boardagenda/search/Cover_Standard_Print.asp?AICS_ID=5730

January 15 School Board Agenda Item C1

Recognition of Visit Your Child In School Day

The National Council of Negro Women began this initiative ten years ago when they urged black parents to visit their child’s school in February 1998.  Our son, Jason, was a second-semester freshman at one of the suburban high schools in Hillsborough County.  I was the only parent to make the visit that day at his school.  This gave me ample opportunity to ask school administrators some questions about black males in my son’s class cohort and outcomes for other black students at the school.  Attached are Ten questions and responses the administrators provided a month later.

There were 145 black males in Jason’s freshman class.  It disturbed me that no other parents went to visit the school that day in February 1998.  Jason brought home his senior yearbook in early 2001.  There were only 22 black male noses in the section of the yearbook reserved for members of the Class of 2001.  The only way that that could happen, I conclude, is if black parents do not pay attention to the environment in which their sons learn.

2008 marks the beginning of the second decade of the “Visit Your Child in School Day” that the National Council of Negro Women began in 1998.   It might be helpful (black students from zip code 33610 benefiting from exceptional academic opportunities) if future awards recognize urban zip codes in East Tampa that have the highest percentage of parents participating in the initiative.  

• 2006/2007 Senior Scholarship Survey Report http://www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/boardagenda/search/Cover_Standard_Print.asp?AICS_ID=5778 and http://www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/boardagenda/pdfs/BD20080115_285/Attch_20080115_285_A9.04.pdf

January 15 School Board Agenda Item A9.04

2006/2007 Senior Scholarship Survey Report

The first time I saw this report was when it was on the School Board’s agenda in August 2001.  Table 2 of the report that year indicated that black males received more athletic than academic scholarship dollars.  They were the only subgroup of Class of 2001 graduates in Hillsborough County to fall in this category. 

Since that time, I have anticipated reviewing this annual report each year hoping that black males would seize the opportunities that other graduating subgroups pursued.  Knowing full well that America’s top national universities have more scholarship dollars available for high achieving black students than for black athletes, I concluded “something is wrong with this picture” reflected in the Senior Scholarship Survey Report. 

The report for the Class of 2007, for the first time in the 21^st century, includes data in Table 2 indicating that black males received more academic than athletic scholarship dollars.  Also for the first time in the 21^st century, the number of black male graduates receiving scholarship dollars exceeds 200.  Both outcomes are progressive and appropriate for the School Board to highlight on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday.

It might be helpful (black students from zip code 33610 benefiting from exceptional academic opportunities) if future Scholarship Survey Reports identify the number of black male graduates from urban zip codes in East Tampa who receive academic scholarships.  Such information may provide the East Tampa Community Revitalization Partnership an indication of if the zip codes within its boundaries are growing future professionals to participate in the expected economic development that the Partnership demands.