Post by Moses on Mar 15, 2005 4:35:10 GMT -5
www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cmilitary13mar13,0,6144697.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Military schools planned for Broward and Palm Beach counties
By Karla D. Shores
Education Writer
March 13, 2005
Sarasota --
....Both Broward and Palm Beach counties plan to open free, public military charter schools in the fall.
As charter schools, the campuses would operate with public money, but would be run by private enterprise. The schools would be loosely modeled after the 3-year-old Sarasota program, the state's only military-style charter school.
The proposed coed Palm Beach Military Academy and Broward Military Academy Charter School represent an emerging trend: the growth of free, public military high schools.
"Discipline today is not what it was when I was growing up," said Jim Utterback, 52, a Palm Beach assistant principal who plans to open the Palm Beach Military Academy charter school in the central area of the county. A site has not yet been chosen.
Tired of violence, the hierarchy of social status and academic indifference in schools, Broward parents clamored last year to enroll their children in the proposed school, but code problems delayed plans for the military academy. Broward still plans to open its school, but Palm Beach County educators say they think a recent visit Utterback led to observe the daily regimen of the Sarasota academy puts them ahead, marking a crucial step toward starting this fall.
Utterback, an assistant principal at Conniston Community Middle School in West Palm Beach, took a half-dozen members of the academy's founding board to Sarasota to research and glean information on how a South Florida campus might operate.
Instead of hanging out on the playground and milling about in the hallways before school, they saw the Sarasota students spit-shine their brogans and fall into formation just after sunup. Students are under orders to call teachers "sir," "ma'am," or by their military titles. All must enlist in the civil air patrol or Junior ROTC, and can be promoted in rank based on grade point average.
Like Sarasota, Palm Beach would offer an assortment of non-team sports and classes like fencing, self-defense, horseback riding, sailing, bagpipes playing and military law.
The proposed Palm Beach school would serve students in grades six through 12, and all students would be dressed in Class B cadet blues. Broward's school would be similar, but would serve grades nine through 12.
During the visit, Utterback and his entourage assembled in the office of the headmaster, Col. Daniel Kennedy, to get a crash course in how to run a military school. Kennedy, who co-founded the academy with military charter school consultant Burt Bershon, has no military experience, but carries a military title at the school. "Pick your teachers carefully. ..... We pay more than the district," Kennedy said. "And give your parents biographies of each teacher. You'll never view public education the same way again. You'll be totally changed."
The Sarasota school day began at 7:20 a.m. [This is an unhealthy schedule for adolescents, who lack the cortosol production this early in the a.m.] with silence as the Palm Beach representatives looked on during daily formation.
Students, dressed in light-green hirts and army-green pants, saluted, their backs rigid and shoulders at attention, not daring to glance away from billowing U.S. and POW MIA flags. Student drummers rolled out stately rhythms as the school band played The Star Spangled Banner.
One after another, nine companies of students barked commands, sending puffs of air into the 40-degree silence. After a student regimental commander shouted out the day's announcements, students relaxed, milled around for a few minutes then filed out, heading to class.
Placed on 6 acres in the center of historical downtown, Sarasota Military Academy is housed in a 1950s Catholic elementary school building, said headmaster Kennedy, a former principal of 3,000-student Sarasota High School.
There's no commitment for military service, but students must abide by military-style rules of behavior that kids in everyday schools don't experience.
The level of interest in military education can be seen in other programs, such as the Junior ROTC, a program backed by the Department of Defense that focuses on student-run leadership on high school campuses.
The number of Junior ROTC programs in Broward has doubled during the past nine years, said Col. James Armstrong, curriculum supervisor for the county's Junior ROTC programs.
"I get about half-a-dozen calls a week from parents looking for a military school," Armstrong said. "A majority of them are looking for a disciplinary atmosphere."
Heeding parents' interest in discipline, Douglas Brown tried to open the Broward Military Academy Charter School last year, but the effort fizzled when county inspectors ruled out using a Plantation church annex because it lacked fire sprinklers. He is looking for a new location.
The school originally intended to have 200 students; Brown said last year he had parents on a waiting list.
"We're still very enthusiastic about it and we know parents are still very interested," said Brown, who carried a list of advisory board members, including local philanthropist and political power broker Hamilton Forman.
Beside the obvious hurdles for new charter school operators -- finding the right building for a school, keeping a balanced budget and academic accountability -- Utterback and Brown have an additional challenge.
Both men have said they don't want parents to think "boot camp" when deciding to send their children to a military charter school.
But that's exactly what will happen, regardless, Kennedy said.
Kennedy says military school operators always have a hard time overcoming the public's perception they are opening a school for students with behavioral problems. The image of a hard-core tough-love school is one setback any military school will have to endure, Sarasota commandant Col. Stephen Cork, a retired Army colonel, said during a meeting with the Palm Beach charter school contingent.
"It took us a long time to make that turn and get that message out," said Cork.
Shannon Cole said she hopes Palm Beach comes through with the proposed school because she fears she cannot discipline her daughter without being considered a child abuser.
"In reality, you can no longer discipline your kids," said Cole, of Lantana. "If they mouth off and you smack them it's corporal punishment. The kids will call the cops and the cops will back them up. At least with a military school, I'll feel like they are backing me up."
Despite the stoic image, military schools are not all about stern looks and salutes.
Sarasota junior Tonee Arbagy said the military school is a lot like traditional school.
Some teachers at the Sarasota school are strict and some are laid back.
Arbagy said some teachers don't require the students to call them by their formal titles as required in the student handbook.
"It's good because it's small and you know people so you feel welcome," said Arbagy, eating lunch with his friends at the end of a long table in the school's mess hall. "It kind of sucks because I had body piercings and I had to take out my tongue ring."
Student Quixote Minasian, 17, said he enjoys the strict nature of the school.
Minasian, a former Riviera Beach student, said he understands why Palm Beach wants a military school.
"My mom moved a lot when we lived in Palm Beach," said Minasian, who now lives in Sarasota with his mother. "There weren't a lot of schools that were stable where I'm from. But here, the kids that want to succeed can be away from the crazy attitudes of other students."
Karla Shores can be reached at kshores@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4552.
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