HomeMy WebLinkAboutVII(D) Recommendation from the Education Commission Regarding Televising their Meetings - Education Committee Chairman David Morris Agenda 7/6/04
Item VII. D.
Honorable Mayor and City Commissioners,
As Chairman of the Ocoee Education Commission, I have been authorized by the
Education Commission to appear before you to request the approval of funding to
televise the Education Commission monthly meetings in the same manner that the
Planning& Zoning Board and Code Enforcement Board meetings are televised.
Established in 1998 by the City Commission,the Education Commission was charged
with fulfilling several objectives. Found in Section 4 of the establishing resolution, six of
the eight objectives are:
a. Maintaining communication with each school within the City;
b. Facilitating communication between the City Commission and the School
Board of Orange County;
c. Facilitating communication between the City Commission and the Area
Superintendent;
d. Publicizing positive happenings in the schools attended by Ocoee students;
e. Serving as a forum for discussions of educational issues and concerns within
the City
g. Serving as an informational conduit to the community at large;
The main objective of the Education Commission, therefore, is communication. We feel
that the best way to accomplish this objective is by having our monthly meetings
televised.
The Commission meets the first Monday of every month except in December, when we
have no meeting. Our meetings last approximately two hours or less and have recently
included presentations from the Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) on the half-cent
sales tax (that meeting was televised), FCAT results, the efforts of the OCPS to have the
court-ordered integration of the public schools lifted, and Charter Schools. We also have
Committee reports on legislative issues that impact education and reports on fundraising
efforts by the Commission on behalf of the public schools serving Ocoee. We have also
had a discussion concerning teaching a second language as part of the regular curriculum
and are planning a future discussion on the role of K-8 schools. Both of the latter topics
appeared in articles in the Orlando Sentinel after our recent discussions, which
demonstrate the timeliness of our topics. Televising our meetings will make these topics
and discussions more accessible to our fellow residents, broaden the debate, increase
participation by the residents in the educational process and help to fulfill our main
objective; communication.
With the help of Janet Shira, Assistant to the City Manager, we anticipate the annual
costs to televise our meetings to be between$1,155 and $1,540. To determine these costs
we assumed 11 meetings per year and the use of only robotic cameras. To operate these
cameras we need a director, who is paid $20/hr., and a second camera operator, who is
paid $15/hr. They each get a three hour minimum. They arrive about a half hour before
the meeting to get set up and to type the agenda into the character generator. If our
meeting lasts two hours, the cost of each meeting would be the three hour minimum times
their hourly rates for a total of$105. If the meeting went over to the fourth hour the cost
would be $140. Since the broadcasts will be repeated throughout the month, this will
give our topics maximum exposure and the residents of Ocoee better access to a topic of
great importance.
By televising our meetings we will also be augmenting our other methods of
communicating with the public. Currently, each member of the Commission has taken
responsibility for communicating directly with a school, or schools, so we can keep them
and ourselves abreast of any educational topics of concern. With the addition of six new
members in the last two months, the flow of information by this method should be greatly
facilitated. We have also had Commissioner Edward Johnson, one of our new members,
volunteer to be our Community Liaison with the responsibility of getting information out
to the public through the West Orange Times, OGTV,News to You and any other
appropriate means.
Combining these methods with a regularly televised meeting will help us to achieve our
ultimate objective; enhancing the quality of education received by the residents of Ocoee.
We thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Sincerely,
David Morris
Chairman, Ocoee Education Commission