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Stephanie Kraft

BROWARD SCHOOL BOARD

     Despite being under a Tropical Storm warning and a Hurricane Watch a few intrepid Rotarians showed up for our regular meeting, and enjoyed hearing from two guests.

The speaker was Stephanie Kraft, current member of the Broward School Board and candidate for reelection to that post.  She is the representative for the Coral Springs and Parkland area and is proud of the schools in her district as well as a proud parent with kids in the system.  She spoke at length of the accomplishments of the schools in her area, noting that all of the elementary and middle schools are designated as A schools and all the high schools are B - except Douglas which is A.  She filled us in as to school enrollment (going down) and plans for new school or additions to existing schools (Douglas is in line for 38 new classrooms.)  She spoke further about the impact of the Jessica Lundsford act and new security procedures for state schools.

     Also present was our new exchange student, Renan Portelinha of California, Brazil in the state of Parana.  (Of course to a true Portuguese speaker the name of the town and state are screwed up since the squiggly little accent marks are missing).  Anyway he is having a great time so far but was bummed that he had to get up early today since school was cancelled.  He will be back many times in the future. 

     With Renan was host Mom Billie Syse who also happens to be the Mom of Bjorn, our outbound student.  Her only comment was apparently her daughter knows more about what is going on with Bjorn than she does!