The School Board will meet at 3340 Forest Hill Blvd, West Palm Beach on Wednesday, March 16. It is important that several of us to get on the list of people who have permission to speak. (To do that, call the School Board by Tuesday 5:00 pm (or Wednesday AM latest) at 561-434-8136 (Kristen), and ask to have your name put on the list of people who have permission to speak on "non-agenda items".) We'll have a script, so you don't have to prepare any more than you want to prepare. Each speaker is only allowed 3 minutes (maybe less) so we need several speakers to get through our script. Public comment is scheduled for 7:00 pm. Let's meet outside at 6:00 pm to agree on our approach, to pin on identifying badges, and to be ready in case they are early. If you get there later, find us and get a badge so the School people and the Press will know you are there for TLHS.

Toussaint L'Ouverture High School for Arts and Social Justice (TLHS) serves a special population and is led by very dedicated and talented educators. That is the opinion of many of us lay people who have taken an interest. Their students are mostly immigrant Haitians, mostly from poor and rural areas of Haiti, and they tend to be in their late teenage years. Many of them are not well prepared for life in America and would be at risk for dropping out if they were in mainstream schools. The school was founded in 2001 and is a publicly funded charter school in Delray Beach presently located at the site of the old Atlantic High School.

The school had a satisfactory and affordable location in a strip shopping center until they were given the opportunity by the School Board to move to the old & empty Atlantic High School building in August'07. In December the School Board decided to raze and rebuild at the site and several months later informed the school that they would have to move. The old site for TLHS is still available, but at a much higher rent, and they have spent considerable funds improving their space at the Atlantic High School site.

We respect that our School Board has a tough job providing good education for PBC students with the very low funding provided under Florida laws, but we are urging that the School Board give every possible help they can to enable TLHS to continue without the very damaging hardship caused by their short term relocation this past year. TLHS would love to stay where they are. If that is not possible, we urge that the School Board do what it can to help. Click on the links below for more information.

(photo from Sun-Sentinel, published 4/10/08, photographer Carline Jean)