Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 5-20-16 Online Edition

Letters To The Editor
Hillsborough Superintendent Says There Are Plans To Rebuild Meacham
The School Board and I, as your Superintend- ent, remain committed to building Meacham Mid- dle School in the Encore Development in Down- town Tampa.
The School Board re- cently approved a lease agreement allowing the City of Tampa Housing Authority to lease the land for free to create a temporary urban farm on the property that is the future home of Meacham Middle School.
The agreement allows the Housing Authority to use the currently vacant land for a number of years until the district is ready to build Meacham Middle School. This com- munity farm will make the best use of the land and serve students and families.
The urban farm will serve as a learning center for Hillsborough County Public Schools students as they enjoy field trips to the site, learning about agriculture and the con- nection between food and health through hands-on experiences.
Students will be pro- vided with a working knowledge of where their food comes from, see how the food grows, and how to prepare it.
The Housing Authority approached us with this idea and plan to build and operate an urban organic farm, which will include a cooking area, a class- room, and an on-site market stand. The farm would be an educational resource for students in the school district as well as the public.
Ultimately, there are plans to sell the produce to the community. These farms allow space to be temporarily used to raise awareness about healthy eating and the well-being of a community. I believe this collaborative part- nership between Hills- borough County Public Schools and the City of Tampa is the best use of this land until Meacham Middle School is built.
JEFF EAKINS Superintendent, Hillsborough County Public Schools
St. Petersburg NAACP Holding Pinellas School Board Accountable
May 18, 2016
ST. PETERSBURG, FL – The St. Petersburg Branch NAACP is poised to support the Pinellas County School Board’s efforts to not only ad- dress the systemic fail- ures in our six schools within south County, but throughout the County.
In Dr. Grego’s May 16, 2016 letter to the editor he characterized the NAACP’s involvement and call for his resigna- tion/termination as “di- vision.” This I find disturbing and counter- productive.
As public officials the NAACP is simply holding Dr. Grego and the Pinel- las County School Board members accountable. The African American community has trusted that the District would do the right thing by Black Children for over 30 years.
The trust factor has been lost and like the re- organized branch of the St. Petersburg branch, Grego and school board members must accept that regaining that trust
is a process.
The St. Petersburg
Branch NAACP has not come back with the ex- pectation that just be- cause we bare the name of the oldest and boldest civil rights organization, that the community will simply accept what we say. We will only regain the trust of the commu- nity after the collective community witnesses the sustained work and ac- complishments toward addressing the violations of social justice within our community.
As the President of the St. Petersburg Branch NAACP I am personally committed to lead the or- ganization in a fashion that ensures we utilize our collective experi- ences to analyze data, sift out inconsistencies, and be responsive to com- plaints of discrimination and to identify strategies that lead to long term systemic socioeconomic changes.
Just like the NAACP doesn’t expect the com- munity to simply take our word that we will do the right thing, the
NAACP will not simply take the word of any public official as the Gospel and simply bow our heads in prayer in hopes that we will be de- livered.
If the spirit of collabo- ration and cooperation is to exist between the Pinellas County School Board officials it can only exist when all par- ties involved within the collaboration demon- strate the highest levels of consistency, trans- parency, integrity, and mutual respect that can be supported by data and actions.
It is my personal prayer that the meetings this week with Pinellas County School Board member Rene Flowers and Superintendent Dr. Mike Grego is the begin- ning of a collaboration grounded in those high- est levels of consistency, transparency, integrity and mutual respect pre- viously referenced.
MARIA L. SCRUGGS, President of St. Petersburg Branch NAACP
PAGE 4-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2016