By: Sharon Aron Baron
A Broward County public school teacher, who is a Tamarac resident, made a powerful speech against the proposed charter school at last month’s Neighborhood Meeting which brought residents to their feet.
The meeting, held on April 30 was attended by the mayor, commissioners and City staff members along with residents in District Three who would be affected if the new charter high school was built in their community.
Suzanne Giorgione, a 7th grade math teacher, who also has children attending Broward County Schools, says she is against a charter high school in the Sports Complex that sits diagonally from her home.
“I took great offense to the email that the City sent to me trying to educate me about what you want to do, saying that you are trying to offer choice for my family and my children. I am very aware of what a charter school is, and whether you want to call it a college preparatory school or a charter school, it doesn’t change the simple fact that we as a community do not need it, nor do we want it here in our park.”
Giorgione believes that the education being offered in the public schools in Tamarac allowed her to achieve great things: she attended Tamarac Elementary, graduated from JP Taravella High School and went on to earn her Bachelors degree from the University of South Florida with a major in Accounting, and since then has earned a Masters degree from FAU. “I am very confident that the public schools we have here in our City are doing a fantastic job in preparing them for success in college,” she said.
Her biggest problem was the location with the school. “Honestly, this entire idea for a school to be built in our park so that you [City] can get maximum daily use of the park is disgusting. The park was built with our taxpayer dollars as a recreational area for the residents to enjoy, not as a campus for a school.”
She told the audience that if our current schools were completely over-enrolled, then yes, maybe, we as a community would allow you to build on our park, that is simply not the case. The fact is, our schools are under-enrolled and there is no need for another school.
