Engineering camp helps recruit high school girls

Two NASA engineers will speak at the Girls Summer Engineering Experience (Girls SEE) at California State University, Fresno, to help high school girls entering Grades 10-12 learn about opportunities in engineering and construction management and education and careers.

Stacia Long and Powtawche Williams Valerino from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena will speak at 8:30 a.m. June 27 about benefits and opportunities available in engineering fields. Girls SEE runs 8 a.m.-5 p.m. June 27-July 1.

Long, a mission design engineer, helped create a gravitational map of the moon as part of NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory. Valerino, a maneuver analyst, is a member of the Flight Path Control Group and Cassini Navigation Team studying Saturn.

“Studies show that girls are taking as many math classes as men and their test scores are exceeding those of their male counterparts,” said Nell Papavasiliou, the Valley Industry Partnership director for the Lyles College of Engineering and a Girls SEE organizer. However, just 17 percent of those pursuing engineering degrees nationwide are females.

“Engineering and construction management are professions that provide intellectual stimulation, financial independence and job security as well as excellent foundations on which to pursue medical, law or advanced business degrees,” added Papavasiliou.

“Through hands-on activities, Girls SEE provides the opportunity to explore these fields and connect with university professors and industry professionals while still in high school,” she said.

The camp is hosted by faculty in the Lyles College to showcase its programs in electrical, civil, computer, geomatics and mechanical engineering and construction management. Besides the activities on campus in daily sessions, participants will tour the Grundfos pump-manufacturing plant in Fresno and visit the Clovis Water Reuse Facility.

The day camp fee is $250, which includes lunch, snacks, materials and field trips. Students who stay on campus at the University Courtyard residence halls pay $750 for the camp, breakfast and dinner, and evening activities. Scholarships are available for day campers.

Fruitport High School names Students of the Month for February

Fruitport High School named its Students of the Month for February.

Bethany Marit Bo is the daughter of Glenn and Mary Bo. Bethany is a senior at Fruitport High School and serves as the Executive Council President for Student Council.

She is a member of National Honor Society, Business Professionals of America, Spanish Club, and is active in her church youth group. Bo plans on attending Lee University to pursue a degree in elementary education and minor in intercultural studies.

Michael Anthony Reyes is the son of Mike and Carla Reyes. He is a junior at Fruitport High School and is involved in football, basketball, and baseball.

Reyes plans on attending Grand Valley State University to pursue a degree in sports medicine.

Suncoast High School traffic snarls still irk neighbors, but relief promised by mid-October

RIVIERA BEACH — Drivers still wait in lines of traffic and obey police to reach the new Suncoast High School in the mornings.

But some residents say the Suncoast traffic is flowing better than it was during the first few hectic days of the school year. And the school district says the traffic jam between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. will be eased in mid-October, when a wider section of West 13th Street is scheduled to open.

Still, some residents remain frustrated by the congested mass of cars winding through their residential streets.

“It’s crazy,” said Erica Gonder, a parent who lives on 13th Street near the Suncoast entrance. “It’s not that we don’t want the school there. They should take a better route.”

Terrence Houvouras, a father of three who lives on 13th Street, worries about cars speeding by his house while his sons play basketball in the driveway.

Houvouras and other residents want speed bumps to be restored when the wider stretch of 13th Street near the school entrance is completed. The school district is not planning speed bumps, nothing that they pose problems for school buses.

“Their only concern is making everyone at Suncoast comfortable,” said Annette Simpson, a 13th Street resident who attended an Aug. 24 meeting with district officials to discuss traffic around the new school. Simpson says speed bumps are needed – especially now that the road in front of her house will be wider and filled with young drivers headed for Suncoast.

Riviera Beach officials are irked, too.

The city withheld water and sewer permits for the new high school last year because the district had failed to make road improvements to handle Suncoast traffic. The utility permits were granted in January after the city and district approved an agreement that called for several improvements: two stoplights, turn lanes on Congress Avenue and a widening of the stretch of 13th Street between Congress Avenue and Jake Lane.

The road work was supposed to have been completed Aug. 1. The city and the school district are working to extend the deadline to Jan. 7.

City officials also are negotiating with the district to pay for the hours that six Riviera Beach police officers spend directing traffic to and from Suncoast.

The acclaimed high school sits on a 70-acre campus that includes John F. Kennedy Middle School and Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary. The high school serves 1,394 students.

To reduce the number of students walking through construction and traffic to reach the three schools, the district recently added bus routes to pick up students at the Spinnaker Landing and Marsh Harbour developments west of Congress Avenue.

But on a recent morning, a student dressed in khaki trousers and a white shirt walked, apparently late for school, around backhoes and bulldozers working on 13th Street near the Suncoast entrance.

Boynton weighs doing 12th study on high school, at $52,000 price

The old Boynton High School has been at the center of political debates through the years.

It has been on the verge of being demolished several times in the past decade, and it also has been the subject of 12 studies since 1993, costing the city nearly $300,000 .

Despite all of the reports, discussions and spending, the old high school remains standing, empty, just as it has been since the day its doors closed in 1949.

Now the city has put out a request for another study regarding possible plans and financing sources for the old high school, and the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency has set aside $52,000 for this purpose.

But things will be different this time around, according to the city commissioners. For the first time in recent years, the entire commission supports saving the old high school.

At a team-building retreat in May, the commissioners agreed to make preserving the old high school a priority, and set a target date of Dec. 10 for putting together a design/construction schedule and budget.

When the idea of putting out a request for another study first came up at the Aug. 3 commission meeting, Commissioner Bill Orlove questioned whether that would be a smart move.

“We’re going through budget hearings, and we talk about how we’re trying to cut and save and scrimp,” he said. “We’ve studied this over and over again, and I just think it’s ridiculous to spend $52,000 on another study.”

Mayor José Rodriguez was quick to defend the study, saying it would be the first one to look at possible money sources, such as historic preservation and new market tax credits, grants and bonds.

“I’m not one of those mayors that’s going to do a study and have it sit on the shelf,” he said.

He also said it’s possible that the money spent on the study would be reimbursable through some of these programs.

Vice Mayor Marlene Ross said she’s wary of another study.

“No more studies,” she said. “It’s time to move forward and do something.”

She said that time is running out for the 83-year-old building.

“It’s in terrible condition,” she said.

Commissioner Woodrow Hay said he’s glad to see this next study moving forward.

“It’s about time,” he said. “I’m really hopeful that we’ll the get funding sources to move ahead with it. That’s going to be the difficult part. If we get that piece of the puzzle, the other pieces should fall into place.”

Although the commissioners all agree that the old high school should be preserved, they haven’t come to an agreement on a particular use. But that’s part of the reason why the newest study is being done, according to Commissioner Steven Holzman.

He said that past studies identified particular uses without first taking into account what’s financially feasible.

“Instead of putting the cart before the horse, let’s just see what the horse is,” he said.