A near overflow audience of more than 100 educators, teachers and residents split a straw vote 50-50 on whether or not to reduce school class sizes as currently required by a 2002 Florida Constitution amendment.

The straw vote during a Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations (KFHA) town meeting on May 11 ended more than two hours of discussion of a Florida Legislature-approved voter referendum that will go on the Nov. 4 general election ballot. It would ask voters to approve modifying state-mandated class sizes set to become effective this October.

Florida voters in 2002 overwhelmingly approved capping class sizes throughout the state at 18 students for kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eighth grade, and 25 in high school.

The amendment on the November ballot would roll back those requirements so that class size would be calculated at a gradelevel average, not an individual classroom cap, the legislature’s answer to disrupting budgets during the down economics of today.

The amendment will need 60 percent voter approval to permit class sizes above the 2002 mandated levels by up to three students per class in elementary schools; four in middle schools, and five in senior highs while avoiding non-compliance penalties of $2,900 per student for those not adhering to the constitutional standard.

“If the vote our audience took is any indication, the referendum will most likely fail in November,” said Miles E. Moss, KFHA president, who asked for the informal sampling just before adjourning the two-and-ahalf- hour panel discussion at 9:30 p.m.

“But this is just the start of the debate,” Moss continued. “We’ll have further speakers and programs on the funding issues throughout the summer at KFHA meetings.” Prior to the action, two school officials and two state legislators offered commentary and answered classroom cap questions, then heard critiques of the recent teacher tenure issue vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist in April.

School administrators on the panel included Dr. Richard Hinds, Miami-Dade Schools associate superintendent and chief financial officer for the district, and Irada Montez-Cartaya, an assistant superintendent for intergovernmental affairs, joined by State Rep. Erik Fresen who chaired the Prekindergarten to Grade 12 House Policy Committee in the recent legislative session, and State Rep. Anitere Flores, committee vice chair who represents District 114 which includes a part of Kendall.

While neither legislator served in the 2002 session, both were criticized for helping allow a situation to develop that could cost Miami-Dade Schools an estimated $30 million in fines, based on a per-student penalties, even if the referendum passes.

Penalties are not already-funded dollars but represent “reductions of future state funding to Miami-Dade,” Rep. Flores explained. “Nevertheless, penalty dollars would become funding that will wind up elsewhere in Florida, not in our schools.” Currently, Miami-Dade receives $4 per pupil in annual state funding against a statewide average of $1.22, Rep. Flores noted.

“We saw the situation coming during the down economics of the 2009 session but our attempt then to pass cap-sizing change failed of legislative support,” Rep. Fresen said.

Should class sizes allow three to five per class exceptions if the November vote passes, a time gap until the vote is certified and the amendment becomes effective will still accrue penalties expected to cost Miami- Dade $30 million, Dr. Hinds estimated. Should the referendum be defeated in November, county schools stand to lose up to $90 million by failing to meet cap standards voted eight years ago.

“That’s in addition to the $400 million we’ve cut back in budget reductions over the last two years,” he said.

“Moreover, if we try in October to soften potential penalties by getting rid of nonelective class teachers (for example: music, drama, arts, etc.) and readjust classes to only basic studies, and the referendum passes, we’ll have to re-hire teachers we fired after a successful ballot, Dr. Hinds said.

“Not only will that cost even more, in addition to the penalties, but where do we find new teachers for those we just replaced?” he asked rhetorically.

Former East Kendall Community Council vice chair Millie Herrera said the legislators should have financed part of educational needs to allow caps “by taxing out-of-state businesses that are not paying their fair share due to special exemptions now in place.”

Such savings were termed “a drop in the bucket” by Rep. Fresen who said they would only amount “to an $8-10 million saving,” adding “we studied more than 200 of them, one-by-one, in committee sessions. The difference was simply not significant.”

Other arguments on legislative mishandling of educational funding included allowing private school vouchers to continue instead of financing only “public” education, and continuation of charter school development during an economic downturn. Don Kearns, KFHA internal vice president, panel moderator, was credited by Moss along with Yvonne Kearns as “the couple spearheading development of information and organization of the panel.”

A4-H “Bug Camp” on May 11 at a West Kendall elementary school created the kind of buzz that kids enjoy.

It all came about after a teacher affiliated with 4-H Club activity and environmental causes decided a hands-on, outdoor lesson could create more interest than classroom lectures.

Xonia Perez, who organized the 4-H Club at Oliver Hoover Elementary School in The Hammocks about 18 months ago, connected to Alex Diaz, agent for the Miami-Dade 4-H Extension and its extension programming.

“With cutbacks in school funding, local organizations are coming up with creative tools to expose our kids to higher learning,” said Sonya M. Perez, spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Consumer Services Department, which helps fund and operate the Cooperative Extension Service and its 4-H program.

As the program’s local spearhead, Perez said she wanted “to get other non 4-H club members in our school excited about environmental sciences.”

For four hours, the fifth-grade students took turns in the school’s outdoor yard, learning about vegetable and butterfly gardening after creating their own sites under Perez’s direction. This was to prepare them to “meet their new creepy-crawly neighbors.”

Included were such items as “some kind of little green thing,” as described by Brian Escobar, 11. “I haven’t figured out what it is yet, but I will now.”

It was that kind of enthusiasm that also led Daniel Perez and Kayla Gonzalez, both 11, to become president and junior sponsor of the 4-H Club activity, the first of its kind at Hoover Elementary.

“It’s really neat, learning about bugs,” they said.

“Some people eat mealworms in baked goods, stir fry, and on salads for their mild, nutty taste,” Diaz said.

Focusing on how bugs are part of our ecosystem food chain and their importance in human interaction, students were equipped with magnifying glasses and butterfly nets and other insect-collecting paraphernalia, most of it furnished by the Miami-Dade Cooperative Extension Division’s 4-H Club and Urban Horticulture Program that operated the camp.

Also on hand helping kids learn more about insects was Adrian Hunsberger, a Florida Yards and Neighborhood agent, along with Diaz who is co-sponsored by the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

For information on programming, visit the Miami-Dade Cooperative Extension website or call 305-592-8044.

A 1992 Killian Senior High grad urged 37 Miami-Dade students “to turn your life into a success by doing what you do best —and sticking to it.” That was the advice from Dr. Billy Jones, divisional chair for Reading and Writing at Miami Dade College’s Kendall.

“Learn what you can, but apply that learning to make a significant impact on someone —just as you have been recognized for what you were able to do for yourself,” said Jones, a former English professor and leadership development teacher in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system for eight years.

Dr. Jones addressed the 28th annual Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations (KFHA) Operation Turnaround Awards Luncheon on May 13 as deserving elementary, middle and high school students were honored for scholastic excellence to achieve higher class standing, often overcoming personal hardships.

All students attending were advised by Jones to use their proven positive outlook “not only to help yourself, but to help others in your search for a philosophy for living.” “Every one of these students has a special story,” said Miles E. Moss, KFHA president, who emceed the program with Frank Cobo, former school board member. The event marked 28 years since its founding by the late Dorothy Cissel, Kendall resident, educator and community activist.

Honored seniors were Osuni Valdivia, Ferguson High; Geraldine Salinas, Coral Reef High; Christopher Alvarado, Felix Varela High; Courtney McGuire, Killian High, and Gilbert Mclean, Sunset High, each receiving $500 Operation Turnaround and $1,000 Miami Dade College scholarships. Middle and K-8 Center students honored were Fabian Gonzalez (Arvida), Jessica Turro (Devon Aire), Oshton Armstrong (Frank C. Martin), Daniel Sanchez (Glades), Mitchell Rodriguez (Hammocks), Stephania Diaz (Jane S. Roberts), Adam Suarez (Kenwood), Megan Cruz (Leewood), Myiesha Perry (Richmond Heights) and Devin Herrera (Winston Park).

Elementary students who received certificates at school assemblies included Alfred Salazar (Blue Lakes), Joran Ramos (Calusa), Madelyn Garcia (Claude Pepper), Anthony Fiallo (Coral Reef), Juliette Valdes (Cypress), Jorge Zubrigary (Devon Aire), Robert Fonte (Ashe), Joshua Flores (Beckham), DeSean Perry (Martin), Danielo Aguirre (Gordon), Brian Van (Roberts). Also honored were Chris Herrera (Kendale Lakes), Jonathan Canales, Lucianna Doria, Jimmy Hauser, Florianne Jacques, (Kenwood), Veronica Montalvo (Leewood), Oliver Lemus (Olympia Heights), Natalie Rodriguez (Royal Palm), Ryan Sierra (Lehman) and Virginia Sanchez (Winston Park).

When Albert and Enid Harum-Alvarez set out to build their “Green House,” they decided they wanted something special.

Now it has become an environmental “first” in its Continental Park neighborhood, attracting hundreds of visitors who want to learn more about “green” building and savings on their power bills. Unique construction features and conservation methods abound at almost every corner, from the home’s rare “cellar” to composting bathroom waste to fertilize fruit trees.

The two-story, 2,300-square-foot residence overlooks a secluded Florida hammock where SW 98th Terrace reaches a dead-end, a block east of SW 82nd Avenue and only a short distance from the Dice House, Kendall’s first residence, that Harum-Alvarez helped salvage.

The Green House faces north toward a 1,100-square-foot house, known to Kendall old-timers as the “Smoak Cottage,” where the family has continued to live during the construction of the Green House, including the couple’s three teens — Gabriel, 18, attending Miami Dade College; Giovanna, 16, a junior at Killian High School, and Marjory, 11, attending Kenwood K-8 Center.

As history buffs, the Harum-Alvarez couple compiled a history of Kenwood Elementary, Kendall’s first school, when its PTSA celebrated the school’s 75th anniversary in 2005, then newly designated as Kenwood K-8 Center.

Projects like that are second nature to the Harum-Alvarezes, who decided a “second” home in their tropical surroundings should reflect what pioneers discovered when building year-around homes, long before air-conditioning, by using contemporary materials to duplicate what earlier Floridians knew was needed to create cooling interiors and living comfort in a sub-tropic climate.

“We delayed naming the new home because we wanted special name,” Harum- Alvarez told nearly 50 touring friends, business associates and inquisitive professionals concerned with preservation and “green” construction on May 4. Harum- Alvarez estimates he has hosted as many as 50 informal tours during the past two and a half years).

“As time went on, we kept calling it the ‘Green House,’ so that became its name,” smiled the former schoolteacher turned businessman who has long treasured original Florida homesteads and their histories.

Features built-into the Green House will doubtless comprise a book some day, including the unique ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms) units creating solid walls “stronger than concrete block that also help to maintain even temperatures from summer through winter,” Harum-Alvarez said. “The interior walls also work to maintain temperatures despite fluctuations outside. We packed interior walls with scrap drywall instead of throwing the scraps out.”

Reduced electrical costs resulted in March billing of $35 for the Green House, compared to those of typically sized homes averaging in the $200 range, he noted.

“We re-circulate directly underground, rather than have the return unit above ground where it would be subject to 95- degree air. We recirculate air six feet below ground level where the temperature stays at 73-degrees the year around.”

He estimated the Green House probably saves about $8,000 a year, between energy savings and windstorm insurance, over a comparable home, even without the added cost of a full solar PV array on the roof. “At a time when families don’t have money to waste, such savings are a godsend.

That overview also led to preserving a towering 80-foot high oak that dominates the east side of the landscape, towering above a natural pool, because “the tree provides an aesthetic anchor for siting the house itself,” Harum-Alvarez continued. “It’s a vertical accent, viewed from the eastern double-door deck entry, right through the home interior.”

The philosophy of preserving what is natural to a hammock setting extends to the Green House grounds.

“That rubberized mulch you walk on will eventually be replaced by whatever naturally takes to the soil,” Harum- Alvarez said. “Right now, we have five different species trying to take hold. The one that wins will become permanent.” Harum-Alvarez often ends his tours by saying, “While it took two years to build the house, it’s taken seven years to get our permits.”

He will seek Miami-Dade Commissioner Katy Sorenson’s soon-tobe- vacated District Eight seat, having counted more than a dozen community organizations on which he has served, including a steering committee for Downtown Dadeland, Habitat for Humanity, Kendall Public Space Committee and a transit corridor study group, among several.

“Miami-Dade has to make it much easier to build new or remodel existing homes,” Harum-Alvarez concluded. “With so much at risk in the face of global climate change, the county should be worldleaders in building strong and efficient housing.”