South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • 14

SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL LOCAL PB THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2003 3B School given notice to fix problems lation. The board also selected a name for the new high school opening in August on Glades Road west of Boca Raton. It will be called the West Boca Raton Community High school and will be led by Principal Fran Giblin. At the opposite end of the county, 32 acres south of Jupiter Farms Elementary is to become a nature preserve and outdoor laboratory for students. The board discussed designating the environmental land as its first "mitigation bank." It will vote on the measure next month.

When future school construction projects in other areas result in the destruction of natural habitats, the district would be able to pay to preserve a comparable piece of the Jupiter Farms preserve. 60-student arts campus faces closure next week By Marc Freeman EDUCATION WRITER The curtain closed on the new Academic School for the Arts charter high school, but the School Board left it open just a bit Wednesday. Lawyers for the school district and the 60-student school west of Boca Raton are negotiating an agreement this week to shut down the school on Dec. 19. But the board still voted to give the school 90 days to correct deficiencies cited in every aspect of its operation.

District officials were ready to terminate the charter without the three-month notice until they received a letter Wednesday from the school's attorney. The letter said the district is required under state law to provide "adequate," later was changed to "substantially deficient" because the school didn't pay its premium. Parent Kathy Gates told board members that the school is "a dream that just did not come through." She said the school has problems so severe, "I had to hire a tutor just to keep my daughter at grade level." Klasfeld blames the school's problems on a $300,000 shortfall. The school raced to secure new funding this week by placing newspaper ads and making radio talk-show visits. "There are at least 60 students who still want to be there and we are proud of that," he said.

"My heart and my commitment are there and we are doing what we can." In other business, the board approved a partnership with computer networking equipment maker 3Com Corp. and the new high-tech middle school to open in August in Boca Raton. The agreement provides almost $500,000 in free equipment and instal such a warning. The board responded by giving the notice despite the impending closure that will force students to return to their home district schools. "It must be realized that this will not obligate us to allow the full 90 days," wrote school board counsel JulieAnn Rico Allison.

The school founder and principal, Sheldon Klasfeld, said, "They would have been liable for a lawsuit" without giving the termination notice. The school, operating from a former karate center in the Sandalfoot Plaza, had been pegged as an alternative to Dreyfoos School of the Arts for residents in southern Palm Beach County. But the charter school failed a midyear review covering areas such as personnel, facilities and environment, curriculum and instruction and food service. Of 1 5 ratings, 1 4 were either "substantially deficient" or "deficient." Insurance, the one category marked Marc Freeman can be reached at or 561-243-6642. Digest STAFF REPORTS DELRAY BEACH MHagro Center director announces resignation After about a year and a half on the job, the executive director of the nonprofit Milagro Center resigned Wednesday for professional reasons.

Lhisa Almashy is the fourth director to leave the art-and-cultural center since it opened about five years ago. Almashy, a former multicultural teacher and administrator with the Palm Beach County School TJistrict, said she has no immediate job lined up. She declined to discuss why she left. 'i' The center, at 101 SE Second has tried for years to break away from the financial backing of founder Thomas Worrell, a developer and philanthropist, as it expanded beyond its traditional scope of offering exhibits, classes "dnd an after-school program. PALM BEACH COUNTY Four armed men rob bank, flee in Mustang Four armed and masked men pistol-whipped two people and robbed a bank of an undisclosed amount of money Wednesday morning, police said.

The men, armed with handguns and an AR-15 the civilian version of the M-16 military assault rifle stormed into the Wachovia Bank, 1900 Golden Lakes west of West Palm Beach, about 9:30 a.m. Officials said. One of the men jumped over the counter and ordered an employee Hto open the vault, sheriffs -spokesman Paul Miller said. When ithe employee was not successful, Sthe robber got frustrated and hit jhjm on the head, Miller said. "Another robber struck a customer Tin the head with his gun, officials 'said.

As the suspects ran from the Jbank, they dropped a bag containing a dye-pack, which exploded. -They escaped in a white or silver Ford Mustang, officials said. Thieves rash in, grab jewelry ))) 2 Jt' rr ft "k.N. I rata' I 111. 'rmv I II I at 1 I ft I 'm i ilm mm- ha 09 Boynton police hunt 2 who fled in stolen vehicle BYCRONALLEN staff writer boynton beach Two men wearing ski masks burst into a jewelry store, smashed through display cases with a hammer and made off with handfuls of expensive watches and other merchandise Wednesday afternoon, police said.

No one was injured in the smash-and-grab robbery at Bre-cash6, 1731 N. Congress in the Catalina Centre. The robbery occurred about 2 :45 p.m. after an employee buzzed the locked door open to let a customer out, police said. "Apparently they waited outside until someone exited the business, and then, when that person came out, they went in behind them," Assistant Chief Matt Immler said.

Like clockwork, they quickly smashed the display cases with a hammer and scooped up the jewelry, including a handful of Rolex watches, Detective Toby Athol said. The robbers showed no weapons. The men escaped in a red 2004 Chevy Monte Carlo, which was found abandoned shortly after in the northeast parking lot of the Boynton Beach Mall. They got away in another car, police said. "That's how they normally operate," Athol said.

"They steal one car, commit the crime, then ditch it for another." Sometimes they use two or more cars to confuse the police, he said. Detectives will check the Monte Carlo for fingerprints and were investigating a green Plymouth Voyager parked next to the Monte Carlo. Both had temporary tags. Store employees declined to comment. They taped a "Closed today" sign on the store shortly after the robbery and spent some of the late afternoon cleaning up broken glass.

The smash-and-grab robbery is similar to techniques used in at least three area jewelry store heists in recent months. Police haye not linked them. On Nov. 21, at least eight masked men stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry from a North Palm Beach jewelry store. The men burst into Wilson's imna PIECES OF EVIDENCE: Don Wooten, a Boynton Beach Police Department crime scene investigator, dusts for fingerprints on the front door of Brecashe Jewelers, which was robbed Wednesday afternoon.

The robbers left watches, below, covered in broken glass in a smashed display case. Staff photosMark Randall iiphiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii in i rMi iMilnlii HIM lion in diamonds, gems and watches from East Coast Jewelers in Deerfield Beach. t. SOUTH FLORIDA i Forums to discuss journalists' trip to Haiti The South Florida Sun-Sentinel will be host of two community forums and multimedia presentations with reporter Tim Collie and photographer Mike Stacker after their recent trip to Haiti. They will share stories, photographs and insights about the environmental crisis facing the island nation.

The first forum will be at 6:30 "p.m. Friday in the auditorium of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Fort Lauderdale. Reservations are not required. For information call 954-356-4500.

second forum will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Toussaint L'Ouverture High School for Arts and Social Justice, 95 NE First Delray Beach. For information call 561-243-3136. 1-95 update The Florida Department of Transportation reports the following on Interstate 95: The ramp from westbound Atlantic Avenue to southbound Interstate 95 remains closed. Periodic single-lane closures will be in effect on Lowson Boulevard (Southwest 10th Street), Linton Boulevard, El Rio and Lake Ida roads and Atlantic Avenue from 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m. The southbound entrance tamp and the northbound exit ramp at Linton Boulevard remain until late January. Depot Road in each direction under the 1-95 El Rio bridge will be dosed from 7:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. Two lanes in each direction from Southern Boulevard to Okeechobee Boulevard will be closed from 10 p.m.

to 5:30 a.m. Two lanes in each direction from Atlantic Avenue to just north of Gateway Boulevard will be closed from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. One lane in each direction from Gateway Boulevard to just $outh of Sixth Avenue will be closed from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

12th Avenue South under 1-95 will be closed from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Belvedere Road in each direction under 1-95 will be closed from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. The closures are part of $424 million in construction projects to widen and upgrade 1-95 in Palm Beach County.

Call 561-802-4409 weekdays during business hours for more information. 4 Jewelers, 11941 U.S. 1, around noon and forced the six employees and one customer to the floor. They smashed the display cases with sledgehammers, crowbars and axes, authorities said. Three month earlier, three men robbed the same store of tens of thousands of dollars in jewelry at gunpoint, police said.

Those robbers were caught after a chase through the northern part of the county and West Palm Beach. On June 28, six to eight masked men carrying an ax and two sledgehammers stole $800,000 to 1 mil C. Ron Allen can be reached at or 561-243-6611. Fanners pitch in, offer land for water storage Brothers, the water district said. Water deliveries began about a week ago to areas that did not need approval.

Some has been funneled into the Seminole tribe's Big Cypress reservation in Collier County, into Everglades cleanup filter marshes and into the Holey Land Wildlife Management Area west of U.S 27 near the Palm Beach-Broward line. Some will go to the Seminoles' Brighton reservation. Howard said the district has arranged enough land to store more that twice the 45,000 acre feet of water draining Toho might generate. Farmers only have to accept what they can store in retention ponds and open spaces, and cannot discharge it again. Dean, should offset discharges that began Nov.

10 from 30-square-mile lake nicknamed Toho near Kissim-mee. Environmentalists and Martin County ardently opposed the releases they characterized as harmful for Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie River both downriver of Toho. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission touted the releases as a vital step for its $8 million restoration of Lake Toho. The water would provide an agricultural benefit by seeping into the ground to raise water tables that nourish crops, district officials said.

The water district calculates the Toho discharges could lift brimming Lake Okeechobee about 1.2 inches after flowing down the Kissimmee River. Lake Okeechobee stood at 15.8 feet BY Neil Santaniello STAFF WRITER Often cast as polluters of Lake Okeechobee, farmers are offering to use their ponds and empty fields to store storm water to help avert ecological damage to the overfilled lake and coastal estuaries. In an unprecedented plan led by South Florida water managers, billions of gallons of water from Lake Tohopekaliga and Lake Okeechobee would be diverted to private farm land chiefly in Glades and Hendry counties. Some water already has been moved to Seminole Indian reservation and into remote wetlands in southwestern Palm Beach County. The water transfers, outlined in an emergency order signed Monday by South Florida Water Management District Executive Director Henry above sea level Wednesday.

Some of the private land lined up is positioned to intercept some Toho water while other properties would absorb water from 730-square-mile Lake Okeechobee so it would not rise and spill into the St. Lucie River estuary, where earlier discharges hurt marine life. "It's basically unacceptable that there be anything else added" to either the lake or the river, said district Operations Director Bob Howard. "There is substantial public concern." The Central Florida lake is being lowered to expose almost half its bottom. State biologists plan to bulldoze the exposed vegetation and muck, which is choking out fish habitat.

The farmlands being offered belong to some of Florida's largest agribusiness giants, including Lykes Brothers, Allico Corp. and Hilliard Neil Santaniello can be reached at nsantaniello(o or 561-243-6625..