Approve the Agreement for Technical Services for Author Tom Birdseye in the Amount of $9,500 (Information and Technology Division)

Tom Birdseye, a popular children's author, has written many top selling fiction titles. He authored "The Attack of the Mutant Underwear" which is a 2006-2007 Sunshine State Young Reader's Award book and Battle book. Author visits for 12 elementary schools with Tom Birdseye are scheduled October 9 through October 20, 2006.

He will present to large audiences of children at each school site. The content of his presentations cover such topics as why he became an author, author's purpose, and plot development. In addition to speaking to students, Author Birdseye will present at the HCCIRA dinner on October 19, 2006, for K-12 teachers. Also during the visits, an author teleconference will be taped and shown live on the Education Channel.

Goal 1: The percentage of students scoring at level 3 or higher on FCAT Reading will increase a minimum of 5 percentage points.

The cost, $9,500, is equally split among the 12 participating schools. The 12 schools are Hunters Green, Clark, Northwest, Claywell, Heritage, McFarlane, Roosevelt, Springhead, Rampello, Riverhills, Turner, and Chiles.

Evaluation of the visits will come from students voting for their favorite battle book and Sunshine State Young Reader's Award book. The taped author teleconference will also be reviewed by the Education Channel.