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Want to see who’s lobbying the Broward School Board? Well, now you can.

The board debuted a new searchable database in the last couple months. You can search by board member, lobbyist name and topic discussed. It also will tell the date and time the meeting took place.

For instance, do a search for Vincent Grande, a lobbyist for Moore Stephens Lovelace, P.A., and you’ll see that he met with seven of nine board members over a two-day period in January. (The firm does auditing work for the district.)

The database is part of the board’s efforts to be more transparent in the wake of a scathing grand jury report last year that accused board members and district officials of corruption by contractors, vendors and lobbyists.

Much of the grand jury’s criticism was related to construction projects. Interestingly, the list of registered lobbyists doesn’t seem to have many construction firms on it. And board members haven’t reported many meetings.

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The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents will stop at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi this week to see the campus and conduct scheduled meetings.

Flavius Killebrew, president of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, said the regents’ visit will give university officials a chance to show off the school, its programs and latest research.

The regents last visited the Island university in 2004, when Killebrew was named president, he said.

Some of the regents arrived Tuesday and attended meetings as well as an evening reception Wednesday at the Art Museum of South Texas.

During today’s scheduled board meeting, Killebrew plans to give a university update about A&M-Corpus Christi’s enrollment growth and need for facilities expansion.

“We are just flat out of research space,” Killebrew said.

His update can help show what university officials hope for as their next steps while detailing what accomplishments and goals have been reached.

Periodic meetings at system universities are planned this year, said Steve Moore, the system’s marketing and communications vice chancellor.

The board chooses locations for its meetings, he said.

The regents typically meet in College Station.

Moore said a board meeting isn’t planned at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

The Cumberland Valley School District is looking at redistricting for the 2012-13 school year in response to overcrowding predictions at three elementary schools.

A redistricting committee will meet Friday at Cumberland Valley School District’s Eagle View Middle School. There is a possibility of overcrowding at three elementarty schools.

The district has formed a committee in response to a recent enrollment and demographic report that projected overcrowding at Middlesex, Monroe and Silver Spring elementary schools.

The report by Brad Furey Consulting looked at trends within the districts population, including enrollment projections, housing developments and census data.

The three-member committee will meet 7 p.m. Friday at Eagle View Middle School cafeteria to discuss what they would recommend to the school board. Districts officials said no decisions have been made.

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The final tally of applicants for Palm Beach County schools superintendent is complete and there are 25 candidates now up for consideration.

The School Board initially announced 24 qualified applications, with six judged incomplete by Friday’s deadline. My story about the process appeared in Sunday’s newspaper.

But administrators on Monday said they accepted one of those applications once the matter of a missing reference form was cleared up late Friday.

A list of all 25 applicants and links to their resumes is posted on the school district’s website — palmbeachschools.org/pao/searchsuper.asp.

The School Board hopes to select finalists on Jan. 18, with the help of its national search consultant.

It turns out the final application is from Bernard Taylor, Jr., who was the runner-up choice for the Broward public schools superintendency last year.

Taylor, who recently took leave from his job leading the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Public School District, actually was one of the first two people to apply for the Palm Beach County job once the application period opened in early November.

His application was removed from the district’s website last week because of the form in question, said Melinda Wong, a school district HR director. Now,

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Texas A&M University-Kingsville plans to offer a bachelor’s degree in veterinary technology program, focusing on large animals.

The program, which will start in the fall, will cost about $1 million in its first year and accept about 15 students in its first semester on an application and interview basis, officials said.

Students will focus on livestock and wildlife care and diseases.

“That’s something that hasn’t really been touched on in a veterinary technician program,” said David Sessum, president-elect of the Texas Association of Registered Veterinary Technicians.

Only juniors will be selected for the first semester. The first graduating class is expected in spring 2015.

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