Posted on August 5th, 2016 by
Thomas Kennedy
Half Penny for Schools
Mail in election ballots for the August 30th primary have begun being mailed, and no issue for our school district’s future may be more important than the Half-Penny for Schools Capital Referendum.
The State Legislature in 2008 have reduced the maximum millage rate a local school district can levy—first from 2.0 down to 1.75 mils, and then again down to 1.5 mils. This coupled with the reduction in property values means that since 2008 Citrus County School district has lost and have had to cut over $75 million dollars from capital outlay with over $40 million dollars in the last four years alone. School Districts around the state have been 
forced to request from voters’ school funding referendums so that schools’ capital needs may be adequately funded. Nearly every surrounding county school district has had to pass a referendum to help fund school capital needs. In addition, even with the new gas plants coming on line, soon Citrus County will lose two more electric generating plants at the local energy plant.
Citrus County Schools is recognized as a High Performing School District by the Florida Department of Education in part due to our School District’s positive annual financial audits. Citrus County Schools is one of the lowest school districts in Florida for the percent of budget spent on district-level expenditures. As a school district our School Board, Superintendent, administrators, departments, schools, teachers and staff focus on classroom needs.
Cutting the budget more and priority funding alone will not be enough. That is why the School Board unanimously approved a ballot referendum for funding Citrus School’s Capital needs to be placed on the August 30th, 2016 primary ballot.
The funds raised will all stay locally! It is estimated that this referendum could raise approximately $6.5 million dollars annually. It is projected that 20% of the tax will be paid by tourists and out of county residents. The cost annually for Citrus—it is estimated that a family of four with an average household income of $40,000 the estimated tax will be $50 per year or $4.17 per month. The benefits to our students, schools, community and potentially to property values for a continually highly rated successful school district is enormous.
I urge you to support this very important referendum.
For more information, visit http://citruseducation.com/salestax.htm
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Posted on August 2nd, 2016 by
Thomas Kennedy
Teacher Welcome Back &
Digital Learning 2.0
The annual welcome back for teachers took place at the Curtis Peterson Auditorium this morning. It is always a mix of emotions—new teachers nervous about starting, and returning teachers wanting to get back to their classroom and work. There is excitement of the new year and a little sadness that the short summer break went by so quickly. This is always a big event and there is often a big surprise (or two).
This welcome back would be immediately followed by a massive digital learning professional development. Lindy Woythaler, Director of Professional Development opened the day and introduced Superintendent Sandra “Sam” Himmel. Superintendent Himmel welcomed the teachers back and talked about the importance of a special group of individuals to our schools and then opened the stage’s curtain to reveal our Citrus County Sheriff’s Office School Resource Officers and Sheriff Jeff Dawsey to honor them for their service to our students, staff and schools. The very packed audience “roared” as they clapping and gave a standing ovation, screaming with pride and appreciation for their service. Sheriff Dawsey talked about his upcoming retirement and of the outstanding relationship between the Sherriff’s office and the School District and talked about how rare that was. Sheriff Dawsey seemed most taken back by the support and appreciation of the audience.
If all of that were not enough Superintendent Himmel had another special guest to introduce. Florida Department of Education Commissioner Pam Stewart. Commissioner Stewart came down from Tallahassee to help welcome back our teachers. She has recently completed her radiation treatments at the Tampa Moffitt Center and she opened up briefly about her cancer recovery. Commissioner Stewart shared what the consistent and outstanding accomplishments of Citrus County Schools and she praised the teachers and the leadership team under Superintendent Himmel. Commissioner Stewart explained that the digital expectation and successful technology implementation of curriculum done in Citrus County Schools exceeds that of most districts. She explained that it is time that teaching moves away from a textbook and focus on teaching standards using teachers’ expertise and the digital one-to-one device as the curriculum. I believe wholeheartedly with Commissioner Stewart and am confident that is what Citrus Schools is doing.
The session then moved on to the digital training. Over 200 Citrus teachers provided some of the most cutting edge training to our over 1,100 teachers. This level of expertise in the past would have cost a school district tens-to-hundreds of thousands of dollars. Click here to read the catalog of the day’s breakout sessions. I was honored to be asked to present a learning session and presented, ‘Digital Tools for Struggling Students’. The session shared about how to use digital tools that provide personalized support for struggling readers and writers. I provided suggestions on how these tools may be utilized for IEPs and PMPs. Click here to see the presentation.
I am so proud of the exciting talents of our educators in Citrus County and how our students will benefit from our teachers’ talents and insight. It is going to be another great school year!
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Filed under: Blog Posts, News & Updates
Posted on August 2nd, 2016 by
Thomas Kennedy
Former Student reflects on past School Board Member Patience Nave
Please read this outstanding commentary by Cortney Stewart about a wonderful lady, former Citrus County School Board Member, the Honorable Patience Nave. I had the great pleasure of having a private lunch with Ms. Nave as a young first time candidate in early 2010. Ms. Nave was one of two former Board Members that graced me with some of their knowledge. Ms. Nave was a great inspiration and I will never forget one of the best pieces of advice that she shared with me. Ms. Nave said, “there will be days when you get frustrated, you will feel like some people are not listening and you will be discouraged. That is the most important time to be with students. Go over to any school and walk through the door and just hang out. Being around the kids will bring everything back into prospective and give you the strength to continue.” That very advice I have used over and over since being in office and I am indebted to Ms. Nave. God bless her family as they temporarily say goodbye. But Ms. Nave would share with us that it is only temporary.
Excerpt from the Citrus Chronicle’s story, ‘Saying goodbye to a hero‘ by Cortney Stewart
I said goodbye to one of my heroes this week.
On Thursday, July 28, 2016, former Citrus County School Board member Patience Nave took her final breath in this world and her first in eternity. She died in Richmond, Kentucky, surrounded by her three daughters.
A saint is finally home.
From 1996 to 2004, Patience served the students and the educators of Citrus County with fervor and passion. You could disagree with some of her politics, and many people did, but you couldn’t disagree with the intensity with which she fought for the students of our community to have the very best education that could be offered them.
It was in that sphere that I met Patience. I was 14. She was 68. I was a freshman in high school. She was a retired educator in her second career.
At the time I was a newbie on the staff of the Lecanto High School newspaper, trying to make my mark as a journalist. So I decided to cover the real news happening in the world and not what was considered news at the school itself — like the student outcry for more pizza options at lunch and different dress code regulations.
Please follow this link to read the complete story: http://goo.gl/m5Fz4t
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Posted on July 6th, 2016 by
Thomas Kennedy
Lies, damned lies, and statistics
Recently the School District Fix Capital Outlay Funding report by the House Education Appropriations subcommittee has been making its rounds on social media. This questionable report has undoubtedly been shared in hopes of proving that the Citrus School Board has not been a good steward of taxpayers’ money. This report being shared is highly suspect and many news reports questioned its credibility. (see http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/incoming-speaker-corcoran-says-bill-that-would-benefit-his-wifes-charter/2271194 and http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article59914131.html).
In February I blogged about this very subject post and how misleading this report was: (https://thomastalks.org/2016/02/06/rep-fresen-battles-with-superintendents-over-construction-costs-then-files-bill/)
To recap: the School District Fix Capital Outlay Funding report’s purpose was to show that schools did not use their capital dollars responsibly. It reported that Citrus spent $249,652 per student station. That would be true IF you divided the $5 million whole school renovation project by 18 student stations. However, the project encompassed more than 18 student stations. It also included a new media center, a new cafeteria, a new multipurpose room, a new stage, a new covered play area, and other related areas all sized to meet the needs of the entire school. Rep. Fresen said that because the state requires that student station costs not exceed $18,000 per student, Citrus was an example of exceeding the student station limit. However, had just the area of the student station cost been in the report, and not the additional items mentioned, the actual cost would have been well under the $18,000 per student station cost. Furthermore, the project received prior approval from the Florida Department of Education.
What made this report even more suspect was that the authors, Rep. Fresen and Rep. Corcoran, have a clear ethic concern as this report was published to make a case to provide more capital funding to Charter schools of which both of these Representatives have personal strong business connections. (see http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article59914131.html and http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/incoming-speaker-corcoran-says-bill-that-would-benefit-his-wifes-charter/2271194)
If that wasn’t enough, as a result of this report the Florida House– on the last day of session– approved the controversial “train bill” HB 7029 which added new sanctions to school districts that violated projects over the set per student station cap. This educational bill included forced local opened enrollment for out of county students and a new state law that allows students to opt out of standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. I personally do not agree with this new law or much of anything else found in the approved HB 7029. (see http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/article_3b185194-a5b4-5a9b-a231-647f1ba2bd73.html and Overview of HB 7029 Relating to Education , DOE Memo with Summary of Key HB 7029 Provisions , FHSAA Analysis of HB 7029 Provisions on Athletics)
Please learn the facts!
I would encourage you to study these links below on this School Capital Outlay Report Report: (below are linkable)
FADSS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
FADSS Response to Capital Outlay Report, 2/1/16
Related news articles:
Schools superintendents rebut Florida legislators’ claim of wasteful construction spending , Miami Herald, 2/3/16
Local Florida districts offer specifics to counter lawmaker school construction cost claims , Gradebook, Tampa Bay Times, 2/2/16
Florida superintendents strike back against lawmakers’ claims on construction costs , Tampa Bay Times, 2/1/16
District Capital Outlay letters:
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Posted on June 24th, 2016 by
Thomas Kennedy
Chronicle Proclaims: “District continue sustained excellence”
“We applaud the student achievement and recognize we are fortunate to have leaders in place who place a high value on education and fiscal conservatism.”
Thank you to the Citrus County Chronicle for their Editorial Board’s column in Friday, June 24th, 2016 edition, “District continue sustained excellence”. In their editorial they praise the Citrus School District, “These types of performances do not happen by accident. District and school leaders set a high bar for staff and students and are never satisfied with status quo achievement. The entire district is focused on continuously improving, seeking the improbable, if not impossible: perfection.” They go on to say, “District leaders not only stress high achievement, they do it why practicing fiscally conservative policy. They rarely take on high debt service and thus the dollars they do have available are spent on the true needs of educating students.”
I am grateful to be part of a group of education and policy leaders that put students first, and whose results lead to a better community for today and tomorrow.
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Posted on June 21st, 2016 by
Thomas Kennedy
Well Done Citrus
These successful results do not happen by accident.
Last week the Florida Department of Education released the Spring 2016 Statewide English Language Arts, Math, Science and End-of-Course Test Results. Once again Citrus County students outperformed the state in all subject areas!
These are most encouraging results and I am so proud of our students’ results, and our teachers, staff and administrators, who worked so hard to prepare and encourage our students to be successful. These successful results do not happen by accident.
Most noteworthy were the proficiency ratings in 5th grade Science where Citrus County scored 11% higher than the state and ranked 5th out of 67 counties, in 3rd-8th grade Mathematics where Citrus County scored 8% higher than the state, and in Algebra 1 where Citrus County scored 7% higher than the state.
Many Citrus schools made significant gains over last year which contributed to the district’s overall achievements.
- Floral City Elementary School’s 4th grade ELA scores improved 29%
- Forest Ridge Elementary School’s 4th grade Math scores improved 15%
- Crystal River High School’s Algebra 1 scores improved 20%
- Lecanto High School’s Algebra 2 scores improved 19%
- Inverness Middle School’s Civics scores improved 19%
- Crystal River Middle School’s 8th grade Science scores improved 14%
- Crystal River Primary School’s 5th grade Science scores improved 24%.
Florida Commissioner of Education, Pam Stewart, applauded Citrus County for their continued success and in particular for improvements in Algebra 2, Civics, and Algebra 1.
- Increased seven percentage points in both Algebra 2 and Civics.
- Improved by six percentage points for students younger than high school age in Algebra 1, with 91 percent of students scoring Level 3 or higher.
- Increased five percentage points for high school students in Algebra 1.
For a detailed report on state results visit: http://fldoe.org/accountability/assessments/k-12-student-assessment/results/2016.stml
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Mail in election ballots for the August 30th primary have begun being mailed, and no issue for our school district’s future may be more important than the Half-Penny for Schools Capital Referendum.
forced to request from voters’ school funding referendums so that schools’ capital needs may be adequately funded. Nearly every surrounding county school district has had to pass a referendum to help fund school capital needs. In addition, even with the new gas plants coming on line, soon Citrus County will lose two more electric generating plants at the local energy plant.
Citrus County Schools is recognized as a High Performing School District by the Florida Department of Education in part due to our School District’s positive annual financial audits. Citrus County Schools is one of the lowest school districts in Florida for the percent of budget spent on district-level expenditures. As a school district our School Board, Superintendent, administrators, departments, schools, teachers and staff focus on classroom needs.
The funds raised will all stay locally! It is estimated that this referendum could raise approximately $6.5 million dollars annually. It is projected that 20% of the tax will be paid by tourists and out of county residents. The cost annually for Citrus—it is estimated that a family of four with an average household income of $40,000 the estimated tax will be $50 per year or $4.17 per month. The benefits to our students, schools, community and potentially to property values for a continually highly rated successful school district is enormous.
