Citrus Participates in Education Week Leadership Series

This past Monday evening Citrus County Schools was invited to attend the national leading education publisher, Education Week’s Leadership Series as one of a select number of school districts and its leaders to share about the key role and players in the rollout of college and career-ready standards in classrooms and in particular the role of the principal.

The facilitator of the evening was Education Week’s editor-in-chief, Virginia B. Edwards. The event included representatives from ten school districts around the state of Florida including Citrus.

Education Week reports that, “Recent surveys have shown that while many principals have received some professional development from their districts and states around the higher standards, they require much more if the implementation of these standards is going to succeed at scale.” EW goes on to say, “School leaders report a profound need for more preparation and training around budgeting for the standards, and managing the overall instructional shift; how to evaluate teachers’ use of the new standards during instruction; how to make decisions about teacher professional development; how to coach teachers toward improved instructional practice; and how to integrate the new learning goals into existing services for English-learners and students with disabilities.”

Ms. Edwards began the evening by asking us, “What leadership skills and specific strategies do principals need to effectively manage the overall shift to the new standards and assessments in their schools?” Districts talked about their challenges and then shared their; expectations for administrators, best practices for administrators, their professional development plan and their data which demonstrates success of these implementations. Many districts bragged about moving up one or more school’s grade level in several schools and how the school districts were on the right track. Those shared successes drew Citrus Schools Director of Research and Accountability to lead over to me and share that while it is impressive the successes those districts are having there was only one in the room who not only was a “High Preforming”, “A” district and who had the highest number of individual “A” rated schools, and that was so consistently for seven years- Citrus County Schools.

It was an honor to be a part of this important conversation which Education Week uses to help them in their work in how to best communicate about the issues facing public education.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving gives us an opportunity to share our gratefulness for those blessings in our lives. I want to take this time to thank a few of those in my life.

Our family is blessed to live in such a “Capraesque” community–a community that is proud of  our American heritage and is always striving to give our kids a better future.

I have been blessed to have been raised by a mother and father that always made me feel anything was possible if I worked hard. While I miss my daily contact with my dad, he instilled in me his unwavering strength. I am grateful that my mother has found strength inside of her that she didn’t even know she had.

I am so grateful that I get to work in education with some of the finest student-centered leaders, educators and people you will ever find.

Our family is blessed to have our two Captains to coach us in the water and in life.

I am blessed to have dear and special friends that have become surrogate family members. People that are like fathers, brothers and sisters to me.

I am blessed to have two children that make life brighter and more beautiful and that show me what God’s love truly is.

Lastly, I am most thankful for the most beautiful and caring wife  I ever dreamed of- my Thomasine!

 My prayer is that we let those in our lives know how blessed we are to have them not just at Thanksgiving but each day of the year.

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School Board Organizational Meeting Nov 2014

Swearing In Day

Today is the Citrus School Board’s Organizational Meeting at 4:00 pm in the Board Chambers at the District Service Center in Inverness.

At today’s meeting those who were elected to the school board office this election year will be sworn in to office. It is a great honor to experience raising your hand to take an oath of office and represent our great community and most importantly the 15,000 young people in our public schools.

Great challenges are in front of us in public education in Florida and in our country. We must endeavor to continue to focus on what is best for our students and to prepare them for the world they will live and work in.

Thank you for entrusting me to represent our students and you as a Citrus County School Board member.

God bless our students and Citrus County Schools,

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