Week in Review for May 15th 24th – May 21st, 2011
Week in Review for May 15th 24th – May 21st, 2011
T-Minus 3 days (or 1 full and two .5 days) for students and 5 days for teachers and other 10 month pay staff.
The sun shined on a wonderful week in and around our Citrus County Schools. While there is much concern about district schools’ budgets and state budgets, this week was also spent celebrating our great students.
I had the pleasure of attending two 5th grade original musicals at Central Ridge Elementary and Citrus Springs Elementary. The students at both performances were wonderful. 5th grade CRE teache, Natalie Columbus wrote the script to the Ridgeback musical. CSE Teacher on Special Assignment Amy Crowell wrote an adaptation of another of Ms. Columbus’s plays for the Hawk musical. The students really seem to be proud of their efforts and enjoyed the experience of these high quality performances and I most say I was pleased that the students got a chance to learn so much about performing arts. Students were stage managers, actors, singers, costume designers and more. If you have any students going into 5th grade next year, I would recommend them to be a part of this fun and creative opportunity.
Monday was one of Citrus County Schools most powerful and emotional graduations. It is the graduation at CREST. This was my first CREST graduation and I it was difficult to not be emotional as each graduate’s personal successes and favorite school activities were shared. One of the graduates was a student who is the first student at CREST School to graduate with a Special diploma, Option 2. An Option 2 diploma is based on mastery of a set of employment and community competencies identified in the graduation training plan. Among the requirements is that the student must be successfully employed for at least one semester at or above minimum wage. This student has been working for a pool cleaning service for the better part of the school year. These students are going above and beyond and they are an inspiration to us all.
I attended the Citrus Springs Middle School Honor Roll Awards on Tuesday. . This event takes place in the beautiful gymnasium at CSMS. Teachers and students sit in the center of the gym, with teachers sitting intermixed with the students. Parents and family members fill the bleachers on both sides of the gym. Hundreds of people come to this event to honor these students and I was glad to be among them as these impressive middle schools students were recognized for all they have accomplished this year.
The GOLD was given out at the 2011 Golden Citrus Scholars Award Ceremony on Thursday. This was the inaugural new “Golden Citrus Scholars” conceived in part by Board Member Pat Deutschman. Ms. Deutschman shared at a recent board meeting that after last year’s Citrus County Sports award dinner, she, Tabitha Wells, and Gerry Mulligan, publisher of the Citrus County Chronicle, talked about the need for a county wide academic awards ceremony. In the past others had been held but they had fallen by wayside. The Chronicle, Citrus County School District, Citrus Health Systems, the Citrus Chambers and others came together and developed the the Golden Citrus Scholars. The requirements and standards were steep for this award. For a full list of winners see the Chronicle story here.
I ended my week at the Lecanto High School graduation. This was my first large high school graduation as a School Board Member. Before walking up the aisle to take our seats, I learned from Board Members Mrs. Bryant, Mrs. Powers and Ms. Deutschman, that it is tradition to have us walk into the gym leading the LHS teachers and staff through the LHS gym and then onto the football field. As we walked into this gym the talking inside quickly turned into a thunder of clapping and cheering which grew louder and louder as the teachers and staff entered the gym. It was exciting to see these students cheer for their educators. LHS is the largest graduating class of 2011 in Citrus County and among its many great scholars is National Merit Scholarship finalist Priyanka Thatipamala. Miss Thatipamala won out of approximately 1.5 million students who apply. Only about 15,000 students were chosen as National Merit Scholarship finalists. I am looking forward to next week’s celebrations and graduations on Monday at Crystal River High School and Tuesday at Citrus High School.
Lastly, this Tuesday, May 25th, is our School Board Meeting and Workshop. One of the major items at the workshop is the 2011-2012 Budget which is scheduled to begin about 10:00 am. This is be the first time since receiving the Florida Legislators’ final budget that the School Board will meet and we are anticipating getting some preliminary budget reduction options. This will begin a much challenging budget season for our school district.
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