photo by MATTHEW BECK | Hundreds of children participated in the final leg of the second annual Five Points of Life Kids Marathon, a program run by LifeSouth Community Blood Centers and the Five Points of Life Foundation. The event was held Friday evening at the Lecanto High School track.
By Cheri Harris
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
LECANTO — The official reason behind the 2011 Five Points of Life Kids Marathon, a program of LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, is to raise awareness about five ways to share life with others: through giving blood, apheresis, bone marrow and umbilical cord blood, as well as organ and tissue donation. But it seemed many participants in the event Friday evening at the Lecanto High School track came mostly because they love to run.
Bruce Sheffield, coordinator of health, physical education and special programs for Citrus County schools, said elementary and middle school students who wanted to participate in the Kids Marathon started running the standard 26.2 miles incrementally last December, either during PE class or after school.
I am beginning something new on my blog. I am going to begin doing a “Week in Review” post. It is my hope that this will better allow me to share my week ‘s activities. I will continue to post more detailed posts on specific topics, activities and information.
I want to also take this time to thank the many of you that read my posts and who often share with me how you are enjoying the blog and learning more about our schools. We are getting lots of readers. Currently, I have been getting over 26,000 total hits a month with almost 2600 individual visitors each month since the first of this year. I am excited to see it is still growing.
Tuesday I started off the day by reading my favorite Dr. Seuss book, “The Lorax” to Mrs. Tesa McClure’s first grade class at Rock Crusher Elementary to help celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday. I had so much fun with this wonderful first grade class. I brought my son’s “Cat in the Hat” stuffed animal to hold while I read the book. I love the message of this story and the students really seemed to grasp the story’s message.
Tuesday evening I attended the CREST Literacy Open House. What great work and learning the students and staff are achieving at CREST! I enjoyed seeing the many gifts, plants and crafts for sale by students. The staff showed me a new garden just put in by the students. The high school teachers where excited to show off the new gray-scale ‘Nooks’. The teachers shared the tremendous increase in student reading because of the student’s excitement to read using these Nooks.
Wednesday I attended a public Legislative meeting were US Congressman “Sherriff” Nugent, Senator Charlie Dean, and Florida Representative Jimmie T. Smith spent time speaking about the bills they had presented this session and then took questions. Much talk centered around the recent proposed Citrus Port (see ChronicleOnline story, ‘Commission steams toward Port Citrus’). In addition , regarding education issues , both Dean and Smith spoke about SB224/HB107 Local Government Accountability (Online Budget Transparency) and SB736 and HB7019 – Education Personnel. The Local Government Accountability bills in my opinion and , as I understand it at this time, will not likely have any big impact to Citrus County Schools as our district is already putting online the Citrus County Schools Annual Budget and budget amendments included in board agendas. The Education Personnel bill will have many major changes to Florida public schools and our Citrus schools. Much of these bills are rooted in the “Race to the Top” grant which Citrus is participating in. These bills are moving quickly through committees and will likely make it to a floor vote. I personally have many concerns about some aspects of these bills so I , along with many Florida school board members, superintendents, educators and parents , are watching these bills closely .
I visited Citrus High School on Thursday to see the process of the computer upgrades going on throughout our district (see ‘Educational Technology Council’ post for background). The process is moving along well at CHS and I was pleased with the work I saw. A stop to CHS isn’t complete without stopping by the culinary classroom to sample some of the incredible cookies Mr. Aldo Verderame and his students make and sell.
This week is Board Meeting week so plan on attending if you can. The School Board Regular Meeting is Tuesday, March 8th at 4:00pm. Click here to see the agenda.
Back to school: Board members report on newest addition
By Cheri Harris
Monday, March 7, 2011
Thomas Kennedy doesn’t hesitate when asked about the best part of his new job as a school board member.
He said his goal is to visit two to three schools per week. So far, he has been doing that or more.
“And loving every minute of it,” he said.
Sometimes he chats with the principal or visits a couple of classrooms.
“Sometimes it’s just wandering around and seeing different things,” he said.
He also enjoys the opportunity to interact with other parents, whether it’s out in public at the grocery store or at an advisory council meeting when parents are sharing their ideas or concerns with him.
“That’s exactly what I so much wanted,” he said, “and in many ways that’s probably the biggest compliment someone can give me is when they’re coming up to share with me something about the schools — good or bad or just informative.”
When I began thinking about becoming a school board member, I met with previous school board members to learn about the job, its responsibilities, and gain wisdom of those that had served before me. What was encouraged by all was to take the training offered by the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA). The FSBA offers several Board Development Programs. The programs are voluntary and are uniquely designed to serve the leadership developmental needs of both the entire school board and to address the specific needs of individual school board members. It provides a broad range of educational opportunities and activities for both new board members like myself and experienced school board members. One of these programs is the “Master Board” (MB) . In the past Citrus County School Board (CCSB) had been designated as a Master Board but with my arrival it requires additional training to again being designated as a Master Board again. Later this year the CCSB will have that training. Another program is the “Certified Board Member” (CBM). This is the training which I began as a new Board member in late November, attended again about a week ago and I will continue to attend until I have received the required courses to achieve to become a CBM.
In February I attended course training in “Personnel and Bargaining Issues” and “School Finance”. Both of these trainings provided outstanding presenters with years of experience in their fields. The personnel and bargaining course was presented by Dr. Max Schmidt, Executive Director of FSBA’s Florida School Labor Relations Service and Martin Miller, President of Miller Consulting Group. This course provided training and background in personnel issues and annual contract bargaining and labor issues. The school finance course was presented by Dr. Michael Bookman, former Hillsborough Schools CBO and current professor at University of South Florida and Judy Preston, Assoc. Superintendent of Financial Service, Brevard Schools and Gretchen Saunders, Chief Business Officer, Hillsborough Schools.
The Personnel and Bargaining Issues course began with the sharing of 1878 Rules for Teachers which set a humorous beginning point of how far we truly have come in hiring educators for our schools. This course provided a history of teachers’ salaries and benefits, past and current budget challenges, and how to work with teachers and staff bargaining units which many time are unions. With all the proposed legislation both in and out of Florida, we all had much to share and learn.
The School Finance course was a two day course beginning with how our school systems are funded using the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP). The FEFP is the funding formula adopted by the Legislature in 1973 to allocate funds appropriated to school districts for K-12 public school operations. The purpose of the funding system (originally stated in law as legislative intent), is “to guarantee to each student in the Florida public educational system the availability of programs and services appropriate to his or her educational needs which are substantially equal to those available to any similar student notwithstanding geographic differences and varying local economic factors.” On March 8th, 2011, the Florida legislators will begin their session and working on next year’s state budget. Educational funding is playing another big role in the shaping of the Florida budget and policies and laws. A great part of the two day course was spent talking and sharing about how some proposed legislation and budget proposals may affect our FEFP funding and student services. Unfunded mandates were as always a hot topic.
I came away realizing more then ever that education is at one of its most challenging times ever in our history. Florida Trend Magazine (Florida leading business publication) said, “Without a top-notch school system, Florida cannot hope to sustain its many industries. Without good public schools, this state cannot hope to prepare its young people to become happy, healthy, law abiding, and productive citizens. That’s why education is literally everyone’s business and deserves a high priority in public policy.” I posted this video before but I think it is worth seeing again. (See below or Visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY) It helps demonstrate why public education is critical to our Country.
Inverness Primary School students stayed after school to line up and pay tribute to Cpl. Johnathan Taylor as his procession rolled through on Thursday.
By Amanda Mims
Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 10:28 pm
INVERNESS — When Cpl. Johnathan Taylor arrived in Inverness Thursday, he wasn’t alone. Citrus County residents and others came out in droves to U.S. 41 and State Road 44 to show their support for the fallen Marine, who was killed Feb. 22 in Afghanistan at the age of 23. Taylor, a Lecanto High School graduate, had been serving his fourth combat tour.
Roughly 2,000 supporters — including many young children — lined the streets of Inverness Thursday waving flags to honor the young Marine and his family as they made their way by with police escorts. About 120 motorcycles joined in the procession along the way from the airport in Brooksville.
Thursday, (March 3rd) for the following schools: Citrus High & Inverness Middle (1:45 pm); Lecanto High, Crystal River High & Crystal River Middle (2:00 pm); Lecanto Middle (2:20 pm).
Please share this announcement with any parents/guardians w/ students at those schools.
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Tuesday I started off the day by reading my favorite Dr. Seuss book, “
The staff showed me a new garden just put in by the students. The high school teachers where excited to show off the new gray-scale ‘
