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School Food Services 9/16/2010

Posted on September 16th, 2010 by Thomas Kennedy

Today I had an opportunity to sit down and spend some time with Roy Piston, Director of Food Services at the Citrus County School Department. He is also a Registered Dietitian. Mr. Piston shared with me many inside aspects of the operation of our schools’ breakfast and lunch programs. Some I already knew and others were new to me. The CCSB food service department likely serves more meals a day in less time then any other restaurant or catering business in all of Citrus County.

I am often asked, “Thomas have you eaten in our schools’ cafés”? The answer is, “Yes, I sure have! ”. Among my favorites are chicken nuggets, chicken patties and the turkey wraps. I plan on trying the fruit smoothies next time I am at one of the middle schools. They are made from 100% fruit juice. Several times in the past my wife and I have used the MealpayPlus Online Pre-payment System which not only lets you pay online using a credit card, but also lets you check up on what your students have been buying or not buying. I would encourage you to check out the CCSB Food Service Departments Web Site which has lots of meal information, weekly menus, games for the students and nutritional information.

Mr. Piston also shared with me that Food Services now has an online application for the Free and Reduced Price Meal Online Application. This helps process the application faster and allows for more privacy of the process.

If you have questions or concerns about food services, Mr. Piston encourages people to contact him directly.

He can be reached at:

Roy R. Pistone II, RD, MEd, SNS

Director of Food Services, Citrus County School District

1007 W. Main Street, Bldg. 200, Inverness, FL 34450

pistoner@citrus.k12.fl.us

352-726-1931

cafe.citrus.k12.fl.us

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietitian

sfsonlinemealapp.citrus.k12.fl.us

MealpayPlus Online Pre-payment System

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Crystal River Middle School Visit 9/15/2010

Posted on September 16th, 2010 by Thomas Kennedy

I enjoyed my visit to Crystal River Middle School on Wednesday. I had a nice talk with Principal Gloria Bishop and then Assist Principal Inge Frederick showed me through several of the classrooms. I was excited to learn more this visit about the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program that CRMS and some of our other district middle and high schools are doing. AVID is a college-readiness system designed to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges. This program targets are middle of the road/”advance” students. AVID students are enrolled in a school’s toughest classes, such as Advanced Placement®, and receive support in an academic elective class called AVID taught within the school day by a trained AVID teacher. AVID elective teachers support AVID students by providing academic training, managing their tutorials, working with faculty and parents, and by helping students develop long-range academic and personal plans.

While at CRMS I had the wonderful added enjoyment of running into several of my swimmers from the Sun Coast Swim Team. That is always the best part of my visits when I have students that know me from our community stop and say “hi” and ask what I am doing at their school. We have outstanding students in Citrus County and I feel blessed to be able to represent them and their families.

Related Links

www.citrus.k12.fl.us/crm

www.avid.org

www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/about.html

www.suncoastswimteam.com

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School Board Meeting Recap 9/14/2010

Posted on September 15th, 2010 by Thomas Kennedy

It was a good meeting that was held at our school board yesterday, September 14^th, 2010. Among the business conducted, there were several presentations given. Two students from Lecanto High School’s Art Academy won The Post-it® Brand 30th Anniversary Student Design Contest sponsored by 3m Corporation. These students won a trip to New York to see their art re-created and displayed in large scale at Grand Central. In addition, Century Link received an award for monetary support of district events and the Imagination Library. Steve and Jewel Lamb of Crystal Motor Car and Edward Jones Investments received the Commissioner of Education’s Business Recognition Award. CREST received the Florida Parent Teacher Association Region II Parent Involvement Award, which was presented by Florida PTA Vice President Kathy Thrumston. Crystal River Primary School and Central Ridge Elementary School received the State Golden School Award for establishing exemplary volunteer programs where schools must have volunteers donate twice as many hours as there are total number of students at each school each school year .

At the meeting Assistant Superintendent Mary Curry shared the most current information on Florida’s Race To The Top grant and Citrus County Schools’ plan of action. This is a very involved process and as a district we are beginning to put together the necessary steps required to be eligible to receive these monies.

The next school board meeting is October 12^th, 2010 at 3:00pm.

Citrus Driver Named School Bus Operator of the Year

Posted on September 14th, 2010 by Thomas Kennedy

Governor Crist and FDLE hosted the Annual Florida Missing Children’s Day Ceremony in Tallahassee on September 13th, 2010. At the event Citrus County School District’s own Kathleen Picard was named “School Bus Operator of the Year”. During the presentation they said that, “Picard’s alertness while at work led to the arrest of a man who had been inappropriate with two children.” Thank you Ms. Picard for working to keep our children safe.

Governor Crist and FDLE released the following information:

During 2009, approximately 41,154 incidents of missing children were reported missing to law enforcement agencies throughout Florida. Amber Alerts have aided in the rescue of 52 children, including one this year to date. In 2008, Governor Crist signed the Jennifer Kesse and Tiffany Sessions Missing Persons Act which expanded the authority of FDLE’s Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse (MEPIC) to provide assistance on investigations involving missing adults younger than 26 and missing adults age 26 and older who are suspected by law enforcement to be in danger. Since then, MEPIC has provided assistance in more than 249 missing adult investigations.

This past weekend, advertisers with the Florida Outdoor Advertising Association, and its member advertising companies, donated billboard space as part of an ongoing effort to feature missing children and adults. Lamar, Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS outdoor featured 25 missing children and adults on their digital billboards throughout the state.

FDLE continues to invite the public to sign up to receive e-mail alerts containing information on missing and abducted children. Citizens and businesses can sign up to receive Missing Child Alerts and Amber Alerts via e-mail or text message by visiting www.missingchildrenalert.com.

For more information, or to view photos of missing children, please visit www.fdle.state.fl.us or contact the FDLE Missing Endangered Persons Clearinghouse at 1-888-FL MISSING (1-888-356-4774).

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Friday 09/10/2010

Posted on September 10th, 2010 by Thomas Kennedy

I had a most fun and educational day today. I started my morning visiting at Forest Ridge Elementary school where Principal Windham showed me through several classrooms and I had an opportunity to see the many wonderful students of FRE. As our visit came to an end I had a chance to spend time watching the “Hurricane Tony” (See a related 2003 story by clicking here.) This is an annual event for Mr. Tony Mattingly’s class. Students and their families build to scale small model homes and businesses that are then laid out like a city and then “Hurricane Tony” along with his helpers use lawn blowers to simulate the wind of a hurricane while a helper has water raining down from above. Then just when you think it is all over a flood of water and debris which comes from a fully filled truck bed of water from Mr. Mattingly’s truck comes rushing over the city. What is left is not pretty. I have seen this before but again the details of the buildings only seems to get better and better. The students learn a great deal about good and bad engineering, quality of materials, height of buildings, wind damage, path of floods and much more, plus it is loads of fun!

After “Hurricane Tony” I headed over to Lecanto to the Rodger Weaver Educational Complex for a meeting and road trip with Mr. Chuck Dixon, Director of the school district’s Planning & Growth Management. Mr. Dixon’s department among its many responsibilities is school re-zoning, growth planning, out of zone requests, and much more. If you are interested you can visit the department’s web site to look up what schools you are currently zoned for. Mr. Dixon is a wealth of knowledge and his data collection and his growth planning is critical to our district’s successful future planning and fiscally prudent growth. Mr. Dixon spent time updating me on our district’s capital improvement short and long term plans and then we went on the road. We spent the better part of the afternoon in Crystal River walking on site of the two current construction projects at Crystal River Primary and Crystal River High School. Both of these projects are well underway and will each have a great positive impact on our Crystal River schools and students. Both campuses will be dramatically changed and will be a much better place for learning.

There is a School Board meeting next Tuesday, September, 14^th, 2010 at 3:00pm. If you are interested you can view the agenda by clicking here.

Have a great weekend!

Thomas

Associated Links

www.citrus.k12.fl.us/fre/

www.sptimes.com/2003/10/06/Xpress/Blown_away_by_the_les.shtml

www.citrus.k12.fl.us/pgm/

http://www.citrus.k12.fl.us/crp/

http://www.citrus.k12.fl.us/crh/

http://www.citrus.k12.fl.us/board/agendas_minutes/2010-2011/a0901410adm.pdf

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Lecanto High School Visit 9/9/2010

Posted on September 9th, 2010 by Thomas Kennedy

I visited our largest school in Citrus County today, Lecanto High School. LHS home to several special programs in our district including the Citrus County International Baccalaureate and the Art Academy. Lecanto has over 1,800 students but even with that number of students the school is doing a wonderful job meeting the challenges of our kids. If you get a chance check out the links and learn more about the programs LHS offers. If you have question on the IB program Mr. Darrick Buettner (BuettnerD@citrus.k12.fl.us) is a great resource.