Thankful for these great organizations

Thank you for all you do!

During this time of Thanksgiving, we have so much to be thankful for in our school district, community, state, and our great country. While we’ve had a couple of challenging years are community has and will continue to thrive. They are so many organizations and people that we are thankful for. There are just so many to name but here are just some of the ones that I happen to work closely with to help better meet the needs of our students, staff, schools, and community.

Citrus County Education Foundation and Shaunda Burdette and her teams for their tirelessly working to meet all the many needs of our students, families, teachers, and our schools.

Citrus County Blessings and Christina Reed, the leadership and BOD team, and the near 900 volunteers (yes that number is correct), including the Student Board Representatives and student volunteers that ensure our Citrus students’ bellies have food on the weekends, holidays, and summers.

Phil Royal Legacy Foundation and April Royal and her teams for the incredible initiatives they are constantly supporting for students. Including but not limited to the Phil Royal EMT program at the CRHS Academy of Health Careers, the student bike safety & helmet program, the anti-bullying & safe students initiatives, and so so much more.

Sun Coast Swim Team and their coaches not only for supporting competitive swimming in our community but also for supporting all our high school swimmers and swim teams by donating their time timing high school swim meets and supporting the high school teams and coaches.

Lifesouth Community Blood Center and the many donators who make sure there is blood supply in our local community and throughout the southeast. In addition, the Lifesouth Foundation who provides scholarships and resources to our local communities and students.

YMCA Citrus Memorial Health Foundation and director David Reed and the other amazing leaders and staff who continuously provide essential low-cost to no-cost services for our students and community. In addition, their partnering with the school system has led to so many direct and indirect benefits to our students and community.

United Way of Citrus County for helping support our students and families in our community and working with the many not-for-profit‘s to ensure they are supported and needs are being met.

Citrus Builders Academy, the board of directors, Harold Walker, and the Citrus County Builders Alliance for their incredible support of our new construction engineer programs and the incredible mobile workshop.

The list of other great organizations and volunteers goes on and on and we are grateful to all of them.

We also need to give a special thanks to the many many businesses and individuals that are supporting our organizations and students.

If you are able to support any of these or other organizations that directly or indirectly support our students please support them with financial gifts, prayers, and continual volunteering.

Thank you to all of them and you for continually making Citrus great!

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James E. Kennedy, Sr. Pvt., US Army National Guard,147th AAA Detachment Operations, 1954.

Veteran’s Day 2021

“11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month”

Today on Veterans Day, we thank the many Veterans of our great country for the service and sacrifice made for our freedom.

Come to the Veteran’s Day Parade in Inverness on Tuesday (11th/11th/11th) at 10:00am and ending on the 11^th hour.  This is one of our country’s largest Veteran’s Day Parades and is always well attended and involves many of our students and schools.

I want to pause and take a personal moment to thank just a few of the Veterans in my family for our freedom, some who has now passed and others still living;

• James E. Kennedy, Sr. (Father) US Army National Guard, Korea
• James E. Kennedy, Jr. (Brother) US Army
• Frank Kennedy (Grandfather) US Army, WWI & WWII
• Thomas Cobb (Father-in-Law) US Army, Vietnam
• Earl Cobb (Grandfather-in-Law) US Army, WWII
• Kenneth Mallette Sr (Uncle) US Army, Korea
• Sue Sturgeon (Aunt) US Army, Vietnam
• John Kennedy (Cousin) US Marines
• Joseph Mallette (Cousin) US Army
• Michael Mallette (Cousin) US Army
• Don Mallette (Cousin) US Army
• Henry Kenaston (Uncle) US Army

A few of the Veterans in my family. We have many more cousins and other relatives. I am so grateful for all there service,

The list of very close friends and extended family is even longer. Thank you for the great lives and freedoms we enjoy each and every day!

God Bless America!

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Reading for CCEF’s First Library

“Building Pathways to Literacy”

Nothing better than getting to read to our students. I try and never pass up an opportunity to read to our students. Wednesday I was at Central Ridge Elementary in Ms. Harris’s kindergarten class. Her amazing class was just awesome. Thank you to the Citrus County Education Foundation First Library program for providing these great stories and reading opportunities!

Below is an excerpt from the CCEF website on the First Library program;

“CCEF has used the Pre-k classrooms at our local public schools due to the fact that these students are prescreened based upon learning disabilities and economic need. Statistics show that a child from a middle income home typically enters the first grade with over 1,000 hours of one-on-one picture book reading time with parents or guardians, while a child from a low income family typically averages below 100 hours. By providing these at-risk students with a library of books to take home and call their own at a young age, CCEF and its partners hope to increase those students’ chances of success in reading by the time they reach third grade, leading to greater success throughout their academic lives.

The program encourages reading by coordinating “read-ins” with the classrooms on six designated dates throughout the school year. Following each “read-in,” each student is given a copy of the book to take home for their own “first library.” Students are encouraged to share the book with their parents and inspire a passion for reading nightly in the home.

Recent research shows that there is an undeniable and strong correlation between early childhood reading and long term academic success. One study by the The Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that students who are reading at or above grade level by the third grade are significantly more likely to graduate high school and find a job than those who are behind.

Because of this, having the building blocks and access to reading materials at a young age is extremely critical. Beginning in October 2013, CCEF worked with each of the 22 Pre-Kindergarten classes in the county to help create each student’s “first library,” and Kindergarten classrooms were added during the 2017-2018 school year.”

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