Facebook Post Leads to Positive District Improvement

You never know if something you post just might save a life

Last week Dondi Cappuccilli a local parent and Facebook friend posted a link to a story and video, ‘Teen’s cardiac arrest and lifesaving rescue caught on tape’. Above the link Ms. Cappuccilli added the comment, “Glad to see a happy ending! These things are so important…..and they are all over. The (AED) machines walk you thru the steps so even if you have not had training you can still help!”

I watched the video and was so impressed at how well each of the coaches, staff, and administration immediately took action and saved this young student’s life. As a swim coach, I have to get certified in CPR and safety regularly and what we learn and putting it into action is critical to saving lives.

As I often do I shared the post with our Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Director of Student Services and our Student Health Specialist. I knew we had good procedures in place, but I know it is never a bad idea to see if through additional information we can improve.

I first received an email back from our Student Health Specialist, Pamela Carnevale RN,BSN who said she too had seen the video on Facebook and the story. She wanted me to know that she had scheduled a meeting to discuss and share the video with the other district’s nurses who teach CPR. I was pleased, but honestly not surprised as our school district is like that. It is made up of parents, community and caring people that always strive to be better.

Today I got an email note from Mike Mullen, Assistant Superintendent;

“Thomas,
As a result of the email / video you sent we have decided to have all sports teams do at least one drill during the first week of each sport season to ensure they are familiar with their Emergency action plan. It was clear the coach (in the video) was successful due to knowing what to do quickly, thanks for sharing!
Mike”.

I want to publicly thank Dondi Cappuccilli, Pamela Carnevale, and Mike Mullen for the role they played in bringing this issue forward which potentially could save additional lives.

“You all rock!”

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Citrus Elected Leadership Summit

Participants: Let’s do this frequently

Last Thursday, January 28^th, 2016, many of Citrus County’s elected leaders came together without personal agendas to talk about working together for our community.

When Ron Kitchen (now the Chairman of the Board of County Commission) called me last October (as the then current Chairman of the Citrus County School Board) to ask if I would approach the School Board about a joint meeting between then Citrus BOCC, the Cities and the School Board, I was surprised and a bit nervous. I thought why now after all the trouble we had last year when the School Board tried unsuccessfully to get the BOCC to jointly meet (see Chronicle, “Commission, school board off to rough start” 12/17/2014) and was refused. One had to ask, what had changed? Incoming Chairman Ron Kitchen is what had changed. Mr. Kitchen made it clear months earlier when he said, “we should want to work with the School Board”. It was those comments that I trusted with hopes of building a better working relationship with the BOCC as we came together for this summit.

All of the current serving School Board members; Bryant, Doug Dodd, Chairwoman Linda Powers and I attended the summit. Superintendent Sandra “Sam” Himmel, was in Tallahassee for a previously scheduled meeting with the Florida Commissioner of Education and was unable to attend the summit but Assistant Superintendent Mike Mullen attended in her place. County Commissioners, Scott Carnahan, Joe Meek and Chairman Ron Kitchen; Crystal River Councilmen Andy Houston and Robert Holmes and Mayor Jim Farley; and Inverness Council members Hepfer and McBride all attended and participated in the summit.

Mr. Kitchen facilitated the meeting and with no specific item agendas planned. Mr. Kitchen opened the meeting and shared that he felt this meeting was important since Mr. Kitchen said, “we all work for the same people“. Mr. Kitchen then opened up the meeting to begin talking about any items we wished to share.

Over the course of the meeting a number of issues were talked about, and regardless whether the issue was one we were all in agreement of, or if it was a more divided subject everyone was professional, respectful and listened to one another.   For over four hours the group met and discussed topics ranging from; school funding, Career and Technical Education, Home Rule, Whispering Pines Park, Withlacoochee Technical College, Crystal River City Walk, and improving communication just to name a few.

As the meeting came to an end it was evident that the group desired to meet again and more often. It was proposed and agreed for the Chairmen of the respective groups to meet regularly, perhaps once a month or once a quarter and then for additional summits to happen on an annual bases.

Only by communicating, collaborating and working together will we improve as a community. I want to thank Chairman Ron Kitchen for envision, planning and making this event happen. I cannot wait for the next summit.

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Citrus Students Conference with NASA Engineer and former alumni

On Thursday, January 28th, 2016 in remembrance of the 30th anniversary of the Challenger tragedy where 7 astronauts (including the first teacher in space Christa McAullife) 73 seconds after liftoff. The 5th grade classes at Citrus Springs Elementary School used Google Hangouts to interview Dr. Eric Stewart for 45 minutes.

Dr. Stewart is a CSES alumni an LHS graduate who is now a NASA engineer at U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

CSES Technology Specialist Christina Hackey who worked to setup this video conference shared, “(students) had a blast videoconferencing with a real NASA engineer in honor of Challenger’s 30th anniversary. All six of the 5th grade classes at Citrus Springs Elementary School had the opportunity to ask questions as the 45 minute session was broadcast live to the whole school. Awesome opportunity!”

This in another opportunity where technology positively brings the outside world in to our local classrooms and allows our students to interact in their learning.

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