Joseph Buccheri Foundation’s 3rd annual charity golf tournament
Foundation keeps Coach’s work living on
The Joseph Buccheri Foundation will be holding their 3rd annual charity golf tournament on Saturday May 2, 2015 at Citrus Hills Golf Club.
Coach Buccheri was a Guidance Counselor at Crystal River High School and coached CRHS baseball from 1987 to 1996. Under his coaching the CRHS team won five district titles. Coach was not simply a coach on the field but a mentor to many young people. Long before Coach came to Crystal River, Buccheri played, and then coached, for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was a survivor of cancer and two strokes, before succumbing to the rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in 2011.
Past Award Recipients of the Joseph Buccheri Foundation Scholarship:
Forest Ridge Elementary School student Vincent Lahera received the superintendent’s Making a Difference Award for his speech, which he delivered at this Tuesday’s School Board meeting.
Here’s a excerpt:
“From the moment we step into third grade, all we hear about is the tests that determine our future. Then we hear we have to take it until we finish high school. Who are they kidding? Our biggest concern as 10-year-olds is who we’re going to play with at recess, and what we’re going to eat for lunch.
“Every Friday we have to take a test to prepare for a test like this. We have to field test the test before the test to see if the test is a good enough test for us to test on. The future of my education lays on this test.”
Watch the video below by clicking [play] or click here!
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Commissioner Carnahan: I’m an advocate of children and their activities
Three cheers for Commissioner Carnahan!!
Great quote by Commissioner Carnahan regarding his support of keeping a pool open, “I’m an advocate of children and their activities… I’ll be dadgum if I’m going to take something from these kids.” (See Chronicle; Mike Wright- Board makes splash by backing BH pool http://www.chronicleonline.com/content/board-makes-splash-backing-bh-pool)
Join me in thanking the Honorable Commissioners Carnahan, Damato and Meek for their support of our kids!!
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Wednesday morning I had the great pleasure of participating in a round table discussion at Citrus County Blessings with Coordinator Debbie Lattin and several Florida Atlantic University students on their “Alternative Spring Break”. ASB is a program where FAU students spend their spring break week serving and learning in a community. This group’s focus is on childhood hunger in rural communities, its effects on children, including physically, emotionally, and perhaps most importantly, academically.
The FAU students chose to spend time in Citrus County because of our high percentage of students coming from economically disadvantaged households. Currently Citrus has approximately 69% of our students on the USDA Food and Nutrition Services free and reduced meal program. Because of the high percentage of free and reduced students all of our elementary and middle schools are Title 1 schools. In order to be a Title 1 school, at least 40% of a school’s students must be from low-income families who qualify under the United States Census’s definition of low-income, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In Citrus our lowest percentage of Title 1 students at an elementary school is 66% at Central Ridge Elementary and our highest is at Homosassa Elementary with 82% of the students being on the free and reduced meal program.
Blessings is a not-for-profit program that provides easy to prepare meals for these students (and all the school aged children in the home) from economically disadvantaged household to have on the weekends.
This day the FAU students have come to learn more about the success of the Blessings program begun by Mrs. Lattin and how it has been positively affecting our students’ lives. The students asked to meet with educational leaders in Citrus County to better understand the effects hunger can have on a student’s life and how Citrus is addressing this challenge. The students spent the afternoon assisting Mrs. Lattin and the Inverness United Methodist church assembling packs for some of this week’s students.
In addition to spending time at Blessings the students spent time visiting some of our schools. One of them was Forest Ridge Elementary who has 79% of its students on free and reduced lunch. In addition to learning about the Title 1 services FRE offers, the students spent time visiting the classrooms and even participated reading in the Dr. Seuss day at FRE.
These student’s interest are lying beyond this week’s work, the students expressed how they planned to take what they learned this week and bring it back to their communities to start or expand on programs like Blessings.
I want to thank the FAU students for giving up their vacation to make a difference in students’ lives in Citrus County. I further want to thank Debbie Lattin for helping facilitate and sponsor this group’s visit and work this week. I also want to thank Mrs. Lattin for the direct impact her Blessings program is in having on our schools and most importantly our students.
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In Citrus we tested around 800 students and only had a few issues, compared to the 30,000 reported in Miami-Dade.
There is a part of me that is still so angry that the State has not suspended punitively using the results of this year’s FSA against students and teachers. Therefore I am not surprised by the problems around the State. School Superintendents, School Boards, Administrators and Teachers from around Florida have been telling State Education Officials and Legislators for months that the testing systems were not ready. Thankfully for now Citrus has been okay, but it is early. Our excellent team of district and school administrators and educators are working diligently to ensure Citrus has as few issues as possible.
Please keep our students, teachers, testing monitors, and schools in your thoughts and prayers as our students embark on this challenging testing year. We’ll keep you updated.
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Joseph Buccheri Foundation’s 3rd annual charity golf tournament
