We received 63.81% of the vote and 15,545 votes, that is more votes than ANY other candidate in any other race. We won a mandate!
Thank you all. I will share more soon.
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On Tuesday, August 19th, 2014, over 100 people made up of football players, cheerleaders, Inverness Middle School (IMS) administration & staff, School Board members, Superintendent Himmel and community members took part in Citrus County’s biggest Ice Water Challenge yet! A special thank you to Kelley DeMaio for initiating and organizing the event.
I was was challenged by John Kennedy and Jayne Stanley so I participate and we donated. (see video below) I called out and challenged Scott Hebert, Ashley Cobb and Pat Deutschman to take the ice bucket challenge!
If you are interested in participating or more importantly donating please visit: http://www.alsa.org/fight-als/ice-bucket-challenge.html
http://youtu.be/moSxahXych0?list=UUE0ESpbN47ftCA6ib39TD3Q
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I want to greatly thank the Citrus County Chronicle Editorial Board for their most generous endorsement.
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We are often asked, “Why are we going back to school so early?” Here is a great news story done today by WTSP 10 News about our Citrus County school district’s start dates.
District brings kids back from summer soonerChances are good your school district would love to bring your kids back to school much earlier. Like right now.
Check out this story and video segment on wtsp.com: http://on.wtsp.com/1sczJ1r
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Welcome back to our students and staff for the 2014-2015 school year in Citrus County. Congratulations on a tremendously successful school year last year. I am so excited about this coming school year and I look forward to new opportunities that await our students and teachers.
You take a deep breath and you walk through the doors
It’s the morning of your very first day
And you say hi to your friends you ain’t seen in a while
Try and stay out of everybody’s way
It’s your freshman year and you’re gonna be here
For the next four years in this town
Hoping one of those senior boys will wink at you and say
“You know, I haven’t seen you around before”
‘Cause when you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you
You’re gonna believe them
And when you’re fifteen feeling like there’s nothing to figure out
Well, count to ten, take it in
This is life before you know who you’re gonna be
Fifteen
You sit in class next to a redhead named Abigail
And soon enough you’re best friends
Laughing at the other girls who think they’re so cool
We’ll be outta here as soon as we can
And then you’re on your very first date and he’s got a car
And you’re feeling like flying
And you’re momma’s waiting up and you’re thinking he’s the one
And you’re dancing ’round your room when the night ends
[. From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/t/taylor-swift-lyrics/fifteen-lyrics.html .]
When the night ends
‘Cause when you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you
You’re gonna believe them
When you’re fifteen and your first kiss
Makes your head spin ’round
But in your life you’ll do things greater than
Dating the boy on the football team
But I didn’t know it at fifteen
When all you wanted was to be wanted
Wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now
Back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday
But I realized some bigger dreams of mine
And Abigail gave everything she had to a boy
Who changed his mind and we both cried
‘Cause when you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you
You’re gonna believe them
And when you’re fifteen, don’t forget to look before you fall
I’ve found time can heal most anything
And you just might find who you’re supposed to be
I didn’t know who I was supposed to be at fifteen
Your very first day
Take a deep breath girl
Take a deep breath as you walk through the doors
© SONY/ATV SONGS D/B/A TREE PUBG CO; TAYLOR SWIFT PUB DESIGNEE;
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Tuesday we had a special school board meeting to approve the hiring of several newly hired employees. We also had a Workshop Meeting and a Public Hearing to pass the tentative budget for 2014-2015.
The special school board meeting was primarily for the board to approve the instructional and support recommendations made by the Superintendent. As a board we often take the opportunity to ask how many jobs have been filled and by whom. At this meeting Mr. Jonny Bishop, Director of Human Resources, shared that this summer 18 of the newly hired teachers were former Citrus County high school graduates! We enjoy hearing about our wonderful graduates getting an opportunity to return home to teach.
The workshop’s focus was on part one of the annual State of the District. This is the staff’s report to the board on the status of our students, schools, grade levels and more. The big issues you have likely already heard were that Citrus was named a High Performing District by the Florida Department of Education for the 8th year in a row, and Citrus was given an “A” rating by the Florida Department of Education. Citrus was one of only 10 districts in the state with an “A” rating. It addition we learned that our 8th grade writing scores were 3rd in the state, 8th grade math was 5th in the state, our 5th grade reading was 6th in the state, and our 3rd grade reading and 5th grade math were 7th in the state. I would encourage you to take a look at the whole report to see the impressive success of our schools. Follow this link for full report: https://thomastalks.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/State-of-the-District_Citrus-County-Schools-Part-I.pdf
Lastly the school board unanimously passed the tentative 2014-2015 school board budget. The proposed tentative millage rate is 7.3040 mills which is a decrease of 4.05% percent over the previous year’s roll-back rate. As I have shared in the past the state, not the school district, mostly determines the local required effort millage rate. Only the capital budget’s 1.5 mills for capital outlay is decided locally.
Our next Board meeting is August 12th at 4:00pm.
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