School Board Review for March 8th, 2011 Meeting

Posted on March 10th, 2011 by

School Board Review for March 8th, 2011 Meeting

At the March 8th, 2011 , regular school board meeting Geoffrey Greene, Citrus County Property Appraiser , presented a Special Budget Workshop to the school board on the current property value trends for the nation, our state, and Citrus county.

Citrus County Property Appraiser Budget Presentation March 2011  

BRPH presented an updated overview of the Crystal River High School Phase II design documents. This next phase will include the development of the freshmen academy, new media center (library), business school, parent & bus pickup/drop-off, cafeteria renovation and more. It will also tie the current new construction phase of science labs, classrooms and administrative buildings to the campus.

Carol Mainor, Director of Elementary Education , gave an excellent presentation of the new K-5th grade writing curriculum for Citrus Schools. This new curriculum provides district wide schedule pacing charts, terminology, strategies and lessons that correlate back to the Sunshine State Standards.

Mark Klauder, Director of Secondary Education gave an overview presentation for board and asked for approval of the new 2010-2011 Science textbook adoption for K-12th grades. Mr. Klauder shared how the text books being purchased often in many cases come with a multi-media and/or internet component so that students and families have access to these additional resources via a personal computer, laptop, iPhone, iPad or tablet devices .

Our next meeting is a School Board Workshop on March 29th, 2011.

Related Links

[mediaplayer src=’mms://TRCMS01.citrus.k12.fl.us/SBM_030811′ ]

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Schools Received PBS Awards

Posted on March 9th, 2011 by

Schools Received PBS Awards

Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning I accompanied Renee Mavros and Matt McCraine from the Exceptional Student Education department of CCSD as we presented Florida’s Positive Behavior Support (PBS) awards to three of our elementary schools for being a PBS Model School.  PBS gives people a new way to think about behavior. PBS is based on understanding why problem behaviors occur – the behavior’s function. This approach to behavior can occur on a school-wide level, in a specific setting, classroom, or with an individual student. PBS is the application of evidence-based strategies and systems to assist schools to increase academic performance, increase safety, decrease problem behavior, and establish positive school cultures.

Citrus Springs Elementary in its first year participating achieved a Gold medal banner for its high achieving work with students, families and community.

Forest Ridge Elementary and Pleasant Grove Elementary achieved a Bronze medal banner for their PBS work with students, families and community.
Specific Characteristics of PBS Model Schools are:
  • Showing consistent methods of utilizing data to better serve
    students and staff
  • Teaching PBS to new students throughout the school year
  • Providing creative and engaging reward systems
  • Extending PBS throughout the campus and partnering with the
    community
  • Including PBS into daily activities across all available
    teaching opportunities

 

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ChronicleOnline: Big strides for little legs

Posted on March 9th, 2011 by

Big strides for little legs

Students run marathon to support LifeSouth

photo by MATTHEW BECK | Hundreds of children participated in the final leg of the second annual Five Points of Life Kids Marathon, a program run by LifeSouth Community Blood Centers and the Five Points of Life Foundation. The event was held Friday evening at the Lecanto High School track.

By Cheri Harris
Wednesday, March 9, 2011

LECANTO — The official reason behind the 2011 Five Points of Life Kids Marathon, a program of LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, is to raise awareness about five ways to share life with others: through giving blood, apheresis, bone marrow and umbilical cord blood, as well as organ and tissue donation. But it seemed many participants in the event Friday evening at the Lecanto High School track came mostly because they love to run.

Bruce Sheffield, coordinator of health, physical education and special programs for Citrus County schools, said elementary and middle school students who wanted to participate in the Kids Marathon started running the standard 26.2 miles incrementally last December, either during PE class or after school.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE…

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Week in Review for Feb 27th-Mar 5th, 2011

Posted on March 7th, 2011 by

Week in Review for Feb 27th-Mar 5th, 2011

I am beginning something new on my blog. I am going to begin doing a “Week in Review” post. It is my hope that this will better allow me to share my week ‘s activities. I will continue to post more detailed posts on specific topics, activities and information.

I want to also take this time to thank the many of you that read my posts and who often share with me how you are enjoying the blog and learning more about our schools. We are getting lots of readers. Currently, I have been getting over 26,000 total hits a month with almost 2600 individual visitors each month since the first of this year. I am excited to see it is still growing.

Tuesday I started off the day by reading my favorite Dr. Seuss book, “The Lorax” to Mrs. Tesa McClure’s first grade class at Rock Crusher Elementary to help celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday. I had so much fun with this wonderful first grade class. I brought my son’s “Cat in the Hat” stuffed animal to hold while I read the book. I love the message of this story and the students really seemed to grasp the story’s message.

Tuesday evening I attended the CREST Literacy Open House. What great work and learning the students and staff are achieving at CREST! I enjoyed seeing the many gifts, plants and crafts for sale by students. The staff showed me a new garden just put in by the students. The high school teachers where excited to show off the new gray-scale ‘Nooks’. The teachers shared the tremendous increase in student reading because of the student’s excitement to read using these Nooks.

Wednesday I attended a public Legislative meeting were US Congressman “Sherriff” Nugent, Senator Charlie Dean, and Florida Representative Jimmie T. Smith spent time speaking about the bills they had presented this session and then took questions. Much talk centered around the recent proposed Citrus Port (see ChronicleOnline story, ‘Commission steams toward Port Citrus’). In addition , regarding education issues , both Dean and Smith spoke about SB224/HB107 Local Government Accountability (Online Budget Transparency) and SB736 and HB7019 – Education Personnel. The Local Government Accountability bills in my opinion and , as I understand it at this time, will not likely have any big impact to Citrus County Schools as our district is already putting online the Citrus County Schools Annual Budget and budget amendments included in board agendas. The Education Personnel bill will have many major changes to Florida public schools and our Citrus schools. Much of these bills are rooted in the “Race to the Top” grant which Citrus is participating in. These bills are moving quickly through committees and will likely make it to a floor vote. I personally have many concerns about some aspects of these bills so I , along with many Florida school board members, superintendents, educators and parents , are watching these bills closely .

I visited Citrus High School on Thursday to see the process of the computer upgrades going on throughout our district (see ‘Educational Technology Council’ post for background). The process is moving along well at CHS and I was pleased with the work I saw. A stop to CHS isn’t complete without stopping by the culinary classroom to sample some of the incredible cookies Mr. Aldo Verderame and his students make and sell.

This week is Board Meeting week so plan on attending if you can. The School Board Regular Meeting is Tuesday, March 8th at 4:00pm. Click here to see the agenda.

Have a great week everyone!

Thomas Kennedy

Related Links

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School Board Regular Meeting March 8th at 4:00pm

Posted on March 7th, 2011 by

School Board Regular Meeting March 8th at 4:00pm

Come join us for our board meeting March 8th at 4:00pm at the Citrus County School District, Board Room located at 1007 W. Main Street, Inverness, Florida 34450.

The first Citizen Comments at 4:00p.m. is reserved for comments on the items requesting approval on the agenda. A second opportunity for any subject is available at 6:00 p.m.

CLICK HERE FOR CHRONICLE STORY…

CLICK HERE FOR AGENDA

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ChronicleOnline: Back to school-Board members report on newest addition

Posted on March 7th, 2011 by

Back to school: Board members report on newest addition

By Cheri Harris
Monday, March 7, 2011

Thomas Kennedy doesn’t hesitate when asked about the best part of his new job as a school board member.

He said his goal is to visit two to three schools per week. So far, he has been doing that or more.

“And loving every minute of it,” he said.

Sometimes he chats with the principal or visits a couple of classrooms.

“Sometimes it’s just wandering around and seeing different things,” he said.

He also enjoys the opportunity to interact with other parents, whether it’s out in public at the grocery store or at an advisory council meeting when parents are sharing their ideas or concerns with him.

“That’s exactly what I so much wanted,” he said, “and in many ways that’s probably the biggest compliment someone can give me is when they’re coming up to share with me something about the schools — good or bad or just informative.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE…

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