Posted on March 25th, 2022 by
Thomas E Kennedy
FSC Doctoral Course guest
I was honored to once again be a guest in Florida Southern College School Education Doctoral Course on Policy Analysis, Implementation, and Evaluation. Dr. Scott Hebert’s the FSC Course Instructor and we participated virtually as Dr. Hebert and students asked me questions regarding policy development and implementation. The students are Education Doctoral Candidates. I was extra excited to participate this year now as a FSC “Moc Dad” as my daughter is a freshman at FSC in the Bachelor in nursing program.
Thank you, Dr. Hebert and FSC for this opportunity.
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Filed under: News & Updates
Posted on March 23rd, 2022 by
Thomas E Kennedy
School District Career Fair
“Hiring Fair” is maybe a better description. I dropped by the Citrus County School District Career Fair between my meetings today. I got there mid-morning and over 30 people had already gone through and 7 had already been hired on the spot (subject to HR processing and background verifications). In addition, numerous substitute applications were taken for teaching, transportation, and other positions.
Administrative representatives from elementary, middle, and high schools, and all the major departments were on hand to not just share about open positions and answer questions of potential employees, but also to interview candidates. Human Resources personnel are on hand to help candidates fill out applications.
Thank you to all that participated today!
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Posted on March 19th, 2022 by
Thomas E Kennedy
Math Field Day is Back!!!
Math Field Day returned after a COVID hiatus. Math Field Day is a fun and rigorous math competition open to public and private school teams. Each school may bring several teams from different math grade levels. Each team can include up to four students. The grade-level teams compete against each other to computate numerous equations for the grade level/subject (e.g. Algebra 1, Geometry, Calculus, etc). The competition is fast and fierce. Top Team Ribbon Awards are given for individual grade-level teams from 1st through 3rd plus honorable mention. Overall 1st place trophy is awarded to the top-scoring Middle School and High School. Congratulations to this year’s winners Citrus Springs Middle School and Lecanto High School for taking home 1st place Overall trophies.
This event was possible due to our special sponsor the Citrus County Education Foundation and community partner the Suncoast Credit Union. We have a special thanks to the West Citrus Elks Lodge #2693 who not only sponsor this event by providing the venue but also feed the students breakfast and lunch. We love you Elks!
Thank you to Darrick Buettner for emceeing the event, all the district leaders, and the teachers and educators from each of the schools who volunteered their Saturday morning to score/grade the event for the students. A very special thanks to David Assumpcao our District Math Specialist for his coordination of the event.
We also want to thank the parents and families that supported this great event and most especially the students that competed from all the public and private middle and high schools in Citrus County.
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Posted on March 18th, 2022 by
Thomas E Kennedy
A Pirate Gala
A wonder Pirate Evening at the inaugural Crystal River High School Gala to honor those that support the CRHS students, staff, school, and community. It was a magical evening with music from the CRHS Concert Band and Choir, while student-athletes served a lovely dinner prepared by the CRHS culinary students. The CRHS NJROTC Cologuard Presented our America Colors and Pledge, followed by Principal Mcleod’s opened remarks. CRHS Alumni Pastor Lloyd Bertine of the Gulf to Lake Church was the guest speaker, sharing a powerful message about our CRHS past and tools to continue to make our CRHS future successful. Thank you to the CRHS Administration, leadership team, staff, and all the student volunteers that worked so hard to provide this special event.
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Posted on March 16th, 2022 by
Thomas E Kennedy
WTC’s Career Expo and Open House
Today was one of Withlacoochee Technical College’s Career Expo and Open House. WTC generally offers at least four of these Open Houses each year- two during the day and two in the evening. These open houses are open to anyone interested in attending WTC and training for a new career. Potential students get to meet the instructors, tour programs, and shop areas and ask lots of questions. I love visiting on these days. There is just so much to see and so many students sharing about their studies and projects.
WTC boasts one of the top Nursing LPN programs in the State of Florida. The Welding programs are always a top choice, in fact, one of the lady welding students was working for NASA and wanted to expand her knowledge and selected WTC’s Welding program. (Check out the photo of her welding skills of a flower and more.) One of WTC’s new and exciting programs is the Industrial Machinery Control Technician. If you are looking to be the next mechanical technician for Amazon, this is just the place to get started.
There are over 20 different industry programs offered at WTC. To learn more about the programs and options please visit www.wtcollege.org.
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Filed under: News & Updates
Posted on March 14th, 2022 by
Thomas E Kennedy
sine die 2022
Thank you Rep. Dr. Massullo and Senator Simpson!
Senate President Wilton Simpson
Today, the Florida Legislature including our two local delegates Senate President Wilton Simpson and Representative Dr. Ralph Massullo closed the 2022 Florida Legislative Session sine die (which essentially means ‘adjourned indefinitely’).
I want to thank Senator Simpson and Representative Massullo for their service this session. I want to thank them both for their leadership and work on not just behalf of Citrus County but on that of our schools, staff, and most especially our students.
There are a number of successes this session but two I would like to lift up is the removal of state standardized assessments in favor of progress monitoring and the budget appropriations to assist in the establishment of the new Citrus High School Construction pathway.
Representative Dr. Ralph Massullo
For well over a decade, I have worked to encourage and advocate with state leaders to remove and reduce the state-required assessments and their punitive penalties against students and educators. This year with great encouragement and support from Governor DeSantis the Legislature this session did what I might have thought a few years ago wasn’t possible- The Legislature voted to remove state standardized assessments and replace them with a progress monitoring system. The immediate details are in SB 1048 which unanimously passed the Senate and overwhelmingly in the House. There will still be much work ahead but this is a critical beginning point.
As a strong advocate for high school Career and Technical Education (a.k.a. as workforce /vocational education), I have been excited about our new Citrus High School Construction pathway. The program got an extra needed boost in the passing of the Legislative budget with Rep. Massullo’s appropriation bill HB 4965 with support in the Senate by Senator Simpson, that if signed by the Governor will provide Citrus High School Construction Pathway startup funding of $253,500.
There are several other positive improvements for our students, staff, and schools this session, but these were two which I believe will have long-lasting positive impact on our Citrus County students and community.
I am so grateful to Senator Simpson and Rep. Massulllo for their leadership and commitment. God bless them both in their future endeavors for Citrus County and Florida!
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Filed under: News & Updates
I was honored to once again be a guest in Florida Southern College School Education Doctoral Course on Policy Analysis, Implementation, and Evaluation. Dr. Scott Hebert’s the FSC Course Instructor and we participated virtually as Dr. Hebert and students asked me questions regarding policy development and implementation. The students are Education Doctoral Candidates. I was extra excited to participate this year now as a FSC “Moc Dad” as my daughter is a freshman at FSC in the Bachelor in nursing program.
