Carl Hansen former school board member

Posted on January 7th, 2020 by

Carl Hansen

Citrus loses former school board member

At Marine Science Center with Mr. Hansen and former school board member, Pat Deutschman.

Over this past holiday season, Citrus County lost another one of its special individuals when it lost former Citrus County School Board member Carl Hansen. Mr. Hansen served on the Citrus County School Board from 1996-2000 and was Chairman from 1997-98. While Mr. Hansen’s professional life extends far beyond his time on the Citrus County School Board, for me he will always be best known as the Honorable Carl Hansen, Citrus County School Board member.

Mr. Hansen and I both attended Crystal River United Methodist Church and I was familiar with his personal and professional accomplishments.  I sought him out prior to my being elected to the school board to learn about how to best serve our students and community. During one of our meetings, he walked me step-by-step through the responsibilities, challenges, rewards, and even his own expectations of being a school board member. I remember drinking in all that he shared and realizing that whatever I thought I knew, I had much still to learn. I recall him asking me a lot of questions about why I was running for office and about what I hoped to accomplish.  Mr. Hansen ended our meeting by asking, “Who do I write your campaign contribution check out to?”  I was taken aback because while I knew donations were part of the process, I had not expected that my very first campaign donation would be from Carl Hansen.  That and his donations of his time, wisdom, and experience are a special connection I will always have with him.

Many months later when I was honored to be elected as a school board member, Mr. Hansen and I met again. This time he began the meeting by saying he had some gifts for me. Mr. Hansen began to place on the table several special neckties and lapel pins he had worn as a school board member. If you knew Mr. Hansen, you won’t be surprised to learn that he had a special story to go along with each one of those gifts. One of the pins he gave me simply states “CHILDREN FIRST”. He took special care to remind me how vital it was as a school board member that each and every decision I made should always put children first. That pin has been on my school board lanyard since the day I was elected. I wear that lanyard into every classroom I visit; doing so makes me feel like Mr. Hansen is with me. I regularly wear Mr. Hansen’s neckties in honor of him at school board meetings and wore one of his ties the day of his memorial service.

While others will do a far better job sharing about Mr. Hansen’s amazing life and accomplishments,  I wanted to take a few minutes to share my personal connection with Mr. Hansen as a school board member and to let you know the love he had for the children of Citrus County Schools. That love may be best evidenced in three of his children who serve as teachers and leaders in our school system: Earnie Olsen, coordinator of the Marine Science Center; Debra Dumas, district teacher; and Donna Olsen, music teacher at Homosassa Elementary.

Thank you, Mr. Hansen, for being a friend of the Citrus County School District, a guide to me, and a warrior for public education.

To learn more about Mr. Carl Hansen visit https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chronicleonline/obituary.aspx?n=carl-thomas-hansen&pid=194879197

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Gov. DeSantis unveils 2020 State education budget proposal

Posted on November 21st, 2019 by

Gov. DeSantis unveils 2020 State education budget proposal

Encouraging…

This week Governor DeSantis unveiled his state budget recommendations for the 2020 Legislative Session.  While some in education still have some additional ideas, concerns, and hopes about budget funding and policy development for the 2020 session, and while no budget recommendation is perfect— this is an encouraging budget recommendation for public education and I look forward to sharing with our Legislators about how we can improve it more for the students in Citrus County and Florida.

As one reviews the Governor’s budget and see things one likes and doesn’t like, it is important to remember that this is only a recommendation, it is the Legislature that has the authority and responsibility of creating the state budget.  It is important to understand that the governor’s recommendation highlights the spending priorities and new policies that the Governor looks to pursue.  Governor DeSantis’s budget serves as a guide to the 2020 Legislature as it takes on the more detailed task of developing and passing a balanced state budget.  Follow this link for an excellent side-by-side comparison of 2019-2020 Florida State Budget on Education and the Governor’s 2020-2021 Budget Recommendations- https://fsba.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Comparison-Gov-Budget-2020-21-Budget.pdf.

Please continue to share your thoughts, concerns, and ideas about how we can help make the Florida 2020 Legislative Session positive and successful for our students and schools.

Here are some key items in the Governor’s recommended budget:

    • An increase of more than $1 billion in total FEFP funding – mostly due to the salary and bonus packages
    • A $50 increase in the Base Student Allocation
    • Continuation of the partial roll-back of the Required Local Effort millage rate
    • Continuation of the Funding Compression Allocation
    • Elimination of the Declining Enrollment Supplement
    • Modest increases in most categorical programs
    • State PECO funding set at nearly $174 million for charter schools and $50 million for traditional public schools
    • Increased funding for Special Facility Construction to add three more districts for their 1st year
    • A $60 million increase in Workforce Education Funding
(Thank you to Florida School Board Association for information that assisted in writing this article.)

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Lecanto visits

Posted on November 21st, 2019 by

Lecanto visits

What a great day visiting our Lecanto campuses today. Enjoyed seeing a number of my student friends at Lecanto Middle School. I was so impressed at the Lecanto Primary School‘s Character Education/Social/Emotional class taught by Guidance Counselor Dr. Bowman. Also stopped by the Technology Resource Center seeing the challenging and vital work our talented and committed team members are doing to keep all the bits flowing. We have some outstanding educators throughout our schools.

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CRHS hosts Districts at Citrus County YMCA

Posted on October 27th, 2019 by

CRHS hosts Districts at Citrus County YMCA

This past Saturday the 2019 FHSAA 2A District 4 Swimming Championship swim meet was held at the Citrus Memorial YMCA in Lecanto. Crystal River High School was asked by the other district schools to host what is believed to be the largest swim meet ever held in Citrus County with well over 500 swimmers, coaches, officials, volunteers and spectators covering 10 teams from around the Tampa Bay areas in attendance.

Months of planning went into making this a tremendously successful event. Visiting officials, teams, and families gave it high praise.  None of this success could have been possible if not for the great support and donations from a number of organizations and businesses. We want to publicly thank Crystal River High School, the Citrus County School District, YMCA of the Suncoast, CRHS Naval JROTC, FHSAA, Sun Coast Swim Team, Citrus County Education Foundation, Citrus County Parks & Recreation, Flavor Express, McDonald’s of Lecanto, WREC and Mike Scott Plumbing. Saturday’s success was also made possible because of the fabulous support and encouragement of a number of individuals. We thank to especially thank Robert “Raz” Rasmussen, Mike Laycock, Lori and Mike Lenoir, Bobby Verlato, Dr. Linda Connors, Cliff Dyer, Garrett Adkins, Robin Braswell, Gary Saslo, Bob Griffiths, Eva Gronke, Chief Warrent Liz Rivera,  Senior Chief Maurice Perine, Ashlyn Hunnicutt, Pedro Williams, Angelique Hickman, and Capt. Thomas Holme. We want to also thank the Suncoast YMCA Lecanto leadership and aquatics team who truly went above and beyond. Lastly, we want to thank the tremendous work of the Pirate Swimming coaching staff of Chuck Gatton and Beth Penn.

As a result of the successful swims at this Saturday’s 2A4 Districts, Citrus County will be sending 11 relay teams and 22 individual swimming and dive events to compete in the FHSAA 2A Region 2 Championships at the Long Center in Clearwater this Saturday, November 2, 2019.  Congratulations to all the teams and swimmers!!

Thank you again to all the individuals, organizations, and businesses that made Saturday’s District Swim Meet a successful one!

 

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Massullo files bill to broaden penalties for threats by firearms and other weapons

Posted on October 10th, 2019 by

Massullo files bill to broaden penalties for threats by firearms and other weapons

Last year the Florida Legislature increase penalties for those making threats using firearms or other weapons.  Earlier this year Citrus County Schools and the Sherriff’s Office were surprised to learn that a person who threatened to “shoot up” one of our schools could not be charged, because the threat was made verbally, even if the threat was made to a law-enforcement officer. The law did permit the person could face felony charges under state law for making “written threats to kill” or making a false bomb threat.  See Citrus Chronicle article, Floral City man who made threats to ‘shoot up’ school, https://tinyurl.com/yxd7args. Immediately following the situation, the Superintendent of Schools, the School Board, and our local State Legislators Rep. Massullo and Senator Simpson spoke out about improvements that needed to be made to the law.

On October 8, 2019, State Representative Dr. Ralph Massullo filed HB 311, a bill simply entitled ‘Threats’. This bill if passed and signed into law, prohibits threats to use firearm or weapon with specified intent. This bill would strengthen the law and allow law enforcement to act on creatable threats made which results in better protection of our students, staff and schools.

Thank you Rep. Massullo for once again understanding the needs of our community and working to pass common-sense legislation to do what is best for our students and schools.

Follow this link to read the filed bill: https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_h0311__.docx&DocumentType=Bill&BillNumber=0311&Session=2020

 

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Athletics Bring Awareness to Breast Cancer at School Board Meeting

Posted on October 9th, 2019 by

Athletics Bring Awareness to Breast Cancer at School Board Meeting

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month—the most common cancer in women today. There are about 15,042 new cases in Florida each year, and about 160 in Citrus County alone.
 
Over the years many athletic programs have brought attention to this cause. CRHS swim Coach Chuck Gatton used this year’s annual rival meet between CRHS and LHS to be a Breast Cancer Awareness Meet. It was held last week on Oct 3, 2019. A rival meet became a meet of two teams coming together for one cause. The teams wore special PINK swim caps for the event with their team’s logo on the side. The team had donation challenge jars and the teams raised about $500 for Breast Cancer Awareness.
 
We were also honored to have Ashlyn Hunnicutt a CRHS, Junior, Swimmer & Diver who sang the National Anthem at the swim meet to come to sing it for the School Board.
 
Thank you to all the coaches and student-athletics across our county for having these events and bringing better awareness to Breast Cancer.

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