Congrats to the Class of 2021

Thank you to all that made this happen!

This week was graduation week for our three largest high schools, Citrus High School, Lecanto High School, and Crystal River High School.  Over and over in speeches this year by school leaders and students the theme was “thanks” and “gratefulness” for having in-person graduations, and for all that their teachers and school staff did this school year to provide face-to-face instruction during a global pandemic.

For the past four months, district and school staff have been preparing for these special traditional graduations. The enormous and monumental tasks of these graduations are more complex than most people know. They are challenging enough during a typical year but add COVID and the extra planning and efforts have more than double the work preparing for this year’s graduations.

I have always been impressed by the planning and execution of setting up these graduation events, from the chairs, main stage, sound systems, and much more, take strategic planning by our leaders and school maintenance teams. And if you think the preparation is a lot the breakdown is equally impressive. The very moment graduation ends the school and district maintenance and custodian teams swoop in and break it all down, moving it to the next school for the next day’s graduation. They then repeat this over and over until all three schools have had their graduation. (I still think “magic” or elves must be involved.)

I want to thank our Superintendent Himmel, school administrators, graduation coordinators, guidance counselors, school facility staff, district maintenance staff, and student setup volunteers (JROTC, athletics teams, and others). I want to also specially thank one person who always keeps a low profile, but this year especially lead the efforts behind the scenes to ensure our graduates had a safe and traditional in-person graduation, Assistant Superintendent Jonny Bishop.

We are so grateful for all these dedicated persons. Just look at some of these photos of their work for our graduates. (click on photos to enlarge)

Thank you to each and every one of them!

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Golden Citrus Scholars Sponsors

Special thank you to AAIT and TCG for the laptops

What an exciting week for Citrus High School, Lecanto High School, and Crystal River High School as they saw their 2021 Citrus County Golden Citrus Scholars honored!  The Golden Citrus Scholars Award is the Academic Oscars in Citrus Schools. Each school nominates the best academic scholar in each of eight categories. During the week leading up to the Golden Citrus Scholar Awards Day it has become a tradition to hold events similar to those held during Homecoming or Prom week. Schools recognized their respective Golden Citrus Scholars on social media and on morning shows. Schools often awarded gifts like custom Scholar shirts and mugs. Students wore special sashes that week and attended special catered meals. The week not only celebrates the Scholars at the schools but serves as an example to underclassmen of what hard academic work can achieve.

The week concluded with the Golden Citrus Awards, a special event where each nominee is specially honored, the winners of each category are announced, and at least two specialty honors, including the overall Golden Citrus Hall of Fame Scholar, are recognized.  Due to COVID, the Golden Citrus Awards once again event became mobile. From early morning until late afternoon the Golden Citrus Awards bus, filled with dignitaries from the Citrus County Education Foundation, the school district, and Chamber, brought the awards event to each of the nominee’s homes where family and friends waited to celebrate their nominee. Each nominee was awarded a $500 educational stipend, category winners each received a $1,000 stipend, and the two specialty winners received a $2,000 educational stipend.  The stipends can be used for the Scholars’ post-secondary educational needs. Many Scholars noted how these funds would help in covering the costs of textbooks, room and board, and other essential educational needs.

Laptops for Specialty Scholars

Due to the generosity of two local technology company sponsors, the specialty Scholars also received a MacBook laptop. All About IT (AAIT) and Technology Conservation Group (TCG) sponsored the MacBooks for the Scholars. Those laptops will provide significant savings to those students and their families as they will now not need to purchase those essential educational tools that contribute to our Scholars’ success in their post-secondary studies. We are so grateful to AAIT and TCG for sponsoring this unexpected and extra special award to these Scholars.

Thank You Sponsors

We want to thank the many sponsors of the 2021 Golden Citrus Awards, most especially the primary sponsors: The Citrus County Chamber of Commerce, The Chamber Young Professionals, The Rotary Club of Citrus County, Black Diamond Foundation, Kingsbridge Travel, Citrus County Coalition for College & Careers, The JJ & Jen Grow Family, Citrus County Chronicle, Citrus County School District– and most heartfully, the Citrus County Education Foundation and Shaunda Burdette who coordinate and oversee the entire event which is a year in the making.

Our students’ success is a direct result of our community!

To read more about the 2021 Golden Citrus Scholars and Awards visit https://www.chronicleonline.com/news/local/golden-citrus-scholars-celebrated-with-home-visits/article_b2399658-a470-11eb-b0dd-d380454db9a1.html

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Bless our school counselors

Every day in our schools and our district there are extraordinary and special people that give so heartfully to make our students’ lives better.

This past week there is a special group of individuals that we must lift up for the work that they are doing, it is that of our school counselors, crisis team workers, and administrative leaders, who have been on the front lines of meeting our students’ safety and mental health needs. I am not sure people really can appreciate and understand the work these people do to care for our students and their families. These people are meeting with students, their families, they are visiting students’ homes, speaking with other counselors, and working with anyone they can to ensure that our students are safe and cared for. I encourage you to reach out to these special people and let them know how much you appreciate what they do.

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