A tornado warning localized to a particular area of Flagler County on Thursday but broadcast countywide on cell phones left faculty members and volunteers at Indian Trails Middle School anxious and in the dark about the school’s lack of response as the storm raged outside, or any effort to voice explanations or reassurances over the PA system: what parents and other did learn from the district was not issued until two hours after the fact.
Bunnell Elementary
40 Flagler Schools Students Advance to International Problem Solvers Competition After Wins in Orlando
A total of 178 students from five schools (Flagler Palm Coast High School, Matanzas High School, Buddy Taylor Middle School, Indian Trails Middle School, and Rymfire Elementary School) took part in the competition, which drew 511 students from across the state. Of the Flagler Schools contingent, 40 have been invited to vie at the international competition, which will take place June 5-9 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
Indian Trails Middle’s Giles Platt Is Flagler’s Spelling Bee Champ After Conquering ‘Apparatus,’ ‘Vicarious,’ and of Course ‘Acclaim’
It took Indian Trails Middle School eighth grader Giles Platt eight rounds, but he hoisted the 2023-24 Flagler County Spelling Bee Champion’s trophy Thursday evening after spelling apparatus and vicarious correctly. He knew he had it right even before the judges confirmed it, beaming a grin as he repeated the word, then jumping with joy as the audience applauded. Joyce Holmes, an eighth grader at Imagine School at Town Center, is the runner-up.
Moore Overruled Panel to Name Cari McGee, Outspoken Diversity Expert and Advocate, Bunnell Elementary Principal
Superintendent LaShakia Moore’s choice of Cari McGee as Bunnell Elementary’s next principal says as much about Moore’s willingness to buck recommendations and trust her own instinct as it does about McGee, a committed and–like Moore, opinionated and socially conscious–leader who a few years ago signed her name to an open letter condemning “inaction in the face of oppression” and lambasting Nancy Pelosi for using the language of white supremacy.
Flagler Playhouse Season Will Continue at Matanzas’s Pirates Theater as ‘ReBuild’ Kicks Off at Woody’s
The Flagler Playhouse’s shows will go on: the venerable company’s 150-foot theater in downtown Bunnell was demolished two weeks ago, but in a Phoenix-like turn-around, its next three shows will be staged at Matanzas High School’s Pirates Theater, essentially more than salvaging the bulk of the season. The playhouse is launching its “Let’s Kick Off the ReBuild” campaign at Woody’s BBQ Tuesday evening.
At Post-Segregated Assemblies Town Hall, Superintendent Bridges Conversation Beyond Walls and Outrage
Flagler Schools Superintendent LaShakia Moore hosted a town hall at the Carver Center in predominantly Black South Bunnell Wednesday evening in the wake of the segregated assemblies at Bunnell Elementary School. The audience of some 110 and the superintendent engaged in an open conversation about education and community involvement, with only two moments when the assemblies and their aftermath were discussed.
Fractured Leadership: Few Questions Asked, Fewer Concerns Raised Ahead of Segregated Assemblies, Investigation Reveals
Bunnell Elementary school’s leadership environment that enabled a trio of teachers to hold assemblies targeting only Black students last month was disjointed, incurious, careless and oblivious to the optics of segregating Black students in the name of improving test scores, regardless of their academic standing, a pair surprisingly limited and identical internal investigations reveal.
Bunnell Elementary Principal Evensen Resigns, Saying She ‘Certainly’ Does Not Deserve What’s Happening to Her
Donelle Evensen this morning announced her resignation as Bunnell Elementary principal five weeks after being named to the position, and not quite three weeks after being placed on leave following her approval of an assembly where faculty segregated Black students. At no point in either letters does Evensen take responsibility or offer any regret for the tenor of the assembly or the misjudgments that led to it.
‘Horrified’ SURJ Flagler Issues Statement on Bunnell Elementary’s Segregated Assembly
SURJ Flagler is horrified about the devaluation of the African American students, and how they were subjected to a “less than” self-image. Not to be forgotten is the impact of this segregation on the non-black students, where yet another false seed of academic and social superiority has been planted.
Flagler Schools Have a ‘Subgroup’ Problem. It’s Not Blacks. It’s Not Even Students.
It is now so routine to reduce individual students to cogs among subgroups enslaved to the expectations of standardized testing that our educators have lost sight of their purpose. The state’s transformation of education into a dehumanizing machinery is to blame. So is the Flagler County School Board’s emphasis on running the district as a business, and now branding its superintendent a “CEO.” The individuality and dignity of students is lost to a damaging bottom-line mentality.