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.
Flagler County School Board
Sally Hunt Is Right: Security Isn’t What It Should Be in Flagler’s Biggest Public Building
Flagler County School Board member Sally Hunt is right when she deems certain public meetings less than secure. The county and the school board need to to take their own and the public’s safety more seriously in the Government Services Building–the county seat–not with harebrained ideas like locking public meetings’ doors, but with reasonable, inexpensive and unintrusive measures such as metal detectors that are becoming standard in public buildings.
Superintendent ‘Would Be Surprised or Shocked’ By County’s Move Away from School Deputy Support
Dampening the county’s hopes to reduce the $1 million it contributes to the School Board to pay for sheriff’s deputies in every school–and more in other “legacy” contributions, as the county calls them–Flagler Schools Superintendent LaShakia Moore says she does not see how the community would accept a retreat from the combined commitment by the School Board and the County Commission.
Census Bureau: Flagler County’s Population Was 131,500 Last July, an Increase of 16,000 in Three Years
Flagler County is again among the faster-growing counties in the nation, but not among the fastest. The county added 16,000 residents between 2020 and 2023, a 14 percent increase beginning to resemble the population surge of the early 2000s that was halted by the housing crash. Put another way: the county has grown by a population equivalent to more than three times the size of Flagler Beach in that brief span. Just since 2010, the county has grown by 40,000 people.
As DeSantis Crows, Opponents of ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Law Say Settlement Rectifies Some of the Damage
Gov. Ron DeSantis was quick out the door with a claim that a settlement in a legal challenge to his Parental Rights in Education Act— or Don’t Say Gay — vindicated his efforts “to keep radical gender and sexual ideology out of the classrooms of public-school children.” In fact, the settlement agreement’s terms also limit enforcement of that law which the governor pushed through the Legislature two years ago to bar public school instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity.
‘Reading Is My Passion’ Sums Up Read Across Flagler Literacy Celebration Bookmarked by Media Specialists
Read Across Flagler Literacy Night at Palm Coast’s Town Center was as much a celebration of reading as it was of the school district’s media specialists who, pound for pound, have been the single-most besieged group of professionals in the district in the last couple of years of book bans, disrespect and ignorant rhetoric from the very school board members who should be championing them.
Palm Coast Opts for St. Augustine’s Douglas Law Firm as Replacement for City Attorney, at $30,000 a Month
Its 17-year relationship with the same law firm ending, not of its own choice, the Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday unanimously opted to negotiate a contract with the Douglas Law Firm of St. Augustine, a 12-attorney firm established 10 years ago, with offices in several northeast Florida counties but just now expanding to Flagler Beach. Douglas is proposing a $30,000-a-month fee, or 120 hours of work at $250 an hour. Extra hours are billed additionally.
Sally Hunt and Christy Chong Suggest Locking School Board Meeting Doors for Security and ‘Buzzing’ In People
Sally Hunt made her evasive comment during a workshop after Board member Cheryl Massaro proposed that the board reevaluate the need for a $48-an-hour school resource deputy at each of its workshops. Hunt and Board member Christy Chong suggested locking the board room door during meetings, until they were told the meetings had to be kept accessible to the public at all times.
Palm Coast Searches for Its New Attorney In the Open. School Board Chooses Secrecy.
The Palm Coast City Council and the Flagler County School Board are searching for new attorneys to represent them in two very different ways. The council is conducting its search entirely in the open, ensuring that all related documents are public, providing them on request, and interviewing the firms in open forum. The school board, in contrast with its own precedents and with all other local governments, possibly in violation of law, is not.
Andy Dance Responds: ‘School Resource Deputies Are Not Leaving School Campuses.’
In a detailed response to FlaglerLive reporting and an opinion piece on the county’s plan to “defund” its portion of school sheriff’s deputies, County Commission Chair Andy Dance refutes the claim as inflammatory and out of context, and lays out a history of county attempts going back to 2022 to initiate a conversation about school and county funding for school deputies, in hopes of realigning those responsibilities. If that proves unfeasible, Dance pledges, than the shared responsibility will continue.