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Flagler County School Board

Zealotry Takes the Gavel at the Flagler County School Board

November 26, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 38 Comments

flagler school board zealotry

It’s an indication of the Furry-Chong-Hunt majority’s churlishness that the school board member with the most experience, the most education, the most legislative, parliamentary and institutional knowledge by far (Colleen Conklin, who is in her last year), is being passed over as chair on Tuesday for Will Furry, her polar opposite in every respect, and a rookie. 

Jason Wheeler, Calm and Cheery Spokesman in Flagler School District’s Capharnaum, Is Outta Here

November 21, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Always just a tad, just enough off kilter to put a smile on people's faces: Jason Wheeler will be leaving the Flagler County school district after eight years as anchor of its communications department. (© FlaglerLive)

Jason Wheeler, the former television reporter hired eight years ago to build and anchor the Flagler County School district’s communications hub, will be leaving the district at the end of the year for a similar job in the Panhandle. His departure adds to a continuing erosion of veterans with deep institutional knowledge of the district, with a brand new superintendent at the helm.

Flagler School Board’s Will Furry Criticizes District for Following Public Records Law

November 7, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 23 Comments

In a long diatribe at a workshop today, Flagler County School Board member Will Furry repeatedly implied that the district should have redacted an investigative report about a teacher at Buddy Taylor Middle School even if redactions went against the state’s public records law.

When Even Ed Danko Is Right

November 7, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 16 Comments

civility on elected boards

Ed Danko is right to resist Mayor David Alfin’s proposal to have all council members sign “Code of Conduct,” including a pledge of civility. It is not an elected board’s place collectively to regulate or codify its members’ behavior, or government’s place to force pledges of any kind on anyone.

As School Board Risks Wrongful Termination Suit, Value of Attorney’s Contract Is Close to $500,000

November 3, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 32 Comments

Christy Chong, Will Furry and Sally Hunt are the Flagler School Board's firing squad. (© FlaglerLive)

The three-member majority of the Flagler County School Board that wants to fire Attorney Kristy Gavin thinks it can do so at the cost of 14 weeks’ pay. The remaining board members say that risks incurring a wrongful termination lawsuit, with the value of Gavin’s remaining 20 months on her contract nearing half a million dollars, according to an analysis not disclosed until now.

Teachers Union Blisters School Board Over ‘Fiscal Irresponsibility’ and ‘Unjust Actions’ in Attorney’s Pending Firing

November 1, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 21 Comments

Beth Keer, the legal guardian of a student at Matanzas High School and a former human resources director for a national behavioral health organization, addressed the school board at its last meeting on Oct. 26, when it set the parameters of firing School Board attorney Kristy Gavin, without stating just cause. ". This is a high risk termination which could result in a claim of wrongful discharge, which could be in this particular case, I would say, in excess of a $500,000 claim or potentially an EEOC claim," Keer told the board. "It appears to me that it's a desire by some board members to terminate Ms. Gavin's contract not based on facts but rather based on personal agendas." (© FlaglerLive)

In a letter to her membership, Elisabeth Dias, president of the Flagler County Education Foundation, the teachers union, calls attention to what she terms the potential “wrongful termination” without due process of School Board Attorney Kristy Gavin, which would set a precedent and pose “a serious threat to the rights and well-being of our members, as well as the financial stability of our school district.”

School Board Attorney Gavin Fends Off Firing Squad as Superintendent Will Negotiate Possible Transition

October 27, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 20 Comments

Flagler County School Board Attorney Kristy Gavin during Thursday evening's 135-minute meeting about her fate. She was not fired. (© FlaglerLive)

The Flagler County School Board Tuesday evening again stopped short of firing Kristy Gavin, its attorney, after it was sharply cautioned by Superintendent LaShakia Moore against taking such a vote without counsel and risking serious financial consequences. The board voted 4-1 to allow Moore to negotiate moving Gavin to the position of staff attorney, answering to only to Moore.

School Board and Attorney Kristy Gavin Explore ‘Mutual Agreement’ Breakup Ahead of Oct. 26 Decision

October 17, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 19 Comments

Board member Colleen Conklin, second from left, explaining the ramifications of firing Board Attorney Kristy Gavin during a workshop this afternoon, as Gavin sat at her usual desk behind Board Chair Cheryl Massaro. (© FlaglerLive via Flagler Schools)

Stepping back from a brink that had School Board member Sally Hunt ready to make a motion to fire attorney Kristy Gavin this evening, the board and Gavin agreed at a workshop today to what amounts to a pair of mediation sessions, one behind closed doors and one in a public meeting, to explore a severance on mutually agreed terms. The terms are not known, nor is Gavin’s willingness to agree to them.

Superintendent LaShakia Moore’s $175,000 Salary Is Significantly Less Than a Predecessor’s, When Adjusted

October 17, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 11 Comments

LaShakia Moore at a recent School Board meeting. Starting tonight the "interim" part of her superintendent title will be eliminated. (© FlaglerLive)

The four-year contract with Superintendent LaShakia Moore the Flagler County School Board is ratifying tonight calls for less compensation than that awarded the two other executive of the county’s largest governments, even though Flagler schools have more employees than both combined, and it is less, in adjusted numbers, than the starting pay of Bill Delbrugge, who in 2005 became superintendent, like Moore, without previous such experience.

Matanzas Brawl Was Long Simmering: Parents Had Alerted the School and Sought Mediation, To No Avail

October 16, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 52 Comments

Parents of Matanzas High School students who face charges and were disciplined over a brawl last week say they had attempted to address the situation in the run-up to the brawl, but they say Kristin Bozeman, left, the principal, was unaware of the situation until it occurred, while Assistant Principal Fred Terry, right, would not allow mediation between parents. (© FlaglerLive)

The Matanzas High School brawl last week did not occur out of nowhere. According to eight of the parents involved, several of them had been warning the school administration of problems well before, asking for a series of measures, all neglected or turned down outright by the administration, to an apparently unaware principal, Kristin Bozeman, who would tell several of the parents that she was unaware of the issues until the day of the brawl.

School Board Members’ Questions to Outside Counsel Reveal Worry of Lawsuit If They Fire Their Attorney

October 10, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 17 Comments

Looking for a clue: Flagler County School Board members Christy Chong, Will Furry and Sally Hunt--first three from right--are looking to push out Board Attorney Kristy Gavin. (© FlaglerLive)

Three Flagler County School Board members have submitted nine questions to two attorneys the board hired for at least $5,000 to examine how it could fire Board Attorney Kristy Gavin without getting sued. The board members wrote the questions and circulated them outside of a public meeting. The questions had not been disclosed publicly until this article.

With District Financial Procedures Ensnarled, School Board Pursues Firing Attorney, But With a Lifeline

October 5, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 11 Comments

It's been a year of face-palms. (© FlaglerLive)

The board’s discussion took an unexpected turn as the possibility of saving Kristy Gavin’s job in a different capacity–she would answer to the superintendent as a staff attorney–gelled around a consensus that perhaps reflects the board’s leeriness at fostering either more controversy or more difficulties for its new superintendent, who already relies a great deal on Gavin and her unparalleled institutional history. 

With $719,000 Almost Certainly Lost to Fraud, School District Turns to Insurance in Hopes for Recovery

October 4, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 30 Comments

The Flagler County Sheriff's Office made public a heavily redacted incident report on the school district's fraud case today. (© FlaglerLive)

Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly this afternoon confirmed that the amount of money the Flagler County school district lost in a wire-transfer phishing scheme is $719,583, but that “it’s close to 100 percent long gone.” The district made the payment on Sept. 22. Its fraudulent nature was not detected until Tuesday morning–11 days later, an eternity of comfort for phishing scams to evade controls and make it out of the country.

Flagler School District Loses ‘Significant Amount of Money’ in Apparent Phishing Scheme Involving Vendor

October 3, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 18 Comments

School Board Attorney Kristy Gavin's desk was conspicuously empty during today's three-hour workshop: she was investigating a case of potential fraud involving the district's accounts. (© FlaglerLive via Flagler Schools)

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a case of fraud, or phishing, targeting the Flagler County school district and one of its vendors. The district may have lost as much as $700,000 intended for one of the contractors building the Matanzas High School addition. If it is a case of phishing, the likelihood of recovering the money is not high, especially since the district may not have been timely either in discovering the fraud or in reporting it.

Here Are the 3 Lawsuits Against the District the School Board Will Discuss Behind Closed Doors Tuesday

October 2, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Tuesday's closed-door meeting was initially requested by school board members, contrary to state law, which authorizes only the school board attorney to call such "shade" meetings. (Marcus Wallis on Unsplash)

When the Flagler County School Board meets behind closed doors early Tuesday afternoon, a meeting that may at least in part be in violation of state law, it will discuss three pending lawsuits against the district, and potential settlements in two of them, including an employment discrimination lawsuit scheduled for trial in federal court in December.

Flagler School Board Wants ‘Standing’ Closed-Door Meetings Every 3 Months. That Would Be Illegal.

October 2, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

School Board members Will Furry, Christy Chong and Sally Hunt have been on the board for less than a year. Their grasp of sunshine is tenuous. (© FlaglerLive via Flagler Schools TV)

The Flagler County School Board directed its attorney to schedule “standing” closed-door meetings every three months to get updates on litigation facing the district. Such meetings would be illegal, as was the board assuming the authority to set such meetings, according to Florida law and a veteran local government attorney.

Sally Hunt Raises Questions About Using Schools as Shelters During Hurricane Emergencies

September 29, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 53 Comments

sally hunt shelters

Flagler County School Board member Sally Hunt questioned whether district schools should continue to be used as shelters during tropical storm emergencies, and whether the district could go to late starts rather than cancel whole days of school. Officials explained to Hunt that schools are an integral part of emergency management, with closures are carefully calibrated between potential risk and the safety of students and staff.

Bible Challenge in Flagler Schools Unravels Inconsistencies, Arbitrariness and Confusion in Review Process

September 29, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 33 Comments

LaShakia Moore, then in her role as assistant superintendent, eplaining to volunteers the district's book-challenge reviewing process--a process the district is not following with a challenge filed regarding the Bible. (© FlaglerLive)

A challenge of the Bible’s presence in some of Flagler County’s public school libraries is unraveling the inconsistencies, contradictions, flaws, and arbitrariness of Flagler County’s book-challenge process. The challenge, filed by Palm Coast resident Bob Gordon, cites 67 passages he claims are sexually explicit, sadistic, graphically violent and bigoted.

At Post-Segregated Assemblies Town Hall, Superintendent Bridges Conversation Beyond Walls and Outrage

September 28, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

Superintendent LaShakia Moore addressing the Carver Center audience Wednesday evening. (© FlaglerLive)

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.

Contrasting with Depa Case, Judge Dismisses Charge Against Autistic Female Who’d Assaulted Teacher at Matanzas

September 27, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 19 Comments

Reba Johnson in court today, moments before the felony case against her was dismissed. (© FlaglerLive via zoom)

A felony assault charge against Reba Johnson, now 20, an autistic student who had attacked her teacher at Matanzas High School, was dropped today after she was continuously found incompetent to stand trial,. It’s a sharp contrast with the ongoing charge against Brendan Depa, who faces a more severe felony charge after he attacked a paraprofessional last February, though Depa’s and Johnson’s profiles parallel each other in many, but not all, respects.

School Board Trio Will Hire an Attorney to Help Them Fire Board’s Attorney of 17 Years

September 19, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 39 Comments

gavin firing

The Flagler County School Board has assigned fellow-board member Will Furry to hire a labor attorney–at the district’s expense–who will then shepherd them through firing Kristy Gavin, the board’s attorney, without risking a lawsuit. Board members Sally Hunt and Christy Chong pushed the idea of outside counsel. Board Chair Cheryl Massaro joined them in assigning Furry.

Fractured Leadership: Few Questions Asked, Fewer Concerns Raised Ahead of Segregated Assemblies, Investigation Reveals

September 18, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 11 Comments

A failure and fracture of leadership at Bunnell Elementary appears to have enabled what turned into segregated assemblies for Black students. (© FlaglerLive)

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.

Even A Great Superintendent Can’t Fix a Clueless School Board

September 8, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 34 Comments

Clueless, the sequel. (© FlaglerLive)

If you think the appointment of LaShakia Moore as superintendent will make a difference, think again. Moore’s biggest job will be to run interference to save what’s left of this district from the Huns, because the problem was never with the administration or the ranks. It’s with the majority of a board that doesn’t know its role, doesn’t know its limits, and doesn’t know education from flip-flops. 

Bunnell Elementary Principal Evensen Resigns, Saying She ‘Certainly’ Does Not Deserve What’s Happening to Her

September 7, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 28 Comments

Donelle Evensen's portrait and recognition plaque, second from left, as the reigning assistant principal of the year, on the district's Wall of Fame outside the superintendent's suite at the Government Services Building. (© FlaglerLive)

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.

Flagler School Board’s Sally Hunt Hijacks New Superintendent’s Triumph with a Hit List of Resentments

September 6, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 21 Comments

Flagler County School Board member Sally Hunt's anger creased into the second half of what should have been a celebratory meeting of the board Tuesday. (© FlaglerLive)

The highlight at Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Flagler County School Board should have been the triumphal appointment of LaShakia Moore as superintendent, a rare unifying moment for an often divided school board. It was briefly all that, until School Board member Sally Hunt hijacked the occasion with what amounted to a hit list for coming meetings: School Board attorney Kristy Gavin. School Board Chair Cheryl Massaro. The school board’s own conduct. “Bullies.” “The media.”

LaShakia Moore Appointed Superintendent in Historic Vote, But Occasion Is Marred by Grievances

September 5, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 31 Comments

Board Chair Cheryl Massaro congratulates Superintendent LaShakia Moore on her appointment, though the occasion was marred somewhat when Board Attorney Kristy Gavin's future was put in question by Board member Sally Hunt. (© FlaglerLive)

The Flagler County School Board this evening voted unanimously to appoint LaShakia Moore superintendent, eliminating the “interim” part of the title she had held since July 1 and making her the first Black superintendent in the county’s history. But it wasn’t entirely a joyful occasion.

In Commanding Control of Her Interview and the Board, LaShakia Moore Appears Poised to Be Voted Superintendent

September 5, 2023 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

LaShakia Moore spoke with supreme confidence and ease during her 90-minute interview with the Flagler County School Board this morning. (© FlaglerLive via screenshot from Flagler Schools TV)

LaShakia Moore this morning was fully in control of a Flagler County School Board that has often been unmoored and adrift for much of the past year as she parried questions and asserted how she would handle her first hundred days as superintendent, if the board were to appoint her into that role this evening. There seems to be little doubt that this evening’s vote will be anticlimactic, and that come 5:15 p.m., Moore will be voted the new, permanent superintendent.

School Board May Vote On Making LaShakia Moore Permanent Superintendent (or Not) on Tuesday

September 1, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

Interim Superintendent LaShakia Moore. (© FlaglerLive)

Unscheduled (and illegal) huddles aside, the Flagler County School Board is holding four separate meetings Tuesday, the last one at 5:15 p.m., where one of the agenda items is a potential vote on ending the search for a new superintendent and permanently appointing LaShakia Moore to the position.

Sally Hunt Wanted to Censure School Board Chair For Going Off Script in Talk Over Segregated Assembly

September 1, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 17 Comments

Sally Hunt. (© FlaglerLive)

Flagler County School Board Chair Cheryl Massaro said fellow Board member Sally Hunt considered calling for a vote of censure against her because Massaro did not stick to a script provided her before last week’s press conference denouncing Bunnell Elementary’s segregated assembly days earlier.

Flagler Schools Have a ‘Subgroup’ Problem. It’s Not Blacks. It’s Not Even Students.

August 25, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 37 Comments

flagler schools subgroup problem

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.

Deep Disagreements Remain Between School District and Cities and Builders Over Enrollment and Impact Fee Dues

August 25, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

William Whitson, the district's intergovernmental planner

Are Flagler County’s public schools adding students? Will the district need to build new schools? Should it be drawing money from developers today even though it has no certain plans to build schools yet? Those questions were asked and answered with varying degrees of certainty and a lot more disagreements on Thursday in the latest meeting of a joint committee of local government representatives in charge of reviewing how much money developers are required to pay to defray the cost of new school construction. 

Flagler School Board Members Meet Behind Closed Doors to ‘Debrief’ Until Attorney Breaks Them Up

August 24, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 26 Comments

The School Board huddling in the superintnedent's office after her press conference this morning. Clockwise from left, Cheryl Massaro, the board chair, Colleen Coklin, Moore, Will Furry and Christy Chong. (© FlaglerLive)

All five Flagler County School Board members met behind a closed door after a press conference this morning, until the school board attorney, who had been unaware of the meeting, broke them up. One of the board member insists no business before the board was discussed, and that the meeting was intended only to tell the superintendent she had done a good job at the press conference.

School Officials Forcefully Denounce ‘Segregation’ Assembly But Steps Ahead Are Vague Beyond ‘Conversations’

August 24, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

Interim Superintendent LaShakia Moore has taken a commanding role in her response to the segregation assembly at Bunnell Elementary last week. She was flanked by the entire membership of the school board at a news conference this morning, with Chair Cheryl Massaro and Collen Conklin, above. (© FlaglerLive)

The denunciations were forceful and Interim Superintendent LaShakia Moore’s air of command over the most serious crisis of her tenure as interim was evident at a press conference this morning. But the steps ahead, beyond community meetings, more encounters with parents and students, and talk of “professional learning” with school employees, are far less clear even as the district positions itself against potential litigation.

Bunnell Principal Donelle Evensen on Administrative Leave as District Faces Fallout of Segregated Assembly

August 24, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 16 Comments

Donelle Evensen, the principal at Bunnell Elementary School for mere weeks, was placed on paid administrative leave today, and Superintendent LaShakia Moore asked that a three-hour board workshop scheduled for today, where she was to be interviewed for the permanent job, be postponed.

Superintendent Lashakia Moore Issues Stronger Apology Over Bunnell Elementary’s Segregationist Assembly

August 23, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 19 Comments

Interim Superintendent LaShakia Moore delivering her statement today, the second in 24 hours.

Contrary to her written statement on Tuesday, today’s video statement by LaShakia Moore on the segregating of Black students in an assembly at Bunnell Elementary last week was more forceful, more clearly recognizing the breadth of the problem–as her statement on Tuesday had not–and twice included an explicit apology.

School Board Will Hold 3-Hour Interview of LaShakia Moore for Superintendent, But Hopes You Won’t Attend

August 23, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

Some of the school board members like "back room" meetings more than others. (© FlaglerLive)

The Flagler County School Board is holding one of its most important public meetings of the year Thursday, between 9 a.m. and noon. Misleadingly referring to it as a “retreat,” the board will hold an extended interview with Interim Superintendent LaShakia Moore to determine whether it should end its search for a permanent superintendent and appoint Moore in September. Some members of the School Board would rather you did not know about the meeting, and did not attend.

Black Students at Bunnell Elementary Are Told Of ‘Early Grave’ If They ‘Clown’ Around and Don’t Perform

August 21, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 73 Comments

Bunnell Elementary's Black 4th and 5th graders on Friday were singled out in two assembles, told that if they didn't bring up their test scores, they could end up in jail, shot or dead, they were paired off to compete academically against each other, and the winners would get McDonald's and Chick-fil-A. Parents were never told. Donelle Evensen, the principal at Bunnell Elementary, posted the above picture on her Twitter (or X) feed the morning of Aug. 18, with the message: "Thank you to Mr. Hines, Ms. Steed, Mr. Gabriel for loving our students and challenging them to be their best self!!" The screen shows the bracketed competition that was to pair off students against each other.

Bunnell Elementary’s Black 4th and 5th graders on Friday were singled out in two assembles, told that if they didn’t bring up their test scores, they could end up in jail, shot or dead, they were paired off to compete academically against each other, and the winners would get McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A. Their parents were never told. Parents are outraged. The superintendent acknowledges that while raising test scores is essential, the situation was mishandled.

Flagler School Board Suspends Search and Prepares to Hire LaShakia Moore as Permanent Superintendent

August 15, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 18 Comments

Interim Superintendent LShakia Moore diring the school board's discussion about her future as a permanent superintendent this afternoon during a workshop. (© FlaglerLive via Flagler Schools TV)

The Flagler County School Board this afternoon agreed to suspend its search for a new superintendent and instead set in motion several steps that would lead to the appointment of Interim LaShakia Moore as the permanent district superintendent come September or October. 

33% Increase in Flagler’s Population, 0% Increase in District’s 9 Public Schools’ Enrollment Over Past 17 Years

August 14, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

Still flat but for online's uptick: Flagler County Schools' enrollment since 2000. (© FlaglerLive)

Flagler County schools’ nine traditional campuses are again enrolling almost as many students as they did last year, and as many as they have each year for the past 17 years, as charter, private, parochial, online and home school enrollment continues to encroach on the district’s numbers. The figures have big implications for funding, school impact fees and school construction.

School District’s Cost for Security at Alternative School with 2 Teachers and 25 Students: $142,500

August 11, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

A Flagler County Sheriff's deputy at a protest outside the Government Services Building before a School Board meeting two years ago. It's been a bit calmer since. (© FlaglerLive)

The Flagler County school district is paying $142,500 a year for security at its relatively new alternative school on the campus of Flagler Palm Coast High School–an alternative school with just two teachers and an average of 20 students per quarter, some of them virtual, and that operates only four days a week.

Flagler Schools Drop AP Psychology as State Sends Conflicted Signals Over Gender and Sexuality Unit

August 10, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah, would “preempt” regulation of vacation rentals, including licensing and inspection, to the state.

In Flagler County, where students returned to school today, AP Psychology, one of the more popular courses in Flagler Palm Coast High School’s accelerated curriculum, will no longer be taught. Students have been automatically shifted to the IB course in a pre-emptive move against the state’s conflicting messages about whether the AP course was legal to teach in its entirety of not, and a local school board with members eager to fuel the state’s culture wars.

At Budget Hearing, School Board’s Sally Hunt Reveals Alarming Ignorance of Tax Structure and State Funding

August 2, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 23 Comments

Sally Hunt is confused. (© FlaglerLive via Flagler TV)

As she revealed at a budget meeting Tuesday evening, just before voting on what she did not know, Sally Hunt does not know how the school district’s budget is funded by a state formula. She does not know how the millage, or property tax, is set. She does not know whether to cheer or jeer lower school property taxes, even coming off a budget briefing on July 24, when she voted to approve advertising the budget.

Next Flagler School Superintendent’s Salary May Be As High as $200,000, a 48% Jump in Last 3 Years

August 1, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 25 Comments

Acting Superintendent LaShakia Moore, left, at today's workshop of the Flagler County School Board. Board attorney Kristy Gavin walked the board through its next steps in its search for a new superintendent, including salary ranges and job description. (© FlaglerLive via Flagler Schools)

Barely three years ago, the Flagler County School Board hired Cathy Mittelstadt as its superintendent on a base salary of $135,000. The next superintendent may earn as much as $200,000. Flagler School Board member Sally Hunt wanted to go as high as $215,000, though the average salary in Florida is $174,000, and Flagler County is among the state’s smaller districts.

Donelle Evensen Is Bunnell Elementary’s New Principal as Sanfilippo Moves to District Job

July 28, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

Donelle Evensen is the reigning Assistant principal of the Year in Flagler schools. (Flagler Schools)

Interim Superintendent LaShakia Moore is appointing Donelle Evensen, the current Assistant Principal of the Year for Flagler Schools, as Bunnell Elementary’s next principal, replacing Marcus Sanfilippo, who moves to the district office.

Will Furry’s Rate Plan for Belle Terre Swim Club Is ‘Ludicrous’ and Disconnected from Reality

July 24, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 19 Comments

School Board member Will Furry is demanding a new rate structure for Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club that is based on "personal belief unmoored to any study or research," the author argues. (© FlaglerLive)

School Board member Will Furry is demanding a new rate structure for Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club that is based on “personal belief unmoored to any study or research,” Doug Courtney, who leads the club’s advisory board, argues. The rates would increase sharply, and be split into tiers. The board is voting on the new rates Tuesday evening.

Florida’s Magical Negro History Standards

July 21, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 49 Comments

"America," by Edward William Clay (1841), shows an idealized portrayal of American slavery and the conditions of blacks under this system in 1841

We now have the Magical Negro elevated to an entire curriculum. It’s Florida’s African American History standards. The standards are an excellent illustration of what American history looks like through white eyes, and how whites are the best thing that ever happened to Black people, who apparently should worship the Middle Passage down the chains of their ancestry. 

State Approves Florida’s New Version of Black History Standards as Teachers Blister Half-Truths and Errors

July 19, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 27 Comments

victims

Students at Florida public schools will now learn that Black people benefitted from slavery because it taught them skills. This change is part of the African American history standards the State Board of Education approved at a Wednesday meeting.

As Fleet Ages, Flagler Schools Looks to Finance Purchase of 16 New Buses, With Interest

July 17, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 14 Comments

One of Flagler schools' very old buses. (© FlaglerLive)

The district has cleared the way for its financial adviser to prepare a request for proposal that would seek bankers’ offers to finance what would amount to a $2.6 or $2.8 million purchase of 16 buses that would be delivered during the 2024-25 school year. That would replace 16 buses that are today 15 years old.

District ‘Playing Games’ With Belle Terre Swim Club Books, Hurting Revenue Picture

July 12, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 9 Comments

belle terre club

Flagler County School Board member Colleen Conklin is objecting to the way the district is accounting for the Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club’s revenue numbers and pointing to a shell game that has made the club’s balance sheet look much worse than it is.

District Looks to Get Past Turmoil at Wadsworth Elementary with Amy Neuenfeldt as New Principal

July 7, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Amy Neuenfeldt, a former assistant principal of the year, is the new principal at Wadsworth Elementary. (Flagler Schools)

A month after the termination of Paul Peacock’s principalship at Wadsworth Elementary School, Interim Superintendent LaShakia Moore today appointed a new principal for Wadsworth, the third in as many years: Amy Neuenfeldt, the county’s 2021 assistant principal of the year.

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