A day’s frenetic wall-to-wall activity, and one team learns that it didn’t make it to the final round. Taylor Tofal is almost live in Lacrosse, Wis.
Schools
Taylor’s Journal, Day Two:
Catch FlaglerLive on CNN
I’ll be on CNN Newsroom with Fredricka Whitfield during the 3 p.m. hour discussing the oil spill’s impact on local governments, and particular local school districts.
Taylor’s Journal:
FPC’s Problem Solvers in Their Own
World Cup in Wisconsin
FPC’s history-making Community Problem Solvers teams are in their own world finals competition in Wisconsin, June 9-13. Taylor Tofal’s journal gives us an inside look.
Flagler Crowns Its Nascent
Entertainers of the Year
Sophia Paterno Peper is Flagler’s Youth Entertainer of the Year in the junior division, Caitlin Hanna, Zack Harris and Jeff McDevitt took senior honor.
3 From FPC, Representing Florida, Heading for DC’s Kennedy Center Stage
Boyd Fulmer, Caitlin Hannan and Jeff McDevitt join 82 other top students in the National Honor Ensembles for the concert at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Class-Size Limits: How Flagler Schools Are Scrambling to Fit in Costly Strait-Jacket
The Flagler school district will spend upwards of $600,000 (to start) to comply with constitutionally required class-size reductions that have no appreciable effect on quality education.
Tax-Averse Parents Send Per-Student Spending Tumbling in Flagler Schools
Per-student funding has risen and fallen over the year, but today it’s identical to what it was in 1996, even as the student population, academic expectations and administrative burdens have multiplied.
Taxable Property Values Plummet a Record 20%; Dire Numbers for Local Governments
The drop is the steepest of the last three years. Some $5 billion in taxable values have been wiped out since 2007.
Brain Drain: School Board Retires 36 (and 745 Years of Experience)
Some of the school district’s most familiar names took their last bows Tuesday, including Michele Crosby, Hanneke Jevons, Myra Middleton and Rebecca Dunn.
Rachael Kopec Withdraws from School Board Race
Kopec says she was not ready for the glare, the politics and the time commitment away from her family.
FPC Does ESPN: Sports’ Video Year in Review
Three FPC students distilled a year’s worth of 19 school sports into a 30-minute highlight video. Here it is.
Ego and Egoer
Two of Volusia’s giant egos, Daytona State’s Kent Sharples and ICI Homes’ Mori Hosseini, have turned the college board into their own little Khe Sanh. The NJ puts in some worthy war reporting.
Pryor to Class of 2010: “Take Your Chance, Make Your Choice, Make Your Move”
Citing William Jennings Bryan, Robert Frost and David Wilcox, Matanzas High School Principal Chris Pryor mixed anecdotes and metaphor in his last words of advice to the Class of 2010.
Matanzas’ 318 Senior Pirates Sail Past Commencement
A first for hundreds, and end for a few: The 2010 graduation ceremony in St. Augustine was a blend of heat, Frost and overwhelming emotions.
Photo Gallery: Matanzas High School Class of 2010
A 38-image gallery of Matanzas’s third graduating class, with the full David Sequence.
Mentors
Marking successes over struggles, 54 students and 30 mentors were honored at the 3rd annual African American Mentor Program’s banquet Friday.
3rd Grade FCAT Scores Well Above State Average; 11% Fail; Charter School Lags
The district’s overall score dropped 3 points in reading and improved one point in math. Heritage Academy is a drag.
Table: Complete 2010 FCAT Scores By School, Flagler 3rd Graders
School-by-school achievements in math and reading by proficiency level, including 2009 comparisons.
Youth Orchestra’s 200 Take a Bow in Year’s Final Concert
The Flagler Youth Orchestra’s musicians, under the new direction of Caren Umbarger, dedicate the final concert to Superintendent Bill Delbrugge.
FPC Commencement Stirs Tassels and Circumstance at Daytona’s Ocean Center
Anthony DeAugustino, Taylor Tofal and Brandon Dean headline Flagler Palm Coast High School’s Class of 2010’s commencement.
Monique Forte, Rising Star at Stetson’s
Business School, Dies at 43
Monique Forte had just been awarded Stetson’s 2010 McEniry Award for Excellence in Teaching, and skydived with her graduating students. She was 43.
Secret Video Surveillance Around Palm Coast’s Ralph Carter Park
The Sheriff’s Office confirms that secret video surveillance took place around Ralph Carter Park. Fixed surveillance video cameras are on their way.
91% of Flagler High School Seniors Clear FCAT Graduation Hurdle; Most Others Fail Re-Takes
Flagler’s seniors down to their last chance to pass the FCAT before graduation did not do as well as last year’s seniors, although the numbers can be deceiving.
Flagler Schools Bracing for Dismal
Fiscal (and Oil Spill) Impact
Budget shortfalls, new financial burdens and disappearing sources of money are all converging on the Flagler school district at the same time, setting up a potential funding crisis in the next two years.
4-Year, $168,600 Contract for Superintendent Janet Valentine
Janet Valentine will replace Bill Delbrugge on July 1, when Delbrugge heads to a new job and life in Cairo, Egypt.
A Musical Journey in the Key of Kindness
Caren Umbarger, who replaces Jonathan May as the new artistic director of the Flagler Youth Orchestra, relates her musical origins and philosophy.
Caren Umbarger Named Flagler Youth Orchestra’s Artistic Director
Caren Umbarger studied with Jonathan May and brings more than a quarter century of eclectic experience in teaching and performing music.
Photo Gallery: The Flagler Youth Orchestra From May to Umbarger
Images spanning performances and rehearsals of the Flagler Youth Orchestra from Jonathan May to Caren Umbarger, 2009-2010.
All Potatoes All the Time in Bunnell’s Festival
A mashed-potato eating contest and cookoff highlighted Bunnell’s second annual Potato Festival on Saturday.
Stetson University’s Heather Grove a 2010 Udall Scholar
This is the third time in 10 years that a Stetson student has won a prestigious Udall scholarship, named after Morris Udall.
FPC’s Problem Solvers Make History
Flagler Palm Coast High School will send three teams, a national organization record, to the international problem solving competition this summer.
Neo-Nazis in Public Facilities? School Board Workshop on Building Use
Subsequent to the Flagler Tea Party using Palm Coast High School for meetings, the school board today debated revisions to its policy on community use of its buildings. Follow the discussion as it happened.
When God and Politics
Take Over Public School Buildings
The Flagler School Board revisits its policy on community uses of school buildings in light of a growing controversy over Tea Party activists using Flagler Palm Coast High School.
Full Text of Flagler County School Board Policy on Community Uses of School Facilities
Community Use of School Board Facilities: The Flagler County School Board’s Policy 320.
Rental Fees/Costs for Use of Flagler County School Board Facilities
Chart of current rental fees and fee structure for public uses of Flagler County School Board buildings, including schools, cafeterias, playgrounds and other facilities.
Alan Forehand’s Surfing Bravery
At 15, surfer Alan Forehand is already one up on most 15 year olds with a thing for saving lives. Flagler Beach just recognized him for for rescuing a stranded surfer 300 yards off shore on a blustery late-winter day.
When Flagler Schools Booted Out Rosa Parks
As the Flagler School Board revisits its policy on building uses by political groups, churches and community organizations, it may find a former superintendent’s banning of Rosa Parks from Flagler schools instructive.
Conklin’s Latest: Paddy Wagon for Rowdy Kids
School board members were cool to Colleen Conklin idea of a paddy wagon for rowdy riders. They were warmer to her volunteer ride-along idea.
Shellenberger, Steadying Voice for 8 Years, Will Not Run Again for School Board
After eight years on the school board and 41 years in education, Evie Shellenberger, 64, is looking for more leisure and less politics.
Brett Copeland Star Spangles at School Board
Brett Copeland, a senior at Matanzas High School, switched from violin to voice to sing the national anthem at a school board meeting.
Students Fail. Cut Teachers’ Pay. Seriously?
The thinking behind Senate Bill 6 is rooted in the idea that teachers cause students’ success or failure. That’s wrong, argues Dave Riegel, a high school principal.
Benefit Dinner for FPC’s Future Problem Solvers
Flagler Palm Coast High School Future Problem Solvers benefit dinner-fund-raiser scheduled for April 28 at 6 p.m.
Flagler Mayors: You Call That a Transportation System?
A day after a county-wide meeting of government leaders on transportation, Flagler County’s mayors blistered the county’s public transportation system but showed little vision themselves.
Crist Vetoes Senate Bill 6
Teachers are celebrating, but by vetoing SB6, Charlie Crist sent a message to Marco Rubio that the race for US Senate will be played out in the general election.
Blasting SB6: Teacher Rally Photo Gallery
If Gov. Crist had been in Palm Coast the afternoon of April 14, he’d have witnessed enthusiastic, dedicated anger at SB6 from a big segment of the county’s teachers.
Delbrugge on SB6: “Mean-Spirited” and Half-Baked Legislation
The Flagler school superintendent deconstructs the demerits of a proposed law that would, he says, be bad for students and districts alike.
Polk Sheriff Subjects Teen Girls to Rape Exam–After Dates
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd arrested two 18-year-old boys for fondling their 14- and 15-year old dates, and subjected the girls to a rape exam.
Conklin to Crist: Children Are More Than Test Scores
Flagler School Board member Colleen Conklin urges Gov. Charlie Crist to veto Senate Bill 6, which she terms “political” and “inappropriate” for children’s education.
Stolz to Crist: I Am Tired of Teachers
Peter Stolz, a former teacher from Palm Coast, urges Gov. Charlie Crist to sign Senate Bill 6 into law.
James Baldwin: A Talk to Teachers
James Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers” from 1963 is an apt counterpoint to Florida lawmakers’ attempt, in 2010, to demolish public school teachers and replace the profession with Darwinian hostility.
