A committee set up to save Carver Gym from the cleaver isn’t lacking for ideas and objectives, but money and ownership remain the unanswered questions.
Schools
Hometown Democracy and Class-Size Amendments Spark Up Civic Association Forum
The Flagler Palm Coast Civic Association’s forum featured contrasting views on ballot proposals that would affect class sizes, development laws, and two local taxes.
Longer Hours at the Indian Trails Middle School Media Center–and the Kitchen Sisters Club Kicks Off
ITMS Media Center library hours are extended to 3:30p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays for any student with a parent-signed pass. ITMS is also starting a girls-only club called Kitchen Sisters.
School Board Approves $166 Million Budget; Tea Party’s Response Is Mostly Decaffeinated
The school board’s final budget adoption hearing was better attended than most ion previous years; questions and comments didn’t necessarily have much to do with the budget.
Memo To Enterprise Flagler: Why Your Tax Plan Is Fumbling (and What To Do About It)
From its message to its messenger, Enterprise Flagler’s tax-and-build plan is facing obstacles and unanswered questions of its own making. It may be too late to reverse opposition, but not too late to do the right thing.
Launching 6th Season, Flagler Youth Orchestra Calls on All Students 3rd Grade and Up
The Flagler Youth Orchestra begins its sixth season, with an open house at the Indian Trails Middle School cafeteria at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Students 3rd grade and up are welcome.
Mainland High School Coach John Maronto’s Prostitution Arrest: Hold Your Sanctimony
Mainland High School football coach John Maronto, 68, was arrested in a prostitution sting Sept. 4. Hold your sanctimony: wasteful police stings aside, he did nothing wrong.
24 Roses in Red, White and Black for Ray Boylan, Mentor Beyond Call and Color
Ray Boylan, who died on Aug. 26 at age 76, was a hero of the Flagler school district’s African American Mentor Program, and its only white mentor. His widow Gail was honored Saturday.
Campana’s First:
FPC Bulldogs 30, Matanzas Pirates 13
First game of the season, full house, the Bulldogs and the Pirates were in something of a dogfight at first before the Bulldogs asserted themselves in spite of the Pirates’ grit.
Stetson Professor Monique Forte’s Death Attributed to Cocaine Abuse
Stetson Professor Monique Forte, beloved as a friend and mentor, had been battling mounting stress in her work and personal life.
For First Time in Memory, Flagler School Enrollment Stalls; No Budget Cuts Foreseen Yet
The 240 additional students the Flagler school district expected this fall haven’t materialized, resulting in a projected loss of $1.62 million in state funding.
Stetson Scores $610,000 Federal Stimulus Grant to Renovate Labs
Stetson’s grant will renovate its main science building’s labs. The grant is part of $3 billion awarded the National Science Foundation in stimulus dollars in 2009.
Back to School Jam: The Video
Watch the six-minute video of the Aug. 7 Back to School Jam, where some 2,600 backpacks and school supplies were given away.
Pregnant Mothers, Start Your Readers: Dolly’s Imagination Library Crosses Flagler Threshold
Dolly’s Imagination Library will ensure that every child born after Aug. 31 and living in Flagler will get a free book every month until kindergarten. The kick-off event is Sept. 1 at the Flagler County Library.
Rymfire Elem. on Brief Lock-Down As Cops Chase Burglary Suspect Near Ralph Carter Park
Jeremiah Harris, a 20-year-old resident of Bunnell, led deputies on a chase Friday morning following a suspected burglary in the R section.
Primary Turnout Is Worst in at Least 16 Years; Black Voters Shrug Off 3 Black Candidates
Three black candidates running in local elections didn’t get a higher turn-out from heavily black precincts. Whiter, richer precincts turned out at double those rates.
Tucker Wins, Fischer and Sword in Runoff; McLaughlin Beats Abbott; Dwyer and Nowell Out
FlaglerLive will provide updated election results in the 2010 primary in all races relevant to Flagler County voters, including olegislative and statewide races.
School’s Back. So Are Walking Children in a Town Short of Sidewalks. Watch Where You Drive.
Two years ago, 270 children younger than 14 were killed while walking by a road. School’s resumption calls for care, especially in Palm Coast, where sidewalks are lacking.
The Money Race: Five Flagler School Board Candidates Raise a Combined $32,900
District 5 candidate Raven Sword is the fund-raising leader when candidates’ own money is excluded. She also drew the largest number of contributors by far, with 130.
Scoring 7, FPC’s Rowan Littlefield Didn’t Just Conquer the World. He Conquered Pigdom.
Littlefield’s perfect 7 in his IB biology exam, scored on a global standard, marks the first 7 for any Flagler County student in any of the IB’s science disciplines.
The Live Q&A: School Board Candidates In Their Own Words (and Occasional Evasions)
The FlaglerLive Q&A was designed to draw candidates away from campaign generalities and cliches and to compel clearly stated positions on a dozen relevant issues.
Raven Sword, School Board District 5 Candidate: The Live Interview
Raven Sword, an attorney, is running from District 5 with the backing of former school board member Jim Guines.
Peter Peligian, School Board District 5 Candidate: The Live Interview
Peter Peligian, running from District 5, a retailer, cagey on two serious, previous issues, remained cagey in his interview.
John Fischer, School Board District 5 Candidate: The Live Interview (2010)
John Fischer, running from District 5, is a Knights of Columbus field agent whom Evie Schellenberger defeated when he challenger her four years ago.
Trevor Tucker, School Board District 3 Candidate: The Live Interview (2010)
Trevor Tucker is running from District 3 against Marc Ray. Tucker was appointed in January to fill the seat once occupied by the late Peter Palmer.
Marc Ray, School Board District 3 Candidate: The Live Interview
Marc Ray is an executive at the Hammock Dunes Club. He’s challenging incumbent Trevor Tucker.
Bill Delbrugge in Egypt: Beyond the Camel, A Discovery of Challenges and Serenity
In his first interview since leaving Flagler County in July, former Superintendent Bill Delbrugge describes his new old world in Egypt–the challenges, the revelations, the peace of it all.
Florida’s High School Students Near Bottom in College Readiness; Flagler’s Do Worse
The college readiness scores, trending downward for the state and for Flagler, undermine the state’s contention that it is improving education on a nationally competitive level.
McDermott Self-Evaluates After His First School Board Meeting
The Flagler County School Board’s newest student representative reflects on his first evening with the elected, and makes a pitch to fellow-students.
Back from the Brink, Florida Hospital and United Healthcare Reassure Flagler Clients
For people who need to go to the hospital or its affiliates, nothing changes–until the fine print is made clearer: rates are almost certain to increase.
Veteran Problem Solver Ryan McDermott Joins School Board as Student Representative
Never shy, McDermott, a 17-year-old senior at Flagler Palm Coast High School, will represent the district’s 13,000 students on the board.
Stetson University and Flagler College Rank Well, Florida Does Not in Higher Ed Survey
Regional successes aside, Florida’s flagship universities did poorly when ranked against other national public and private universities.
Palm Coast City Manager Jim Landon’s Compensation Package: $218,296 a Year
Jim Landon’s base salary of $168,878 is higher than the total compensation package of the school superintendent, who manages five times as many employees and is responsible for 13,000 students.
“Back 2 School Jam”‘s Free Backpacks, Supplies and Shots Draws Thousands at FPC
In addition to free school supplies, the annual jam provided free bike helmets to those hardy students willing to sit through immunization shots.
Flagler District Scores an A for 3rd Year in a Row as 3 Schools Maintain A, 3 Drop Back
Belle Terre Elementary, Buddy Taylor and Indian Trails middle repeat their A rating. High School scores will be released in late fall.
Laying Off Employees, Palm Coast Is Set to Pay at Least $83,000 for One School Deputy
The school deputy Palm Coast is paying for is a way to get four other extra deputies on Palm Coast’s streets for large portions of the year–at the schools’ expense.
In a Shift, Andy Dance Joins Unanimous Vote for School Tax Referendum in November
Andy Dance’s switch improves the school district’s case for a tax proposal while hurting that of an “economic development” levy.
United Healthcare Pledges 75-Day Extension for Flagler Clients Despite Hospital Dispute
United Healthcare’s pledge lessens thousands of Flagler residents’ anxiety over getting care at Florida Hospital Flagler, but only temporarily.
Merchants of Greed: How Florida Hospital and United Healthcare Bargain Over Your Body
On Aug. 15, half a million central Floridians, and thousands in Flagler County covered by United Healthcare, including children on medicaid, will be denied insured coverage at Florida Hospital’s facilities, including Florida Hospital Flagler.
Where Spin Meets Bull: Florida Hospital’s Lars Houmann on the Dispute With United Healthcare
A three-and-a-half minute video by the Florida Hospital CEO is a window into the company’s deception and disingenuity.
This Year: 5 School Deputies for $300,000; Four Years Ago: 9 Deputies for $222,000
The sheriff has virtually eliminated his department’s share of the cost of keeping deputies in schools, forcing the district to pick up most of the costs.
Free Backpacks and School Supplies, Free Immunization and Bike Helmets. Jam It Up Aug. 7.
The annual Back to School Jam offers 2,600 free backpacks and school supplies to children who need them, at Flagler Palm Coast High School on Saturday, Aug. 7., beginning at 10 a.m.
How Palm Coast Got Tagged in the Jessi Slaughter Cyberbullying Affair
A Florida girls tries out for fame and becomes a poster-child of cyberbullying instead. If her story were a flag on Iwo Jima, it’d be all red.
School Board Candidate Peter Peligian’s Impersonation (and Tax and Claims) Problems
It’s not just that allegedly allegedly used his identity: School board candidate Peter Peligian is not living up to his own claims of transparency and accountability.
After 11 Years and Feeling “Unwelcome,” Boys & Girls Club Is Quitting Carver Gym
A day after securing a least to run its program at Rymfire Elementary, the Boys & Girls Club voted to leave Carver Gym, where it says it’s unwanted and unappreciated.
Andy Dance’s Two Masters: Voting for a Tax at the Chamber, Against One at the School Board
Dance says a perceived conflict between his positions on two tax proposals is unfortunate, but he’s still exploring the school option.
School Board Candidates Tread Gulf Between Ideal and Reality in Chamber Forum
The five candidates fielded relatively straight-forward questions but with key exceptions answered in generalities that revealed more of what they didn’t know than what they did.
Speaking of Sex In (and Out of) Flagler Schools: Butterfly Project Shows Adults How It’s Done
Teens educating teens about sex, the pitfalls of young romance, and the eternity of sexually transmitted diseases, while the school district explores how to go beyond abstinence only.
Party On: District Opens Schools to
Political Events, With Some Limits
The school board’s revised policy on school-building uses means almost any political group is welcome in off hours, as long as the superintendent approves.
Tax-Free Days: Aug. 13-15, But Applicable Items Are Limited
Everything you need to know about the back-to-school tax-free days this year. But don’t expect to get the tax break at Disney.