New College of Florida officials on Thursday interviewed three final candidates vying to become the school’s next permanent president, including current Interim President Richard Corcoran. The trustees also interviewed Tyler Fisher, an associate professor of modern languages and literature and a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Central Florida, and Robert Gervasi, a former interim president at the University of Mount Union in Ohio.
Schools
Flagler Schools Drop AP Psychology as State Sends Conflicted Signals Over Gender and Sexuality Unit
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.
Flagler County Fire Rescue Paramedics Teach FPC Football Players Hands-Only CPR
Flagler-Palm Coast High School Football Head Coach Daniel Fish and Assistant Coach Jason Winkler invited Flagler County Fire Rescue Community Paramedics Rob Errett and Tracy Farmer to teach their players hands-only CPR, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, because of recent incidents involving college athletes.
Education Officials Want Lawsuit Over Gay Penguins Book Tossed Out, Claiming It’s Moot. Litigants Disagree.
“And Tango makes Three” had been banned for students up to third grade by Lake County schools, then allowed in libraries. It tells the story of two male penguins who raised a penguin chick at New York’s Central Park Zoo. In a filing last month seeking a preliminary injunction, attorneys for the plaintiffs disputed that the case is moot. They argued, in part, that the district could reverse course again and restrict access to the book in libraries.
FPC Senior and Rymfire Club Staffer Jill Prime Set for Her 1st Solo Flight
Jill, a senior at Flagler Palm Coast High School, has been an inspiration for her peers and community as she actively shares her dreams and enthusiasm at the Rymfire Club. Jill is set to embark on a solo flight for the local community to witness.
Such, Such Were the Joys of Plantations in DeSantis’s History of Florida
Gov. DeSantis and his crack education team are all about facts. In his Florida history version of plantation life, enslaved persons were treated like family, they learned invaluable skills, like cooking, and learned to make quality footwear. When you think about it, plantations should really be called “agricultural opportunity centers.”
At Budget Hearing, School Board’s Sally Hunt Reveals Alarming Ignorance of Tax Structure and State Funding
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
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.
Why Are Florida Republicans So Scared of Higher Education?
Florida Republicans are scared of higher education. Colleges. Universities. Known hotbeds of wokery, Marxism, and foreign languages, they should instead focus on the one thing that matters to real Americans: training future cogs in the uber-capitalist machine and sports.
Joe Avallone Takes the Reins as Head Coach of Daytona State College’s Men’s Soccer Team
In his three years as Daytona State’s men’s soccer assistant coach, Joe Avallone helped take the Falcons to three conference titles, three Southeast District titles and three trips to the NJCAA nationals. Named head coach following Bart Sasnett’s departure, Avallone says he’ll use his 30+ years of experience as a player and coach to build on that winning formula.
Donelle Evensen Is Bunnell Elementary’s New Principal as Sanfilippo Moves to District Job
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.
Brain Drain at New College? DeSantis Is ‘Good With That’
New College has been filling positions that account for nearly a third of the school’s faculty. DeSantis appointed a slate of conservative members to the school’s Board of Trustees early this year.
DeSantis ‘War on Woke’ Mirrors Whitewashing of History in Other Countries
Florida’s new law forbidding the teaching of systemic racism is the most extreme example in a series of recent U.S. state bills that critics call “educational gag orders.” The tactics that Gov. Ron DeSantis is using to censor the teaching of American history in Florida look a lot like those seen in the illiberal democracies of Israel, Turkey, Russia and Poland.
Texas University Suspends Professor Accused of Criticizing Lt. Governor in Lecture on Opioids
The professor, Joy Alonzo, an expert on the opioids crisis, was placed on paid administrative leave and investigated, raising questions about the extent of political interference in higher education, particularly in health-related matters.
District Breaks Ground on Two-Year, $22.6 Million Matanzas High School Expansion
The $22.6 million project is the largest on a Flagler school campus in a decade and a half, adding 20,000 square feet, including classrooms, and renovating 11,000 square feet over the next two years.
Will Furry’s Rate Plan for Belle Terre Swim Club Is ‘Ludicrous’ and Disconnected from Reality
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
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
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.
Stetson University Again Selected for Fiske Guide to Colleges 2024
The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2024, now in its 40th year, selects more than 320 colleges as the “best and most interesting” among the country’s 2,300 institutions. The bestselling guide bills itself as the “most authoritative source of information” for college-bound students and their parents.
As Fleet Ages, Flagler Schools Looks to Finance Purchase of 16 New Buses, With Interest
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.
End Legacy Admissions
Who will benefit from the Supreme Court’s recent ruling striking down race as a factor in college admissions? Mostly, just wealthy white people. That’s because the ruling refused to touch so-called “legacy admissions.” Colleges are free to continue giving preferential treatment to the children of alumni, donors, and other well-connected, privileged people.
District ‘Playing Games’ With Belle Terre Swim Club Books, Hurting Revenue Picture
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.
Flagler County Library’s Budget, Hours and Staffing Shrunk as Population Increased 25%
Flagler County’s population has increased 25 percent since 2010, but the budget of the county library has shrunk 3 percent when adjusted for inflation, the library’s hours have been cut, it’s lost staffing and its materials budget has declined.
District Looks to Get Past Turmoil at Wadsworth Elementary with Amy Neuenfeldt as New Principal
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.
Florida’s New College Board Seeks $2 Million to Counter ‘Cancel Culture’
The New College of Florida Board of Trustees on Thursday moved forward with a plan to request $2 million in funding from the state Legislature to set up a “Freedom Institute” aimed at combating “cancel culture” in higher education. The bulk of the $2 million request would go toward hiring “scholars to work and teach” on the New College campus.
We’re the Mommies for Liberty, and the Future Belongs to Us
I am a Mommy. A Mommy for Liberty. I will use my personal liberty to shield my precious children (and yours) from gays. And history. And Black people. And sex.
Ms. Cheryl: Why I Am Leaving the Flagler Youth Orchestra
“As of today I am no longer the director of the Flagler Youth Orchestra,” writes Cheryl Tristam, ending an 18-year relationship with the school district program she led since 2005. “It isn’t what I wanted to do. But the conduct of some of our school board members toward me personally and toward the program leaves me no choice.”
Flagler and Palm Coast July 4 Holiday Schedules, Travel and Safety Advisories
Independence Day this year falls on a Tuesday, slicing through the earlier part of the week and creating a checkerboard of work schedules and closed offices. The one constant are safety and travel advisories. Here’s a run-down.
Shocking Disparities in Flagler’s Handling of 3 Different Assaults by Disabled Students Against School Staff
Violent assaults against school staff involving profoundly disabled students, never before reported in detail until today–and not caught on surveillance video–point to startling if not shocking disparities in how cases may be handled, compared to that of Brendan Depa at Matanzas High School, depending on the attention they garner.
Flagler Schools’ Bob Nocella Dies at 72
Flagler Schools mourns the loss of educator and coach Robert A. “Bob” Nocella who passed away June 25, 2023. He was 72.
Un-Achieving Brown v. Board of Education
It took 69 years, but today the U.S. Supreme Court took its revenge on Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that cracked the door a smidge to desegregating schools. It did so in a vengeful, cynical decision re-inventing color-blindness in an America where only whites wear the blinders.
Obama-Era Plan Allows Flagler Schools to Provide Free Lunches For All Students Starting in August
In what may be a game-changer for many food-insecure families, an Obama-era child-nutrition program expanding under Biden will allow Flagler County Schools to provide free lunches in addition to the existing free breakfasts to all students, regardless of income, year-round at all nine traditional public schools starting on Aug. 10, when classes resume.
Brendan Depa’s Mother Tells Her Son’s Story
Brendan Depa, a 17-year-old severely autistic student, attacked his paraprofessional, Joan Naydich, at Matanzas High School in February, and faces a first degree felony charge as an adult. His mother, Leanne Depa, speaks for the first time, detailing Brendan’s personal and medical history and his almost intractable challenges that pre-dated the horrific incident.
School Vouchers, Teaching Muzzles, Diversity Bans, Looser Guns: 200 New Laws Take Effect Saturday
More than 200 laws passed during the 2023 legislative session, including a record $116.5 billion budget, will take effect Saturday, including a massive expansion of public money available for private schooling, permitless gun-carrying, and more restrictions or bans on what teachers may say or teach.
Investigation of Ex-Wadsworth Principal Peacock Finds ‘Pattern of Misrepresenting Facts and Disregard Truth’
An independent investigation found former Wadsworth Elementary Principal Paul Peacock in violation of the district’s policy forbidding bullying and harassment and its ethics policy, as well as in violation of various sections of the state’s Principles of Professional Conduct and the Florida Educational Leadership Standards.
Day Fees Waived All Weekend at Belle Terre Swim Club in Push For New Members
The Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club is hosting its summer open house weekend Saturday and Sunday, June 24-25, waiving its daily admission fees to all pool users and offering free food as the School Board continues to wrangle over how to make the club a viable operation, at least through next year.
Flagler School Board Rejects Arming Employees in 3-2 Vote, Citing Too Many Doubts for Now
The Flagler County School Board this evening rejected on a 3-2 vote a proposal to arm some school employees on the unfounded assumption that it would improve security. The vote ends a year-long discussion about the so-called “guardian program,” as a majority of board members still had too many questions, doubts, and lacking buy-in from school staff.
Flagler School Board Cocks Its Next Folly: Arming Employees
Next Tuesday, the Flagler County School Board will vote on whether to arm some school employees. The board will vote yes, on zero evidence and without asking any of the right questions, because as is becoming routine with this board, when it is offered a chance between right and wrong, it chooses wrong.
Despite Severe Autism, Judge Finds Depa, Ex-Matanzas High Student, Competent to Be Tried for Assault on Aide
Circuit Judge Terence Perkins today found Brendan Depa, the 17-year-old former Matanzas High School student accused of assaulting a teacher aide in February, competent to stand trial.
Indian Trails Middle School Teacher Suing District Has a New Attorney, and Seeks Trial
Indian Trails Middle School teacher JaWanda Dove’s employment discrimination case against the Flagler County school district is back on track toward a trial date as both sides also continue to seek an out-of-court settlement.
As Florida Floods Private Schools with Public Money, Schools Raise Tuition to Capitalize
The Florida allocation of public money per private school student is expected to be about $8,000 a year — more than some private schools were charging for annual tuition. As a result, some private schools raised their prices.
Anti-Trans Politicians Take Pages from Nazi Playbook
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other GOP leaders are following the Nazi playbook, substituting transgender youth for the Jews. They industriously promote hatred, fear, and physical revulsion of this small group — also barely 1 percent of the population — and pretend it’s out of concern for children.
19-Year-Old Man With Knives Breaches FPC’s Perimeter Before He Is Arrested
Flagler Palm Coast High School, operating a number of summer programs, went on Code Red lockdown this afternoon as Colasanti, 19, allegedly armed with knives breached the school’s perimeter. Colasanti was arrested. There was no indication that the man entered any school buildings at any point.
Wadsworth Elementary’s Paul Peacock Is Told He’s Done in Flagler Schools; New Principal To Be Named Later
Paul Peacock, the embattled principal of Wadsworth Elementary school who worked with school board members to fire Superintendent Cathy Mittlestadt, was told this morning that his services will no longer be needed in Flagler County schools. It was a firing in all but name.
Why Will Furry Is Demolishing the Flagler Youth Orchestra
Flagler County School Board member Will Furry’s posturing about the Flagler Youth Orchestra has nothing to do with the FYO, of which he knows nothing and has no interest. It has to do with FYO’s director’s last name–Tristam–and Furry’s willingness to sacrifice a star district program over his vindictiveness for FlaglerLive.
Take Pride
This Pride Month, there’s not much to be proud of in people who to this day would rather burn than raise the Pride Flag. It’s about time it replaced all those MIA flags in school yards and at courthouses. LGBTQ victims, unlike the mythical missing, are real, and they’re piling up.
At FPC, Misplaced ‘Man Cave’ Culture and Improprieties Cause Demise of Girls’ Basketball Coach
A Flagler County school district investigation of now-former Flagler Palm Coast high School basketball coach Anthony Wagner found that he had committed various improprieties and acted unprofessionally, resulting in his second written reprimand and his removal from that role. He is also not being recommended for reappointment as a teacher.
As Investigation of Principal Paul Peacock Nears Conclusion, His Absence from Reappointment List Draws Speculation
As an independent investigation into employee complaints against Wadsworth Elementary Principal Paul Peacock concluded, Peacock’s name was absent from the list of administrators to be reappointed next year, raising speculation about his fate. The school board attorney said the list is not complete.
Upside of Unrequited Survives Book Ban at FPC, But 57% of Challenged Titles Were Removed From Flagler Schools This Year
A Flagler Palm Coast High School committee of faculty and residents voted 7-0 to keep Becky Albertalli’s The Upside of Unrequited on high school library shelves. It was the last challenge of the year by just three individuals, who had filed 44 challenges to 22 titles, succeeding in having 12 of them removed.
He Was Convinced the School Board Was Pushing “Transgender BS.” He Was Arrested. And Emboldened.
A parent had grievances to air about library books “trying to convert kids to gay,” and about mask and vaccine mandates. So he joined an activist group and headed to a school board meeting. This story explores how school board meetings across the country are fomenting conflicts and controversies that have led to violence and arrests.