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Schools

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.

Ex-Matanzas Student Brendan Depa Will Plead Out in Teacher-Assault Case, Leaving His Fate to a Judge

October 11, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 22 Comments

Brendan Depa in court today, next to Teifke. (© FlaglerLive)

Brendan Depa, the former Matanzas High School student who drew global attention and a first-degree felony charge as an adult after a video of his assault on a paraprofessional circulated, will plead out, avoiding a trial. But he will also be taking the risk of a steep sentence.

11 Matanzas High School Students Face Arrest for Fighting, Three on Felony Charges

October 10, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 26 Comments

Matanzas High School has been the scene of two incidents involving deputies in two successive school days, both times with faculty getting assaulted by students, the second time as part of a brawl that resulted in the arrest of 11 students. (© FlaglerLive)

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office filed charges against 11 Matanzas High School students on Monday following a brawl that involved students hitting each other, landing a punch on a teacher, attacking an administrator and resisting a deputy. It is the largest mass arrest at the school since it opened in the fall of 2005.

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.

15-Year-Old FPC Student Faces Aggravated Assault Charge for Pointing Toy Gun at Others

October 5, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 13 Comments

The incident took place outside the 800 gym at Flagler Palm Coast High School. (© FlaglerLive)

“I really thought it was done, like all of my life was over,” a student said after the 15-year-old student pointed the gun at him and clicked the trigger. Florida law does not distinguish between real and toy guns when either are used to give the impression that someone is armed, and criminal charges are filed accordingly. 

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.

Judge Exonerates ‘Christian’ Teacher Who Refused to Refer to Trans Student by His Preferred Pronouns

October 3, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

trans pronouns

An administrative law judge Monday backed a Miami-Dade County teacher who reportedly told a transgender student that, “I’m a Christian, and my God made no mistakes” while refusing to call the student by preferred pronouns.

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.

Stetson Biology Professor Jean Smith Lands $500,000 National Science Foundation Grant

October 1, 2023 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

Assistant Biology Professor Jean Smith, PhD, has been awarded a $502,998 grant from the National Science Foundation. This is a new funding source for the NSF, and with only 62 grants awarded, Smith is the only grant recipient funded in the state of Florida. This is the largest single-investigator grant from NSF awarded to a pre-tenured faculty member at Stetson.

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.

Academic Freedom Greatly Bothers the GOP

September 28, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

A post-graduation picnic at Grinnell College, an oasis of academic freedom. (© FlaglerLive)

The last few years have witnessed a number of disturbing and blunt challenges to academic freedom, mostly from right-wing legislators in GOP-controlled state legislatures. For a sizable segment of the Republican party, so-called “divisive concepts” represent the belief by historians that the institutions of the United States were established to maintain racial and gender hierarchies in addition to maintaining the supremacy of White Americans.

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.

College Football Reflects America As it Really Is: Indefensible In a Civilized World

September 23, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 11 Comments

college football as american civilization diane roberts

It’s college football season in Florida and you know what that means: trash talking, martial metaphors, peculiar rituals involving animals, bizarre clothing in colors not found in nature, bad grammar, mansplaining, and racism. College football reinforces some of our least attractive stereotypes — those Black kids sure are fast! — and extreme gender roles, as well: huge dudes on the field knocking the living hell out of each other, while small (though quite athletic) women with incongruously large bows in their hair cheer them on.

UCF May Close Three Campuses

September 20, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

The state university system’s Board of Governors on Wednesday will consider proposals by the University of Central Florida to close three campuses no longer in use. The proposals involve the South Orlando Campus, the UCF Leesburg campus and the UCF Palm Bay campus.

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.

A Mixed Bag in New Rankings of Florida’s Colleges and Universities as DeSantis Polarization Dims Luster

September 19, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

Florida universities, which have been in the center of national polarization for months, have seen a mixed bag in U.S. News & World Report college rankings, with both positive and negative views and some changes in the methodology. Florida has been bombarded by the anti-woke rhetoric and action of Gov. Ron DeSantis and conservative politicians who are pushing higher education reforms and policies such as post-tenure reviews that have been blasted by faculty unions.

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.

Florida’s ‘Voucher’ System Adds 123,000 Students Attending Private School at Public Expense

September 15, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 22 Comments

Nearly 123,000 new students have received private-school vouchers after state lawmakers this year passed a major expansion of voucher programs, while a group that administers the programs says they will not bring an “exodus” from public schools as critics have predicted.

Stetson Breaks Fund-Raising Record with $65 Million Haul

September 11, 2023 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

stetson free speech

Stetson University set another fundraising record for a second year in a row, raising $65 million last year for student scholarships, renovations and other areas across the institution. The outpouring of gifts and pledges from donors during the 2023 fiscal year, ending June 30, came a year after Stetson raised $52.2 million, then the largest amount on record.

Dead White Males Return: Behind Florida GOP’s Push for Christian-Leaning Classic Learning Test Instead of SAT

September 10, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 14 Comments

Dead white males return: Plato, Rousseau and Hamilton. (Wikimedia Commons)

The new Classic Learning Test has been pushed by conservative politicians and religious activists as an alternative to the SAT and ACT, and will now be accepted as a measure of admission in Florida colleges and universities. Of the 12 private institutions in Florida that now accept the CLT, 11 are religiously affiliated.

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.

‘Horrified’ SURJ Flagler Issues Statement on Bunnell Elementary’s Segregated Assembly

September 3, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

One of the slides shown Black students at the segregated assembly, calling Blacks ("AA") a "problem."

SURJ Flagler is horrified about the devaluation of the African American students, and how they were subjected to a “less than” self-image. Not to be forgotten is the impact of this segregation on the non-black students, where yet another false seed of academic and social superiority has been planted.

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.

Brendan Depa, Now 18, Is Transferred to the Flagler County Jail to Await Trial

August 31, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

Brendan Depa when he was last in court in Bunnell in June. (© FlaglerLive)

Brendan Depa, the former Matanzas High School student facing a first-degree felony charge of aggravated battery in the beating of a school paraprofessional last February, has been transferred to the Flagler County jail, from the Duval Regional Detention center in Jacksonville, where he’d been held for the past six months.

Hurricane Idalia Makes Landfall as Cat-3 Hurricane; Local Impacts on Flagler Limited, Evacuations Rescinded

August 30, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

After Hurricane Idalia became an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm, it made landfall as a Cat-3 in Florida’s Big Bend this morning. Effects on Flagler and Palm Coast are expected to be limited to rain and wind gusts as the storm’s track has shifted north.

DeSantis Wants Children to Be Ignorant, Intolerant and Narrow-Minded

August 27, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 30 Comments

desantis stop woke ont-trick pulpit

In Ron DeSantis’ Florida, teachers are expected to present a version of the world in which “gender” is not to be spoken of, “gay” likewise, there’s no climate crisis — the weather’s always changing! — Shakespeare needs to be toned down, the human body is disgusting, slavery had an upside, America is the best country that ever was and ever will be, and books that challenge any of these self-evident truths must be banned.

Escambia County School Board Wants to Ban Any Book It Wishes

August 26, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

Preparations for the new school year in an Escambia County schools warehouse. (Escambia County Schools Facebook)

The Escambia County School Board is urging a federal judge to toss out a lawsuit filed by authors, a publishing company, parents and a non-profit organization challenging the removal or restriction of books in school libraries. It argues that it has authority to decide what books will be allowed in schools and that a new state law helps shield it from the allegations.

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.

Jacob Oliva, as Arkansas Secretary of Education, Defends Removal of AP African American Studies

August 17, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 18 Comments

State Education Board member Randy Henderson (left) and Education Secretary Jacob Oliva (right) listen to public testimony during a state board meeting on Mar. 9, 2023. Prior to coming to Arkansas, Oliva was a chancellor who also served in other top roles at the Florida Department of Education. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)

Former Flagler County Superintendent Jacob Oliva, now the secretary of education in Arkansas, sought to defend the removal of an AP African American Studies class from the state’s approved course list late last week, but anger persisted from education advocates, state lawmakers, students and the NAACP.

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.

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