Escambia Schools Announce New Administrators
June 22, 2017
Escambia County School Superintendent Malcolm Thomas has named new administrators at schools and centers throughout the county.
His recommendations, as approved by the school board, were:
Pictured top: Lisa Entrekin, newly named assistant principal at Bratt Elementary School. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Alabama Plans To Provide Tablet Computers, Wi-Fi For Prisoners
June 22, 2017
The Alabama Department of Corrections is considering a plan to add tablet computer to existing corrections educational programs offered to inmates at state male correctional facilities to help prepare inmates for reentry back into society and to reduce the state’s inmate recidivism rate.
The technology would allow inmates to receive educational training by using the tablets in an individual or classroom setting. The technology would give Inmates access to a training curriculum such as adult basic literacy, life skills, GED services, and entry level vocational training.
“The Alabama Department of Corrections is following a nationally recognized evidenced-based approach to securely and cost-effectively provide advanced educational technologies that will help strengthen and expand reentry services leading to lower recidivism rates and contributing to public safety,” said Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn.
Dunn added that the ADOC implemented the educational technology at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in 2015 and issued 60 learning tablets to inmates that were donated to the institution by the J.F. Ingram Technical College with much success.
The tablets issued to the male facilities would be managed through a secure wireless network with protocols for denying inmates access to the Internet and outside computer and communication systems. In addition, the technology could provide for secure inmate telephone services which some state department of corrections have already implemented.
The ADOC is in the preliminary stages of the plan and if it moves forward, the tablets would be included in the inmate telephone contract that goes out for an open bid later this year.
Corrections officials said no new funding would be required to purchase the tablets. The ADOC would lower the calling rates for inmates and cover the cost of the tablets by lowering the department’s commission received from the telephone contract.
Good Reviews Will Bring More Money For Universities
June 22, 2017
Like students waiting for their professors to post final course grades, Florida universities will learn this week how well they did on annual performance reviews, entitling them to a share of a record $245 million in state performance funding.
University leaders have pretty much known since the spring how the performance funding list will shake out.
But the university system’s Board of Governors, which is meeting at the University of South Florida, will approve the final list on Thursday, distributing the money to eight of the 11 eligible institutions based on their performances through the 2014-15 academic year. Florida Polytechnic University, the state’s newest school, is not yet part of the program.
Three universities will not qualify for new state performance funding in the budget year that starts July 1: Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida A&M University and the University of North Florida.
UNF did not receive new state performance funding last year, but Florida A&M, which received $11.5 million last year, and Florida Gulf Coast, which received $8 million, will not qualify for shares of the $245 million program in the 2017-18 academic year.
The University of West Florida, which did not receive state performance funding last year, will qualify for a share, as will New College of Florida, which has never qualified for the money since the current funding model began in 2014-15.
“This is the first time we’re receiving performance funding and it feels great,” Donal O’Shea, president of New College, told the Board of Governors.
The allocation of the state funding, which the Legislature increased by $20 million this year, is based on 10 measurements of performance by each of the 11 institutions, including a six-year graduation rate, salaries of recent graduates, retention of students and student costs.
The funding model has faced some controversy as it represents an attempt to measure annual performance in a system that ranges from major research universities with national aspirations to smaller regional schools with a more Florida-oriented focus. It measures one of the largest public schools in the country, the University of Central Florida, with more than 60,000 students, and New College, which has less than 900 students.
One of its most controversial aspects is that the three lowest-scoring schools do not receive new state performance funding.
But all 11 schools scored enough points to retain their shares of $275 million in institutional performance funding that they contribute, bringing total funding for the program to $520 million in the new budget year.
Two of the schools that will not receive state performance funding are regional universities with similar challenges.
“We are unabashedly a regional university, with a national reputation for serving students in the region,” University of North Florida President John Delaney said.
UNF, like Florida Gulf Coast, scored poorly in its six-year graduation rate, 53 percent, and the measure of new students who return for a second year with at least a 2.0 grade point average, 75 percent.
Delaney said one of the challenges for many UNF students is that they also work, and students working three or more days a week while trying to attend college full-time find it “difficult to get through.”
Delaney and Florida Gulf Coast leaders said many of their students start at the regional universities but later transfer to larger research schools, like the University of Florida, hurting the regional schools’ completion rates.
Florida Gulf Coast was also hurt by a new measure that assesses the net cost for a student to attend a school, offsetting tuition, fees and other costs with scholarships and other financial support. FGCU had the highest cost of $18,790 among the 11 schools.
New College had the lowest cost of attendance, at $5,920, helping it rise out of the bottom three schools in the performance measurement system for the first time.
Florida A&M fell into the bottom three on the performance list by not sustaining significant improvements in its measurements. Last year, FAMU was rewarded with higher points for improvements in areas like the six-year graduation rate and the rise of median salaries for graduates.
H. Wayne Huizenga Jr., a member of the Board of Governors, said although FAMU is a top-rated historically black university, it needs to be doing more to help students, who currently have a 41 percent six-year graduation rate, the lowest in the system.
“You’re the number one HBCU (historically black college or university), but you’re the lowest performing university in the state. Aspire for more, please,” Huizenga said.
Larry Robinson, Florida A&M’s interim president, said the school has embarked on an aggressive campaign to attract higher-performing students and is in the process of hiring a new academic coordinator to focus on increasing graduation and retention rates.
At the other end of the performance funding list, the University of South Florida has joined the University of Florida and Florida State University among the top three, which will get a slightly large share of the $245 million in performance funding.
University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft also announced that her school is expected to join Florida State and UF as state-designated “pre-eminent” institutions in the coming year, qualifying it for additional funding next year.
In the new budget, those three universities and the University of Central Florida will share $52 million in pre-eminent and “emerging” pre-eminent funding as well as their shares of the performance funding pool.
But even for the three schools that will not qualify for state performance funding in the new year, they still will receive additional funding because of a major university budget increase provided by the Legislature, including $121 million to help schools attract top-level faculty and to reward high-performing business, law and medical schools.
by Lloyd Dunkelberger, The News Service of Florida
UPDATE: Missing 4-Year Old Found Safe
June 21, 2017
Missing 4-year old found safe and sound. She was found at a home in Santa Rosa County with William Phillip Kavchak thanks to a citizens’ tip. Alonda was a not a patient at the hospital; she was visiting a friend of her mother and Kavchak. She began to act up, and Kavchak offered to take her out for ice cream. They never returned. Further details not yet available.
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A Florida Amber Alert has been issued for 4-year old Alanda McCoy, who was last seen in the area of the 6000 block of Berry Hill Road in Milton
About 3 a.m., officers were dispatched to the Santa Rosa Medical Center and determined that Alanda McCoy was seen leaving with family acquaintance in the company of William “Bill” Phillip Kavchak, 27.
Kavchak is described as a white male with brown hair, brown eyes, 6’02” and 175 pounds. He was last known to be driving the child’s mother’s vehicle. The vehicle is a green, 2007 Mercury Montego Florida tag Y53UNW. Alanda was last seen wearing a yellow spaghetti strap tank top underneath a black tee shirt, light colored skirt and blue flip flops.
Mr. Kavchak is known to the child’s mother and left Santa Rosa Medical Center at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday to go get ice cream and didn’t return.
The vehicle may look light blue in color. There is a dent in the right front passenger bumper. The tail lights have plastic covers with silver lines in them.
Anyone with information is asked call their local law enforcement agency or 911.
ECSO Seeks Suspect In Numerous Cantonment Burglaries
June 21, 2017
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is looking for Brian Mattew Whitmire.
He is wanted for numerous burglaries in the Cantonment area. Investigators said he may be driving a 2006 GMC Envoy.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP.
Six Injured In Cottage Hill Crash
June 21, 2017
Six people were reported to be injured in a three-vehicle crash Tuesday afternoon in Cottage Hill.
The chain-reaction accident reportedly occurred when the driver of a pickup truck rear-ended an Escambia County dump truck on Highway 95A near McKenzie Road. The pickup was then struck by a van.
At least three of the injured were transported to area hospital by ambulance. None of the injuries were considered severe.
The accident remains under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
FWC Law Enforcement Report
June 21, 2017
The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the weekly period ending June 1 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
(No report received from Escambia County.)
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
Officer Lewis was patrolling in the Blackwater River State Forest when he saw two men and a woman getting ready to leave Krul Lake. When asked if they paid the Krul Lake day-use area fee, they said they had not. While speaking to the group, Officer Lewis smelled the odor of cannabis and asked the driver about it. The man retrieved a mason jar containing cannabis from the vehicle’s center console and handed it to the officer. The tag also was not assigned to the vehicle. The man admitted to possession of the cannabis and attaching the improper tag. The subject was charged with possession of not more than 20 grams of cannabis, possession of drug paraphernalia, and attaching tag not assigned. The subjects were issued warnings for not paying the day-use area fee.
Officers Ramos and McHenry were on vessel patrol in the Santa Rosa Sound and conducted a safety and resource inspection on a boat returning from offshore fishing. After a check of all required safety equipment, the operator stated they didn’t have any luck and that they had no fish on board. Officer Ramos received consent to look in the coolers and live wells. He didn’t locate any fish but discovered clues leading him to believe the operator was lying. He asked a passenger to move to the front of the boat and found a gray triggerfish hidden under her seat. The harvest of triggerfish is prohibited in Gulf waters for the remainder of 2017. The operator admitted he caught the fish. When asked for a fishing license, the man stated he had one but forgot to bring it with him. FWC dispatch confirmed that the man’s fishing license had been expired for a year. The man was issued a citation for the expired fishing license and a criminal citation with required court appearance for the harvest of triggerfish during the closed season.
This report represents some events the FWC handled over the past week; however, it does not include all actions taken by the Division of Law Enforcement. Information provided by FWC.
NorthEscambia.com photo.
Escambia Tax Preparer Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud
June 21, 2017
An Escambia County man has pled guilty to 12 counts of aiding or assisting others in the preparation of false tax returns.
Christopher Jacob Rankins, 32, faces a maximum of three years in prison on earch of the 12 counts. He will sentence in federal court in Pensacola this September.
Documents introduced at the time of the guilty plea reflect that, between January 1, 2011, and May 8, 2012, while working as a tax preparer at American Tax Service in Pensacola, Rankins aided, assisted, counseled, and advised others in the preparation and presentation of fraudulent and false tax returns. The tax returns prepared by Rankins falsely represented the taxpayers’ business expenses and falsely claimed educational credits which resulted in tax payers receiving approximately $356,172 in refunds and credits that the taxpayers were not entitled to receive.
The charges were the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney J. Ryan Love.
Citizens Seeks Rate Hikes, Blames Water Claims
June 21, 2017
Continuing to point at “out of control” water damage claims, the Citizens Property Insurance Board of Governors on Tuesday unanimously backed proposed rate increases that would hit South Florida policyholders hardest next year.
The changes, if approved by state regulators, would boost personal-lines policies on average by 5.3 percent and commercial lines by 8.4 percent. Personal-lines policyholders are homeowners, condominium-unit owners and renters.
The state-backed insurer also moved forward with a “stopgap” approach to water-damage claims not caused by hurricanes, floods or other weather-related events. Citizens officials contend those claims have been a key factor in recent premium increases.
Among the changes, coverage for water-damage repairs unrelated to weather will be capped at $10,000 for policyholders who do not take part in a “managed repair” program. That program involves contractors approved by Citizens.
“We’re not sitting back and saying, `Hey we’ll wait until next year, and maybe we can get something done from a legislative standpoint next year,’ ” Citizens President and CEO Barry Gilway said. “We can’t wait. It doesn’t make any sense and we don’t know — particularly with the current structure of the Legislature — we don’t know if we’ll be any more successful next year.”
Citizens and other insurers argue that the Legislature needs to make changes related to an insurance practice known as “assignment of benefits.” That practice involves homeowners signing over benefits to contractors, who ultimately pursue payments from insurance companies.
Insurers contend the practice has become riddled with fraud and litigation, particularly involving water-damage claims. Legislation about the issue failed to pass during the spring session.
“We have to go under the assumption that we’re not going to get any legislative relief,” Citizens Vice Chairman Don Glisson said. “We’re just going to have to come up with a defensive game plan to do the best we can to mitigate it because I’m not convinced we’re going to get any relief next year, the year after, who knows.”
While the insurance industry criticizes the assignment-of-benefits process, plaintiffs’ attorneys and contractors argue, in part, the practice helps homeowners hire contractors quickly to repair damage and also can help force insurers to properly pay claims.
Citizens officials say litigated water-damage claims tied to assignment of benefits are driving up homeowners’ rates. The issue has been most prominent in Southeast Florida.
“These proposed rate increases and product changes are critical for Citizens’ efforts to bring some relief to a market that is being made increasingly expensive by unnecessary litigation and out-of-control water loss claims,” Citizens Chairman Chris Gardner said in a prepared statement. “Unfortunately, we are making it more expensive for many of our customers to own a home.”
The 2018 rate proposal still must be approved by the state Office of Insurance Regulation.
A year ago, after Citizens proposed a 6.8 percent statewide rate increase for multi-peril accounts, insurance regulators approved a 6.4 percent average increase.
The requested changes for 2018 vary, depending on types of coverage and locations of property.
Multi-peril homeowners’ policies would go up 6.7 percent statewide — from an average of $2,512 to $2,681.
While most counties are actually projected to see multi-peril rates go down, the proposal would boost rates 10.5 percent in Miami-Dade County, 10.4 percent in Broward County, and 9.4 percent in Palm Beach County.
Homeowners in those counties already pay higher rates that in most other parts of the state.
The average multi-peril policy currently is $3,421 in Miami-Dade, $2,842 in Broward and $2,631 in Palm Beach County.
In Leon County, which includes Tallahassee, the 85 homeowners with that multi-peril coverage would see the average rate go from an average of $929 to $840. The 271 multi-peril policies in Duval County, which includes Jacksonville, would see rates go on average from $1,235 to $1,191.
Meanwhile, wind-only homeowners’ policies would go up on average 1.2 percent — from $2,769 to $2,802.
Such wind-only policies would go down 0.8 percent in Broward and drop 5.3 percent in Miami-Dade counties. Yet, Palm Beach homeowners with those wind-only policies would see rates go up 2.6 percent, and in Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys, the wind-only rate would grow 3.9 percent.
Citizens officials credited past annual increases in wind-only rates along with lowered costs of reinsurance — backup insurance for insurers — for those policies being more actuarially sound when compared to costs on the private market.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Cantonment Residents Enjoy A ‘Milkshake With A Cop’
June 21, 2017
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office held a “Milkshake With a Cop” event Tuesday afternoon at the new Arby’s on Highway 29 in Cantonment. Area residents had an opportunity to stop by and meet the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office that patrol the area and enjoy a free milkshake.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
