Bratt, Molino Park Pre-K Registration Underway
March 28, 2011
Registration is underway for the Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten program for four-year olds at Bratt and Molino Park elementary schools.
Bratt Elementary
Registration packets can be picked up March 28 – April 8 and again May 2 – May 20. Parents or guardians will need their photo identification, the child’s immunization record and a physical for the child within one year prior to April 22, 2011. Students should be four-years old before September 1, 2011. For more information, contact Bratt Elementary School at (850) 327-6137.
Molino Park Elementary
Registration will be March 28-April 8. Parents must bring proof of residency, a utility bill, a photo identification of the parent or guardian, proof of guardianship if not the parent, child’s immunization record and a physical dated within one year prior to August 22, 2011. The child’s birth date must be between September 2, 2006, and September 1, 2007. For more information, contact Molino Park Elementary at (850) 587-5265.
Legislature To Address Charter School Expansion
March 28, 2011
With teacher merit pay reforms out of the way, the Florida Legislature has turned toward charter school expansion, considering two bills next week that would make it easier for highly-rated charter schools to expand enrollment, add grade levels and grant preferential admittance.
And just like the swiftly-approved teacher merit pay reforms, the push to expand charter schools has the strong backing of Gov. Rick Scott.
“The next thing we’ve got to do (is get) our charter schools expanded,” Scott said Friday at a ceremonial signing of the teacher merit pay bill. “It gives our public schools the opportunity to be run by third parties and be way more innovative.”
The push for charter school expansion is part of a decades-long broader effort by Florida Republicans to offer more school choices beyond traditional public schools. Charter schools are public schools, but they can be run by a third-party, such as a university or non-profit, and are exempt from regulations that apply to traditional public schools.
Charter schools operate with approval and general oversight from the county school districts and are funded through taxpayer dollars.
They are different from private schools, which are totally autonomous and supported primarily by tuition.
“Charter schools give parents a choice,” said Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, who is a supporter of a House bill to expand charter schools. “When you have options, that brings everybody to a higher level.”
The bills in committee next week offer two different takes on charter school expansion.
One bill (SB 1546) sponsored by Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, emphasizes the ability of universities and community colleges to add new grades or open new charter schools.
It also removes a requirement that charter schools provide transportation.
This is a big change from current law, which limits the number of charter schools eligible for state funding to one per university, with a few exceptions. It also allows community colleges to go from just being allowed to develop secondary charter schools that serve middle and high school students to all grades, K-12.
Thrasher’s bill shares with a House proposed committee bill (KINS 11-03) an effort to label charter schools that have received two “A” grades in three years as “high-performing.” That would open the door to benefits such as the ability to more easily tack on new grades, or increase enrollment by 25 percent. High-performing schools are also assured 15-year contracts. Both bills also strengthen a charter school’s ability to appeal a district’s decision to revoke a charter.
Both measures expand the ability of certain charter schools to grant preferential admittance based on where the parent is employed or where the student lives.
Rather than just granting the preferential status to children of charter school employees, for instance, the bill now allows the children of the charter school’s business partners admittance over others. The House bill also would allow preferential admission based on whether the child attends a pre-kindergarten program at that school.
Charter schools are growing in popularity in Florida. There are currently 458 charter schools in the state serving 154,758 students. That’s up from 411 that were in operation the year before.
Thrasher hinted on Thursday that changes to his bill are likely.
He said he would support an effort to “narrow” his wide-ranging bill. “I’m of the opinion it was too broad,” Thrasher said. “We will try to move forward and see what our friends in the House do, too.”
Stargel said she wasn’t a big supporter of the concept in Thrasher’s bill of letting universities and community colleges open more charter schools.
“They should stick to their mission of higher education,” Stargel said.
The push to expand charter schools is on the legislative agenda of former Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Florida’s Future, which also was a big supporter of teacher merit pay reforms.
Executive Director Patricia Levesque was on hand when the teacher merit pay bill was signed. The Foundation for Florida’s Future has seen much success this session, with another bill the organization supports that expands public school vouchers moving through committees in both chambers at a fast clip.
Pictured. Byrneville Elementary is the only charter school in North Escambia. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
By Lilly Rockwell
The News Service of Florida
Alger Road Culvert To Get Upgrade
March 28, 2011
A problem culvert on Alger Road will cost the Town of Century $80,843 to repair.
According to Dale Long, the town’s engineer, sand is washing away over time, requiring a repair. To completely remove and replace the culvert would cost an estimated $130,000, but the $80,843 repair will include a fiberglass lining for the existing pipes under the roadway.
The contract will be awarded to Pensacola Concrete Construction company. The town received one other proposal on the project for $155,325.
The fiberglass liner will be a permanent repair, according to mayor Freddie McCall. “This is not a Band Aid,” he said.
The drainage culvert is located on Alger Road about 350 feet west of North Century Boulevard.
Escambia Hostage Hoax Prompts SWAT Response; Two Arrested
March 27, 2011
A bogus report prompted a SWAT standoff Sunday in Escambia County. Deputies believed that a Pensacola woman who wished to turn herself in on a warrant was being held against her will by her boyfriend.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Department received a call around 7:15 a.m. from a woman who identified herself as 32-year-old Lateefah Moore. The caller told Sheriff’s dispatchers that she had a warrant for her arrest and wanted to turn herself in. When dispatchers confirmed the warrant was valid they dispatched deputies to the address she provided, 1500 East Johnson St.
When deputies arrived at the address they attempted to serve the warrant but could not get anyone to answer the door. One of the responding deputies called the telephone number recorded by dispatch and a female answered. The deputy, thinking he was talking to the warrant suspect, asked her to come to the door. The female then began to cry and told the deputy that her boyfriend was holding her against her will.
“At the time of this phone call, we believed that we had a man holding his girlfriend and two children hostage,” said Sheriff’s spokesperson Deputy Chris Welborn. “The patrol supervisor made the decision to call out our hostage negotiations and SWAT teams.”
The Sheriff’s special weapons and tactics team took up positions around the residence while hostage negotiators tried to contact the female or her boyfriend.
“Our hostage negotiators were finally able to make contact with Moore, but she denied being held against her will and was a bit frightened by all the activity,” said Welborn. “Our negotiators talked her into coming out and we were able to get to the bottom of this.”
Upon further investigation, it was determined that Moore’s boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, identified as 27-year-old Kaneatha Sheri Harris of Pensacola, had made the phone call to the Sheriff’s office and identified herself as Moore.
Patrol deputies tracked down Harris at her residence in the Sunrise apartment complex at 4350 Fairfield Dr. She was taken into custody and charged with making a false report and two counts of obstructing justice.
Moore was also arrested on a violation of probation warrant.
Photo Gallery: Molino Ballpark Opening Day
March 27, 2011
Saturday was opening day for the teams at the Molino Ballpark. We have nearly 150 photos in our photo gallery, including action from several games.
For the photo gallery, click here.
Several of the photo gallery photos are courtesy of Hart Family Photography. Don’t forget — we’ll be happy to run your youth sports photos here on NorthEscambia.com all during the season Just email them as soon as possible after the game to news@northescambia.com or contact us on our Facebook page with a link to your Facebook gallery.
Pictured top: Molino Sandy Sansing’s Lauren Carnley missed a catch at third as the ball grazes the helmet of Northwest Escambia Alto’s Liberty Peebles. Pictured inset and below: More action from opening day at the Molino Ballpark. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
North Escambia Area’s Big Earthquake: Could It Happen Again?
March 27, 2011
This year will mark the 14th anniversary of a local earthquake that was one of the largest ever reported in Alabama or Northwest Florida, and experts say there is a chance another earthquake could happen again with little or no warning.
At 3:35 a.m. on October 24, 1997, a significant earthquake awoke a large number of people in Escambia County, Ala., and Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida. The quake, which measured 4.9 on the Richter scale, was centered near the Little Rock community in Escambia County, Ala., and was felt as far away as Eglin AFB, and Gulfport, Miss. It was the strongest earthquake in the southeast in 30 years. No significant damage was reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey classifies earthquake intensities. Here is how the October 24, 1997, earthquake measured up across the area, using intensity level descriptions from the Federal Emergency Mangement agency:
- (VII) Epicenter / Little Rock, Ala.
- People have difficulty standing. Drivers feel their cars shaking. Some furniture breaks. Loose bricks fall from buildings. Damage is slight to moderate in well-built buildings; considerable in poorly built buildings
- (VI) Brewton, Canoe and Lambeth
- Everyone feels movement. People have trouble walking. Objects fall from shelves. Pictures fall off walls. Furniture moves. Plaster in walls might crack. Trees and bushes shake. Damage is slight in poorly built buildings. No structural damage.
- (V) Atmore, Flomaton, Frisco City and Century
- Almost everyone feels movement. Sleeping people are awakened. Doors swing open or close. Dishes are broken. Pictures on the wall move. Small objects move or are turned over. Trees might shake. Liquids might spill out of open containers
- (IV) McDavid, Molino and Walnut Hill
- Most people indoors feel movement. Hanging objects swing. Dishes, windows, and doors rattle. The earthquake feels like a heavy truck hitting the walls. A few people outdoors may feel movement. Parked cars rock.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the North Escambia area sits on the Bahamas Seismic Zone (the BSZ). Several earthquakes have occurred along this zone in recent years, but most are too weak to be felt by residents. While not a likelihood, the USGS says another significant earthquake could happen in the area at any time.
Two professors in the Department of Geology at Auburn University, Joan Gomberg and Lorraine Wolf, published a journal article a few years after the earthquake that theorized that the event was actually caused by the oil and gas industry and extraction wells located from Escambia County, Ala, to Jay.
Pictured top: The U.S. Geological Survey installed a seismic monitoring station just north of Brewton following the 1997 earthquake. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Two Charged With Illegal Copper Purchases
March 27, 2011
Two Escambia County, Alabama, men are free on bond after allegedly making illegal copper purchases at an Atmore area business.
Johnny Shell, the owner of Shell Salvage, and an employee, Willie James Hudson, Sr., were both arrested last week after undercover deputies sold copper to the scrapyard.
Shell was charged with a felony count of receiving stolen property for allegedly purchased over $500 worth of materials illegally. Hudson was charged with not following state mandated rules that require proper identification from everyone selling copper. Undercover Escambia County (Ala.) Sheriff’s Department deputies allegedly sold 21 pounds of copper at the business for $47.25 without Hudson asking for ID.
Sheriff’s Investigator Bruce Shue said the business had been warned several times to follow the letter of the law when purchasing copper and other materials.
Florida Weekly Government Roundup
March 27, 2011
Once again the week saved the biggest news for the end, as prosecutors unexpectedly announced Friday afternoon that they were dropping the theft charges against former House Speaker Ray Sansom and developer Jay Odom.
Sansom and Odom were charged in an alleged scheme to use a $6 million 2007 state budget appropriation for what is now Northwest Florida State College to build a hangar at the Destin airport for Odom, a friend of and contributor to Sansom, who at the time was the chief House architect of the budget.
Sansom and Odom’s defense had said the money was needed for a joint-use emergency operations center and classroom building and there was nothing unusual about the way the money was put into the budget.
The bombshell on Friday dropped after Circuit Judge Terry Lewis rejected a key witness. Prosecutors were hoping to put the college’s former president, Bob Richburg, on the stand. He had originally also been charged in the case, but agreed to testify against Sansom.
But to introduce testimony by Richburg, prosecutors needed to show evidence of a conspiracy, and Lewis ruled he hadn’t seen that evidence. Without Richburg’s testimony, State Attorney Willie Meggs decided he couldn’t get a conviction and dropped the charges.
PARTY LIKE IT NEVER WAS 2010
The Sansom case being back in the news wasn’t the only throwback to an earlier legislative session this week.
Legislators late this week overrode two vetoes by former Gov. Charlie Crist, continuing the Republican effort to erase his memory. One of the bills wasn’t really controversial – having passed the Legislature unanimously last year and then again in the veto override vote this week. That bill dealt with local farm regulations – even Democrats agreed widely that the bill made sense, eliminating some local ability to make rules that could make it hard for farmers to do simple things like replace a fence without a permit.
But the other measure lawmakers restored was highly controversial.
That bill creates “affiliated party committees” to allow legislative leaders to raise money independently of the political parties and parcel it out to lawmakers they need to get elected to help them in their quest to control the legislative process.
The accounts will be controlled by both parties’ leadership. And another word for account is fund. So in the generic, we might normally call them leadership funds. But when we do, we get a gentle, annoyed reminder from Republicans that these are nothing like “leadership funds,” which were outlawed in 1989.
And in fairness, those funds were pretty opaque and may have been more accurately called backroom slush funds. The new funds are far more transparent than those were, and, backers say, more transparent than the current process even. That makes them a step forward for openness, the proponents of the new type of funds said.
Democrats argued against them, saying they were really just a return of leadership funds. But just as in 2010, Democrats are vastly outnumbered and so without Crist on their side they couldn’t stop the return of whatever these funds should be called. In fact, they not only lost Crist as an ally on this particular issue, they have lost since the last election any ability to block it by themselves because Republicans now have 81 members in the House. The number of votes needed to override a veto: 80.
So why are leadership … affiliated party committees, needed now?
Last year the normal process for doling out fundraising help in the Legislature – having the parties do it – didn’t work out too well for Republicans. The party was having a bit of a hard time raising money on account of its chairman being accused of misspending it at first, and then later of outright stealing it. The chairman, now former chairman, is facing criminal charges.
“I was frustrated by the actions of the former chairman, where we raised a lot of money and they spent it,” said Senate President Mike Haridopolos. “We want to make it where what money we raise, we show, and what money we spend, we show.”
He’s on message as far as transparency, but what he could have been saying was they want to make it so that money they raise doesn’t get siphoned off.
In fact, in the House, Rep. Paige Kreegel, R-Punta Gorda, did say so. He said the bill was needed to make sure leaders could still raise money and get favored candidates elected when “the leader of a party rips the party off and leaves the party without any money.”
ARE YOU ON DRUGS?
Gov. Rick Scott did say this week during a visit to the Agency for Health Care Administration that he thinks state workers ought to be paid fairly – though he didn’t say they deserved a raise, which they haven’t had for a while.
He told the workers that he thinks it’s fair for government to make its workers pay into their pensions because that’s the way it works in the private sector. And, in response to a question from an employee, he acknowledged it ought to go the other way too – wages should be competitive with those in the private sector, he said.
That drew applause.
But so far, there’s no proposal for a state worker pay raise, and actually, many in the state workforce feel like Scott doesn’t think much of them. His proposals to lay some of them off haven’t been particularly well received in the halls of Tallahassee’s government buildings.
So it probably wasn’t that much of a surprise when he implied this week that the problem with state workers is that they might just be drug users.
Scott made national news this week when he ordered random drug testing for all state workers who answer to the governor regardless of suspicion. He also ordered drug testing for all new state job applicants. Again, it’s the norm in the private sector workforce, Scott argued.
There would be a cost of about $25 a test, and Scott’s plan doesn’t spell out where that money would come from.
For the sake of humor, we’ll suggest that the state deduct it from workers paychecks. Some of the money in those checks – dollars that now go to the worker’s union – may soon be freed up. Besides, the union would probably just fight against these drug tests anyway.
UNION PAYCHECK DEDUCTIONS
It wasn’t a good week for unions in Tallahassee, but really when was the last time it was?
The House passed a bill that prevents unions from collecting dues from members who are government workers through automatic payroll deductions. Democrats and unions said it was an attack on the unions – payback for supporting Democrats. Republican backers of the bill say it just makes sense, that the government shouldn’t be in the business of helping unions collect their dues in the age of PayPal – especially when those dues are going in part to political activity that is aimed at attacking some of those in that government.
The bill passed along party lines, but now goes to the Senate.
BUT THINGS ARE LOOKING UP FOR WORKERS
Also this week, Florida got some rare good economic news. The state unemployment agency announced on Friday that the jobless rate dropped last month by about a half a percentage point. It’s still higher than it was a year ago and much higher than the national rate, but now at 11.5 percent, it’s at least headed in the right direction and the economy has added jobs for several months now.
MEDICAID OVERHAUL
In other news about major legislation, the House proposal to overhaul the way Medicaid works changed fairly dramatically this week when backers added to the bill limits on malpractice awards in cases brought by those on Medicaid.
The government health care program has long suffered from not having enough doctors, who complain the reimbursement rates are too low. The solution to that problem that emerged in the House this week – make it more attractive by making it less likely that a doctor will be sued for medical malpractice if he is treating Medicaid patients. Overall, the House and Senate are moving Medicaid to a privatized managed care program – an issue that will be on the House floor on Tuesday of next week.
NO MACK
Politically, the U.S. Senate race got a bit clearer as Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack said on Friday that he won’t pursue the seat now held by Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. The Fort Myers Republican would have been a strong contender, but his decision leaves Senate President Mike Haridopolos as the GOP frontrunner to take on Nelson at the moment.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Charges of theft are dropped against former House Speaker Ray Sansom and developer Jay Odom as the prosecution of their alleged money-shifting scheme falls apart without a key witness.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“The evidence will show you that he did what any legislator is supposed to do: Fund good, meaningful projects for his community.” Steve Dobson, lawyer for Ray Sansom, in his opening statement to jurors in Sansom’s trial this week. Jurors won’t get to decide – the state dropped the case Friday.
By David Royse
The News Service of Florida
Dombroskie Graduates From Military Basic Training
March 27, 2011
Air Force Airman 1st Class Laura A. Dombroskie graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas.
The airman completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills. Airmen who complete basic training earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force.
She is the daughter of John Dombeoskie of Milestone Blvd., Cantonment, Fla. Dombroskie is a 2007 graduate of Tate High School.
Featured Recipe: Sopapilla Cheesecake
March 27, 2011
This weekend’s featured recipe is Sopapilla Cheesecake, an impressive combo of sugary crunch topping and a smooth and creamy center. It’s a terrific recipe for anyone looking to make a splash at dinner without spending all day in the kitchen. Garnish with berries or citrus zest for a lovely presentation and a memorable end to your meal.
To print today’s recipe column, you can click the image below to load a printable pdf with a recipe card.
