Special to The Laker/Lutz News

By B.C. Manion

When Weightman Middle School opened two decades ago, there wasn’t a whole lot happening nearby.

There were a few cows and a couple of houses on Wells Road, and the road, which was dirt before the middle school opened, was only paved to the edge of the school’s parking lot, Freda Abercrombie.recalled.

In those days, the area now occupied by the Bridgewater subdivision was just pasture, Abertcrombie said.

Those were the days before the school’s enrollment peaked – at more than 2,000 students – because of Wesley Chapel’s building boom. During those days, before John Long Middle School opened, Weightman had 32 portables to accommodate the crowd.

Over the years, the middle school has had its share of accomplishments. The trophy case in the front office is filled with trophies, a championship basketball and other mementos of glory days.

The school, at 30649 Wells Road, has the distinction of being the first professional development school affiliated with the University of South Florida.

Weightman still enjoys the status of having the longest running relationship in this capacity with USF and is the only middle school currently operating in that role for USF, Abercrombie said.

The school, which bears the name of former Pasco County Schools Superintendent Thomas E. Weightman, resulted from collaboration between the public school district and educational leaders at USF.

The idea was to use the school as a training ground for future teachers and a place where experienced teachers could experience professional growth.

The school continues to serve those needs today, Abercrombie said. It has played a part in preparing thousands of classroom teachers, Abercrombie said.

Aspiring teachers have spent time at Weightman doing everything from observing classrooms to serving as intern teachers. There have been times when as many as 10 interns have been on the school’s campus at once, Abercrombie said.

The middle school provides an excellent venue for student teachers and university personnel to see what it takes to teach today’s student, Abercrombie said. They deal with “real kids, real issues,” she said.

Over the years, Weightman’s students have come from as far away as Dade City, but now they come primarily from Wesley Chapel.

The school has about 1,100 students made up of a variety of cultural and economic backgrounds.

It also has had the distinction of winning athletic championships over the years, in sports such as basketball, football and volleyball, Abercrombie said.

Abercrombie isn’t the only school employee with long-time ties to Weightman.

Cinthia Holton Wolden, a secretary in the front office, attended seventh-grade at the school in 1991, its inaugural year.

Sharon Morris, one of the school’s guidance counselors, interned as a language arts teacher at the school.

When Morris graduated, there weren’t any language arts openings, but she had some experience in marketing and landed a job teaching that.

She later became a language arts teacher and while doing that, she encountered students writing about some very dark themes. “I didn’t know what to do,” she said, so she decided to pursue a master’s degree to learn more. She later became the school’s behavior specialist before assuming her current position.

Morris, who is helping to organize the school’s 20th anniversary celebrations, said the first event was a football game held two weeks ago. School alumni were encouraged to attend, she said.

Next, the school will be inviting USF staff, former principals and administrators and the school’s charter staff members and current staff members to an event on Thursday, Nov. 10.

Displays will be set up around the perimeter of the cafeteria to showcase the school’s history and refreshments will be served.

Rob Aguis, director of the school district’s Community, Career and Technical Education department, is one of Weightman’s former principals.

He has fond memories of his tenure there.

“It was one of my very favorite stops along my professional development. There was a lot going on at the school. It was very much the hub of the community,” Aguis said. “The community did nothing but support the school.”

In addition to its other celebrations, the school will have an event on Thursday, Nov. 17 for students achieving the school honor roll and their parents. Former superintendent Weightman will be on hand to offer a few remarks.

The sixth-graders and their parents will assemble at 6 p.m., followed by the seventh- and eighth-graders and their parents at 7 p.m.

The school also is initiating a new award at the end of the school year. The award will be called “The Spirit of Weightman Award” in honor of the man who had the vision for creating a school where educators and students labor together in a quest to deepen their knowledge.

By Eugenio Torrens

Within the last decade, Pasco County has noticed its Hispanic population surge.

Currently, 11 percent — or one in every nine people — of the county is Hispanic. Section 203 of the federal Voting Rights Act stipulates that if 5 percent of the voting age population is of a certain ethnicity, then voting material must be published in the native language of that demographic.

The U.S. Department of Justice exempted Pasco from that requirement since the county’s Hispanic population met or exceeded the minimum literacy rate. Thus, voting materials only have to be published in English.

Pasco Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley said this shouldn’t change anything drastically, and that it will save the county money.

“The only real concern that we had would be from a financial standpoint,” Corley said. “We’ve had to cut our budget 28 percent in the last four years, and it’s been quite a challenge as you might imagine.

“By implementing this, this would have in essence, would have been an unfunded mandate from the federal government to the tune of $75,000 in additional outlay, plus tens of thousands of dollars each election,” Corley said. “It’s easier on the wallets of the taxpayers.”

“We have an obligation, and a legal one at that, to assist all voters,” Corley added. “We have a long tradition of accommodating all voters, and that won’t change.”

If Pasco did have to publish Spanish voting materials, the only obvious change would have been in amendments, where the Spanish text would have been underneath the English text.

“The concern would have been that it would have caused our ballot, at an absolute minimum, to go to two pages and that’s where really the cost comes into play,” Corley said.

With two-plus page ballots, Corley said reconciling all the material that is sent out on absentee ballots could be problematic — people may send only the part of the ballot that corresponds to them, i.e. the English part of the ballot or Spanish part of the ballot.

The U.S. Department of Justice ruling affects only voting materials published at the county level.

“However, things that affect statewide, for example (amendments), albeit they will not be bilingual on the ballot, but the division of elections at the state level will be required to provide to the counties, i.e. my office, translated materials for things like voter application, or those proposed amendments, which we will have at a polling place,” Corley said.

Hillsborough County was not ruled exempt from Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, which means it will continue to publish voting materials bilingually.

Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Earl Lennard said there are Spanish-speaking poll workers at voting sites where there is a larger percentage of Hispanic voters. He said ballots for the 2010 primary, published in English and Spanish, cost 23 cents apiece.

The county uses Spanish speakers to write the Spanish interpretation of English ballots.

“Sometimes that can get pretty tricky because various dialects are different,” Lennard said. But he added, “It’s always a concern, but thankfully it has not been an issue.”

One other big difference between the two counties is that Hillsborough is a preclearance county, meaning Hillsborough has to take certain steps Pasco doesn’t.

Hillsborough is required to notify the Department of Justice when a polling site may no longer be available in order to switch to a new site. But before Hillsborough can switch to that new site, the county has to be cleared by the Department of Justice.

For both counties, voting procedures should stay almost unnoticeably different.

“It’s one word: education,” Corley said. “What you have is, you have an increase in population — those folks are educated individuals, which is obviously always a good thing.”

For more information on voting in Pasco, visit pascovotes.com. For more information on voting in Hillsborough, visit www.votehillsborough.org.

 

By Kyle LoJacono

In an attempt to help reduce its $15 billion debt, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will increase postage costs beginning Jan. 22.

The new rate to mail standard first-class, 1-ounce letters will jump by one penny, up to 45 cents per item. The cost to send a postcard will swell by 3 cents to a total of 32.

The biggest increase comes to those who send 1-ounce letters internationally. Such mail bound to Mexico or Canada will cost an extra nickel, up to 85 cents. The same item sent to other countries will be 7 cents more expensive to a total of $1.05.

“The overall average price increase is small and is needed to help address our current financial crisis,” U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe wrote in an email.

Donahoe pointed out that the rates for sending such items have not been increased in 2 1/2 years. He added more people using email versus mail has reduced the revenue generated by USPS. Forever stamps will continue al that is needed to mail a 1-ounce letter within the United States even if purchased at a lower rate.

“The stark reality is that the USPS’ business model is broken,” Donahoe wrote. He added the postal service needs a “more flexible business model,” such as cutting service to five days a week, closing post office locations and reducing its workforce.

USPS is looking for ways to stay economically viable, but many local people say raising postage rates is not the answer.

“It used to be 20 cents to send a letter when I was a kid,” said Land O’ Lakes resident Thomas Rodriguez. “I would send letters to my grandparents who lived in New York and aunts and uncles in other states every week or every other week. Now it would cost a small fortune to do that.”

Lutz resident Mark Brown said the price of postage also has turned him away from the postal service.

“I’ve already stopped mailing basically anything because of how much it costs,” Brown said. “Sending something just downtown costs way more than it should. I’d rather drive and drop off a letter if I can’t email it.”

Brown suggested USPS could come up with a tiered system, where mailing locally would require less postage than sending items to the opposite coast.

New Tampa resident Christy Smith-Rodgers said Brown’s idea did have some merit.

“It’s got to take less money for them to take a letter to Tampa than to Oregon,” Smith-Rodgers said. “That’s only 20-30 minutes from here . … I’m sure it’s not as simple as that or they would do it, but I think it’s worth looking at.”

Smith-Rodgers said she also does not mail many items anymore because of the cost. She cannot remember the last time she sent someone a letter.

“If I have to send a package I send it with FedEx because it gets there faster,” Smith-Rodgers said. “If I’m going to pay to send a box I want it to get there fast.”

All three said they would rather have the USPS end Saturday delivery instead of increasing rates.

“I’d be fine with that,” Rodriguez said. “Most businesses work Monday through Friday, so if they are having problems with money than they should cut a day off. That’s better than making us pay more for mail.”

None favored closing post offices.

“I think that would also make more people use the post office less,” Brown said. “I mean if the post office near you closes, then I don’t think you’d mail things more often.”

For more information on USPS, visit www.usps.com.

By Eugenio Torrens

Pasco County received $2.3 million in federal money, and how that money will be spent is already accounted for.

The money comes from a $160.6 million lump sum allotted to Florida by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on Oct. 13. The money is slated for community development and affordable housing for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year.

George Romagnoli, Pasco County community development manager, said most of the $2.3 million Pasco is receiving has already been earmarked for several needs.

“A good chunk of that money is paying back a loan that we took from HUD to redevelop the Tommytown area in Dade City, so we have to pay back HUD because that was a big project, so we had to give a lot more than our annual allocation to do that,” Romagnoli said.

The $2.3 million comes in the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.

The CDBG is a flexible program that provides communities with resources to address a wide range of unique community development needs. The CDBG has been ongoing since 1974 and provides annual grants on a formula basis to 1209 general units of local government and states.

Romagnoli said the Tommytown project, which cost $13-14 million, means Pasco will be paying back HUD about $1 million per year.

Tommytown is one of the largest areas of low-income population anywhere in Pasco County.

“The area had no paved roads, not much public water and sewer, a very bad drainage. We went in there and paved the roads and instilled a utility line, put a new drainage system so it doesn’t flood anymore. We really tried to improve the living conditions of the people that live there; unfortunately the living conditions were pretty terrible,” Romagnoli said.

“Unfortunately building roads and putting water lines and sewer lines — that’s not a cheap process,” Romagnoli added. “We basically borrowed against our future block grant dollars so we could get enough money so we could do Tommytown.”

After the loan payback is cut out, $300,000 is going toward the Lacoochee community center. Romagnoli also said some money would go to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office; to low-income people to get prescription drugs from the Good Samaritan Healthcare Clinic; and demolitions through the county.

Because of the current economic climate, the total amount of money coming in to the state — and the county — has been cut.

Romagnoli said the county was shorted about $500,000.

“That’s pretty significant for Pasco County,” Romagnoli said. “It’s been pretty consistent for a lot of years, but with everything that’s happening with the fertile budget, a lot of stuff is changing so it’s hard to say how much money we’ll get next year.”

Some of that money incoming from the HUD will go toward county public transportation.

Mike Carroll, Pasco County’s public transportation manager, said $230,000 was coming in CDBG funds for public transportation.

Although his department also felt the brunt of a tighter budget, he said this year’s amount was not a far departure from the norm. The total funding for paratransit services is $1.8 million, according to Carroll. The majority of funding comes from the Federal Transit Administration and the Florida Department of Transportation.

“In the scheme of things, not very much because we have other funding sources that also are used to support — that funding is usually used to support paratransit services, which are the door-to-door services for those that live outside the regular transit bus service areas.”

Paratransit caters to those people that live outside of the jurisdiction of fixed-route bus services.

“It’s all spent throughout the year in support of these services,” Carroll said.

By Kyle LoJacono

Despite above-average rainfall this year in the Tampa Bay area, the regional water use board has elected to extend current water restrictions through February.

Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties have received 50.73 inches of rain through Oct. 26, almost 6 inches more than the average for an entire year. However, the Southwest Florida Water Management District, commonly called Swiftmud, has voted to keep Phase I restrictions in place for the next few months for all 16 counties it overseas.

“There were some areas of the district that received heavy rainfall at times, but overall our rainy season was not as productive as we had hoped,” said Lois Sorensen, manager of Swiftmud’s demand management program. “There were improvements in October, but we are expecting a drier-than-normal winter due to the La Niña weather pattern.”

Sorensen said the region’s water supply is in relatively good shape, but added caution is still needed to ensure that remains true.

“We need to watch conditions closely as the dry season continues and consider stricter measures if water resources or water supply conditions warrant them,” Sorensen said.

Phase I is meant to prepare for worsening drought conditions. Residents are also asked to check their irrigation system to see if it is working properly by fixing broken pipes and tilted sprinkler heads.

Watering is still limited to two days per week either before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m. with Phase I restrictions.

“However, residents should check with their county or city government to see if they have stricter restrictions,” said Swiftmud spokeswoman Robyn Felix.

Swiftmud’s governing board will vote again in February to see if the restrictions should be extended.

In addition, Swiftmud announced it is cutting up to 150 positions to meet its new budget, which has been slashed by 44 percent from last year. Of the jobs on the chopping block, 40 are vacant. The district currently has 768 employees.

“We are blessed with smart and talented people,” said Swiftmud executive director Blake Guillory. “Unfortunately, we are caught in a situation driven by economic conditions. We need to be as thoughtful and helpful as we can during this process while also serving the taxpayers of our area.”

Swiftmud has offered staffers voluntary severance packages for up to 45 days. The district will begin cutting jobs early next year if enough people don’t take the offer.

“As an organization, we have to get leaner and more efficient,” Guillory said. “The more quickly we can get right-sized for our budget and workload, the faster we can move forward, secure in our jobs, to meet the water resource challenges of this district.”

For more information on Swiftmud, visit www.WaterMatters.org or call (800) 848-0499.