Special to The Laker/Lutz News

By B.C. Manion

Troy Button Jr. strode across the stage to accept his diploma from Pasco-Hernando Community College, and less than a minute later, his mother, Laura Button walked across the stage to get her diploma, too.

The mother and son took very different paths to their degrees.

The son is on a fast track. He started taking college classes as a sophomore at Sunlake High.

The mother, on the other hand, completed requirements for the Associate of Arts degree that she began pursuing more than two decades ago.

Life intervened, she explained.  “You meet people,’’ she said, nodding to her husband, Troy Button Sr. “You get married, you know. You have kids.”

When her son announced that he would be taking dual enrollment courses at Sunlake, Laura got busy. She was determined that he would not get his degree ahead of her.

Her goal was to complete her requirements so that she could get her associate’s on the same day as her son.

When it came time to cross the stage during the commencement exercise on the afternoon of May 4, she told her son to go first. She wanted the event to be about him, not her, she said.

The two graduates were among 375 who received diplomas or certificates during morning and afternoon ceremonies at PHCC’s campus in New Port Richey. All together, 830 people were eligible to participate, but most chose not to take part in the day’s festivities.

For those who took part in the afternoon ceremony, the place was packed with people clutching bouquets of flowers, clinging to balloons, shooting videotape and snapping photographs.

Laura said her son not only inspired her to finish the requirements for a degree, but also spurred her to perform well in her classes.

They had some classes together, including math, photography and an online science course. “He was competition,” Laura said, adding, “We both got As.”

Both graduates said their family’s support helped them to attain their AA degree.

Laura said her husband played a huge role.

“He picked up all of the slack,” she said. He pitched in to make sure their other son, Tylor, got to school and that the 9-year-old did his homework.

Her husband also helped with laundry, cleaning and dinner, Laura said. “He just did it all.”

Troy Jr. feels lucky, too.

“If I were in any other family, I probably wouldn’t get the encouragement that I do,” he said.

For his part, Laura’s husband is proud of both graduates.

“It was fun watching them both go to school together,” he said.

“When Troy was in elementary school, he was kind of the class clown,” his father recalled.

Not anymore.

“He’s very serious about what he does. He’s very focused,” Troy Sr. said.

He’s also impressed with his wife. He praised her for “sticking with it.”

Tylor is proud, too.

“It was lots of hard work. It finally paid off,” he said.

Troy Jr. is unsure of where he’ll go to college, but he is certain about his career path: “I’m an aspiring filmmaker,” he said.

The reason he took college courses during high school was so that he could finish college earlier and get started on pursuing his dream.

He has broad interests when it comes to making films.

“I want to do all different kinds of genres, cover a whole variety of films. I want to do documentaries, action, comedies, horror,” he said.

Laura also intends to pursue a bachelor’s degree, but not on her son’s timetable.

After all, she does have her husband, children and a full-time job to consider.

And the family isn’t finished celebrating, either.

As if last week’s graduation wasn’t enough excitement, the family still has another graduation on their agenda.

On May 28, they’ll be heading to Sunlake High’s commencement ceremony.

He finished his requirements in December, but wants to mark the end of his high school years with his friends in Sunlake’s Class of 2011.

At that ceremony, Laura will be playing another role. She’ll be sitting with the rest of the family when her son crosses that stage to get his diploma.

By B.C. Manion

It’s 9 o’clock on a Thursday morning and students are streaming into Miriam Cohen Humphrey’s classroom.

They’re chatting as they sit down, but as Humphrey begins to talk, the students settle down to listen.

She tells them what’s on tap for the day.

Half the room will create a menu for a restaurant with any theme.

“Think about what we talked about this week about how menu items are described,” she reminds them.

Attention to detail is important. The menu must include three appetizers, three soups/salads, three entrees and three desserts. It must include a description of each item and its price.

Students are not allowed to copy the name of any existing restaurant or its menu items.

She tells them to give their restaurant a new name, not one that’s already in the market.

“Come up with your own unique spin on these. Think about current trends.”

While some students get busy on this assignment, the other students troop into the kitchen.

They know the drill.

They grab aprons, take out their recipe and get to work.

Today’s assignment: Make macaroni and cheese from scratch.

The chore involves locating the proper cooking pans, grating cheese, boiling whole-wheat pasta and making a creamy cheese sauce.

Once the cooked pasta and cheese sauce are combined, a member of each team spoons a portion into an individual serving tin. A sprinkling of grated cheese goes on top of the macaroni and the tins go into the oven for a quick broil. When the dish is finished, the containers are pulled out of the oven and the students sit down to eat their pasta.

All of this happens within 50 minutes during the Career Discovery Culinary 1 class at Martinez Middle School in Lutz.

In today’s cooking lab, the focus is on learning to work together as a team, which means dividing the duties to make sure everything gets done on time, said Humphrey, recently named the Outstanding Middle School Teacher of the Year by the Hillsborough Technical Career and Adult Association.

Humphrey knows about being a team player, according to a profile put together for the awards program.

Besides giving students a wide range of opportunities, she also has helped new Family and Consumer Sciences teachers and has allowed new teachers to shadow her.

She’s also written exams and exam reviews and currently is developing county curriculum for her course.

In the classroom, she runs a café for her advanced culinary students. She’s also partnered with Steinbrenner High, to give her students a chance to see “a day in the life” of a high school culinary student.

In a quest to help the entire school, she has written articles highlighting good foods to eat before taking a test.

Before becoming an educator, Humphrey did catering and banquet work at several resort hotels.

She thinks that background has helped her to know what skills her student need to possess to get a job in the hospitality industry.

Being able to work on a team is critical, she said.

“That’s what happens in a true kitchen. You don’t have one person creating the entire meal. You have a line cook over here, making the rice. You have a line cook over here, making the meat. You have a line cook over here making the vegetables and they bring it together on one plate and send it out.’’

Learning to work as a team can be a hard lesson for middle-schoolers, Humphrey said.

Some may want to boss others around; others may want to talk with friends instead of completing their tasks.

“Even the best of friends can be the worst teammate. I tell them this all of the time,” said Humphrey, who did not picture herself as a teacher while pursuing her bachelor’s degree at the University of South Florida.

Initially, she majored in voice performance.

“My passion in life was music. My mom was involved in it, too,” said the Wesley Chapel woman, who is married to Joe Humphrey, a teacher at Hillsborough High and associate editor of The Laker/Lutz News. The couple has a 3-year-old son, Andrew.

Humphrey learned a lot about cooking from her mother.

“She was always in the kitchen, or teaching music. It was one of the two, so I always felt kind of connected to both,” she said.

Unfortunately, her mother passed away about a year and a half ago, Humphrey said. Teaching students to prepare foods from scratch is, in some ways, therapeutic, she said.

After getting her undergraduate degree in communication, Humphrey worked in the hospitality industry, doing catering and banquets. She loved the work, but not the hours.

At the same time, she’d become very interested in nutrition.

Her husband mentioned she might want to consider teaching, since schools offer nutrition and food prep courses.

“Somehow, it all fell together,” said Humphrey, who landed a job at Martinez Middle and completed the district’s Alternative Certification Program.

She’s been teaching at Martinez for six years and has had some of the same students for three of those years.

They know their way around the kitchen and operate Café 409, which makes snack items and provides goodies for school events and occasions, such as Administrative Professionals Day or Teacher Appreciation Week.

Humphrey teaches students how to make their favorite foods — such as tacos, pizza, baked ziti and cake — from scratch.

“If I brought in a box of cake mix, I’m not actually teaching them how to bake a cake,” Humphrey said.

By preparing fresh, instead of packaged food, the students can use natural ingredients and skip the preservatives. They also can make healthier versions of foods they enjoy.

For instance, her students make tacos with chicken, black beans and corn.

“A lot of the kids, when they first saw the recipe it was like, “Black beans! I’m not doing it.”

But when they tried it, they liked it.

Students said they enjoy Humphrey’s teaching style and were pleased to see her work recognized.

“She’s very patient,” said 14-year-old Taylor Perez, who has been in Humphrey’s classes for three years. “She always has something fun to do.”

“We learn a lot from her. Everyone shows a lot of respect for her,” said student Alyssa Furr.

“She helps you understand,” added Lexi Crocus, who along with her classmate, Samantha Swanson, won first place in the cookie jar baking competition at the Florida Strawberry Festival. The girls made nine different kinds of cookies for their cookie jar, and provided a recipe card for each.

Humphrey enjoys helping students feel comfortable using kitchen tools.

Some arrive at her classroom never having used a can opener, or an oven.

That’s no big deal to Humphrey. She shows them what to do.

When working with sixth-graders, she goes step-by-step. She gives her more advanced students more complex assignments and greater latitude.

But she keeps an eye on them.

“I’ll stop them if I see an error about to happen,” she said.

She’s vigilant about safety, too.

Humphrey said she’s going to miss her eighth-graders when they move on to high school.

“When you have kids for three years, they want to be here. They want to do a good job. They want to impress you and do amazing things. I don’t have to try to coax these kids to do anything. They just jump right up and go, “Yep, we’ll do it.”

“I think I’m going to cry when these kids leave.”

By Kyle LoJacono

The newly appointed Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco isn’t wasting any time when it comes to leading the department.

So when questions about any potential political run for the position comes up, he quickly redirects the conversation.

“Right now my main goal is to lead this department,” Nocco, 35, said. “I could say I want to run for the position in 2012, but that takes away from the real goals we have. Anything that takes away from that is something I’m not interested in.”

Two priorities rise to the top of Nocco’s list.

“I was a street cop and I still see myself as a street cop,” Nocco said. “I have the philosophy that our people on the street need to have the confidence to do their job, and I will support them as long as they are following the law. I want them to know that I’m behind them.

“My other main priority is putting bad people behind the bars at the Land O’ Lakes jail,” Nocco continued. “I believe strongly those people should be arrested and locked up. If the people committing crimes are behind bars, then this whole area will be safer for everyone.”

Nocco, an Odessa resident, has worked with the sheriff’s office the last two years, where he held the rank of major and has overseen the law enforcement elements of the department. He was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to replace Bob White, who retired the post April 30 during his third term.

Nocco was one of three finalists for the position. Fellow Pasco Sheriff’s Office Maj. Brian Head and local lawyer Kerry O’ Connor were the others.

Scott called Nocco the morning of April 28 to inform him he was the next sheriff.

“I was a little shocked and surprised,” Nocco said. “I wanted the opportunity to lead the department, and I wondered what I would do if I had the chance.”

During his pondering, Nocco realized protecting Pasco’s citizens goes farther than just law enforcement.

“I was with the police department just across the river from Washington D.C. during 9/11 and the D.C. sniper in the 1990s,” Nocco said. “That taught me we need to prepare for anything, whether that’s a natural disaster, crime or something else.”

While being prepared for anything, Nocco wants to look at how to maximize the use of the department’s resources.

“People should see us as a squared away and well-run office,” Nocco said. “What’s very important is finding the most efficient way to build a world-class law enforcement office.”

Nocco will complete White’s term as the sheriff, which ends in 2012. He said he respects the work White has done to build a strong foundation in making the agency he envisions.

Nocco grew up in what he described as a blue collar Philadelphia neighborhood. His father James is a retired captain from the Philadelphia Police Department and Nocco developed a respect for public service at a young age.

“Our neighbors were police officers, firefighters, construction workers. The people who made the community work and also the people who were our sports coaches, volunteers and leaders,” Nocco said.

Nocco started working in law enforcement in 1999. He moved to Florida in 2003 and has worked with the Florida Highway Patrol. He was also deputy chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio when Rubio was Florida Speaker of the House.

State Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said he has worked with Nocco and believes Scott made right selection for the sheriff.

“We have known each other for years and he is a very good man,” Weatherford said. “He has the right mindset and skills to get the job done.”

Weatherford also praised White for his, “years of honorable service to Pasco County.”

Nocco said he believes the role of every law enforcement officer does not stop with their paid duties, but extends into community service. He is a member of Our Lady of the Rosary’s chapter of the Knights of Columbus, a faith-based organization that supports people and families in need. He is also a volunteer soccer coach at the YMCA in Trinity.

Nocco and his wife Bridget have three children. His two sons Alex and Xavier are ages 4 and 3, respectively, while daughter Gabriella is 20 months.

 

By Kyle LoJacono

Hillsborough County commissioners will need to find another source of the $1.6 million needed to help buy land for a planned regional park in Odessa/Keystone.

The board originally proposed taking $1.6 million allocated for a community center in Citrus Park to buy the 40 acres of land in the area of Gunn Highway and Van Dyke Road, which would cost $3.1 million. Public outcry changed the commissioners’ minds and a new vote reversed the move on May 4.

“The money should stay in that community,” said Commissioner Ken Hagan. “It was promised to them.”

Hagan expressed his support for the yet unbuilt center in Citrus Park, despite recently saying, “I don’t think we would ever be able to build a Citrus Park center in the current economy.”

Hagan and Hillsborough Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department Director Mark Thornton said such centers are too expensive to continue operating once built in the current economy.

Hagan, who lives in northwest Hillsborough, said the money would be better used to expand the Citrus Park Little League complex with new fields. Thornton said adding to that facility would add very little operating cost to the county budget.

While the money has been allocated for a Citrus Park center, no location has been set for its construction since it was first provided for in 2005.

The proposed park in Odessa/Keystone would likely have soccer and other athletic fields and a possibly a skate park, according to Thornton.

By B.C. Manion

Lots of changes are in the works for the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce.

The organization has named David R. Weis as its new director of operations and has named Christine X. Hope as it new director of sales and marketing.

Besides making these two key staffing decisions, the chamber also is getting ready to move to a new location and has shifted the dates of two of its major annual events.

After David West left as the chamber’s executive director, the organization decided to replace that job with two positions.

As director of operations, Weis will oversee the chamber’s administrative functions, while Hope handles sales, marketing and event planning.

“David has a strong IT background,” said Laura Miller, chamber president. “David is revamping all of the technology. There’s going to be a lot more Facebook and Twitter.”

As it upgrades its technological capabilities, the chamber will be offering more web advertising to its members, Miller said.

Hope had been working for the chamber as the events coordinator before being named to her new post.

When the sales and marketing position opened, Miller said she asked Hope if she had any interest in applying.

Initially, Hope wasn’t interested in pursuing the post because she had planned to open her own marketing company. But she changed her mind and decided to pursue the position.

Besides handling the sales and marketing, Hope will also be working on chamber events, Miller said.

The decision was made to divide the duties into two positions because different strengths are needed for the two positions, Miller said. However, it is essential Weis and Hope work well together, and Miller said she is confident they will.

Meanwhile, the chamber also is moving to a new location at 6013 Wesley Grove Blvd., Suite 105, in The Grove, which includes entertainment, retail and office space.

“We’re really racing against the clock,” Miller said.

The chamber will be out of its current office by May 10 and will be into its new space on June 1. In the interim it may lease some temporary space, Miller said.

The chamber chose to move to The Grove because it is a higher-profile location and has easy access to chamber members because of its proximity to Interstate 75.

The chamber also is changing the timing of two of its major events. The health fair will be held in the fall and the winner of its Honorary Mayor contest will be announced in December.

The health fair was moved to a time of year when the weather is more pleasant, Miller said.

The slate for the Honorary Mayor will be announced at the organization’s July mixer, with the winner named at the December mixer, Miller said.

That will give the candidates a good length of time to raise money for their campaign, which is a chamber fundraiser, Miller said.

By Gary S. Hatrick

The Zephyrhills City Council has offered the job of city manager to James Drumm of High Springs.

The council had interviews and a reception on Friday, May 6 with three finalists for the position.

The council ranked Drumm first, ahead of James Coleman of Lady Lake and Richard Reed of Auburndale.

Drumm had recently been the city manager of High Springs, near Gainesville, for 6.5 years and previously had served for 7.5 years as city manager in Lake Alfred, in Polk County.

“I have over 20 years of public management experience, with the majority of this time as a Florida city manager,” Drumm wrote in his application to the city. “I am a ‘hands on’ manager, however I do not micromanage and I do work with my department directors and management staff as a team … I have a great understanding of Florida municipal law and the many varied aspects of municipal government, from record archiving, budgeting, purchasing to excelling in program delivery in crucial areas such as emergency services and public works capital construction projects. I am available to the citizens, staff and elected officials.”

The city will now negotiate a contract with Drumm, said City Council president Jodi Wilkerson. City staff will determine an appropriate salary and city attorney Joe Poblick will look up contracts from other cities that have a four-fifths super majority for the removal of the city manager and compare them to the current city manager’s contract to come up with a contract to offer to Drumm once it is approved by city council.

Councilman Lance Smith thanked the rest of the council and city staff and all involved in the selection for a “smooth” process. Current manager Steve Spina is retiring.