The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

Local News

Political meetings set; endorsement given

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Republican club meetings
The Republican Club of Central Pasco and the Pasco Federated Republican Woman’s Club will host a joint meeting on May 21, beginning with a social at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will feature a meet and greet with Pasco County School Board candidates Allen Altman, Cynthia Armstrong, Megan Harding, Heide Janshon and Tara O’Connor.

The meeting also will be a potluck dinner, so bring your favorite dish.  The club will supply the beverages.

The meeting is open to the public, and the club encourages anyone that seeks to be involved in the political process to attend.

The club meets at Copperstone Executive Suites, 3632 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., in Land O’ Lakes. For more information, call (813) 996-3011.

Democratic Club meeting
The Trinity Democratic Club’s May upcoming meeting will feature Ryan Torrens, candidate for Attorney General and Roy David Walker, candidate for Florida Commissioner of Agriculture.

The May 23 meeting starts at 6:30 p.m., at Fox Hollow Golf Club, 10050 Robert Trent Jones Parkway in Trinity. Doors open at 5 p.m., for dinner and happy hour, self-pay, with food and beverages available for purchase throughout the meeting.

For questions, call (415) 609-3633, or email .

Endorsement
Pasco County Clerk and Comptroller Paula S. O’ Neil has endorsed Mike Moore in his re-election bid for the District 2 seat on the Pasco County Commission, according to Moore’s campaign.

Published May 16, 2018

Plans call for aquatics center in Land O’ Lakes

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Conceptual drawings have been done for the Christopher N. Chiles Aquatic Center in Land O’ Lakes that could become a magnet for swimming tournaments, and would provide a wide range of services for swimmers of all ages and abilities.

It would cost about $8 million for the facility, without a complete roof system, said Scott Sutek, executive director for the envisioned aquatic center.

Backers would prefer a building with an indoor pool, but that would cost between $12 million and $15 million, Sutek said.

This rendering shows the proposed Christopher N. Chiles Aquatics Center in Land O’ Lakes. (Courtesy of Scott Sutek)

Efforts began last July to develop a plan for the aquatics center, Sutek said.

The swimming facility at the Land O’ Lakes Recreation Complex, off Collier Parkway, is operating at maximum capacity, prompting the need for a larger facility, Sutek said.

Five teams train at the current pool, and the teams from Sunlake and Land O’ Lakes high schools compete there.

Lorin Macdonald, the facility’s head coach, said the new center ideally would have eight 50-meter lanes that can be transferred over to 20 to 22 short-course lanes.

The center would be able to accommodate long- and short-course competitions, and would give Olympic hopefuls a good place to train, Macdonald said.

The facility also would be able to accommodate hundreds of additional swimmers, Sutek said.

It also would be able to offer water aerobics, synchronized swimming, scuba lessons and training programs for lifeguards, law enforcement officers and public safety, military and CPR.

Practitioners could write prescriptions for aquatic therapy, Sutek said, because the center would have an aquatics therapy room, with a therapy pool.

The new facility also would make it possible to attract competitions, Sutek said.

“We’ve already gotten interest in having events here – local, state and semi-regional events.

“We have the capacity to hold up to the Pro Series events. So, we’ll have local high school and local club swim events that host anywhere from 300 to 1,200 swimmers,” Sutek said.

Local teams currently travel to meets in Largo, South Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Fort Myers, Orlando and Stuart, Macdonald said.

Plans call for building the facility on land donated by Academy at the Lakes, an independent private school.

Academy at the Lakes operates two campuses on Collier Parkway in Land O’ Lakes, but plans to expand to a third location, off Twenty Mile Level Road, off State Road 54. The aquatics center would become part of that campus, on land the school purchased from the MacManus family. The high school from Academy at the Lakes will be using the new facility.

Promoters are ready to get started on pursuing the swimming complex, as soon as they raise the necessary funds, said Sutek, who is serving as the center’s executive director on a strictly volunteer basis.

“When we’re at 50 percent (funding), we’ll go through with the design, and start talking about construction budgets and times, so that we’re ahead of the ballgame when 100 percent costs come in,” Sutek said.

“With this facility, the public will have more use of the pool, all of the time,” Sutek said.

The facility also would create some job opportunities for lifeguards, coaches and operations staff, Sutek said.

The aquatics center will be a nonprofit operation, Sutek said.

“We will focus on a minimum of two charitable organizations right now. One is the Make-A-Splash. The other is the Special Olympics.

Make-A-Splash is part of USA Swimming Foundation.

The aquatics center would like to partner with them, to remove the economic barrier that sometimes prevents children from learning how to swim, Macdonald said.

“A lot of the kids who end up being drowning victims, end up being drowning victims because they come from families who can’t afford swim lessons. It’s important to us that we start getting the entire community involved in swim lessons, so that everybody can swim and help reduce that drowning rate,” she said. “We would also give scholarships to kids to participate on our swim teams and to do team travel,” she added.

Macdonald sees a larger facility as a way to reach more people in the community.

“We want to make sure they have someplace safe where they can come and swim, somewhere where they have programs that are geared toward making sure the community is water safe,” she said.

The new facility also would make it possible to attract world-class competitions, Sutek said.

Swim coach Robin Hilgenberg is a Special Olympics swimming coach.

“We want to be able to train more Special Olympics kids of all ages, instead of the handful we have,” Sutek said. “We would love to host a Special Olympics swim meet, of large magnitude, here in this area.”

Organizers have shared their plans to the Pasco Economic Development Council and received support, Sutek said. A discussion with Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore also was positive, he added.

Next, proponents will be making the rounds to the county’s municipalities and local civic organizations to talk about their vision.

Published May 9, 2018

Pasco Schools seeks to address students’ mental health needs

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Pasco County Schools is searching for additional ways to better serve its students’ mental health needs.

As part of that effort, the school system brought together student services staff and community mental health providers on May 4 for the district’s first-ever Mental Health Symposium. The seminar’s aim was to raise awareness of students’ mental health, build capacity of staff to respond, and increase collaboration between schools and mental health providers.

The daylong event featured a panel discussion on mental health, plus a series of breakout sessions, which covered such topics as eating disorders, anxiety, school-based violence prevention, trauma reduction and supporting recovery, non-suicidal self-injury, connecting mental health services, and so on.

Pasco County Schools’ first annual Mental Health Symposium featured a panel discussion and breakout sessions concerning eating disorders, anxiety, school-based violence prevention, trauma reduction and supporting recovery, non-suicidal self-injury, and connecting mental health services. (Kevin Weiss)

About 280 student services staff — school counselors, school psychologists, school social workers, school nurses and dropout prevention teachers — participated in a morning or afternoon session, said Dave Chamberlin, Pasco Schools student services supervisor.

Pasco County Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning kicked off the event with a brief introduction, during which he underscored the necessity of the district to provide quality education and to meet students’ mental health needs.

“We have got to be singularly focused on meeting those social and emotional needs of our kids,” Browning said, “before they can even learn to do mathematics or science.”

The symposium, which coincided with Mental Health Awareness Month, was at the district’s offices. Planning for it began in September.

In the aftermath of the Valentine’s Day school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that left 17 dead, Browning noted there’s been a renewed emphasis on mental health, and student and staff well-being.

Offering one possible solution of his own, Browning stated he’s a “huge proponent” of trauma-informed care, an organizational structure and treatment framework that involves understanding, recognizing and responding to the effects of all types of trauma.

“We’ve got to get out and educate our teachers — training our teachers and school-based staff about trauma informed care,” the superintendent said.

That suggestion, among many others, was presented during the hour-long panel discussion featuring community mental health providers, a student, and a parent with experience interacting with the system of care.

Access, awareness and availability of mental health services seem to be ongoing barriers, panelists suggested.

Helping younger children
There’s a great need for more pediatric psychiatrists and pediatric bed space in the county, said Craig Leech, program manager for the Land O’ Lakes-based Morton Plant North Bay Hospital Recovery Center.

Leech explained the recovery facility is only able to utilize 20 of its 25 pediatric beds at a time, and there’s oftentimes a waiting list of several days for children to get the mental services and treatment. “At any given day, we are full and do not have bed space. We are the only pediatric receiving facility in Pasco County,” he said.

Another panelist, Doug Leonardo, senior vice president of Chrysalis Health, said more flexibility is needed in providing mental health services for children.

He advocates conducting school behavioral health screenings to flag potential mental health problems with students at a younger age.

“We need to do a better job at getting upstream of these issues. We have universal screenings in schools for hearing and speech…I don’t know why we would not want to do the same things for mental health issues,” he said.

Leonardo, who’s helped provide mental health and substance abuse in Pasco County and other areas for more than 20 years, also supports creating more community partnerships among schools, law enforcement and mental health professionals.

He emphasized the importance of encouraging parents to be unafraid to seek help for their children who may suffer from mental illness.

“We can treat the kids but, if we don’t have the parents engaged and bought in and helped, it doesn’t really work, so we really need that family system to be involved,” the health professional said.

While health experts described some of community resources available to youth, many students are unaware of what’s available to them, Anclote High senior Emily Leopardi said.

Leopardi overcame a broken home and dysfunctional family life, and is on track to graduate high school and attend Hillsborough Community College in the fall. Growing up, she was fortunate to receive counseling and assistance from Youth and Family Alternatives Inc., and Baycare Behavioral Health.

“I would like to see more support in the schools that focus on mental health, and resources for students like myself who’s family life is challenging. …Without the help of these providers, students like myself can fall through the cracks,” she said.

Other panelists, including moderator Monica Rousseau, said reducing the stigma associated to mental health problems must remain a focus.

Rousseau, coordinator for the Pasco County Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention (ASAP), referenced a study that more Americans are starting to understand mental illness is very much a chronic illness, like any other physical illness; yet more and more people are associating mental illness with violent tendencies, she said.

“We have shootings, we have a lot of big news stories that are really skewing the way people view people with mental illness, so it’s really important to be stomping out that stigma,” Rousseau said.

Some issues related to children’s mental health services might soon be mitigated with the recent passing of Senate Bill 7026 (“Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act”).

Besides its various school safety mandates, the new law creates mental health assistance allocation for every school district in Florida.

It also requires school districts to deliver a plan focused on delivering evidence-based mental health treatment, assessment, diagnose, intervention services and so on.

For school districts like Pasco, it marks a “big sea change,” Leonardo said.

“We’re going to start asking school districts to do things that I think, historically, they haven’t focused on doing. It probably happens sporadically, but now it’s being mandated,” Leonardo said.

With a solid foundation and framework, and an influx of funds from the new law, Leonardo noted the district and county as a whole is “in a really good position to make some meaningful changes.”

Published May 9, 2018

Take a free garden tour, learn about sustainability

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People who enjoy learning more about gardening and getting a better understanding about sustainable practices may want to check out the Rosebud Continuum open house.

The free event is set for May 12, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 22843 Hale Road in Land O’ Lakes.

Jerry Comelias holds two white carrots planted by Academy at the Lakes students at the Rosebud Continuum in Land O’ Lakes. (B.C. Manion)

Jerry Comelias, site and educational director for the 14-acre Rosebud Continuum, said the open house is the first full-fledged attempt to let the public know about the project. There was a smaller open house last year, but that was a soft launch, he said.

The upcoming tour features a sustainability farm, a wildflower meadow, friendly goats, aquaponics, hydroponics, Florida native plants, beekeeping and biodigesters.

Tours through the Florida Native Plant Trail feature a Florida Native Wildflower Meadow, with the tours being led by Dr. Craig N. Huegel and Lisa Boing. Tours will be offered at 9 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11 a.m., noon and 12:30 p.m.

Visitors also will be able to learn about biodigesters from Dr. Thomas Culhane, a National Geographic Explorer professor at the Patel College of Global Sustainability and a world traveler. Culhane will explain how biodigesters can take waste and turn it into energy.

Visitors can also check out the hydroponics and aquaponics area, where they can learn how to grow plants without soil. And, they check out the apiary at 10 a.m., to learn how to be a beekeeper.

They also can see a small chicken coop, called a chicken tractor, that is moved around the property, Comelias said.

“We put chickens in it, and they will prepare the ground for growing food. They pull the roots and eat the bugs. It’s really great,” he said.

And, there’s also a petting zoo where children can pet goats.

Jerry Comelias shows off a water heater made from copper pipes that have been painted black, enclosed in plastic wrap.

Comelias, a graduate of the Patel College of Global Sustainability at the University of South Florida, said the project grew out of a partnership between the Patel College, and Sonny and Maryann Bishop family that owns the 14-acre site.

Sonny Bishop, a former National Football League player, also is Lakota Sioux.

The project expresses the Bishop family’s desire to kind of recover some of the indigenous practices previously used in Florida, Comelias said.

A trail leads through a wildflower meadow, which is near the property’s lake.

“We want it to be a place where people can come and reflect, think or pray, or just enjoy being out in nature,” Comelias said.

The open house includes the chance to learn more about biodigesters, which convert food waste into fuel and fertilizer.

The gas that’s produced can be used to fuel a grill, and the liquid fertilizer it yields can be used in gardens and in hydroponic systems, he said. The fertilizer is so highly concentrated, “you can take beach sand, and put that in it, and grow food,” he said.

Beyond the wildflowers, the site features all sorts of ways to grow fruits, vegetables and herbs.

There are hydroponics, aquaponics and traditional garden beds.

Students from Academy at the Lakes and Blake High School are involved with the project.

Lettuce thrives in the greenhouse at the Rosebud Continuum.

Fruits and vegetables being grown at the site include white carrots, strawberries, okra, cabbage, onions, celery, pineapple, tomatoes, Seminole pumpkins, collards, kale, beans, radishes and lettuce. There are all sorts of herbs, as well. And, there’s a variety of trees.

The project aims to look at using natural approaches and keeping the big picture in mind.

The idea is to use systems-thinking when approaching problems, Comelias said.

That means being mindful of potential consequences. For instance, “If we come up with a solution for fuel, is it going to create a problem for food? Is it going to create a problem for water?” he said.

The project aims to help others to learn about sustainable practices.

“We kind of try to do everything in a natural way and help people learn how to do that,” Comelias said. For example, “we hope to do sustainability summer camp for kids and teach them how to turn 2-liter bottles into hydroponic systems.”

There are also some visitors there this week, who traveled from Haiti, to learn about practices they can use at home, Comelias said.

Published May 9, 2018

Pilot code enforcement program yields results

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A more proactive approach to reducing blight in Pasco County appears to be working, and the Pasco County Commission wants the efforts to continue.

Commissioners approved a pilot program in April 2017, described as “high return enforcement.”

The focus was to become more aggressive in pursuing the worst of the county’s code violators through the use of fines and court actions.

A pilot program to take proactive actions to reduce blight in Pasco County resulted in demolition of about 50 mobile homes in the former Lazy Breeze Mobile Home & RV Park, outside Dade City. (Courtesy of Pasco County)

A partnership of county departments, including the county attorney’s office, Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, code enforcement and building inspections have worked together, using existing staff members and resources.

The program has received no dedicated funding.

Assistant County Attorney Kristi Sims presented a progress report during a recent workshop in New Port Richey.

“The idea was to use what we had and to reorganize to take on more than what would normally have been taken on,” said Sims.

The program focused on repeat offenses, danger to health and public safety, and violations with serious impacts to the community.

Highlights from the past year include:

  • 63 blighted structures were demolished by property owners
  • 55 blighted structures were demolished by Pasco County
  • 17 demolitions are pending
  • 10 nonconforming signs have been removed or converted to monument signs
  • 46 signs have been repaired
  • More than 8,500 illegally stored tires were removed from five sites, as a result of lawsuits
  • Lawsuits are pending against five owners of vacant, dilapidated commercial buildings

One court case, settled in 2017, led to the removal of about 40 mobile homes and as many as 15 recreational vehicles at the Lazy Breeze Mobile Home & RV Park, off U.S. 301, outside Dade City.

“We’ve done a lot with a little,” Sims said. “It’s up to the board to decide if they want us to continue doing it.”

The program won praise from county commissioners.

“I think the public really notices,” said Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey.

More than 8,500 illegally stored tires were removed from several sites as a result of a pilot program to take proactive actions to reduce blight in Pasco County.

In her district, Starkey said no one has a problem with removing blight because “it’s keeping their property values down. It’s keeping commerce and business out.”

Pasco County Commission Chairman Mike Wells Jr., also complimented the program’s results.

He had one cautionary caveat.

“We shouldn’t be overregulating and hurting small businesses,” said Wells. But, he did favor demolitions, and other actions that address matters of life and public safety.

The county’s priority is “not to go out and bust people’s chops about a sign or bushes,” he added.

Sims said the program relies on a scoring system to prioritize the worst offenses, including factors such as safety risks.

“Our goal is to strategize enforcement based on the board’s goals,” she said.

“Commercial blight is an expressed priority of this board,” Sims said.

She also noted that the county is flexible in scheduling a timetable to complete repairs.

“Our goal isn’t to eradicate a business or use, if it can be fixed,” Sims said. “What we’re looking for is compliance, and progressing toward fixing it.”

One of the challenges is to balance an employee’s everyday workload with the additional duties required by the new enforcement efforts, Sims said.

A lot of time is taken up with clerical work, and the need for up-to-date communications on work done by multiple departments. Additional staff for clerical work and building inspections is needed, Sims said.

County commissioners seemed to be receptive to the idea of including funds in the 2019 budget to address some of these issues.

Published May 9, 2018

Pasco elementary schools to get safety guards

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The Pasco County School Board approved Superintendent Kurt Browning’s proposal to hire a director of safety and security, and to add up to 50 school safety guards for the district’s elementary schools, according a district news release.

The school board’s action was in response to a 2018 bill that the Legislature passed and the governor signed into law. It requires all school districts to provide security at all schools beginning in the 2018-2019 school year.

The Legislature provided funding in the bill and districts were given three options:

  • Provide school resource officers (SRO) at each school,
  • Provide school safety officers for each school, or
  • Participate in the school guardian program requiring certain school personnel to be armed.

The law also requires each district to appoint a school safety specialist, which is the director of school safety and security position approved by the board.

During a recent school safety workshop, Browning told school board members he would prefer to have an SRO on each of the district’s school campuses, but the district could not afford that option.

The advertisements for the jobs have been posted on the district’s website and its Facebook page.

The district is hosting two recruitment and interview events for the school safety guard positions. They will be on May 10 and May 21, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., in Building 2 of the district office complex, at 7227 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., in Land O’ Lakes. The interviews for the director position will be on May 10 and May 11.

The district’s middle schools and high schools will continue to be staffed by SROs through the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office and municipal police departments.

Published May 9, 2018

Proposed road connection remains controversial

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A proposed 700-home addition to K-Bar Ranch is reopening arguments on the long-debated road connection of Kinnan Street in Hillsborough County and Mansfield Boulevard in Pasco County.

Hillsborough and Pasco officials have disagreed over the connector for at least a decade.

And, Kinnan and Mansfield remain dead-end roadways separated by a weedy plot of land — about 30 feet to 40 feet long.

Barricades are set up on Mansfield Boulevard in Pasco County, where the road dead-ends a short distance from Kinnan Street in the K-Bar ranch development in New Tampa. (File)

Tampa City Council members voted May 3 to postpone a decision on the K-Bar Ranch expansion in New Tampa until June 28.

The added time is to give Hillsborough, Pasco and developers another chance to reach agreement – to connect or not to connect.

However, Pasco isn’t likely to be ready with an answer before September at the earliest.

Pasco County commissioners approved the “Wesley Chapel Roadway Connections Study” in 2017. The study is looking at three potential connectors between the two counties. One is Kinnan and Mansfield.

Other connections under consideration would extend Wyndfields and Meadow Pointe boulevards in Pasco to link with existing and future roads in the K-Bar ranch.

A draft report is scheduled for May 15, but a final recommendation from Pasco’s Metropolitan Planning Organization won’t be presented to the Pasco County Commission until September.

“We’re sticking to our timeline of getting the study and getting public input,” said Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore. “We represent the citizens of Pasco, not the citizens of Hillsborough or Tampa. That’s what we have to be concerned with, what will have a negative impact, what will have a positive impact.”

For residents of New Tampa, the lack of a north/south connector is a traffic hardship on a daily basis. The drive toward Wesley Chapel follows a circuitous route that adds miles and minutes to the trip, coming and going.

“Many of them feel locked in their neighborhoods,” said Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera. “It’s very important to them to have the connector.”

Viera has, to date, been the lone vote on Tampa city council against the K-Bar project, based on the uncertainty over Kinnan and Mansfield.

“It’s a crisis of governments not really working together,” he said. He added, “I certainly hope we can use all of our power…to advocate for this connection to be made.”

Viera said he would bring up the topic on May 11 at a public meeting of the Tampa Bay Transportation Management Area Leadership Group. The group includes representatives from Pinellas County, Pasco, Hillsborough and Tampa, and generally discusses regional transportation issues.

The meeting will be at 9:30 a.m., at the Pasco County Utilities Administration Building, at 19420 Central Blvd., in Land O’ Lakes.

Area residents in Hillsborough and Pasco have competing petitions at Change.org, for and against the connection.

Meadow Pointe II resident Chris Dillinger organized opposition. He lives near the connector site in Pasco, and has children who attend area schools.

Opening Mansfield to additional traffic is a safety issue, he said. “I’m very, very concerned about it,” Dillinger said.

Meadow Pointe II residents also opposed a rezoning for a 7-Eleven gas station and convenience store at Mansfield and County Line Road. The matter was postponed in January to a “time uncertain.”

7-Eleven wants to build there in anticipation of Mansfield and Kinnan linking, and the additional traffic that will flow onto Mansfield, Dillinger said. “That’s still out there,” he added.

Published May 9, 2018

Budget talks look at next two years

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As the Pasco County Commission contemplates the county’s budget for fiscal year 2019, it’s also thinking about the budget for 2020.

Commissioners are looking ahead, because they know that a referendum on the November ballot could have a sizable impact on the county’s budget.

Voters will decide on Nov. 8 whether to expand homestead exemptions by $25,000. If the referendum passes, Pasco County stands to lose an estimated $10 million to $12 million in property tax revenues.

So, instead of looking at just this year’s budget, commissioners are taking a close look on any expenses that could affect future budgets.

Pasco County Administrator Dan Biles has asked department heads to submit flat budgets, with little to no increase.

There are 14 potential budget initiatives that will compete for property tax revenues in the 2019 budget.

Expanded library hours is one of the initiatives competing for the funds. Libraries slated to get more hours in 2019 are Hugh Embry Branch Library in Dade City and Hudson Regional Library in Hudson.

Other budget initiatives include the 911 Call Center and salary increases for county employees.

Salary raises would be 2 percent for cost of living, and 2 percent for merit.

Biles said employees “are our most important resources.

“That’s my No. 1 priority, taking care of our employees. We need to stay competitive.”

As they consider budget priorities, commissioners also are facing a Pasco County Sheriff’s budget request for a total of about $12.6 million.

Of that, about $7.2 million is for operations, with about $5.4 million for the cost of temporary housing for inmates at the overcrowded Land O’ Lakes Detention Center.

The county’s 2018 budget came in at about $1.3 billion, with no change to the existing millage rate.

The millage rate determines how much the county collects from property taxes.

Estimates on new property tax revenues for 2019 have increased slightly. In February, county officials anticipated a 7.5 percent increase of about $13.3 million.

The estimate now is for about an 8 percent increase, or $14.2 million. However, once deductions are made for items such as payments for special tax districts, community redevelopment areas, and temporary housing for inmates, the county’s portion of new money dips to about $3.7 million.

Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco’s operations budget – separate from inmates’ temporary housing – is about a 6 percent increase. That’s a smaller increase than the $8.1 million requested in 2018, which paid for raises, equipment and new hires.

Nocco brought up the issue of overcrowding at a February workshop with commissioners.

In his budget letter to the board on May 1, Nocco puts the blame for the matter on the “failure of (the) past County administration.”

No action in past years was taken to approve a 1,000-bed expansion, estimated at around $128 million.

Now, according to Nocco, the county can expect an annual bill of about $9.8 million to pay for temporary housing, until the jail expansion is built.

“It has now become a burdensome, unfunded liability for the county,” Nocco states in his letter, which commissioners didn’t receive until after their May 1 workshop.

At the February workshop, county commissioners discussed placing bond issues before the voters to pay for the jail expansion, other public safety projects, and libraries.

No decision has been made.

Current options for inmate’s temporary housing include transferring some inmates to Seminole County, possibly Hernando County, and installing trailers at the detention center. The cost of a contract with Seminole is estimated at $2.5 million, with another $2.4 million for trailers at the detention center.

Pasco County officials expect to receive the final taxable assessed values from the Pasco County Property Appraiser by July 1.

Commissioners would then set the millage rate on July 10, and the budget would be finalized in September.

The fiscal year for 2019 begins Oct. 1.

Published May 9, 2018

Three Wesley Chapel teams competing at world finals

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Three teams from Wesley Chapel are heading to Iowa State University to compete at the 2018 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals, in Ames, Iowa.

Some competitors from all three teams already know what it’s like to compete on the world stage.

That’s because they were members of Wesley Chapel Elementary, which brought home the top prize.

Members of one of the Thomas E. Weightman teams that are going to World Finals are, from left: Jake Piller, Zachary Mihelich, Claire Donahue, an adult spontaneous judge, Miriame Melaika, Izzy Piller and Maya Kurian. (Courtesy of Brian Mihelich)

The students on last year’s Wesley Chapel Elementary team are now divided between this year’s three qualifying teams. One is at Wesley Chapel Elementary and the other two are from Thomas E. Weightman Middle, just down the road.

To get to the 39th World Finals, tens of thousands of students from around the globe used their creativity and teamwork to create original solutions to problems, according to the Odyssey of the Mind website.

Brian Mihelich, coach of one of the Weightman teams, said the kids who won last year have benefitted their new teams.

“To get to that level, you have to be so dynamic and creative — definitely by having those kids on separate teams, it contributed, without a doubt,” Mihelich said.

The Wesley Chapel Elementary team won first place at the regional, state and world competitions last year, and hopes to repeat that accomplishment this year.

Three of the original team members remain on the elementary school team, while the others went to middle school teams.

Maya Kurian, Zachary Mihelich, Jake Piller, Izzy Piller and Reeya Latchana work together to make a prop for an Odyssey of the Mind competition.

Experience in the competition helps, said Mihelich, who has coached for four years.

“We’ve got two kids on the team that have been with Odyssey for five years. One that’s been in Odyssey for three years; one for two years; and then one, it’s their first year,” he said.

He thinks the program helps young students develop a new way of approaching challenges.

“I believe that this is one of the most valuable programs that are out there. It’s academic, combined with the performing arts. When you put the two together, it’s a different way of thinking,” he said.  “Odyssey of the Mind is all about coming up with a solution to a problem that no one else would.”

It also gives students a chance to compete with students from all over the world, and it’s a program for students from kindergarten through college.

Mihelich’s son, Zachary, who is on the team, “absolutely loves it,” the coach said.

“He is so incredibly passionate about Odyssey. He loves the teamwork side, the creative side, the competitive side.”

Izzy Piller and Zachary Mihelich work on one of the team’s props.

Mihelich added: “Every team has a little different level of intensity. My group — they’re pretty competitive,” he said. They set a goal at the beginning of the year to qualify for the world competition.

Early on, they were meeting about 40 hours a month. Later on, it increased to about 80 hours a month.

“My garage is 100 percent OM (Odyssey of the Mind),” said Mihelich, who lives in Epperson.

The team works hard, Mihelich said, but their parents also play an important role.

“I’ve got some really committed, just awesome parents this year, too. Without the parents’ full support — behind their kids and me as a coach, and just the team in general — it wouldn’t be possible. These parents have been phenomenal.

As the teams gear up to compete at World, they’re also raising money.

Mihelich’s team is holding car washes and taking orders for boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

Anyone who would like to help any of the teams can reach out to either Wesley Chapel Elementary or Thomas E. Weightman Middle, to get in touch with the coaches.

Those wishing to help Mihelich’s team can reach him at .

Published May 9, 2018

Pasco High student earns top score in nation

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Madison Hoyle spent hours upon hours reviewing practice problems and quizlets, so she’d be fully prepared for the Cambridge International AS Psychology exam.

It turns out that was time well-spent for the Pasco High senior.

Hoyle was recently recognized by Cambridge Assessment International Education for achieving the highest score in the nation on the psychology exam, outperforming all other American students.

Pasco High School senior Madison Hoyle was recently recognized for scoring highest in the nation on the Psychology AS. (Courtesy of Madison Hoyle)

Her actual score was not released because of Cambridge’s data privacy policy.

Hoyle and other Pasco High students in the Cambridge program took the two-part, written psychology exam last May.

The first paper required students to recall details of well-known psychological studies, such as the Milgram and Stanford Prison experiments.

The second paper required students to evaluate the experiments by explaining given strengths and weaknesses, and providing a better, alternative study themselves.

Hoyle, in a recent interview with The Laker/Lutz News, said she was “blown away” when she heard about the high mark.

Nevertheless, Hoyle admitted the exam as a whole wasn’t too difficult, noting the first written exercise was easier than the second “just because it was a lot of being able to memorize.”

Said Hoyle, “I pretty much spent like three days memorizing all that stuff, so I knew pretty much that I was pretty good on paper one. Paper two was challenging because you kind of had to talk about all the studies as a whole and compare them.”

The Cambridge curriculum can be compared to Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) curricula, whereby students in the high school program can earn college credits and an international diploma. Those who earn the diploma also qualify for a Florida Bright Futures College scholarship.

In 2017, students in the United States completed nearly 100,000 Cambridge International AS & A Level exams, a record number and an increase of 23 percent over the prior school year, according to Cambridge International.

Hoyle, a Zephyrhills native, has been taking Cambridge classes at Pasco High since her freshman year.

In choosing the accelerated academic program, it was a matter of convenience compared to the IB program at Land O’ Lakes High School.

Hoyle said she was debating whether to do IB or Cambridge and decided on Cambridge because she didn’t want to get up really early to take a bus over to Land O’ Lakes.

She also liked the fact that Cambridge didn’t require her “to take classes like fine arts and gym and that kind of thing, and I could actually take classes that were interesting that would also count as college credit.”

Because of all the Cambridge credits she earned, Hoyle said her college freshman year will be mostly complete.

Hoyle will attend Florida Gulf Coast University in the fall, where she plans to study biology. She eventually wants to go to medical school and become an emergency room doctor.

She said the Cambridge program helped her to become a better learner, which may ease the transition to college life.

In some instances, Cambridge courses were more challenging than AP courses, the student said.

“I think the fact that all of the (Cambridge) tests were written helped because I actually had to know things to be able to write them down, instead of being able to try and guess on it,” Hoyle said.

“Even though there are some written responses on AP, it’s primarily multiple choice, so even if you don’t know how to do the problem, there’s a chance that you can kind of guess on it. With Cambridge, there’s really no way to go around that. You actually have to have the information and be able to do it.”

Hoyle wasn’t the only Pasco High student recognized by Cambridge International.

Thirty of her peers were also recipients for Cambridge Learner Awards for their achievement on Cambridge examinations for the 2016-2017 school year.

And, Pasco County Schools as a whole was named District of the Year — Medium Sized Cambridge District.

The district was recognized for expanding access to Cambridge exams by more than 100 percent and achieving a pass rate of 76 percent.

The district launched the Cambridge education program at Pasco High and Pasco Middle schools in 2014.

The acceleration program has since been incorporated into San Antonio Elementary, Paul R. Smith Middle and Anclote High schools.

Pasco High teacher Erika Simmons administers several Cambridge courses, including psychology.

She taught many of the students recognized by Cambridge, including Hoyle.

“They’re a tremendously bright group of kids that for being part of a program so new, they’ve been able to thrive and be very successful, and patient,” the teacher said.

Simmons, who previously taught AP classes for several years at Wiregrass Ranch High, explained it was a “huge change” for instructors and students adjusting to the Cambridge educational style.

In the AS-level Psychology course, for example, students focused on 20 different studies or experiments in depth, ranging from biological to social psychology. The students were then required to not only have in-depth knowledge about each study but also be able to critically evaluate the study on topics, such as usefulness, validity, reliability and ethics.

Said Simmons, “The biggest thing is (students) learn to really be critical thinkers… and they learn how to really deconstruct information. They do a lot of reflecting on the process of learning, and I think that whole reflection process pushes them to another area of learning that AP really doesn’t offer as much.”

She continued: “They’re taught to question the validity, the credibility of sources, whether it’s in psychology, chemistry, in the news. They’ve learned to be critical of things, as well as getting multiple perspectives on things…and then analyzing, ‘OK, well which one of these do I go with? What do I support?’”

Simmons was initially astonished, yet ultimately not surprised, when she heard Hoyle achieved the nation’s highest mark on last May’s psychology exam.

The teacher described Hoyle as “incredibly diligent and focused.”

Simmons added: “She’s an out-of-the box thinker. She doesn’t come to deal with the generic ideas. She does bring new ideas and questions in her studies.

“Last year, when I would grade Madison’s papers or I’d grade the whole class, if I was frustrated that kids weren’t getting it, I could always go to Madison’s paper and be like, ‘OK, I know she’s going to get it because she always did. It was consistent. …I don’t think she got anything but As on her exams last year, so I knew that she always showed that she knew what she was doing. I never worried about her,” the teacher said.

Pasco High School Cambridge Scholar Award winners

  • Andrew Hull
  • Carrie Greene
  • Tam-An Hoang
  • Kayleigh Heather
  • Drew Johnston
  • Julia Gregory
  • Madison Jender
  • Madison Hoyle
  • Sylvia Martinez
  • Molly Bentley
  • Savannah Jividen
  • Mackenzie Green
  • Taylor Hays-Lankford
  • Elizabeth Coleman
  • Allyson Worthy
  • Brendan College
  • Brittnee Hampton
  • Hazel Wilburn
  • Lindsey Torres
  • Akosua Kissi
  • Nathalie Sawczuk
  • Micaela Blomeley
  • Annemarie Peacock
  • Amber Wood
  • Susana Stripling
  • Maunel Tarango
  • Brian Andruskiewicz
  • Emily Weiser
  • Jillyan Jerkins
  • Cara Dwyer

Published May 9, 2018