Search Results for: Sanders Elementary School

By B.C. Manion

Superintendent Kurt Browning has recommended the termination of Anna Falcone, principal of Connerton Elementary in Land O’ Lakes.

Falcone was placed on administrative leave March 22, pending the Pasco County School Board’s action on Browning’s recommendation.

Aimee Boltz will serve as acting principal until a permanent replacement is named.

Browning called for Falcone’s dismissal based on allegations that she breached confidentiality and had been insubordinate, according to a district release.

The breach of confidentiality related to a climate survey conducted in February at every school in the district that posed questions about school culture, communication, collaboration and other topics, said Linda Cobbe, district spokeswoman.

The questionnaires were filled out by staff, students and parents, and those completing them were assured their names and responses would be kept “strictly confidential,” Cobbe said.

At least three administrators told Falcone she could not have access to the names of school staff members who responded to the survey, but she got that information “under-handedly,” the release states. Individual responses were not compromised.

Browning said it was brought to his attention “that Mrs. Falcone persisted in seeking confidential information after repeatedly being denied the information by her superiors. … I cannot and will not tolerate such insubordination, especially when it brings into question the integrity of this school system.”

After previous complaints about Falcone’s leadership, former Superintendent Heather Fiorentino transferred an assistant principal and gave staff members the option to transfer to other schools.

Browning also said, “We were working with Mrs. Falcone to address parental and staff concerns by assigning a principal coach and providing additional supports from the district. Unfortunately, her actions related to the surveys constitute insubordination, violate district policy and may violate the educator code of ethics.”

Falcone started her career in Pasco schools an as intermediate teacher at San Antonio Elementary. She was an assistant principal at Pine View Elementary before being appointed as principal at Sanders Elementary, both in Land O’ Lakes.

She took leadership of Connerton when Sanders closed and the students, faculty and staff moved to the Land O’ Lakes school when it opened in 2010.

An attempt was made to reach Falcone by email at the school on March 22, but it was unsuccessful.

—Editor Kyle LoJacono contributed to this story

By B.C. Manion

Picture, if you will, a place in Land O’ Lakes where young boys play football, families watch entertainment and children study outdoors.

Those are just a few of the scenes that Pasco County and Pasco County Schools officials envision as a result of an agreement to share their facilities.

The county is planning $1.5 million of improvements at the Land O’ Lakes Community Park, 5401 US 41. The upgrades are projected to be finished by the middle of 2014.

The school board expects to spend $15 million to redevelop Sanders Memorial Elementary, located behind the community center and park at 5126 School Road.

Both parties want to make the best use of their facilities and have inked a deal that spells out an arrangement.

The deal calls for the county to build a football practice field on school board property, said John Petrashek, director of construction services for Pasco County Schools. A youth athletic league will use the field on weekends and evenings when school is out.

The county has agreed to install Bermuda grass and an irrigation system. It will also mow the field, provide lighting and pay the utility costs.

In exchange, the county will use some of the facilities at the school, including a basketball court, parking and a covered play area.

Children from Sanders will be using the practice football field for their physical education classes. They will also have access to the rest of the park, which includes parkland, a picnic shelter and a walking trail.

The school principal and park-site manager will work out the arrangements for sharing the uses, in order to avoid any conflicts, said Rick Buckman, director of parks and recreation for county.

In addition to the walking trail, which will feature markers detailing facts about the area’s history, the park will also have an outdoor stage. The Heritage Park Foundation has advocated for such an amenity for years to provide a focal point for community gatherings.

Buckman said the county and school board have been interested in working together to share these facilities for years, but the timing was never quite right.

At one point, it appeared that Sanders would reopen long before the park improvements would be funded, Buckman said.

The school district had funded the design of Sanders in 2008, but the project was put on hold because the housing market crashed.

Now, the district is looking to open Sanders for the 2015-16 school year, said Chris Williams, director of planning services for the school district. Sanders will relieve overcrowding at Oakstead and Connerton elementary schools, which are both operating above their planned capacity.

The school will be almost entirely new, Petrashek said. Just three buildings were saved on the site. The rest have been demolished.

“Some of those buildings were built back in the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s,” Petrashek said.

Before offering greater access for recreation, the arrangement between the school district and county will give taxpayers a bigger bang for their buck, Buckman said.

In addition to the arrangement at the Land O’ Lakes facility, the county and school district are pursuing the same idea in the developments of Connerton, Starkey Ranch and the Villages of Pasedena Hills.

By B.C. Manion

Plans are under way to improve the existing facilities and to add some new amenities at the Land O’ Lakes Community Center and adjacent park.

A meeting was scheduled last week to discuss the conceptual plans, but it was cancelled because of severe weather. A new meeting date will be scheduled to discuss the conceptual plans and to seek community feedback.

Plans for an estimated $2 million in improvements include a softball field, a football field, a sports practice area that’s about the size of a football field, and a building which includes a concession stand, restrooms and storage space, according to Rick Buckman, director of the Pasco County Parks and Recreation Department.

Plans also call for an open area for community get-togethers, an area designated for an outdoor stage, a paved perimeter walking path and paved parking.

The estimated $2 million cost for the project, at 5401 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., includes construction and design, according to an email from Buckman.

The timetable for the project is uncertain.

The county hopes it can create a partnership with Pasco County Schools on this project, which would involve an agreement for sharing space with Sanders Elementary, Buckman noted.

“For instance, the schools would use some park amenities during school hours and the general public would use some school amenities when school is not in session,” his email states. Doing that would help the county and the school district make the most efficient use of tax dollars.

The county’s design and construction work is paid for with impact fees, Buckman said. “Operational funding has not been identified; hence design is currently going through 30 percent,” he writes.

Operations and maintenance likely will be discussed this summer, he added. However, he also noted: “Continued reduction in property tax revenues has made it difficult to maintain current service levels.”

Despite the uncertain timetable for the project, Sandy Graves, president of the Heritage Park Foundation, said she’s pleased that progress is being made on planning improvements for the park.

The foundation is working to raise money for an outdoor stage, which Graves hopes will encourage gatherings where people can have good, old-fashioned fun.

“I’m very happy they’ve left a spot (on the plan),” Graves said. An architect who lives in the community already has offered to help with the stage’s design.

The group also wants to install historical markers along the planned pathway on the park’s perimeter.

Native Susan MacManus, who has deep knowledge of the community’s history, has agreed to provide the historical information needed for the project, Graves said.

Building a sense of community is important, Graves said. It has both tangible and intangible benefits, she said.

It helps fulfill a basic human need of fellowship, she said. It also helps create a sense of well-being, which ultimately has a positive impact on an area’s economic value, Graves said. People naturally gravitate to areas where their needs are being met, she said.

By B.C. Manion

Chances are you’ve never heard of Ivan, a giraffe who teaches children the importance of self-acceptance.
If Wesley Chapel author Linda Rossetti Brocato has it her way, though, copies of her book, “Ivan Becomes a Hero,” will one day be in the hands of children around the globe.

“I want to get it wherever there is a child whose heart can be touched by Ivan,” Brocato said.
She thinks the book delivers an important message.
“In this day and time, when there is so much bullying and unkindness, I want children to know that they are fearfully and wonderfully made, even if they’re different,” said Brocato, who based the book’s central theme on Psalm 139, Verse 14.
The verse reads in part: “I am wonderfully and fearfully made.”
“I want them (children) to see that they are a treasure. It’s not an accident the way they are made,” said Brocato, a former Sanders Memorial Elementary school teacher, who just completed a recent book tour in Mississippi.
Brocato said she came up with the idea for her book 12 years ago, while visiting a wildlife refuge in California. When she saw a baby giraffe at the refuge, she jotted down the first words of her book onto a napkin.
She didn’t give the scribbled note any more thought until after being forced away from the classroom by multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow.
Brocato went through chemotherapy and stem cell transplants in her battle against the disease at the Centers of Excellence in Little Rock, Ark.
“I had a lot of time alone. I couldn’t teach,” Brocato said. Nor could she continue the ministry that she had her husband, Frank, had done for more than two decades.
During that solitary time, she said: “I heard in my heart, “But what about Ivan?”
That’s when she realized that Ivan’s story was divinely inspired, Brocato said.
Besides being a potential source of encouragement for children, the book also helped Brocato as she coped with the dark days of her illness.
“Ivan was my beacon of light,” she said.
The book tells the tale of a little giraffe who is mocked and scorned and treated unkindly, but who ultimately succeeds in his journey of self-acceptance.
The book was written for children ages 3 to 12, but has appeal for all ages, she said.
“Everybody has been wounded and everyone has been rejected, so they can identify,” she said.
Going from a mere idea for a story to a completed manuscript to a published book has been an adventure, Brocato said.
She was shepherded through the process by Linda J. Hawkins, her publisher from Heart to Heart Christian Books, who served as a consultant and helped Brocato to find the book’s illustrator, copy editors and designer. ‘She mentored me throughout the process.”
“My biggest prayer was for the illustrator not to be ordinary,” Brocato said.
The project’s original illustrator quit, but then another highly respected illustrator became available to do the job.
“The timing was perfect,” Brocato said, praising the skill of the illustrator, Donna Brooks. “She helped make Ivan come alive.”
Brocato decided to pay to publish the book rather than shopping it to various publishers. She said she wanted to retain control over the book’s design and content, as well as to own the copyright.
The author said everybody in her family supported her efforts, especially her husband. “I feel like he’s Ivan’s daddy,” she said.
She sees the market for her book as “anyone who wants a good book with a life message for children.”
If the book succeeds, she plans to use the proceeds to pursue publication of four additional books, including one about her mother and a sequel about Ivan.
Brocato has done some book signings, but welcomes the opportunity to speak at local bookstores, at club meetings and will even do author signings in private homes.
For more information about the author, her book, or her availability, go to www.lindarossettibrocato.com or call (813) 973-3039.w]ww

By Kyle LoJacono

At 12-years-old Nate McCoole’s life changed forever when his father, Michael, died from cancer. The loss was difficult, but with the help of his family and sports he has become star on the Seahawks football team.
“I remember he was the best dad,” Nate, 16, said. “He was really involved in everything me and my sister did. It was very hard to see him so bad.”

Michael came home from work one day in 2002 with what he and his family thought was the flu. They never expected the diagnosis to be terminal cancer in his abdomen.
“He was wonderful,” said Michael’s wife, Laura McCoole. “He was very involved in our children’s lives. They waited for him at the door to get home from working at Gaither every day.”
Michael worked at Gaither High School as a science teacher for 17 years. When he became sick Laura, who was a stay-at-home mother, went back to school for her master’s degree in reading education from Saint Leo University. She has been a third-grade teacher for the last five years at Maniscalco Elementary in Lutz.
While Laura was going back to school, her children, Nate and Micah, had to take care of Michael until he died in 2006. Laura said she would set out the things for dinner and Nate would make it for his father and sister when he got home.
Laura said the family’s faith in God and closeness helped them get through losing Michael. Additionally, Nate, a junior, has found a sanctuary on the football field as the starting right tackle on the Sunlake High football team.
“I most like the camaraderie with my friends on the line, but I also like driving people into the dirt,” Nate said.
Also on the line this year with Nate are right guard Matt Sanders, center Josh Nobles, left guard Randy Silverwood and left tackle Canon Clark.
“He’s a very hard worker,” said Sunlake coach Bill Browning. “He leads by example in the weight room and is probably the strongest guy we have. I can’t say enough about him because he’s a great example of a young man.”
Clark said off the field Nate is one of the most mellow guys he knows, but when he straps on his helmet he switches into another mode. Nate did not always have that edge.
“His whole life he was so big compared to the other kids so we told him he had to be careful playing with them,” Laura said. “We’d have parents complaining at the playgrounds that there was a 10-year-old in there when he was only 5. When he started playing I had to tell him it was ok to be aggressive and hit people.”
Nate started playing football in seventh grade in the Exciting Idlewild Baptist league. He was not allowed to play in other leagues because he was too big. At Idlewild he had to play with 16-year-olds because he was so much bigger than the other players.
Laura is the Sunlake team mom and supports the team however she can.
“Almost every weekend we all go to Nate’s house and hang out and his mom makes us food,” Clark said. “His mom is really amazing and she’s like my second mom.”
Those meals do not come cheap.
“Those are big shopping bills when they come over,” Laura said jokingly. “They can really eat and I make sure to get them only the best steak to keep them strong.”
Nate’s work ethic and by Laura’s choice of meat has helped him on the Seahawks weightlifting team as well. In the last year he earned the title as strongest 15-year-old in the USA Powerlifting (USAPL) Florida competition. The title qualified him for the national event in Wisconsin in March, where he placed second in his division. His best lift in the bench press is 425 pounds and can also put up 445 in the squat and 540 in the powerlift, also called deadlift.
Sunlake’s weightlifting coach Matt Smith, who is also the offensive line coach, went with Nate to the USAPL national event. Nate said Smith has been the biggest male influence on his life since his father died.
In addition, both Nate and Micah, 13, participate in track and field. Nate does the shot put and discus throw, while Micah does the discus for Charles S. Rushe Middle.
Nate is not just about athletics. His parents made it clear how important education is and he has responded with a 3.83 weighted grade point average. He is also not far from his Eagle Scout award from Boy Scout Troop 212 in Lutz.
Nate also volunteers at his church’s vacation Bible school, at Maniscalco and at the Relay for Life event at the Lutz Train Depot.
“I do the relay each year,” Nate said. “It’s a good way to remember my father and help other people with cancer.”
Nate wants to play football in college and would like to play professionally, but if that does not work he will go into criminology.
“Whatever he does I’ll be proud of him,” Laura said. “He’s such a good young man.”

By Kyle LoJacono

The eight Rotary clubs of central and east Pasco County will donate at least 400 baskets of food to needy children for the summer break from school.
The clubs, which are collectively called the Eastside 8, also donated 400 food baskets during the winter break so families could have a special holiday dinner.

“It really comes down to need,” said Randy Gailit, Rotary Club of Land O’ Lakes president. “After the Christmas food baskets, we learned that we were looking at only the tip of the iceberg. A lot more people are in need than we thought and we got a lot of special thank-you cards, so we wanted to be part of it again.
“We started discussing having another food drive right after the holiday one, so it’s been in the works for four or five months now,” Gailit added.
The Eastside 8 include the Rotary Club of Land O’ Lakes, the Rotary Club of San Antonio and the two rotary clubs in Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills and Dade City. The baskets will be put together at 9 a.m. June 5 at Shepard Park, located at the intersection of US 301 at A Avenue in Zephyrhills.
“The whole point is to get the clubs together for community support,” said George Vlk, Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel president. “The clubs always are doing charitable things in the community, but we wanted to join forces.”
The food goes to children in public schools who usually get free or reduced priced lunches, which includes more than 50 percent of the students in Pasco. The clubs are still looking for donations to fill more food baskets. The food stays within each of the five communities. To donate to any of the area clubs see the box below.
“There’s so much that needs to be done in our communities,” said Mike Wooten, assistant governor of Rotarian area 8 and member of the Zephyrhills daybreak club. “The motto of Rotary is ‘service above self,’ so the clubs do a lot of service in the area.”

Area 8 includes the two clubs in Zephyrhills and Dade City and Wooten, who lives in Wesley Chapel, acts as an assistant to the organizations.
The schools decide who is in most need of the donations so the families can stay anonymous. The food will be dropped off at the various schools June 7 and 8 and then given to the families later that week.
The winter food drive was designed to give the families one large meal, but the summer edition will include food children can make for themselves for two weeks. Each will include items like peanut butter and jelly, various canned foods and crackers.
In Land O’ Lakes, the baskets will go to Sanders Memorial and Lake Myrtle Elementary schools and Charles S. Rushe and Pine View middle schools.
“We wanted to keep it with the younger kids because we thought they would be in a more helpless situation at home,” Gailit said. “Those are the kids who will benefit the most from easy-to-prepare foods.”
Vlk said the Wesley Chapel club would be giving to the town’s elementary schools, which include New River, Double Branch, Quail Hollow, Sand Pine, Seven Oaks, Veterans, Watergrass and Wesley Chapel.
Rotary began in 1905 and currently has about 1.2 million members. Several of those in leadership positions in the Eastside 8 clubs received similar help growing up.
Wooten said his father died when he was 12 and his junior high school allowed him to do small chores in the cafeteria in exchange for lunch each day.
“They knew I needed it and I got to work for it.” Wooten said. “It wasn’t until when I was an adult that I realized how much that helped me.”
Gailit said he grew up with government assistance.
“I got similar help, so I’m familiar with how much it helps needy families,” Gailit said. “Children have no control over their family situation and many really need some help. Most people don’t realize that plight and we could use more donations to help more families.”
The Eastside 8 have no current plans to do any more combined events except for the holiday food drive later this year, but Wooten expects that to change.
“As of the beginning of July the eight clubs will have new presidents and I think they will continue the food drives for sure,” Wooten said. “I see us doing more collaboration. Together we can make a bigger footprint than we can alone.”

How to help the Eastside 8 food drive
— Rotary Club of Land O’ Lakes, (813) 918-3027,
— Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Sunrise, (813) 907-7990, www.wesleychapelrotary.com
— Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, www.rotaryclubofwesleychapel.com
— Rotary Club of Zephyrhills Daybreak, www.zephyrhillsrotary.org
— Noon Rotary Club of Zephyrhills P.O. Box 1234 Zephyrhills, FL 33539,
— Rotary Club of Dade City Sunrise, (352) 797-0638, www.dadecitysunriserotary.org
— The Rotary Club of Dade City, dadecity-rotary-club.org

By Kyle LoJacono

Staff Writer

PASCO — While high school athletics are mostly about who wins and loses, the Special Olympics has a different goal.

“It gives these kids an opportunity to show what they can do, not what they can’t,” said Valerie Lundin, co-coordinator for the Special Olympics in Pasco County. “For a day, for a minute, they can forget what they can’t do. It also lets them be with their friends and have a good time.”

Lundin has been a coordinator for the games for 26 years. She is also an adaptive physical educations teacher at Cotee River Elementary School in New Port Richey.

“Adaptive means that I help kids with special needs on a daily basis,” she said. “I got into it by accident because I really wanted to coach college basketball. When I couldn’t do that I went back to (the University of South Florida) and got a graduate degree in adaptive P.E. My teachers thought I’d be good at it and I’ve loved it ever since.”

This year’s Pasco County games will be at two locations on different days for the first time. The first day is Feb. 23 at Wesley Chapel High School, and the second is Feb. 25 at River Ridge High School. The event was split to allow for easier travel for athletes on either side of the county, and because about 975 children will be participating in the county games.

The participants may have certain challenges, but they want to win just as badly as other high school athletes.

“Don’t you even think about telling them that winning doesn’t matter,” said Vicky King, who has coached during the Special Olympics in Pasco County since 1986. “These kids just haven’t been given as many gifts as most kids, but they get everything out of it. They just want to compete and win like everyone else.”

King has been the Land O’ Lakes High School girls soccer coach since the program began 23 years ago. She coaches a variety of Special Olympics sports, including soccer, cycling, bowling, track and field, volleyball and basketball.

“I love coaching the Land O’ Lakes soccer team, but coaching Special Olympics athletes is a break from dealing with teenage high school girls who can be a handful,” King said. “Special Olympics athletes don’t bring any drama to the field and just want to compete.”

The Special Olympics, founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver of the famous political Kennedy family, is a way for mentally and physically challenged athletes to compete in the Olympics.

At the first games in Chicago, Shriver said to the athletes, “In ancient Rome, the gladiators went into the arena with these words on their lips: ‘let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.’ Let us begin the Olympics.”

Shriver supported the Special Olympics until her death Aug. 11 of last year.

The games has grown to include high school athletics across the nation, and first appeared in Pasco in 1973. Today, the athletes compete in many different sporting events in four seasons throughout the year.

“Each child selects the sport they want to compete for each season and they are then divided by age and ability,” Lundin said. “At the county games in February, the athletes will be competing in track and field, soccer, cycling, bocce ball, tennis and volleyball.

“Those who advance go to the area games, which includes Pasco, Pinellas, Citrus, Sumter and Hernando counties, and then those who qualify will compete at Disney’s’ Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando,” she continued. “The state games are May 14 to 16.”

While the games are about the athletes, the Special Olympics could not go on without the student volunteers.

“Land O’ Lakes has a club called the Council for Exceptional Children, which has about 120 students who help at the games,” King said. “Other schools like Zephyrhills High (School) have a Special Olympics club too. I’d like to see more schools send volunteers because they really help bring the games together.”

One volunteer form Zephyrhills is Bulldogs girls soccer player Amber Morgenstern, who said volunteering in the Special Olympics is one of the best things she has ever done. It is volunteers like Morgenstern that make the Special Olympics happen.

“They help the games run smoothly, do crafts with the athletes when they aren’t competing and even compete with them in unified events,” King said.

A unified event is when volunteers compete with Special Olympics athletes, which King said is the trend at the games. An example of a unified event is soccer, which has teams of three Special Olympics athletes and two volunteers who play other unified teams.

“All people have to do to volunteer at the games is show up between 10:30 and 11 (a.m.) on either day at either school’s main office with photo identification,” Lundin said. “It’s that easy.”