Photo CC Ylakeland

Here’s the pertinent page offered without commentary:

Florida Polytechnic University – Creation Legislation
Senate Higher Education Appropriations Conforming Bill 2012

The bill:

• Creates the Florida Polytechnic University in statute. The new university is completely independent and autonomous. All laws governing a university will apply, including establishment of a board of trustees and a president.

• Requires Florida Polytechnic University to meet the milestones in the Board of Governor’s motion by December 31, 2016.

• Requires the University of South Florida (USF) to allow current USF Polytechnic students to complete their degree at USF.

• Transfers real and personal property, licenses and associated revenues, existing contracts, unexpended balances, appropriations, allocations, and other funds of USF Polytechnic to Florida Polytechnic University.

• Requires USF to retain the current faculty and staff.

• Allows Florida Polytechnic University to decide on faculty and staff for the new institution.

• Requires USF to transfer Polytechnic-related foundation funds to a new Florida Polytechnic University foundation.

• Cancels all memorandums of understanding between USF and USF Polytechnic upon this act becoming law.

• Authorizes a university board of trustees to expend reserve or carry-forward balances from prior year operational and programmatic appropriations for legislatively approved fixed capital outlay projects authorized for the establishment of a new campus.

• Requires Florida Polytechnic University to transfer space at the Lakeland joint-use facility to Polk State College as new space becomes available on the new campus of Florida Polytechnic University.

• Authorizes the University of Florida to serve in an advisory/consulting capacity to the new university on certain issues.

• Creates the Florida Polytechnic Institute, a linkage institute that includes the Florida Polytechnic University and Valencia College.

• Corrects cross reference

image credit: yLakeland

USF Poly Appears in Florida Senate Conforming Bill

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Everyone loves Publix. When I moved to Lakeland, I remarked more than once to old friends back North, that Publix was the best grocery I’ve had the pleasure to shop. (OK, I still complain when I want to shop at 11 pm and Publix refuses to believe we’re not all day people.)

The local media loves to report how Publix always makes the top 100 employer ranking. People love to tweet and meet at the Southgate Publix. My favorite series of short-pieces was on the reopening of that very same store. I love taking my daughter there each week to pick up staples and a cookie.

All that love and we forget Publix is a corporation. With the sense of entitlement that the corporation brings. Publix is no longer George Jenkins helping your aunt out with the groceries. Sure, there are managers and baggers and cashiers that are your friends and family. But Publix is a 21st Century grocery juggernaut with its eye on the horizon and its mind on the bottom line.

Now that bottom line means Publix wants a better rate from Lakeland Electric. A few months ago there was a scare that the City leaders would charge Publix a bit more for electricity. The reaction was like eggs went up 25 cents a dozen. That was it. Publix decided to look for a new supplier of eggs, err, electricity

They’re so sure they can get a better rate from TECO, they’ve met with your city officials to see if they can help grease the skids to sell Lakeland Electric to TECO or somebody. Key words: bigger and more willing to give Publix a better rate. But there’s a hitch. You.

You see, it currently would take 66% of registered Lakeland voters to put Lakeland Electric on the block. There’s a reason that number is so high. Years ago, Lakeland leaders saw the problems faced by other cities after selling off their electric companies. They wanted Lakelanders to make damn sure before we flew down that rocky road.

Now, a Publix official and our point person on the economic development front have approached City officials to see about getting that number reduced. They’d like to take it to the voters to determine how many it would take to sell off our greatest revenue producer.

Sure, it’s easy to say, “Let the voters decide.” But, lets face the truth, most voters don’t study the issues. They vote with their heart. A well-placed commercial or two talking about lower rates from an even bigger corporation or an editorial or two discussing the missteps taken by Lakeland Electric 15 years ago will sway lazy voters. (Not you, of course. You know the expectations we have for our readers.)

Elsewhere on Lakeland Local, Billy Townsend has written:

I am not qualified to determine if that’s a legitimate gripe. But if Publix thinks it’s a legitimate gripe, then I probably do, too. In fact, I more or less support a “Publix rule” for LE rates. If you employ a billion people and have the massive beneficial effect on this city that Publix does, you get to pay whatever the hell you want for power. I exaggerate, but only a little.

It should be obvious I take a much more cautious approach with Publix. They’ve a bit of dirt on those beautiful aprons. Just ask any tomato picker. But, I’m willing to listen if they can convince me that their savings won’t just come out of my pocket. If selling Lakeland Electric means Publix saves $25 million a year, I’ll bet $25 the price of my eggs won’t drop 25 cents. If selling Lakeland Electric means Publix will save $25 million a year, I’ll bet $25 your electric rate will rise faster than the price of eggs will drop. Worse yet, City Officials who’ll miss that $25 million a year will be forced to go hat-in-hand to some Publix official to get a new park and announce your tax rate must rise.

It’s simple. Right now we sell electricity to Publix. We get the profit. We use that profit to keep taxes lower. As soon as some out-of-town concern sells electricity to Publix, we lose the profit and we’ll have to make that money somewhere. Publix isn’t about to turn around and add it back to the city pot.

Or would they?

I have a proposition for Publix. Buy (a piece of) Lakeland (Electric). And, unlike the Chamber, this will do more than make good sense. It’ll make good dollars. I’d like to see Publix pay it forward.

Let’s establish a fund. All the big users of Lakeland Electric can contribute. Kick in a healthy amount to buy a piece of Lakeland Electric and get a rate that is the lowest in the state. Not by a lot, but enough so everyone in the state can point to Lakeland and write, “The Lowest Rate in the State… Guaranteed.” Kick in enough money so that the city can prepare for needed future Lakeland Electric upgrades.

Not only would Publix get a lower rate than they could from TECO, but let them have a person on the Utility Board. Someone who’d help guide and care for this local resource. Someone who’ll see the 10,000 foot view of Lakeland’s future. Someone who isn’t merely in Lakeland because Winter Haven wouldn’t give them a deal, but someone who is so intertwined with Lakeland that they’d sink or swim with the city. Someone local.

Because, that’s why we love Publix, isn’t it? They don’t always have the best price and they’re not always the most convenient. But they’re our local store. It’s important to buy local, don’t you think Publix?

photo credit: Tom Hagerty for Lakeland Local

Pay it Forward, Publix

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

In a fanciful mood, you might even look at Lakeland and see that elusive unity of “left” and right” that we’re always pretending we want. Here’s the socialist power plant providing blue collar, middle class jobs, keeping property taxes low, and providing astonishingly good public spaces; here’s the terrifically run conservative enterprise, employing thousands and filling those public spaces with lovely amenities. See, it can work.

Well, something very disturbing has happened. One of our parents seems not to be getting what it wants from the other anymore. It seems it’s been having an affair with TECO, and it may want a divorce. More than that, it wants the children, us, to pick a side.

Whatever language anyone chooses to use to dress this up, it seems that Publix and our city’s top economic developer are discreetly but firmly pushing Lakeland to get rid of its most valuable asset because Publix doesn’t like what it pays for power.

I am not qualified to determine if that’s a legitimate gripe. But if Publix thinks it’s a legitimate gripe, then I probably do, too. In fact, I more or less support a “Publix rule” for LE rates. If you employ a billion people and have the massive beneficial effect on this city that Publix does, you get to pay whatever the hell you want for power. I exaggerate, but only a little.

But I will not support getting rid of the most valuable thing I own without an extraordinary deal. How extraordinary? It better produce a dividend of at least $35 million/year, indexed to inflation for 100 years. The dividend paid to the city, we shareholders, is currently approaching $25 million. Why do we need at least a $10 million premium?

Well, first you need to justify all the working class people who would get fired and never again find comparable jobs. A private utility brings its own support staff and structure. There will be redundancies liquidated and incomes removed from our local economy. Are you going to hire those people, Publix?

Second, we’ll be giving up all means to pressure our provider politically over rates. Lakeland Electric is actually quite responsive to public pressure because the city commissioners don’t like getting raked over the coals about it. Who’s going to pressure TECO? The Ledger will magically cease to report on rates if a private utility buys Lakeland Electric. That’s because there are no TECO city commissioners to call and gripe at. You won’t know, ever, the shenanigans inside a private utility that you hear about now with LE because a private utility doesn’t have to tell you. As a ratepayer, it’s easy to pick up the phone and call Howard Wiggs. And he won’t laugh at you. If you are not Barney Barnett, good luck getting past a private utility’s laugh track. We won’t know how our rates stack up with the rest of state because no one will be pressured to tell us. And in case you haven’t noticed, we don’t live in a consumer’s paradise in this state.

Third, Lakeland Electric is a property tax eraser. Its rates are a consumption tax–basically a sales tax on energy. It’s always amusing to me that many of the same people who love “the Fair Tax” hate the idea of Lakeland Electric’s dividend. They are both essentially sales/consumption taxes. I find them preferable to property taxes because they are pretty consistent and they reward efficiency. A person or business can affect what what he or she or it pays purely by behavior. By contrast, property taxes flow out of the alchemy of the property appraiser’s office and can feel capricious.

I think supporters of selling LE underestimate the power and simplicity of the property tax argument in an election. One hopes we don’t have to see if I’m right.

Ultimately, there’s almost nothing I wouldn’t do for Publix. But Lakeland Electric falls under the almost.

If you sit me down in the living room and say, “We’re splitting up; where do you want to live?” I would reluctantly choose the $25 million per year we use to directly enhance quality of life in this very strategically located city. I would choose Peterson Park and Simpson Pool and a horticulture department and well-paid police officers and all those things that indicate a lovely community. Publix has built on that foundation beautifully over the years. But Lakeland Electric came first. It’s been the foundation of this community for decades.

So I would much, much, much prefer that our parents get themselves into couples therapy pronto and work out the real problem. For the good of the kids.

photo credit: Tom Hagerty for Lakeland Local

Don’t Make Us Choose, Publix

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Created with flickr slideshow.

photo credit: Tom Hagerty for Lakeland Local

First Friday was An Artistic Success

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

A family from a 2008 Chicago Equality rally

We look forward to a timely workshop that lays out options. Five of the seven commissioners clearly expressed a willingness to consider the merits of a plan. I think that speaks very well of this city. But I’m not nearly as surprised as a number of other people. This is a reasonable place. Inertia is powerful, and sometimes you just need to ask.

I also want to thank Howard Wiggs for his honesty and forthrightness in declaring that he couldn’t support any form of a plan. Clarity is very helpful. But frankly, I haven’t given up on Commissioner Wiggs or Commissioner Phillip Walker, who also expressed great skepticism about the idea.

The challenge now is to keep the issue in front of commissioners. I may have been a little annoying with my gentle insistence on a fairly clear timeline. I did that because I know how institutions of all kinds work. It can be very easy to let a potential change languish in study mode, not because of malicious intent or laziness, because there are other pressing demands and time is limited. So I’m willing to be the squeaky wheel. I hope we’ll have a workshop by around April 15. I guess that’s my internal target date for time agitation.

The three key issues that we’ll need to resolve are identifying couples, the implications for heterosexual couples, and the cost. But these aren’t new questions. Other governments have already dealt with them. And with that in mind, I’d urge commissioners and everyone else to peruse this story from the Orlando Sentinel. It’s a year old, but it provides a good roundup of the universally minimal budget and administrative impact on other local governments, particularly Orlando, Tallahassee, and Sarasota County.

Here are a couple of key excerpts:

Some Florida local governments and agencies offer domestic-partner benefits to male-female and same-sex partners, but Orlando offers the benefit only to gay employees. The reasoning is that heterosexual workers can legally marry their partners, while gays cannot.

But few Orlando employees have taken advantage of the benefit, and the financial impact on the city has been relatively minor. Records show that in 2010, domestic partners were covered under just seven employees’ medical insurance, at a cost of $17,291. Two other retired employees included domestic partners on their policies, but the city does not contribute to dependents’ premiums for retirees, so there was no extra cost to the city.

Here’s another:

In Sarasota County, nine employees have domestic-partner health benefits, all of them opposite-sex couples, an official said. In 2008, when county leaders considered adopting the new policy, four times that many were expected to apply. Exact totals were unavailable, but the cost to county taxpayers is about $30,000, an official said.

This gives you a sense of the real world experience. Go read the whole article. My personal preference is probably the Orlando model of same sex only benefits for the same reasoning stated in the article. But heterosexual domestic partner benefits are not a deal breaker for me if that’s what it takes to get a policy approved.

And in terms of cost, I think it’s important to remember that in the last two weeks that our city created an $80,000 per year part-time position for a liaison to the Detroit Tigers and took a $368,000 loss on the sale of the Wesley Memorial Church to Parker Street Ministries. We did that, as a city, because the Tigers and the work of Parker Street Ministries are important to us. (Still meaning to write a thing about how impressive Tim Mitchell is. I’ll get around to it eventually.)

A budget expresses a community’s priorities and values. I would argue that Lakeland’s core value as a city is its dedication to quality of life for families. The Tigers and Parker Street reflect that. Benefit equality, which is likely to cost $20,000 or less, is also a highly cost effective way to honor our city’s values.

And finally, I have been known to throw the occasional dart at our local leadership organizations. Today, I’m coming to Leadership Lakeland, the Chamber, and Emerge — which, I realize, are all sort of related — with hat in hand.

I would guess that the people of Emerge and at least the more recent Leadership Lakeland classes largely support this idea. And it’s time for our next generation of leaders to assert themselves a bit. How about offering a resolution of support at your next meeting Emerge? Or putting out the question to your members, Leadership Lakeland Class of 2011 or 2010?

Individually, I urge anyone who supports this to let all the commissioners and city manager know. And thank them for their serious consideration. Just because I consider this an obvious vote doesn’t mean they do. And I put them on the spot, which is uncomfortable. I thought they behaved pretty admirably. Go thank them. Reward good behavior.

You can find their email addresses here. The five minutes you invest might be the note that finally makes the difference.

Anyway, we’re on the move. We’re going to stay on the move. I’m excited. Come get on board.

image credit: Fausto Fernos

A Small, Good Step Toward a More Perfect Lakeland

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

The challenge… drum roll please!

Add the nutty flavor and numerous health benefits of flaxseeds to your diet.

The warm, earthy and subtly nutty flavor of flaxseeds combined with an abundance of omega-3 fatty acids makes them an increasingly popular addition to the diets of many a health conscious consumer. Whole and ground flaxseeds, as well as flaxseed oil, are available throughout the year, which makes it an easy addition to your diet (and makes it easier to make as a lasting New Year’s Resolution).

Flaxseeds are slightly larger than sesame seeds and have a hard shell that is smooth and shiny. Their color ranges from deep amber to reddish brown depending upon whether the flax is of the golden or brown variety. While whole flaxseeds feature a soft crunch, the nutrients in ground seeds are more easily absorbed.

Some call flaxseeds one of the most powerful plant foods in the world. There is evidence that flaxseeds may help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. That is quite a tall order for a tiny seed that has been around for years.

So, what do you say- are you up to the challenge?

image credit: AlishaV

Flaxseeds

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

• Downtown Lakeland First Friday – Feb. 3
• Chalk for Charity – Feb. 4 (Exhibitions will be located on Lemon Street between South Florida Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue)
• Florida State Fair, Tampa – Feb.9-20***
• Smoke on the Water – Winter Haven Feb 4 10am-5pm
• Scales & Tails Pet Festival – Feb. 11 Noon-4pm DiOGi Park at Loyce E. Harpe Park
• Brewz Crewz Craft Beer Festival, Munn Park, Downtown Lakeland – Feb. 18
• Black Heritage Festival – Feb. 18 Medulla Resource Center, 1049 Parker Road, Lakeland
• Ribs on the Ridge BBQ Competition – Feb. 24 5pm-9pm, Feb. 25 10am-5pm at Lake Eva Park, Haines City
• Opening of Cow Camp at Circle B Bar Reserve – Feb. 25 8:30am-2pm
• Florida Strawberry Festival, Plant City – March 1-11
• Downtown Lakeland First Friday – March 2
• Night at the Museum, Explorations V Children’s Museum – for Grown-ups – March 24
• Spring Strawberry Social March 24 1 pm – 4 pm at Wabash Community Center, 1230 Southern Avenue, Lakeland

Extras

• On going classes at Polk Museum of Art for kids, teens and adults, like wearable knitted art, advance photography, ceramics and more. http://polkmuseumofart.org/education/classes
• Paint Along Studios – http://www.paintalongstudios.com/
• The Lakeland Center Events
• The Lakeland Community Theatre

upcoming events include Three Tall Women and How I Became a Pirate.

• Events at the Polk Theatre include Patti LuPone and The Wizard of Oz

*** If you have an iPhone – download the FREE fair app. I’ve been trying it the last few days and I think it’s great. The app includes a place to mark where you parked, schedules – with reminder alerts, a nice map of the entire fair grounds listing the rides, admission gates, livestock and even the cafe.

photo credit: Darby Dowdy for Lakeland Local

First Fridays, BBQ, Fairs and Cows

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Disappointingly, the Ledger reported the new ranking straight and did Rick Scott’s dirty work for him. The editorial page had made progress with a good skeptical take last week. [No link available for some reason. - A Google search shows it did publish.] But it seems not to have bled over into straight news.

And, of course, this glorified map of wealth masquerading as a ranking places the usual suspects in lofty positions. Bartow Academy, McKeel, Babson Park, etc. Of course, my data, which no one has challenged factually, shows that all these schools underachieve, relative to their predicted performance levels.

None of the schools in question ranked as high with the state as Lincoln Academy, which I’m sure will make the School District feel all warm.

The Ledger said Principal Evelyn Hollen chalked it all up to a rigorous curriculum. “We are delighted,” she said.

Really? Delighted about what? Let me suggest a better response to Lincoln’s ranking, the response that a real leader could give.

Again, let me be clear. EVELYN HOLLEN DID NOT SAY THIS. I’M MAKING THIS UP. I’M IMAGINING WHAT I WISH A PRINCIPAL WOULD SAY. Here it is:

“I have the easiest job in Polk County education. Frankly, I don’t even need special connections to the district board because the wealth of the kids we bring in and the way we’ve structured the admissions in favor of doctors’ wives guarantees me “success” in the eyes of the Department of Education. Every year. You know it. I know it.

“But I am proud of the work my teachers and staff do. I’m most proud of the work they do with the handful of kids we teach who aren’t born into the life and speech patterns that translate smoothly into points on standardized tests. We don’t have many of those kids. And you don’t hear much about them because they don’t necessarily make us look good or win fancy STEM grants. But our teachers make them better. I am proud of that.”

“However, my conscience as an educational leader won’t allow me to stay on the path we’ve been on. This ranking was the last straw. Did you know that fully half of our ranking came from the percentage of our kids who reach Level 3 of FCAT achievement? Do you know what Level 3 is? Here’s how the state defines it:

Students at this level demonstrate a satisfactory level of success with the challenging content of the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.

“Satisfactory. Satisfactory. That’s how we’re allowing the state to define our excellence. The precise same standard it uses to define the achievement of Jesse Keen’s or Alturas’ kids. To call themselves excellent, my doctors’ kids need merely reach satisfactory at a somewhat higher level than do Wabash kids. Most of my student body could do that, which has no real world meaning, without ever showing up at Lincoln or any other school. You could put them on a cruise ship and they’d get there.

“And yet we get to compare ourselves and our percentages of satisfactory with those kids from Wabash and Parker Street fighting for every tiny thing they have. And I get to take bows. It’s getting harder to live with myself each day. It’s just wrong. You know it. I know it.

“You would think my parents — with all the engineers and entrepreneurs and assorted swells — would not accept “satisfactory” as the prime indicator of success. And yet they do. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about parents over the years, it’s that they’ll choose looking down on someone else’s child rather than challenging their own any day of the week. Human nature, I guess.

“As of today, I won’t allow that to happen any more. As of today, we reject the state’s way of measuring excellence through mediocrity. We expect more of ourselves. To whom much is given, much is expected. We heard that in a movie once, I think.

“Starting next year, we’re going to begin living it. We’ll calculate our own school grade. We will peg it to Level 4 on FCAT, not Level 3. (We really should do Level 5, but I want to see what happens first.) That should upset no one. This is what Level 4 means:

Students at this level demonstrate an above satisfactory level of success with the challenging content of the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.

“Above satisfactory. I guarantee you all the parents who send their kids to Lincoln like to tell their friends that their kids are above satisfactory. Well, it’s time to earn it. We’re a self-selected rich kid school that holds itself out as an elite teaching institution. We will evaluate ourselves accordingly.”

“Also, as of next year, we’re changing admission guidelines. No employee benefit. No more stacking the deck in favor of stay-at-home moms or dads with professional income spouses.”

“This makes me nervous, frankly. Our grade and my evaluation is likely to change. But so what? I got into this business to teach all kids, not sequester the wealthy behind a wall of bureaucracy that camouflages underachievement. And why shouldn’t I endure the same scrutiny and pressure that principals at Inwood or Phillip O’Brien do?”

Again, NEITHER EVELYN HOLLEN NOR ANY OTHER PRINCIPAL SAID THAT.

But a guy can dream, can’t he?

And there’s no reason that Frank O’Reilly or any other school board member or administrator couldn’t declare exactly that same set of points tomorrow and apply them to all wealthy schools–schools on the right end of the Medulla/Scott Lake gulch.

Man up or woman up, leaders, and do it.

image credit: arin Dalziel

No, Evelyn Hollen, This Is The Proper Response To Lincoln’s Ranking

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

I’ve secured a spot on the agenda for the Monday, February 6 City Commission meeting. City Manager Doug Thomas confirmed to me last week that I’ll be on it.

I will be asking the City Commission to order staff to produce an ordinance or resolution within six weeks that offers all same sex couples or parents the same benefits that heterosexuals enjoy. First and foremost this means allowing an employee to include a partner or child on health insurance and designate a partner as beneficiary of insurance or pension benefits. I’m not a lawyer, pension administrator, or HR professional. I’m sure there are complications that must be addressed, perhaps related to unions, identification of couples, etc. I feel certain our professionals can work with professionals in other cities to craft sensible language.

A statement of intent to do that within six weeks — to provide all available and appropriate benefits to same sex couples and parents — is what I’m after.

Frankly, I don’t think this is a big deal. Somebody just needs to ask the commission to do it. Might as well be me. I think there are at least four votes on that panel. But I would hope it’s unanimous. I would also hope that members of the public would come down to express support just by their presence. Or speak on behalf of the measure if they want. If not, I’m quite content to do it alone. Right is right, no matter the crowd. And I understand if you can’t come down. Like I said, this really isn’t a big deal.

I have a twofold reason for supporting this.

1) In a purely practical sense, absence of these benefits puts us at a disadvantage against Orlando, Orange County, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee, Gainesville, and many others. The openness of those communities positions them better than we are positioned to attract talent — both gay talent and talent that considers equality important. There are no real STEM/high tech centers in the United States that are hostile to gay people. That’s just a fact. Compared to those other Florida cities and counties, our city and county governments are hostile right now. But that’s easy to fix.

2) Much more importantly, I am the employer of the men and women in question. I want to be a good employer. Workers who are secure and happy in their lives and relationships make better and happier employees and citizens. I value the contributions of gay and lesbian city employees, even though I’m not sure I know any personally.

Beyond that, I love this city. I expect to die here. With any luck, I’ll be employing many, many more gay and lesbian employees in the future. I want to be a good employer to them as well.

I could not help noticing earlier this week that the Polk Sheriff’s Office made another of its periodic public sex busts at a local park. I generally support aggressive enforcement of disorder in public spaces. You can’t have sex in public parks. Period.

But take a look at the men arrested. Three of them were married to women. One was a pastor, another a retired cop. It’s not a coincidence that those profiles find their way to skulking around public parks. These are men living lies. And they are products of work and social cultures historically hostile to the idea of loving and committed homosexual relationships.

Every small step we take toward honoring commitment and love reduces the need for men and women to live lies. This is a small step. But it’s a step.

And I think that everyone in Lakeland — from Occupy Lakeland to First Baptist Church at the Mall — can agree that encouraging monogamy and commitment is preferable to discouraging it. This is one of the few issues out there that should truly unite us.

We’re not talking about marriage. That’s a battle that’s settled for now. Opponents of marriage equality won. But here’s a really good chance for those same opponents to demonstrate their love and concern for their gay and lesbian fellow citizens. I bet they will.

If that paragraph describes you, leave a comment here in support. It will mean quite a bit.

In any event, I hope to see you all on February 6.

image credit: Alan

Now is the Time for Benefit Equality

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Today debuts the first installment of BackChannel. We’re collaborating with Lakeland-based NFocus, producer of feature films, corporate videos, commercials, events and more. Working with Lakeland Local staff and area students, NFocus is branching out into spot news and feature production. BackChannel’s mission is to provide exciting and interactive video features that highlight upcoming events, new places, and fun activities for the college age and young professional living in the Lakeland metro area.

“The seeds for the Lakeland Pig Festival were first planted in 1994 when a small group of local businessmen, vacationing in North Carolina, attended a Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) sanctioned barbeque championship in Tryon, North Carolina. As interest grew in the community, then Governor Lawton Chiles signed a request for the formal sanctioning of the Lakeland Pig Festival as a Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) State Championship on On November 19,1996. Finally, a date was set to bring a barbeque championship to Lakeland, and on March 21, 1997 the Lakeland Pig Festival was born.” — From Lakeland Pigfest

PigFest 2009 photo credit: Tom Hagerty for Lakeland Local

BackChannel Rerun: Pigfest Edition

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

For me, it’s pretty simple. What’s the average score of the group of kids in question? I then plot that against the free and reduced lunch population of the group. Given enough schools or classes or districts to form a pattern, I can tell you who is overperforming relative to peers and who is underperforming.

It’s pretty easy, really. And I’m feeling better and better about its quality, especially when compared to the Rube Goldberg hokum that the state keeps conjuring to help wealthy people sneer at the unwealthy.

Let’s look at the state-tabulated rankings that came out yesterday.

Nowhere in DOE’s school or district grade criteria is the word “score” ever mentioned. Instead, school/district rankings rise and fall based on the percentage of kids who reach a certain score threshold, plus the percentage of kids in different categories who make gains.

The key to becoming “successful” is to have as many of your students as possible reach a threshold called Level 3. Doing that accounts for half of your score. If you can figure out what the numerical score required for a kid to reach Level 3 in 2011 was, you’re a better volunteer reporter than me. The absurd test re-engineering they’re doing in Tally is baffling. I’m sure that’s by design. Complexity, especially willful complexity, is fraud. Remember that.

It’s not even clear to me what “Level 3″ means to the state because it changes year-to-year, even in DOE’s official literature In 2008, it meant:

“This student has partial success with the challenging content of the Sunshine State Standards, but performance is inconsistent. A student scoring in Level 3 answers many of the test questions correctly but is generally less successful with questions that are the most challenging.”

In 2012, it means:

“Students at this level demonstrate a satisfactory level of success with the challenging content of the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.”

WTF?

With that in mind, let’s consider St. Johns County, Florida’s richest. It had a 17 percent FRL population in 10th grade Math in 2011, for example. My data shows that St. Johns County is Florida’s single most underachieving school district, by far. But DOE considers it the best, by far.

What accounts for this difference? Level 3 accounts for the difference. As you can see from the links above, FCAT scoring levels do not stop at Level 3. Levels 4 and 5 also exist. But you would not know that from looking at DOE’s grade methodology. It does not factor into its grades/rankings the percentage of kids who reach Levels 4 and 5. They may as well not exist.

And yet, they exist. In 2012, they mean:

“Level 4: Students at this level demonstrate an above satisfactory level of success with the challenging content of the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.

Level 5: Students at this level demonstrate mastery of the most challenging content of the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.”

So you see what’s going on here. Performance essentially stops counting for a school or district once it reaches a certain mediocre standard.

I’ll give you a real world example of how this works by comparing the McKeel schools and Lakeland Montessori in 2010 3rd grade reading.

In that combination, Lakeland Montessori scored a 411. That’s pretty good. And it should be, considering the absence of poverty at my son’s little no-homework hippy school. No self-congratulation here. The McKeel elementary schools scored 356 and 336. That’s OK on its face, but not if you consider the absence of poverty at those schools. LMS outscored South McKeel by 75 points. That’s a greater gap than the gap between South McKeel and Dundee, which the had the county’s lowest score at 270. And yet, the McKeels and LMS get the same silly “A” grade every year. The state makes no effort whatsoever to evaluate and publicize the performance of wealthy schools, relative to each other. That should stop. But it won’t. Too much fragile self-image bound up in it.

Again, it is difficult to quantify today’s Level 3 in useful terms because of the utter incomprehensibility and incompetence of the state DOE that conservative government has created. But I think Level 3 in 2010 ran roughly from 284-330. That’s what it says on the 2008 fact sheet I linked to above. That’s pretty low, in relative terms. Today, they give FCAT score in four digits; and it’s all a mess. And for good measure, they’ve changed the verbal definition of Level 3. But the wealth correlations I’ve discovered with FCAT score suggest to me that at a certain level of wealth, most English-speaking kids could just stumble out of bed and get to Level 3 without ever talking to a teacher.

And yet, that’s the Level the state uses to determine “excellence”, as well as failure. Level 4 and 5 are superfluous for the annual school grades or for this blinkered ranking. The state makes no effort to make distinctions between schools that score anywhere above that level. And that level is pretty easy to get. Most students in the state, at all schools, get to Level 3. And then we basically stop counting. That’s the standard rich schools and districts use to celebrate themselves, never having to worry about how their little darlings perform above that level. There’s no effort to compare the McDumps and LMSs to each other. You have to work really hard to do it. Trust me. I’ve got the hours to prove it.

Why is that?

Could it be that the entire evaluation apparatus is designed to appeal to the self image of the comparatively wealthy? That it’s designed to focus scrutiny on poorer and less sophisticated people while wealthier people receive comforting pillow talk about their mediocrity? Sure looks that way.

Let’s imagine 2010 3rd grade reading in a world where Level 4 and Level 5 carry some accountability. LMS would have been a Level 5, the McKeels a Level 4. Why shouldn’t we expect all schools below 30 percent FRL to reach Level 5. And label them as failing if they don’t? Remember, Level 3 is “satisfactory”. Level 4 is “above satisfactory”. Level 5 is “mastery”.

Tell me, leadership class, why are you content to have schools judged by how many kids are “satisfactory” while ignoring “above satisfactory” and “mastery?” I thought you wanted your kids challenged. Cackle. Silly me.

Can you imagine if we tied FRL percentage to expectation of Level performance in calculating a school and district’s grade? You would hear the howls of the Christina hordes all the way to Kathleen. There would be a Brooks Brothers riot up there in Ponte Vedra Beach.

If we tied FRL to Level with real accountability, do you think Rep. Kelly Stargel, R-McKeel, would be able to name her school “high performing” and help it expand and get Harold Maready another payday?

That’s why it ain’t gonna happen.

Our state prefers to channel Tolstoy: All wealthy schools are the same. All unwealthy schools are unwealthy in their own way.

The wealthy “conservatives” that run our state want their kids graded on a curve and everybody else’s subjected to endless crap. Period. And way too often, good egalitarian liberals play along. God forbid you fall on the far side of the Medulla-Scott Lake gap. Our principles only go so far. That goes for me too.

You doubt we grade on a curve? Go take a look at the great St. Johns County again.

Its best percentage in any of the categories is 89. Its lowest goes down to 61. Not one of those percentages would earn it an A in any Florida classroom. Why does it earn an A with the conservative state bureaucracy? Could it be the grades have no meaning?

That 61, by the way, comes in the percentage of kids in the lowest 25 percent who make learning gains. Just want to point out again that St. Johns County is Florida’s richest. In 2011, its 10th grade math sample had 17 percent FRL. That’s ridiculous. So in some instances, its bottom 25 percent includes kids that aren’t even poor. It’s the difference between a one-story mcmansion and a two-story.

And one final note for local bureaucrats and teachers and principals and politicians. You will never, ever change this by whining about how it’s unfair. It is designed to be unfair. That’s its intent. They want to call you whiners. They want you to spend your time and effort defending yourself and offering qualifications. If you’re explaining, you’re losing. Politics 101. And this is nothing but politics. Education has nothing to do with it. I hope I’ve given you some ammunition with which to declare and challenge, not explain. But you will have to do it yourself. I’m just a local volunteer reporter. And no one listens to me. I’m well aware.

If you don’t like this stuff, your only hope of changing it, in my humble opinion, is to attack the mediocrity and incompetence of the McKeels of the world. You have to attack their fear of being judged in a world where LMS and McDump are not considered the same, where wealthy schools are actually held accountable for how they “challenge” their wealthy kids. It’s unseemly, yes. But they are doing it to you every day. Fight back. Dare them to make grading simple and to tie FRL population to upper level achievement. You want to game your enrollment, McDump? Fine. You better produce. Like we do. That’s a much better argument, than “Oh, performance is complex, yada, yada, yada. Don’t be mean to us.”

Nice and measured won’t cut it. They want you to be nice. No one ever won a truce without fighting for it. The class war over schools is no different.

There Are 5 FCAT Levels, Not 3. So Stop Grading The Wealthy On A Curve.

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Ran into Eliska headed to a meeting downtown. Loved her bright colored dress!

Stylish Lakelander – Eliska Poirier

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Dress it Up
Wear it with a great fitting pair of jeans, or a cute sequin or floral mini skirt. Add a belt or layer tons of flashy necklaces. Your accessories will receive the attention and no one will even notice that you’re just wearing a plain white tee.

Wear it Under a Dress
Plain white tees are great to wear under dresses! They are perfect for layering with flimsy dresses or even sleeveless dresses. Add a pair of cute boots or sandals, or dress this look up with accessories such as earrings, necklaces, and bracelets.

Pair it With a Scarf
This look is relaxed enough to wear out on a date night or shopping with the girls. Just add a bright scarf over top of your tee and the scarf becomes the focus of your outfit.

Wear it to Work
Wear your plain white tee with your blazer, dress pants or skirt, and heels. Add a brooch, statement necklace, or earrings to jazz it up even more!

Get Comfortable
Just wear the plain white tee shirt! If you’re in a rush there is no need to panic. All you need is a plain white tee, a pair of jeans, and a cute pair of boots or flats and you’re good to go!

image credit: Cathy Hayes for Lakeland Local

The Not So Plain White Tee

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Martin Luther King Memorial

The whole thing is gorgeously fierce American oratory. But these paragraphs get at the heart of it.

…Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the “lame man leap as an hart.”

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common.-The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine…

I think that we, as a country, still don’t know quite what to do with Martin Luther King Day. It’s a day off. It’s a day of service. It’s a time for politicians to pander for votes — or at least prove how racially sensitive they are before they race bait again. It’s a time to wince knowingly when children say King freed the slaves. We should hold the parade downtown; we should hold it on King Avenue, which is almost never downtown.

I personally have always sort of shied away from King Day. It is our most political holiday because it is our newest and because it grows out of our greatest national shame — and arguably our greatest national triumph. As a society, we’ve turned King the man, safe in his grave, into a cherubic, saintlike figure. I’m not entirely sure when that happened because it was not the case when he was alive. And I think, too often today, very cynical people use the specter of King as a rhetorical weapon against Black America, whatever that actually is.

And honestly, Fox lovers, what would you think of King if he still lived? Can you imagine what Bill O’Reilly would say today about a black leader who opposed his country’s wars of aggression, marched with strikers, and believed fervently in redistribution of wealth? Hell, you people think the black George H.W. Bush in the Oval Office today is somehow a socialist, marxist, Muslim radical of some sort. And his beautiful wife, who has done nothing but behave with class and positive energy, is an angry black woman. What would you do if confronted with a real flesh and blood radical? King would be 83 today if he hadn’t been shot. He would be an elder statesman like Jimmy Carter or Paul Volcker. How do think our media would treat him or his legacies?

The correct answer to those questions, I think, is who gives a damn?

And I have Lakeland’s black community — or at least the people who lined the MLK parade route Saturday — to thank for helping me realize that.

The wife and I took the boy to the Lakeland parade for the first time, as part of the Lakeland Montessori School delegation. I have to confess to attending more out of sense of duty to school than to community or King’s memory. And the process of actually getting to the parade staging ground was a 30 minute ordeal of closed roads and quiet cursing. As I said to Julie when I arrived, “I am having some difficulty maintaining my commitment to peace and nonviolence.”

So I was a little grumpy as we started to walk. But the LMS crew moved with a flowing white peace dove, shiny stick ribbons, and an old-time convertible Triumph — that eventually broke down — busting out Steve Miller tunes. I do love my child’s odd little school. And I started to perk up as we moved into the crowds, which of course were huge (multi thousands, I would say) and overwhelmingly black. Everywhere you looked were families with children waving, calling for candy, grills burning in people’s driveways. Old women, tiny kids. Posturing teenagers with those saggy pants that are the root of all evil. People yelled funny things back and forth. Dance music blared. This wasn’t somber recollection. It was a massive, joyful barbecue.

At one point we stopped next to a group of girls with Teneroc High basketball shirts on.

“Ya’ll have a game tonight?” I asked.

“No we played last night,” one girl answered. “We’re just representing.”

“Did you win?”

“Yep. 50-47, in overtime.”

“So you came through in the clutch?”

“That’s right.”

Before I knew it, I was having fun. More fun than I’ve had at any other Lakeland parade. Fun is not normally what I associate with King Day. Maybe that’s just my failing. In any event, why not have fun?

As we approached the turn onto MLK Blvd., someone was blaring King’s greatest speech, the “Mountaintop” speech from the night before he was murdered in Memphis.

At the end of the speech, King said simply: “And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man.”

That’s in the final paragraph of the final public statement King ever gave. He was happy before his death, not fearing any man. Why shouldn’t we honor that with our own happiness and joy? Well, of course we should. And it seems Black America, whatever that is, figured it out a long time ago. Good for it/them.

King Day celebrates victory in a struggle that lasted hundreds of years. It didn’t start with Brown v. Board or Rosa Parks in the second half of 20th century. There were slaves who resisted on ships. There was Nat Turner. There were fugitive and freedmen who fought with the Seminoles in Florida. Frederick Douglass. Civil War soldiers by the tens of thousands. Spanish American War medal of honor winners. World War I soldiers by the hundreds of thousands.

King Day celebrates Booker T. Washington, James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, and W.E.B. DuBois, who debated and prodded their country and each other at arguably the darkest moments for Black America in the late teens and 20s.

And it celebrates names no one knows, like Blanche Brookins, who is the Rosa Parks of trains, and Floridians Willie Steene and Ed Chisholm, unknown workers who died protecting Steene’s mother from vigilantes in 1926. (Shameless book plug. You can learn all about them in about a month).

Black America, whatever that actually is, fought fiercely, intelligently, and relentlessly for its full citizenship, for the right not to fear any man. King Day marks hard-won victory in that fight.

And happily not fearing any man means you dance if you want to dance; pray if you want to pray; grill chicken if you want to grill chicken; step if you want to step; serve if you want to serve.

Who knows what King Day will become as we age as a society and forget. Maybe we’ll have two Independence Days, celebrated in the winter and summer. Maybe in 100 years, King Day will just be St. Patrick’s Day. Who knows?

For now, I’d say Black America, whatever that actually is, more than any other America, has earned the right to celebrate itself in whatever way it sees fit. It earned it through toil and blood, bravery and smarts, art and persistance, violence and non-violence.

I’m grateful to Black Lakeland, whatever that actually is, for inviting me and my family and our school to your party, to your Fourth of July. We’ll see you next year and hopefully sooner.

image credit: PBS NewsHour

Partying on the Black 4th of July

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

It was Molly McHugh’s and the Polk Theatre that started to change my mind.

Wait, this affordable little city has a really cool Irish bar with Bass and Harp on tap and a refurbished art house theater? And I can walk there from my house or place of work? Hmmmm.

Twelve years later, they are still an enormous part of why we love this city. And they made for an emotional Friday.

Many, many people knew Gerry McHugh better than I did. Like with Bea Reid, another sad, premature loss, I would have to call him a friendly acquaintance. Not quite a friend. And yet, I saw him all the time, mostly shuffling between Molly’s and the Gym. I think the last words we ever exchanged, last week or the week before, were a joke about how it must have pained him to hand out gift certificates to the winners at Trivia Time at the Gym. Gerry was not a man to part happily with a dollar.

But my favorite Gerry memory has nothing to do with business or beer.

His twin daughters, Grace and Katie, are the same age as my daughter. And they played youth sports together for a time. One year they played together on a 6-8 YMCA girls basketball team. Gerry and I were sort of co-assistant coaches. In one game, our undefeated team was playing the other undefeated team. I had a bunch of college friends down for a visit, so the gym was full of energetic early 30-somethings cheering on the action. And this was the best 6-8 year-old girls basketball game you ever saw. Back and forth. We were down 14-8 kind of late in the game when the McHugh girls led a comeback. Steals, fast breaks, hoops. Finally, down two, one the twins made a steal, led a break, and got a pass to my daughter Corinne who made the shot to tie. The place exploded — as much as a place can explode with 60 people in it. But still.

Gerry, who was one of the quietest, most reserved basketball coaches I ever saw, looked over at me with wide eyes and then gave a little fist pump and a punch in the shoulder. It was his way of saying, “How awesome is what our girls just did?”

Anyway, Julie and I stopped by Molly’s Friday afternoon to raise a pint and pay respects. We ran into my friend Craig Morby and Brian Sutherland, whom I was happy to meet for the first time.

They are a big part of the spectacular Johnny Cash show playing tonight at the Polk Theatre for the last time. They are joined by Patrick Fleitz, Sharon Clark, Sara Machinia, and Kimberly Milton. The age ranges, resumes, and backgrounds are so diverse and fascinating that I’m even going to go into them.

Julie and I took Ian, who loves Johnny Cash, to last night’s 7 o’clock show. I’m not going to try to describe to you how creative and fabulously-performed the show is. But understand this, they take Cash’s stuff and make it their own in ways that honor him and enrich the material. Their cover of his cover of Trent Reznor’s “Hurt” is heart-stopping. They really, really need to take this show on the road.

And you need to see it tonight in case they don’t.

Before one of the songs, Craig took a moment to honor Gerry and asked everybody who could to raise a pint in memory. But in many ways, just by being there, they were already doing it.

If Gerry had been sitting there with us, I feel certain he would have given a fist bump and a punch to say, “How awesome is what the people in our city just did.”

That’s what makes a home. Pride, joy, sadness, and loss. Thanks Gerry. You helped make Lakeland home for a lot of people. We’ll miss you.

photo credit: Tom Hagerty for Lakeland Local

Gerry and Johnny and Lakeland

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Local volunteers are not the only ones giving back. Polk County businesses are also donating their time for the charitable cause. Downtown Lakeland business owners are playing a role in the community, as they support the race by providing services and monetary donations.

The race is taking place January 14th, 2012 at the Joker Merchant Stadium in Lakeland.  Runners can register for a 5K run, 10K run, 5K walk, and a one-mile fun run. Race registration is open to the public.

“We have been planning the race since December 2010,” said Tammy Wright, Polk Race for the Cure Marketing Chairman. “The public can support the cause by spreading word about the race, volunteering or helping individual runners and/or teams raise funds.”

The committee is expecting 1,500 runners to participate and they hope to reach their goal of $210,000 for the first race. After the race, runners are encouraged to explore downtown Lakeland shops and eateries. Along with providing runners with entertainment after the race, downtown businesses have lent a helping hand for the cause.

75% of the proceeds will go into funding mammogram screenings for women who otherwise cannot afford them. With over 20,000 women in Polk County qualifying for this type of service, the volunteers are working tirelessly at bringing this Race to Polk County so the money go back to work locally to help the under-served, and under-insured.

Perspectives Photo Artistry, a downtown Lakeland photography studio, will be taking photos at the event. The studio will have one photographer set up for pre-race candid photographs and a second for shots as the runners make their way around the first check-point. 

Photographer and Creative Director for Perspectives Photo, Sam Romero believes the race is a wonderful opportunity to participate in the community and donate time to a worthy cause.

“We live and work in Lakeland, our children go to school in Lakeland – this is our community and we have a responsibility to volunteer and be active, to help our neighbors and friends,” says Romero. 

Perspectives Photo Artistry has offered their services to several charity events in the past, and when they were approached for the Susan G. Komen race, they were excited to be able to give back. 

“Breast cancer awareness and support is a wonderful cause for us to donate our time to, and we’re glad for any way that we can help,” says Romero. 

Romero and his studio, Perspectives Photo Artistry will be out taking photos for all four races. If you would like to donate to the Susan G. Komen foundation or register for the race, go to http://www.komensuncoast.org.

image credit: Brandi Korte

Downtown Businesses Give Back as Polk Goes Pink

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Wilfred Wolfson
1917 - 2011

With the holidays a memory, the city will soon remove all evidence including the Christmas tree in the middle of Lake Morton. Years ago I heard the story of Lakeland’s first floating Christmas tree. With the passing of Willy Wolfson, I think it’s a good time to remember how he played a part in their origin.

Now, I wasn’t a close friend of Mr. Wolfson. He was a prominent force in the way Lakeland grew through the 1900s. He was gracious enough to be the guest speaker at one of the State of Downtown Luncheons I used to organize. He told this story that day. A story he’d told many times over the years. Long-time Lakelanders still laughed as Mr. Wolfson related the tale. You could tell he was well-loved and respected in the community.

Mr. Wolfson was a senior member of the Lakeland Rotary Club, of which I’m still a newbie. Last week we set aside our usual business to honor him. The highlight was a video interview conducted by Lori Martini, our current Rotary president. A few months ago she had the foresight to interview Mr. Wolfson about his involvement in Rotary.

Luckily she captured the story of that first floating Christmas tree…and of the third…which created quite a spectacle itself.

We laughed through our tears which, I suspect, is how he would have wanted it. Rather than tell it poorly, I’ll let Mr. Wolfson tell it himself. It’ll be the best four minutes you’ll spend today. Afterwards, do Mr. Wolfson proud and pass along the history of the floating trees.

The Origin of Lakeland’s Floating Christmas Trees

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

First, Halifax Media and the New York Times Co. sent all employees at the regional newspapers Halifax bought (The Ledger, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Gainesville Sun, etc.) an email over the Christmas holidays saying the employees would receive a second email informing them if they have a job. After letting them dangle for a couple of days, Halifax decided to keep everyone. Oh, how nice of them.

Not so much.

Seems that they froze them in place so that they could concoct a more deviously Snidely Whiplash villain plan.

Yesterday, as multiple sources reported, including some directly to me, Halifax presented seemingly all of its employees — including advertising folks — with an astonishing non-compete agreement. You really should go read the whole thing on Jim Romenesko’s site. It’s worse in its full legal glory than even the shorthand overview, which is bad enough.

In short, if you left The Ledger or another Halifax property, you couldn’t work for any media company in competition with a Halifax property for two years. But here’s the kicker. The “agreement” applied even if Halifax fired you. They could lay you off in 2013, you essentially couldn’t work in Florida with a media company (and their definition is broad) until 2015. Halifax has papers across the state.

Sign it, or your fired. Not quite Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More, but pretty nasty nonetheless.

Why would Halifax do this? Why would they care if you went somewhere else after they fired you? It makes (maybe) a little more sense for sales folks, but then, why would they fire you if you brought in money?But it makes no sense for reporters because it’s obvious that few, if any, media executives actually care about reporting and generally see journalism as a cost center.

The most plausible answer came from a Romenesko tipster. The best explanation is that whoever wrote that agreement for Halifax did not care if employees worked somewhere else. They didn’t want them to sign. They wanted the chance to fire employees with cause and get out of paying severance. (Such a move might even jerk employees out of unemployment insurance. I don’t know the legal ins and outs. Maybe Kemp or someone can weigh in on all of this.)

I have to say all of that makes sense. The people doing it have no soul, but there is a certain cold logic to it. It’s not personal. Strictly business.

I am told that the Ledger executives I praised a few weeks back (see what I get for magnanimity) were riding the company train pretty hard. I’ve heard no evidence of them pushing back against corporate. There were certainly no threats to resign because such a thuggish policy runs contrary to the tenets of the religion one of them might very publicly adhere to. What would Jesus do, Jerome? Or a leader?

Thankfully, it seems a leader did emerge in Sarasota. In the Romenesko account, ace reporter/editor Matthew Doig, whom I have never met, but whose work I admire, is the only line level employee mentioned by name. One perceives he led a bit of a revolt. One also perceives that publisher Diane McFarlin at least provided a pretty good conduit to management. Again, reading between the lines, I think McFarlin did a little bit of spade work for her people. If I’m wrong, correct me.

Anyway, Halifax seems to have crumbled. They’ve now rescinded the non-compete agreement. That’s good news.

But the whole thing is rather baffling.

This was superduper Rick Scott’s Florida screw workers hardball. Somebody at Halifax paid some lawyer a lot of money to draw up that obscenity. It did not happen by accident. Somewhere they deliberated and decided to act. How is it these rock-ribbed conservative (there is no liberal media, morons) business types collapsed in the face of a little employee pushback? Did they not expect it? No wonder these people all fear unions. They’re confrontation-averse babies.

Maybe, just maybe, all this shows the power of shame. As I’m fond of writing, that’s the only weapon a lot of us have. Maybe this shows the power that, say, Leadership Lakeland might wield if it decided to be something other than a silly, self-aggrandizing frarority. What if Leadership Lakeland actually took positions on community issues? What if it actually condemned something? Send out an email and vote. Hell, condemn me with your first vote. At least you’d be doing something.

What if we had a Chamber of Commerce committed to promoting an ethical and prosperous business climate? Such an organization could rescind the membership of a major local institution like The Ledger if it behaved in this way. It’s something. Again, we tell workers they don’t need unions, because, you know, there’s harmony between ownership and labor. Why don’t you try to enforce an object lesson, Chamberians?

I will now pause so that you can enjoy a full belly laugh about those last two paragraphs. Finished? Ok. Good.

Anyway, I don’t give advice to people. But I’m going to give advice to people. You’ve got a brief reprieve, Ledger folks. Start looking. Consider anything that remotely allows you to keep the lifestyle you need. 7-11s, Safari parks, anything.

Fear and worry are corrosive. And you can find intellectual and creative fulfillment outside of work. You can find it right here at LL. The volunteer alternative media will welcome you with open arms. We’ll never assign you long, meaningless, boring projects. And we’ll never ask you to sign non compete clauses. We don’t fear competition. And you’re not a cost center to us.

photo credit: Chuck Welch for Lakeland Local

Fear, Loathing, And (Thankfully) Retreat At The Ledger

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Columnist Laura Ward steadies the ladder for the Director of Photography

When a TV show I had actually heard of came to Lakeland for a field shoot, I jumped at the opportunity to work as a production assistant. My contract prohibits me from revealing too many specifics about the show, but I can say that it’s a true-crime docuseries on a channel that rhymes with Schminvestigation Discovery.

On the first day of the week-long shoot I arrived early. (Notable because that’s happened only one other time.) Except for one small fight with a C-stand, everything went smoothly as we set up for interviews.

My main tasks were setting up the three pieces of equipment I knew how to use, ordering lunch for the crew, going on coffee runs, and managing the snack and drink table. Notice a trend?

In between food runs, I studied the more experienced crew members at work. I was particularly interested in the Director of Photography. He is the person who creates the look and feel of the show with decisions about camera and lighting placement.

I kept quiet and tried to stay out of everyone’s way, but remained close enough to the action to be available when someone needed a Snickers.

The second day of shooting was more interviews. Our true-crime case involved a murder and I was caught off-guard by the psychological challenges of the day. Asking family members to relive their tragedy for interview footage left me wondering if I was participating in exploitation.

The show is respectful, but there’s no avoiding the fact that we were dramatizing someone’s incredibly painful experience for profit. I spent a long time trying to understand why a victim’s family members would consent to be involved in the project. I finally settled on the idea that it is human nature to want to tell your story and that the process can be cathartic. It seemed to be a worthwhile experience for some of the interviewees. But others became emotionally volatile and I was happy when the day ended.

The reenactment scenes we shot over the next few days were easier. Like the crime on paper, they felt more like a story than reality.

I became more comfortable with the gear and began to actually help on set. The DP would occasionally take time to teach me about the equipment or to explain his thought process behind a setup. In return, I made sure he never wanted for anything in the snack department.

I helped cast a few friends in reenactment roles and I was worried they were getting tired of long days of mostly sitting waiting for their scenes. I apologized frequently and offered cookies. They reassured me and said they were having fun. I was grateful to have friends willing to tell white lies, so I brought them sodas too.

Near the end of the week, I realized that I hadn’t felt like I was working at any point during the shoot. Not that being sent to buy worms for a shot is especially difficult work – yes, I was paid to do that – but each morning I woke excited to get to set. The 12 to 14 hour days were long, but I was in my element and having fun.

Friday was an especially long day and the crew was exhausted by the time we made it to the last shot, a close-up of my friend. The crew set up the dolly track and quickly lit her.

I looked at the monitor and panicked.

Light and shadows are used to sculpt the shape of a three-dimensional face for two-dimensional video. Properly lit, you look normal. Under flat lighting, the camera adds ten pounds. My friend had “gained” about 20. The double shadow cast by the two lights on her nose made it seem much wider.

I battled internally. I knew the lighting was bad, but a lowly PA had no business commenting. On the other hand, this is one of my best friends and I knew she’d be mortified when she saw the shot. Re-runs could haunt her for years.

I finally blurted out “Does she have a double nose shadow?”

The long pause was excruciating.

“Yes,” says the DP. “She does.”

The grip silently adjusted the lighting and the image of my friend magically shrank back to normal size. I was relieved, but afraid that I had burned a bridge with the DP. It’s a small industry and you’re only as good as your reputation.

I guess he forgave me. At the end of the week he thanked me and complimented my work. He even offered to recommend me to his contacts if I ever again want to work in LA. The producers enthusiastically echoed him and I was flattered.

It’s a tempting offer. Inside connections are what I was missing the first time, and without them it’s nearly impossible to land a paying (or non-paying) industry job.

Production seems like a glamorous field, but one producer revealed that her one-year contract is the longest she’s had in ten years. Another described struggling to negotiate contracts when some are so eager to land a job they’ll agree to inequitable terms. Burnout is common.

The show has wrapped, so now I’ll wait a few months to see the result. A crew I grew attached to flew home to prep the next show–without taking a day off.

Will I chase after them, eager to do anything to make it in Tinseltown?

Not anytime soon. I’m grateful to work in the industry in Lakeland. Production is picking up here and across the state. Of course, there are no guarantees, so I suppose I’ll have to wait to see how the show plays out.

photo credit: laura Ward for Lakeland Local

One Week On Set

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

And how does one get appointed or elected “community leader”? I don’t remember voting for such an office. Do you wave your Leadership Lakeland certificate around? Do you parlay your spot on the Ledger’s emerging leaders list? Or is behaving in the most selfish and petulant way possible within the confines of a public institution the only requirement? I’d really like to know. Can someone from the leadership bureau answer me?

The stated reasons of the unnamed community leaders for wanting a change are as follows, according to LHS principal Tracy Collins:

Academic freedom for the teachers;

State financial benefits that charter status provides;

Elimination of zoning issues for the athletic programs at the school.

My response to that is:

1) Ha. Pooh. Cackle.

2) Much warmer

3) Bingo

Anyway, follow this sequence of Lakeland area high school drama with me, if you please.

1. Lakeland High and Harrison School of the Arts squabble for years over whether the self-selected Harrison kids get counted as their own school, or as part of Lakeland High, for testing purposes. LHS teachers have always taught Harrison kids their academic subjects, which highlights the utter stupidity of that debate. Harrison kids eventually settle in LHS. LHS gets rid of 20 percent of its student body to Teneroc, and voila, LHS is Lakeland’s best high school–in terms of testing. And it’s right there neck and neck with Bartow High, which, of course, gets to count the geniuses of the IB school. Much self and media congratulation ensues.

2. Late last school year, citing hostility/scheduling conflicts from some Lakeland faculty and the more amorphous “cultural differences”, Harrison’s own group of community leaders decide they want to go charter. They did this right after the school district finished a fabulous multi-million dollar renovation that I helped raise money for. (Very poorly, I might add. But I did spend quite a bit of time. My daughter went to Harrison, and I was very pleased with her experience.) Apparently, some of the scheduling conflict stuff was real and needed to get resolved with better LHS behavior.

On other hand, Harrison’s very geography is set up to discourage mingling among the warring class tribes. And an internal communication at the time said: “LHS has differing student needs and a larger portion of their student body requires a different curricular progression than that of Harrison students.” I also sat at the Harrison graduation banquet and listened personally as the Harrison Parent Board leader said something very close to this: “When you look around at other young people, you realize how special you are. You’ve made it.” I wasn’t taking notes, but that was clearly the message.

I thought that charter battle had run it course, but who knows?

3. Back in February of last school year, talented George Jenkins quarterback, errr, student Jadrian Clark — and four other Jenkins players — transferred to LHS to play football. (There was no pretense to this being academic, by the way.) Everything that happened next has been well documented, ad nauseum. Jenkins accused the kids of acting illegally; an FHSAA investigation ruled them ineligible and dragged some reasonably prominent names into scrutiny; the kids and their parents accused Jenkins Coach Matt Thompson of harassing them; and then Thompson got arrested on accusations that he had sex with 17-year-old girl. Sigh. Not our finest collection of moments as a community.

At the time the Jenkins players were declared ineligible, some schlub wrote an article headlined: “Occupy the FHSAA.” In it, I pointed out:

Of course, if those kids had wanted to go play at a charter high school, it wouldn’t matter at all where they lived. Only how they could work the wait-list, right?

Perhaps “community leaders” read my stuff after all, because, lo and behold, some shadowy LHS-affiliated faction wants to go charter, explicitly for athletic reasons, at least in part.

Of course, if you erase school borders and barriers to getting in for the Jadrian Clarks of the world, you also erase the barriers that keep other kids in. If I read this story correctly, George Jenkins is set to become LHS’s dumping ground for students that “opt out” or get opted out. Or for athletes who aren’t quite as good as advertised. That’s kind of an amusing irony, given Jenkins’ socioeconomic status.

The common thread among all this activity is market forces. All this marketing, cheating, and class warfare makes Skeptical Enlightenment’s heart leap. It’s what happens when schools compete. It’s capitalist behavior at its finest. But schools don’t build widgets. When you widgetize human beings, it becomes all jockeying and resentment and statistical/enrollment manipulation all the time. It allows unnamed “community leaders” to try to seize public property for their own whims. Their inspiration is apparently USFP’s separation from USF. Ooof. How time and effort has been wasted on this pettiness that would have been better spent focused on the act of educating teenagers?

I like football. I like kids. All kinds of kids. I like and admire teachers. I even like principals, when they behave like leaders. But I can’t stand self-appointed “community leaders” who aren’t brave enough to name themselves, who let others communicate their petulance, whose prime example to kids is how to throw an anonymous fit that other people have to deal with.

photo credit: Tom Hagerty for Lakeland Local

Go Dump-Naughts: Lakeland’s High School Debate Is Like High School

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Part of one proposed district including the Southern portion of Polk County

If you haven’t been following the issue, states have to redraw their voting districts every 10 years after the U.S. Census is completed. It’s always a big deal, as the party in power typically creates districts that favor that party as much as possible for races such as U.S. Representative, state senate, etc. Assuming demographics remain somewhat stable, a party can set itself up for 10 years of control.

The process of gerrymandering is yet another reason that citizens are getting so fed up with politicians. Rather than creating districts that resemble other accepted boundaries (city limits, county boundaries, etc.), politicians frequently cut in half cities and counties to create districts that tend to favor one party or the other.

But Florida voters threw a wrench in that system in 2010, and it’s why this year’s redistricting process is especially worth watching.

Voters approved two constitutional amendments in 2010 meant to prevent gerrymandering as much as possible. One of the key phrases that was added to the state constitution reads, “districts shall be as nearly equal in population as is practicable; districts shall be compact; and districts shall, where feasible, utilize existing political and geographical boundaries.”

Seems straightforward enough. But redistricting is a convoluted process, and lawmakers have already challenged the amendments (to no avail, so far). So with the courts not producing any more drama over the issue, it’s time to look at the work actually being done toward new districts.

For residents of Polk County, the state’s first drafts are a cause for worry.

As The Ledger pointed out last week in its Agenda for Progress, Polk County is projected to be split among four districts for the U.S. House and the State Senate. In the past we were only divided among three districts, which meant that more Polk County residents were concentrated in those districts and had more influence in elections.

To see the proposals for yourself, I wanted to share this great resource from the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times). They have put together interactive maps using Google with the proposed districts overlaid in color. There are quite a few different proposals, many of which have the southern half of the county lumped in a district that extends all the way to Lake Okeechobee and Port Charlotte.

I understand that population density can make keeping to traditional boundaries difficult, but I also don’t think putting a large chunk of Winter Haven residents into a U.S. Congressional district with citizens from Punta Gorda makes a ton of sense.

I know there are no perfect solutions, but I guess I was hoping that lawmakers would use the new amendments more strictly than their proposals have indicated, especially for Lakeland and Polk County. The more our region is splintered, the less influence I believe that we will have in Tallahassee and in Washington, D.C.

No matter how the districts look in the end, it’s almost inevitable that they will also be challenged in court just as the new amendments were. This is going to be an incredibly long process, but one that will have ramifications for our region for many, many years.

Keep paying attention to this issue as the State Legislature gets started this week. The new districts need to be in place by this summer, so things hopefully will progress fairly quickly.

Enter your Florida address into the box below to find your Florida lawmaker

Search

Site powered by the Tampa Bay Times
and Miami Herald politics teams.

Redistricting Drama Ramps Up This Week

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

photo credit: Tom Hagerty for Lakeland Local

Created with flickr slideshow.

LRHS Travels to LHS for a Little Bit-o-Basketball

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

The Rub Runners

I love the Red Door, the atmosphere, the pizza and most of all the location. (I live literally 200 feet away.) But I’m way too poor to support my habit.

Solution.

Every Tuesday FitNitche hosts a “Pub Run” at 6 p.m. at the Red Door. There are people of all ages and all levels of runners. Veterans and newbies. I started going over a year ago and just reached my 36th Tuesday. (I had conflicting meetings, I swear!) Unlike Ricky Bobby, where if you are not first you are last mentality, runners are encouraging and positive no matter the time, the distance or if you are in dead last place.

The kicker.

When you finish the Red Door gives you two for one. Split the two with a pal for an even better deal or indulge, you just completed three miles. Be sure to sample what they have on tap as it rotates pretty regularly.

After you complete 10 pub runs, FitNitche gives you a free pub run dry-fit shirt.

My suggestion.

Come by yourself, and I bet you’ll have 20 new friends by 7 p.m. Once you start coming it is hard to stop, there is something special about runners. We accept everyone and there is always someone weirder than you.

Say hi to the girl who can’t control her dog and is talking too much!

Trust your Gut.

image credit: Ben at Fit Niche

Resolutions are for Suckers, I Run for Beer

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Let me first stipulate that I am very happy for the people on the ground at Mulberry High and Lake Wales High and the other high schools that improved their school grades en masse. They did not make the absurd and dishonest world they inhabit. They did not ask for the meaningless labels applied to them.

Last year, as Florida Southern College Professor Larry Ross says, they were “a broken system.” This year, the capricious Spaghetti Monster of our state education bureaucracy blessed them with its noodily appendage. So they get to live a year in relative peace. Good for them. I am grateful on their behalf that Rick Scott and the conservative legislature thought it in their own best interests to miraculously improve statewide high school grades in an election year. When they want to resume full-on teacher union-busting after 2012, watch where the scores and grades go.

You doubt this? You think Polk is only place where our high school kids are suddenly much smarter and teachers much better than they were this time last year? Or the year before that?

How about this. “Northeast Florida high schools riding high on new grading system”.

At least the Florida Times-Union noted the real news in the headline.

And there’s this from Dade County:

Florida high schools have raised their grades again, with 25 in Miami-Dade and 17 in Broward getting an A grade.

By all means, principals and teachers at traditional schools, enjoy the bureaucratic fruits of your labors. Most years you are denied them.

However, it would be awesome, just once, to see a high school principal come out and say:

“You know, we didn’t work any harder this year than last. We were just as committed to the kids then as we are now. We endure this rigged game because we think the process of instruction is important. But this grading crap is meaningless; no one in the general public or the media understands or bothers to try to learn how it’s calculated. And even if they did, the faceless people at the DOE would adjust it again to serve whatever political purpose their bosses want. So celebrate or criticize if you want, but I’m going back to work.”

Understand, there is no winning a game in which the referees cheat every year. Don’t be fooled because they came down on your side once. As you can see from the stories above, FCAT grading is going to change again in 2012 in a way guaranteed to drive scores and success down. Thus, your glorious hard work and rigorous curriculum are going to transform magically next year, after the election, into systemic teacher laziness and incompetence again. We’ve got to keep that system broken, right Larry, so McKeel can expand.

Our great challenge as citizens in this country in the coming years is to unrig America. Education is one the prime areas of rigging, arguably ground zero. And Florida may be the worst offender. A lot of my education friends and acquaintances from other parts of the country have a hard time actually grasping that Florida allows schools to do what McKeel does, operate as a massive 2,800-kid charter empire with less than 25 percent FRL. That’s crazy. That can’t be right. That’s what I get.

So understand this, everybody. These grades are not a victory. They are not an indicator of any kind, except the corruption at the heart of many of our key institutions.

image credit: urbanmkr

Don’t Play The Rigged High School Grade Game

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook

Note that none of these questions will be asked.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, a reader forwarded me a census of sorts listing the number of certified gifted students in each of Polk County’s schools from last year. (Yeah, no one’s reading any of this.)

You can see the document for yourself (pdf). It’s what you would expect. Among elementary schools, Lincoln was the champ, with 86. South McKeel had 68. And the smaller McKeel Elementary Academy had 25, which is comparatively modest. That makes for some interesting intra-McKeel action because Academy generally outperforms South. (I haven’t bothered to do a specific gifted/overall enrollment ratio. You get the point.)

Just for giggles, check out how many “gifted” kids Alturas Elementary had: 5. F.I.V.E. And if you’ve been reading any of this over the last month or so, you’ll know that Alturas is one the schools that has revealed itself as a strong overachiever even within our corrupt and stupid FCAT scoreboard system.

All of this leads me to ask: does a school make a kid “gifted?” How many of those “gifted” doctors’ kids at Lincoln or “gifted” developers’ kids at South McKeel achieved that label because of the quality of the instruction they received? And how many parents directed their angels to the guidance counselor’s office the instant they walked in the door in kindergarten-or whenever their stay-at-moms gamed the system to get in. Little Brittany is just so advanced for her age. You should see the Third Grade science projects she’s doing at home, and she’s only in First Grade. I only help a little.

And what does it say that those schools, like all the fancy schools except Lakeland Montessori (usual disclosure: my son goes there), significantly underachieve when free and reduced lunch population is calculated?

How is it that with all your student body wealth and giftedness and selectivity, fancy school faculties, that the teachers at Alturas hand your ass to you every day? How is it you can’t climb up to Polk’s median achievement line? How is it you have the shameless gall to want to expand to other communities. How is it you can’t tell your principals and board members to shut up in The Ledger about what and who is “broken” and what and who has a problem? And how is it you let those same principals and board members very bravely run away when I’m calling them out and attacking your professional reputations.

I couldn’t look myself in the mirror. But that’s just me.

Ah well, maybe there’s only one way to settle this.

Chuck and I hereby challenge the combined faculties and staff of McKeel, Lincoln, and whomever else wants a piece, to a high stakes game of Trivia Time at “The Gym” tonight in downtown Lakeland. It starts at 8. I’m sure the McHugh Empire would thrill to a mass appearance of the McDump Empire. And fear not, there are some Family Guy and fashion questions mixed in with geography and literature and history. They’ll give you a chance to stay close.

Think it over. Otherwise, as I said last week, I’m not going anywhere. And I shall be forced to taunt you a second or third or fourth time. And I’ll keep taunting you until the conservative war on traditional school teachers, in which you have taken the wrong side, ends.

image credit: Jon Ross

Let’s See Just How “Gifted” You Are, Fancy School Faculties And Administrators

Lakeland Local on Twitter

Lakeland Local on Facebook