First off: Tomorrow 8/9/10 early voting begins for the 8/24/10 election. In Osceola all County public libraries are early voting locations open M-F, and Saturdays. In Celebration the early voting location is at Water Tower Plaza right next to the library. When you go you will need a government issued photo ID (drivers license, passport, etc.). Voters can also still request an absentee ballot. For more information about early voting, and/or absentee ballots call the Osceola Supervisor of elections office M-F during normal business hours at 407-742-6000. Anyone who answers should be able to answer your questions.

8/2/10 Had an interview with the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board for this months election. Having been through this exercise many times, this year was very different. Unlike previous years, this time they interviewed both myself and my opponent together. I had worked to be prepared for any question they might throw my way. My opponent on the other hand was woefully unprepared and simply was unable to answer questions. To be specific, my opponent made mention of how the budget could be trimmed and that there are surely things that could be cut. When pressed for specifics, she could not say what could or should be cut. On the other hand I shared that we had cut 43M from the budget, eliminated an entire non-educational department, and eliminated 20% of all jobs that paid over 100K. The Orlando Sentinel published their endorsement for me in yesterday’s edition of the Orlando Sentinel. This is the third time in a row the Orlando Sentinel has endorsed my for election/re-election to the Osceola County School Board. Later that night had basketball practice at the Kissimmee YMCA. After practice met with Kissimmee City Commissioner Art Otero about his joining the Osceola Boys and Girls Club Board of Directors. Art is a great guy. 

8/3/10 Had a lunch meeting with Osceola Schools Superintendent Dr. Grego at Celebration Town Tavern to go over his goals for the 2010-2011 school year. At our most recent school board meeting he gave the Board a copy of his tentative goals for the upcoming school year. To say they were voluminous is an understatement. To his credit many people were involved with putting together these goals. In total the list of goals is 113. I had questions about 28 of them. Frankly, 113 goals just seems like it is to much to track and could lead to analysis paralysis. He agreed that some could be scaled back. After that meeting met with Celebration town tavern owner Susan Bona to learn more about her being an AVID tutor last year. For the past nine years I have been mentoring at Kissimmee Middle School and Osceola High School, and really feel the need to start spending time at Celebration HS. So I am most likely going to be an AVID tutor at CHS this school year. Which is not a knock on mentoring. Mentoring is great, after nine years it’s time for a change. Next went to Celebration HS to meet with Assistant Principal Dr. Straker. We talked about IB, FCAT testing, and intensive reading. While there learned that Dr. Straker is a veteran of the British Navy, where he fought in the Falklands war.

Later that day had an interesting conversation. One of my contributors called me to share that they had been called by the state attorney’s office. It seems that whenever I am up for election/re-election those who don’t like it when they can’t bully or intimidate me, and can’t take me on with issues will make any attempt to defeat me. The state attorney asked this firm if they felt pressured to contribute to my campaign in order to do business with the Osceola school district. They said no, that they supported my campaign because I have improved public schools in Osceola County. I have never pressured any Osceola School District employees to do business with any firm, furthermore I am not on any selection committee’s. No Osceola School Board member participates on selection committee’s. Plus I have never promised any firm that if they do or do not contribute to any of my campaigns they would or would not work for the Osceola School District.

My opponents even tried setting me up in 2006. When running for re-election in 2006 I got a phone call from the previous Superintendent that someone had left money for me at Parkway Middle School and that they had it for me at the school district main office. I remember it vividly, I was driving back to Kissimmee from a work meeting in Orlando. I then called the Osceola Supervisor of election right after hanging up with the secretary, saying I may have a problem. In FL candidates are not allowed to accept campaign contributions in government buildings. The Supervisor of elections official told me not to touch the money. So I call the Superintendents secretary back and ask her who it’s from. She tells me, and it is someone I have never heard of. There is no phone #, but there is an address. I call 411 and this person has an unlisted phone #. So I tell the secretary to send the money back to the school. I then get home and write a letter to this person thanking them for leaving money for me at the school, and explaining that I am unable to accept it under the circumstances. I did enclose a self addressed stamped envelope that they could use to make a legal campaign contribution. I never heard back from that person.

There remain a group of people in Osceola County who still manage to bully people,particularly elected officials into adopting their position "or else". Anyone who disagrees with them or stands up to them has to then be subjected to their nonsense. They have to much time on their hands and tend to be unhappy people who take themselves far to seriously. Plus they don’t realize "no" is an answer. So their last avenue for satisfaction is to abuse the mechanics of state government as the tools for intimidation when all else fails. realize that they have filed several complaints with the state Elections and Ethics commission against me too. I have always cooperated and to date have never had one charge or fine brought against me. One state investigator recently commented to me that a complaint filed against me did not even make sense. These are among the reasons a lot of able people do not go into politics. On the other hand this is among the reasons I do not back down, once I give up-the bullies win. The election is 8/24, and these people will climb back under the rock they dwell in after that. Keep in mind that not one person in District One (who I represent) is among this cadre of people. No matter what I do, someone is always bound to be upset. For my liberal friends, they find me to be to conservative. For my conservative friends, they find me to liberal. Meanwhile I don’t have time to worry about it. It reminds me of when I lived in Southern California about 25 years ago. Everyone in California thought I was really intense, when I’d go back to visit friends and family in New York they all thought I was really laid back. Go figure. I just do my best and what I think is right, and work to play by the rules. If I make a mistake, no excuses-I own it.

People are ready to pounce on mistakes. Keep in mind that the people who do the most will often make the most mistakes. On the other hand people who do the least will make the fewest mistakes. Of the mistakes I have made since being elected the most regrettable came in 2004 after the hurricanes. We needed make up days for school days lost from the hurricanes. So I voted to use Veterans day as a make up day. The veterans let me know what they thought of that, and they were right. We should not have used veterans day for a hurricane make up day. So we did meet again for a re-vote and corrected that mistake. The veterans appreciated when I said I made a mistake, and they were right to call me out on it. Without our armed forces we would not enjoy our way of life. We all owe them a huge debt.

8/6/10 Attended the Kissimmee City Commission debate hosted by the Kissimmee/Osceola Chamber of Commerce Kissimmee City Commission debate. All of the candidates seemed very uncomfortable to me. Later that night had a game for my YMCA basketball team at the Kissimmee YMCA. We had several key players gone on family vacations. We ended up losing our first game of the summer by one basket. We even got off the last shot with 10 seconds left that went in and out. This was a bittersweet game for us. You see the other coach was the dad of a player who played for me four years ago. The dad had little confidence four years ago, nut was always eager to help out in practice and was really good with the kids. Plus he is a great dad. I encouraged him to coach. I was happy for him, but still did not enjoy losing.

That same day the state finally got school grades out for elementary, Middle, and K-8 schools. I still am very suspect of this years FCAT results, and am of the thinking that Governor Crist would support whatever came out just to avoid election year controversy. To that end the Florida Association of District School Superintendents (FADSS) issued a letter to the press calling into question the validity of the FCAT results for this year. If anyone would like to see that letter email me back and I’ll forward it to you. This is the first time FADSS has ever sent out anything like this. Based on the results Osceola had some dips from last year. The School with the biggest gain is Parkway Middle School which went from a B to an A under John Harris. Evelith Garcia will do a great job taking over for John who is now Principal at Gateway HS. Our other A schools so far (HS grades will not be out until late fall):

• Harmony Community School
• Highlands Elementary School
• St Cloud Elementary School
• Neptune MS
• Horizon MS
• Celebration K-8
• Deerwood Elementary School
• Four Corners Charter School
• Partin Settlement Elementary School
• Canoe Creek Charter School
• Sunrise Elementary School

8/7/10 Coached YMCA basketball. We had an away game at Tangelo Park YMCA. We lost big, by more than 20 points. The team we played had the biggest nine and ten year olds I’ve ever seen. Plus after playing the night before, we just ran out of gas. Especially with key players on vacation. Our last game for the summer season is this coming Saturday.

Have a great week everyone.

Sincerely,

Jay Wheeler

Osceola County School Board

District One

cell 407-973-4141

First off. This past week a teacher from our school district shared a story about her daughter with me that just seemed to make little sense to me. This teacher has a teenage daughter going overseas. The daughter needs to get shots for malaria and typhus for this trip. So the teacher checked with the School District health care insurance administrator (CIGNA). As it turns out the health insurance plan this teacher participates in will not cover the vaccines. The part that makes no sense, is that (according to the teacher) CIGNA did tell this teacher that while the shots are not covered the health insurance plan would pay for the care and treatment costs for her daughter if she did get typhus or malaria. In fairness, I do not know how much these shots cost. On the other hand it seems that the preventive shots would cost far less than doctors, hospitals, etc. that would be needed to treat such diseases. This kind of reminds me of a law (I do not remember which state has it) requiring all automobile motor vehicles to have properly working windshield wipers, but there is no law requiring these vehicles to have a windshield. I have contacted Dr. Grego about this.

7/19/10 Had an interview with the Osceola County Realtors Association for my upcoming election. They asked good questions. These questions ranged from explaining if I have mentored in the past two years, to how we can make Race to the Top work, to what are the three biggest challenges the district is facing other than a lack of funding. All of the participants really like our school uniform policy. Later that afternoon was a Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association (CFHLA) adopt a school meeting. The meeting was hosted by the Hilton at Walt Disney World. CFHLA has endorsed me for re-election this year. In 2006 I was the first school board member they ever endorsed, and am still the only one in Osceola County they have ever endorsed. At this meeting we reviewed plans for this upcoming school year. Among those plans are a toy drive for homeless students over the upcoming holiday season. We also went over kickoff plans for the start of this school year. Neptune elementary school Principal Linda Harwood will be one of the speakers at the kickoff event.

Got to tell you about Linda Harwood. Linda was Principal at Highlands elementary school before going over to open Neptune Elementary school a few years ago. I have been on the CFHLA adopt a school committee for seven years now. When the JW Marriott opened at Grande Lakes (on JY Parkway), I was able to get them to partner with Highlands Elementary School. At that time Linda was the Principal at Highlands. To her and the school’s credit they had a flourishing relationship with the JW Marriott that is still thriving today. When Linda went to Neptune she could not take the adoption with her. Now whenever she sees me, she is always hounding me for another Hotel adoption for Neptune Elementary School. So at this years kickoff event in September, I got Linda on the program to talk about the value of these relationships based on her experience at Highlands and she can also take advantage of this opportunity to request a partnership to the hoteliers in attendance. In essence it’s the old "sing for your supper". She left me a very excited voice mail on my cell phone about this. To Linda-see, I have not forgotten Neptune Elementary School. Not that she was about to let me forget about Neptune Elementary School!

7/21/10 Was the guest speaker at the Four Corners Rotary meeting at Carrabba’s out on West 192. Great group. They wanted to know about budgets, and new school programs. We also spent a fair amount of time talking about Westside K-8 School and Celebration High School. Among the participants were the Four Corners Newspaper press, we’ve known each other for years. Later that afternoon attended the Celebration Republican meeting at the 851 building. State Representative Steve Precourt was there to give an update on the state legislature. He had just gotten back from the special session in Tallahassee called by Governor Crist about offshore oil drilling. It was a short special session. Steve called it "the Charlie Crist show".

Steve is a good guy and I like him. I did get on him at this meeting about this years FCAT. First off I am a fan of accountability. Absent another metric the FCAT has been a very good thing for Florida. Before FCAT there was not any consistent metric used to assess K-12 gains/losses. Which is in now way to mean that the FCAT is imperfect. Meanwhile for all of its flaws and imperfections each school district in FL has the same advantages and disadvantages with it. Where the FCAT has really been good for FL is in elementary reading, which has risen dramatically in FL since the FCAT was put in place by former Governor Jeb Bush. The state has totally screwed up this years FCAT which really hurts all of us in FL public education. The biggest losers in this fiasco are teachers and schools who should have already gotten additional compensation based on FCAT results. What I got on Steve about was that no one in a leadership position in state government is demanding this get fixed, or that someone gets fired over this. I have left a voice mail with State Rep. Mike Horner over a week ago stating that I wanted to talk to him about the FL dept. of Education, he has not returned the call yet. So far the leadership in Tallahassee has been invisible on the current FCAT fiasco.

Also at this meeting were Republican primary candidates for US Congress who would like to challenge incumbent US Congressman Alan Grayson. The first speaker was a fellow named Dan Fanelli, he is a former US Naval officer. He touted his experience as a Navy officer and an airline pilot. Next was an Orlando businessman Bruce O’Donoghue, who talked about his experience as a small business owner. Finally former FL state senator Dan Webster spoke, he shared his experience as a state legislator. I asked all of them about their knowledge and position on Race to the Top. Mr. Fanelli had no idea what it was and tried to fumble his way through an answer. Mr. O’donoghue had a rudimentary understanding of Race to the top, but had his facts wrong. Dan Webster, basically said that he does not want the federal government meddling in FL public education. Afterwards Mr. O’Donoghue came up to me and asked me how I knew so much about race to the top. First you need to know that I was wearing a "Re-elect Jay Wheeler to the Osceola School Board" T-shirt at the meeting. One would have thought that he would be able to connect the dots. Knowing about matters large and small that affect public education in Osceola County is the job you elected me to do. While he seemed sincere, it was a really dumb question under the circumstances.

7/22/10 Had an Osceola County Boys and Girls Club Board of directors meeting arrived early to look in to see what kids were doing. In the teen computer lab, a young man was working to create his own comic strip. What was really imaginative about it was that the main character was a talking bird. Visited the beautiful arts and crafts room just as a class was ending. Stayed and talked with the staff member running the art class. He is a very nice young man, who openly admitted that he was doing his best-but really did not know what he was doing. At that point I called on my good friend Cindy Bohn. Cindy is the Celebration K-8 school elementary art teacher, and she is terrific. I told her about this new art classroom and that they really had no one with any real art education training for the kids. Cindy has agreed to donate half a day this summer (after getting back from a family vacation) to work with the staff and kids. Later we had our Board meeting. Paul Owen has been Chairman of this Board of directors since it began in 2001. He has done a super job leading this board. He has decided to step down as Chairman of this Board. The Board nominated me as Chairman of the board and by unanimous vote elected me as chairman. With Osceola County Commissioner Fred Hawkins, Osceola Schools Superintendent Dr. Mike Grego, and local businessman Sonny Buoncervullo as my three vice chairmen. I am honored and privileged to lead this Board going forward.

7/23/10 & 7/24/10 We had YMCA basketball games on back to back days. First I need to acknowledge that I have a terrific guy helping me coach this summer. Lee Smith from Celebration who also has a son on our team. We won both games by more than 20 points each. Our rebounding, speed, and defense all clicked. Everyone played very well and very very aggressively. Our team speed is really a joy to watch. In the second half of both games I sat our best players a lot of minutes in an effort to not run up the scores. After the Friday game I felt bad for the other team when they had their coach chew them out. A part of me wanted to step into their team meeting to tell them that they played hard, but were just overmatched. But it was not my team meeting, so I just walked by. After all I would not want another coach interrupting my team if I was talking to them.

Have a great week everyone.

Sincerely, Jay Wheeler

Osceola County School Board

District One                 

As of  this past Monday neither my wife or doctor can bug me any longer about getting a colonoscopy, Dr. Stine in Orlando did it. The preparation the day before was the pits. As one friend put it to me (he’s also a doctor). "You’d rather have a colonoscopy than chemotherapy". The test came out healthy, so I get a pass for another ten years. That night had basketball practice at the Kissimmee YMCA that my assistant coach Lee Smith really ran. Lee’s a great guy and fun to coach with. We both have son’s on the team.

7/13/10 Had a great meeting with Celebration K-8 Principal Rene Clayton. Mrs. Clayton has hit the ground running. She will do a very good job in this position. Later that afternoon had a Value Adjustment Board meeting. We selected a Chairman and a Vice Chairman, met the new attorney, and approved our meeting schedule.

Later that afternoon had a regular Osceola School Board meeting. The Board approved our tentative 2010-2011 School year budget of 854M. The Board also approved 4-1 to start negotiations for a in house health clinic for employees and dependents. Later in the meeting the board reviewed our grants. From the 2000-2001 school year through the 2009-2010 school year we have gotten more than 236M in grants. This past school year we got over 75M in grants. We also reviewed our school gifted program. Which grew from the start of the 2009-2010 school year from 251 students to end with 422 students. The Celebration K-8 School made the biggest jump from 51 students to 87 students. The Board also reviewed this past years HS/College scholarship data. Our students got a grand total of 19.6M in scholarships this year for college.

Later in the meeting we had some facility items to approve. Let me start with, Board members get their board packets with plenty of time for review. Bob Nanni who runs facilities always calls me a day or two before board meetings to see if I have any questions. Typically I go through my packet the weekend prior to a board meeting and email Dr. Grego with questions or concerns I may have. 99% of the time answers come right away. In 2009 the entire Board agreed to always come to board meetings prepared at a retreat. Meanwhile Cindy Hartig this past board meeting was playing the gotcha game with staff with interrogation and prosecutorial tactics. When I called her on it she claimed that she did not have time to review her material in advance. Which is far fetched, after all she certainly had a laundry list of questions prepared to ask. Surely she could have emailed them in advance and been professional, like the rest of the board is able to do. Our staff and contractors do a great job, and are more than willing to work with any board member. Ms. Hartig has spent the past two years looking for the smoking gun in some grand conspiracy-that simply does not exist now or ever has.

Later in the meeting Dr. Grego shared the letter that went out to the FL Commissioner of Education about this years FCAT anomalies. The letter is signed and authored by the Superintendents of Broward, Miami-Dade, Leon, Hillsborough, and Duval County School Districts. In total these districts represent 40% of public school students in FL. I have always been a fan of the FCAT. This year has been a fiasco, and I blame the FL dept. of education. First off, their subcontractor took forever to get results compiled. Those results just do not jive with prior years. So the FL Dept. of Education has hired firms to audit the results. One of the firms hired for the audit is the same firm that produced the original results.Kind of like having the fox guard the hen house. So school grades still aren’t out, and when they do come out they will be suspect at best. Worse yet, is that the Governor has shown no leadership on this and has been the invisible man, keep in mind that he was the last statewide elected commissioner of education. No one from the state house or state senate has said anything either. No one has been fired over this. Total lack of leadership on this issue. Charlie Crist gives me an all new appreciation of Jeb Bush!!

7/14/10 Met with some Celebration parents at the Celebration Town tavern. They are very excited about the upcoming school year.

7/15/10 Began meeting with Osceola County Commissioner John Quinones and Kissimmee City Commissioner Art Otero. Go to my facebook page at jaywheelerosceola to see the pictures we took with them. Art and John are great guys, both are endorsing me in this election. Later that day had a Four Corner Charter School Meeting. We are upgrading technology at FCCS. We are also looking to do some facility improvements there. There contract is up for bid. The board decided not to bid it out and re-negotiate with Charter Schools USA to continue operating the school. They are doing a great job there.

7/16/10 Was spent with local media. Marvin Cortner of the Osceola News Gazette and I had a good conversation about the problems with this years FCAT. Also concluded some research this week about Osceola School funding. In last weeks candidate debate my opponent highlighted that Osceola County Schools had to give money back to the state due to a state audit. I found this very puzzling. Surely if this was the case it would have been front page news, and I’d like to think I would have known about it. I will give her credit, she did say it with great conviction. In fact after a state audit last year, the state awarded us an additional 185K and did not in fact penalize the Osceola School District. Facts can be persnickety things.

Today coached a very exciting basketball game. We played a South Orlando YMCA team. They lead almost the entire game. With less than 30 seconds to go we tied them. The game ended in a 17-17 tie. I was proud of how my team fought back. As a basketball coach nothing makes me madder than bad passing. Our passing was not great, we also missed a bunch of lay-ups and free throws. Practice Monday will be about lay-ups, following your shot and passing.

The reason this is coming out on a Saturday and not a Sunday this week is because my wife insists that I take tomorrow off.

Jay Wheeler/Osceola County School Board

District One

Cell/407-973-4141

Facebook:  jaywheelerosceola                               

July 4th was spent campaigning for re-election through most of the day. That night we attended a party in Celebration hosted by Dr. David Marcantel and Kelly McCarthy. They had enough food to feed an army, and enough fireworks to keep everyone happy.At the party had an interesting conversation with a Celebration resident who is also a Professor at Embry Riddle University in Daytona Beach. We have continued our conversation since the party. He is interested in seeing how Embry Riddle can partner with Osceola County Schools. I have gotten his contact info. to Dr. Grego, and requested that the appropriate resource follow up with him about seeing how we can establish this relationship.

July 5-9th attended The Florida Educational Facility Planning association summer conference. Compared to prior years attendance was way down. Most of the attendee’s were from Community Colleges. Many of the community colleges in Florida are morphing from 2 year institutions to 4 year colleges offering Bachelor degrees. The biggest take away from the conference is that any Florida public school district with surplus land is vulnerable to having the land taken away by a charter school at NC. Surplus land does not mean land that has no school occupying it. Many school districts own land that has a school planned for it. Surplus land essentially means that the district has no plan for it and/or they intend to sell the land.

July 9th had a school Board debate with my opponent at Kissimmee City Hall. The debate was put on by the Chamber of Commerce. Questions were asked by El Osceola Star Publisher Bill Hansen, Osceola News Gazette Editor Marvin Cortner, and the Reporter editor Mike Freeman. The most interesting thing about these debates is that no matter if a candidate has their facts straight or not, there is no protocol for a challenge to incorrect facts. My opponent said several times after I answered a question and she had her turn " I agree with Jay". Never had an opponent say that in a debate before. One issue we are diametrically opposed on is the office of internal auditor. First off, several years ago this was my idea. Considering how poorly the previous Superintendent did impact fee projections, we really needed an independent set of eyes to look over finances. Fast forward to the present with Dr. Grego as Superintendent, we are doing very well at managing our budget, and out of 67 public school districts in FL Osceola is 66th in what we spend per student on administration. Which means our money is going where it belongs into the classroom. We eliminated this internal department last year, and have outsourced auditing for less than half of what it cost internally. My opponent may want to grow the district office, I do not. I want to keep as much money in the classroom where it belongs. Anyone running against me has to paint the school district in a poor light, and I still think there is a lot of room for improvement. We are making great gains, and there is a real sense of urgency to improve.

My opponent lamented about how we need to hire more local people. I am not against hiring local people. My position on this is: that we need to hire the best talent we can no matter where they are from. Our students and community deserve the very best people working to improve our school district, and not have blinders on regarding where people are or are not from. If that means hiring someone from Timbuktu, that’s fine with me provided they are the most talented candidate. We need results not parochialism. She was critical of Osceola’s rising HS graduation rate too. Either she thinks Osceola is spinning empirical data or does not understand that Osceola’s graduation rate is calculated the same way every other school districts graduation rate in Florida is calculated by the Florida Department of Education. we are also diametrically opposed over the state of morale in the school district. Surely there are some grumbling teachers who want things to go back how they used to be, and have hear ear. Meanwhile schools like Central Ave., Thacker Avenue, and Kissimmee Elementary Schools are great examples of schools that for years lagged behind in achievement and believed all the old excuses of having kids who couldn’t compete. Now they are all A & B schools with an energy that is electric. At the Kissimmee Elementary School awards ceremony in May, they had record numbers of kids achieving at the highest levels. In order for a candidate to know this kind of stuff, they’d need to spend time in schools.  

My wife and ten year old son attended the debate. My thirteen year old daughter clearly did not think the debate was cool enough to attend. Both of my kids have attended public schools in Osceola County since kindergarten. One is going into 5th grade and the other into 8th grade next month.

Yesterday spent time in Celebration getting yard signs up. Later last night had a campaign event at the Celebration Golf Club. Thanks to everyone who showed up. We’ll be doing it again next month 8/18. The band was awesome. Made up of current CHS students and alumni, classes of 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009. They do great versions of Chuck Mangione music. The crowd asked good questions about technology, FCAT, Foreign Language instruction, Athletics, etc. So many teachers have shared their support. Last night Celebration K-8 elementary Art teacher Cindy Bohn, and third grade teacher Peggy Jansing were in attendance to lend their support. Both are truly inspirational teachers who know how to motivate students to reach their potential.

Have a great week everyone.

Jay Wheeler

Osceola County School Board

District One

cell 407-973-4141  

6/28/10 Stopped in and visited with Dr. Kennedy one last time at the Celebration K-8 School before his retirement. I have really enjoyed working with Wayne since his arrival as Principal at the K-8 School. His first plan during retirement was to go up to Jacksonville this weekend to greet his grandson who is returning to port from six months at sea in the Navy. We had a very nice visit, we plan to keep in touch. Later that day had Kissimmee YMCA basketball practice. Did a lot of dribbling and defensive drills, along with loads of running.

6/29/10 Had a School Board workshop. The Board got a lot done at this meeting. We went over the budget for the 2010-2011 school year. We gave staff the green light to keep moving forward with an employee health care clinic. We went over policy revisions/changes. We are looking at language changes to the school uniform policy. We went over results from our second year with school uniforms. The most startling results are that from 2007-2008 to 2008-2009 we cut gang related activity 46% in the first full year with school uniforms, and in our second full year with school uniforms we cut gang related activity for the 2009-2010 school year another 51% from the previous year. Which from it’s inception is a 75% overall reduction in gang related activity in our schools over a two year period with our school uniform policy in place. That is simply outstanding by any measure. School uniforms are definitely making our schools safer for students and staff. Good job to all.

The Board also approved the Superintendents goals for the 2010-2011 school year. Dr. Grego will be bringing us his stretch goals at a Board meeting the end of this month, and I can’t wait to see them. Privately we have had conversations with me requesting that attacking childhood obesity be part of his stretch goals. We really need to do a better job taking on childhood obesity. Finally we went over our FCAT results, which showed dramatic gains in HS and MS this year. To his credit Dr. Grego made it clear before any Board member could bring it up that the district needs to really turn its focus to mathematics this upcoming school year. I completely agree with him. In the past we have really needed to focus on reading, and we have with great gains. Math is the next challenge that we need to get our students to excel at. Students who are good at math, can be good at everything else.

6/30/10-7/2/10 Attended the Florida Association of Counties meeting in Tampa. While there got to spend time with Osceola County Commissioners Brandon Arrington and Fred Hawkins. Also got to spend some time with Osceola County Attorney Jo Thacker and Osceola County Manager Don Fisher. The big topic of conversation was/is the gulf oil spill. Governor Crist addressed the attendees at a lunch meeting, and he clearly was focused on the oil spill. A lot of the attendee’s also made it clear how much they do not care for Gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott.

Today was the Celebration Independence day parade. Thanks to Brenda Hart, Barbara Olson, Cathie Dakel, Cindy Bohn, Kym Grabman, Jennifer Britt, Ben Wheeler, Laura Wheeler, Leidiana Bowen, Dennis Young, Austin Hart, Myranda Grabman, Destiny, Kenny, Barker Advertising, St. Cloud Printing, and everyone else who wore a re-elect Jay Wheeler shirt today and helped out. Also thanks to Larry Walters from Hanson Walters and Associates for his help this weekend. After the parade went to the yearly holiday party at Mike & Rebecca Prevost’s home in Celebration. Mike is the leader of my campaign sign crew, and a great friend. No one leaves a Prevost part hungry, and today was no exception.

For anyone who is less than happy with how the state is dealing with getting FCAT results out this year, call them at 850-245-0505 on Tuesday 7/6 and let them know how you feel. Have a great Holiday tomorrow. If you have any desire to read a good patriotic book that will give some perspective on what our founding fathers went through to found our great nation 234 years ago, try John Adams or 1776 by David McCullough. Any of you out there know the significance of the battle of Trenton ?

Happy July 4th

Jay Wheeler

Osceola County School Board

District One

407-973-4141 (cell)          

6/21/10 Had YMCA basketball practice. While we had won the previous Saturday, the team missed to many lay-ups. So we worked on break away lay-ups. Good practice and lots and lots of running. We can’t afford to run out of gas.        

6/23/10 Spent at Putnam County Schools. Met Putnam Superintendent Tom Townsend in the morning at Crescent City HS. Toured both Crescent City and Interlachen HS. Crescent City HS has some chronic leaks in the roof. One bad one in the gym. Helping them understand some enabling legislation for facility improvements. FL statute 1013.23.

6/24/10 Was spent in Panama City at Gulf Coast Community College. Joe Sorci from Florida Architects invited me to the ground breaking of their new Advanced Technology Center. His firm is the architect for the project at GCCC. Florida Architects also did the design work for the new Tupperware Brands Boys and Girls Club that opened a couple of weeks ago in Kissimmee. So I am happy to come and support his firms efforts. After the ground breaking stayed for a GCCC Board of Trustee meeting. GCCC President Dr. Kerley made comments about HS students and their college readiness. I stayed and talked to him after the meeting about AVID and how it helps students get ready for college. Surprisingly he had never heard of AVID.

6/25/10 Got to give a speech to new families who have adopted their foster children as permanent family members at the Osceola County Courthouse, with Judge Waller presiding. St Cloud Council member Jay Polachek and Osceola County Commissioner Fred Hawkins also got to address the attendee’s. Being asked to participate in this event and throwing out the first pitch for Celebration Little League this past April are the two coolest things I have ever gotten the honor to do as a result of being elected. Speaking to these newly expanded families was particularly gratifying for me.

I shared how my sister and I had been brought up by our parents, and closed by sharing that both my sister and myself were adopted. I also gave the newly adopted children advice on that they can score huge points with their parents by asking on a daily basis: "Please tell me what I can do to help out around here". I also shared with them that if they are ever doing something so bad that they can’t tell their parents or teachers about it, then they should not be doing it at all.

Just got back from a weekend at St. Pete Beach. A buddy I went to HS with lives over there and his daughter got married last night. It seemed like just yesterday she was born. This buddy and I graduated HS together and we were team mates on an undefeated HS track team our senior year. His mom was one of my HS English teachers, and it was great seeing her too. She was a very tough teacher. The bride and groom are both HS teachers and the MOB is a Principal in Hillsborough County. Nice to be back home.

Finally, the Osceola Classroom Teachers Union sent out a questionnaire for all current school board candidates to complete. If anyone would like a copy of my responses to them just email me back.

With any luck the FL Dept. of Education might actually get FCAT results out this week!!

Have a great week everyone.

Jay Wheeler/Osceola County School Board-District One

cell/407-973-4141        

First off, Happy fathers day to all the dad’s out there. To those of you still lucky enough to have your dad, spend as much time with him as you can. My dad was great. He always took me to baseball games, AAA Rochester Red Wings. He took me to my first big league game at Fenway Park in 1969, Royals vs. Bosox. Yaz hit a homer that day, and I’ve been a Red Sox fan ever since. My dad enlisted in the Army after High School and he fought in the battle of the bulge, where he was wounded. His purple heart is encased and hanging in my home office. He and my mom married in 1950 after he finished pharmacy school, they were married for 38 years before he died in 1989 from cancer. I miss him every day.

6/14/10 Started out great with a visit to our brand new Boys and Girls Club in Kissimmee. This was the first day with children and it was packed with almost 300 kids. The old club could handle only 150. They already have a waiting list. Club director Andrew was both tired and excited. The entire Boys and Girls Club staff worked long and hard to get the club opened, and did a great job. A big thank you to Turner Construction. Hanson Walters, Universal Engineering and Florida Architects for all they have done to bring this club out of the ground with professional services. Tupperware, Walt Disney World, Osceola County Government, and the Edyth Bush Foundation also deserve a HUGE THANK YOU for their financial contributions to make this club a reality for our kids. Having gone through the club in all phases of construction, it just isn’t even close to the energy the place has when it’s full of kids. Later that day went to the Osceola Supervisor of Elections office to turn in qualifying paperwork to be on the ballot. School Board elections are 8/24/10. Later that night coached my YMCA basketball team through a practice full of running, all the players (and a very old coach!) went home tired.

6/15/10 Attended the Principal/Executive partnership year end lunch at Kissimmee Bay Country Club. This is the first year of an executive partnership with 11 schools participating with this partnership between an executive and Principal for an entire school year. Each Principal and executive shared great success stories.

Later that day had a regular School Board meeting. Staff provided an update on our Reach For the Stars program for top HS seniors. I’ll take credit for this program. I pushed Dr. Grego two years ago to make this happen and he did. Dr. Sharon Alexander heads this effort up. This year we had students accepted to: Amherst College, Barnard College, Cornell, Columbia, Duke, Emory, Fordham, Georgetown, Georgia Tech., Johns Hopkins, NYU, Oberlin, Rice, Smith College, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, USMA, and Williams college. A very good start for a new program. Reach for the stars got over 6M in scholarships for these students. For the 2008-2009 School year we had 140 HS seniors accepted to top tier colleges and Universities, in 2009-2010 that number has jumped to 219 students. Plus for all graduating seniors ( not just reach for the stars students ) we secured just over 20M in college scholarships. I am thrilled to see this [program off to such a stellar start. Now we need to add Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Yale, UVA, and the University of Chicago to next years list of colleges !! We also got a student accepted into a 7 year BS/MD program at UCF, which means she got into medical school right out of HS.

Later in the meeting the board approved expanding the AVID program to 6 middle schools. AVID is a program for the middle of the road students who need a push. AVID stands for: Advancement via individual determination. It is more specifically a college prepatory program that closes the achievement gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success. In practical terms it helps students in many ways. In my opinion the most important thing it does is teach good study habits, and how to organize school work. The organization part is phenomenal. Plus in every location tutors are needed to work with students. This past year Susan Bona who owns Celebration Town Tavern, has been working at Celebration High School all year tutoring AVID students. From feedback from CHS staff, Susan is making a huge impact with her tutoring and everyone appreciates her-including me.

Later in the meeting the board had to address what to do about the .25 mills we approved over a year ago. When we first approved it we were facing a dire financial situation. Frankly while our financial situation is far from robust, staff has gotten us in pretty good shape. As a result we will not be putting the .25 millage on the ballot at this time. If we had not done as good a job at cutting 43M from our budget and becoming far more financially efficient we would need the money. Which is not to say that a public school district could not use extra cash, any school district can always use extra money. The good thing about being in a down economy with budget shortfalls is that it made the school district re-examine how we did business and focus on what’s important. To that end students sitting at desks are the tail wagging the dog. So we cut 20% of jobs that paid over 100K, an entire non-educational department, we are now 66th out of 67 FL public school districts in what we spend per student on administration. In Central FL we are the only school district that did not cut Middle School interscholastic athletics, we actually expanded them. We put science labs in every elementary school for hands on student learning. We have expanded music education. Because these are programs important to kids. No matter what the budget is, we still have over 50,000 kids who are going to show up M-F 10 mos. each year who deserve our best.

Finally we did the Superintendents review. In prior years with the previous Superintendent I consistently gave out the most scathing of bad reviews for equally bad results. For the first time since being elected I had the best review of all the Board members for the Superintendent. Mike Grego is doing a great job and he has earned a stellar review from me. Overall he got a good review from each board member and we voted 5-0 to keep him and roll his contract. If anyone would like a copy of my review to Dr. grego for this past school year, just email me back with the request and please include you exact email address in the body of the email.       

6/16/10-6/18/10 attended the joint Florida School Board Association & Florida Association of District Schools Superintendents conference in Tampa. The Florida Department of Education has done a very good job this year unifying all attendee’s in their anger and frustration over the delay in getting FCAT results out. The value of the FCAT is not an issue FL school boards or districts can debate, it is a fact of life for us. One would think that the state would get it’s act together. While the oil gusher in the gulf clearly is the top priority for Governor Crist, you’d think having been the last elected commissioner of education for the state of Florida he’d weigh in on this too. So far not a peep from him or any of the candidates wanting to replace him. If Jeb Bush were governor, he certainly would have found a way to motivate people to get these results out.

Attended seminars on the link between birth weight and student performance, paperless board meetings, and current state legislative issues. Among the discussions of value were the one on the impact that the BP Oil gusher will have on property tax collections in the panhandle, and the decrease in state sales tax revenues from the drop in panhandle beach tourism. The underlying fear is how the BP disaster will affect all beach tourism and the sales tax revenues from a drop in tourism along all Florida beaches. A Board member from Walton County shared that tar balls are washing up in beaches in her county all the time now. The birth weight seminar was interesting but very dry. The presenter is a an MD who knows his stuff,but clearly spends more time doing research than he does speaking to large groups of people. The papereless Board meeting presentation was given by Orange County, and Leon County School staff. Clearly this saves time and money for both of these districts.

The real value of these meetings is networking with people from all over the state. The biggest question’s about Osceola from Board members throughout Florida is about our student Uniform policy. With Putnam and Volusia showing the most interest. Got to spend time with Superintendents from Indian River, Putnam, Hardee, and St. Johns Counties. In St. Johns County they have had health clinics for employees that have been so successful that they are looking to expand the program. In Osceola we are giving this very serious consideration. In Indian River County their budget is in such bad shape they have had to cut AVID, which is a real shame. On the other hand it makes me appreciate the state of our budget in Osceola. In Hardee County the Superintendent their has some schools with real facility issues.

My 13 year old daughter just walked in and gave me my fathers day gift that she bought me with her own money. A men’s XL Homer Simpson T-Shirt ( we are big Simpsons fans ), with a card signed by her and ( she says ) all the dogs-we have 3 mutts. She topped it off with a hug, which was better than any gift. As it turns out I am wearing last years fathers day gift, another Homer Simpson short that reads worlds greatest dad, with Lisa and Bart tugging Homers arms in opposite directions and Maggie pulling Homers leg. My kids know they are always safe getting me Magic, Gator, or Simpson gear. I still have an old T-Shirt they made me years ago with their hand prints on a white T-shirt in Gator Blue and Orange that reads Number one gator Dad. As much as my kids can make me nuts, they are still terrific. My son came and wished me a happy fathers day as soon as he woke up.

Yesterday Coached our first summer basketball game at the Kissimmee YMCA. We won 24-17. This is the first time most of my players have ever played on a real regulation full court. A lot of them ran out of gas at about half time. To much video games at home. Despite that they played hard and we won. I have one little guy who just doesn’t understand double dribbling, the ref called it on him about 4 times.

Have a great week everyone

Jay Wheeler/Osceola County School Board

District One

cell 407-973-4141               

6/7/10 The Osceola School Board had an executive session with staff to review employee compensation, benefits and budgets for the upcoming 2010-2011 school year. Later had my first basketball practice at the Kissimmee YMCA. We did a lot of fundamentals and running. This summers team will play a very up tempo speed game.

6/8/10 Attended the Osceola High School topping out celebration in the shell of the new gym. A lot of happy subcontractors attended. The new gym and performing arts center are scheduled to open for staff and students in November of this upcoming school year, good stuff. Later in the day met with Dr. Grego to go over my review of his 2009-2010 performance. The only portion of his performance that I have issue with is not his fault. The Florida Department of Education still has not gotten FCAT results out, so no one can use 2009-2010 FCAT data to do any kind of evaluation. While it is frustrating for a board member to not have the FCAT data for a superintendent evaluation. Not having FCAT data before school ends makes it that much more difficult to do what we need to for individual students and families, which is far more important. Hopefully the next Governor will have what it takes to motivate our FCAT evaluation vendor. Right now the FL DOE gets an "F" from me regarding FCAT. Jeb Bush would never have put up with this when he was Governor, and none of the rest of us who care about FL public education should either.

6/9/10 Met with a Celebration High School parent about his students issues. He is the parent of a very bright high achieving young lady. We worked out what he needed for his student. Next met with Celebration K-8 Principal Wayne Kennedy. Wayne is retiring this month, we all need to wish him well. While at the Celebration K-8 school met with orchestra/band director Mr. Cochrane, who does a great job with his students. We talked about what he needs for the upcoming school year. Also stopped in to visit with the elementary art teacher Cindy Bohn, who had a class full of first graders in art heaven-making an organized mess that turned out to be art work. After that attended a chamber of commerce new business ribbon cutting in downtown Kissimmee with Osceola County Commissioner John Quinones.

6/10/10 Attended an 8th grade graduation party in Celebration. The party was held at a house with a pool. A bunch of kids went swimming. As a parent or former eighth grader myself, I found it amazing that the girls and boys were not paying to much attention to each other. Either I missed something or things have changed a lot since I was a kid. Granted all this was going on under the watchful eyes of a lot of parents-when I was a kid it would not have made any difference. Talking to these newly minted 8th grade graduates, it seemed like all of them are going into the Celebration High School IB program next year. Their parents are all thrilled at the later start time for CHS next year too.

6/11/10 Began with a myregion.org board of directors meeting in Orlando. The meeting was centered around the recent super regional leadership conference held last month at the Gaylord Palms. There was also a discussion about how to get more people involved. The primary problem is that everyone can’t help but think of their own community and/or constituency. In order to really make a region work it needs an identifiable Chairman who represents everyone like a governor or a US senator. Next attended the Kissimmee/Osceola Chamber of commerce board of directors meeting. The hot topic was county fire fees.

Yesterday had basketball practice at the Kissimmee YMCA. We worked on defense, rebounding, dribbling and shooting. Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals !!

Have a great week everyone,

Jay Wheeler/Osceola County School Board

District One

cell 407-973-4141

6/1/10 Was a regular school board meeting. This was the last board meeting before students are on a summer break, as a result there was a lot of student recognition. The meeting began with a poetry recital from a Kissimmee Elementary school student who read with great animation "my dog has no manners". He even had a stuffed dog prop for the reading. Not only did this young man do a great job, he was the cutest little guy we’ve had at a board meeting in a very long time. Next we had spring academic High School sports team champions, and for spring 2010 the winners are:

Boys Baseball        New Dimensions HS    3.225 GPA

Girls Softball          Osceola HS                 3.343 GPA

Boys Tennis           Harmony HS                3.905 GPA

Girls Tennis            Gateway HS                3.863 GPA

Boys Track            Harmony HS                3.292 GPA

Girls Track            Harmony HS                 3.418 GPA

Boys Weightlifting Harmony HS                 2.991 GPA

Girls Flag Football Celebration HS             3.389 GPA

Boys Water Polo   Osceola HS                 3.149 GPA

Girls Water Polo   Osceola HS                  3.480 GPA

Harmony High School Senior Jamie Beekman received special recognition for being among the top 24 High School student athletes by the Florida High School Athletic Assn. Jamie will be attending Johns Hopkins University next fall to study engineering.

The Board also recognized the HS coach of the year candidates. For the 2010 the candidates were:

Celebration HS        Joan Connolly-Girls Softball coach, Girls Volleyball Asst. Coach, Girls Basketball Asst. coach

Gateway HS            Ettie Singleton-Girls Volleyball coach, Girls track coach

Harmony HS            Chris Todd-Boys Wrestling Coach

Liberty HS               Eric Scrivens-Track Coach, Wrestling Asst. Coach, Football Asst. Coach

New Dimensions HS Ryan Adams-Boys Basketball Coach, Girls Volleyball Coach

Osceola HS            Eric Pinellas-Girls track coach

Poinciana HS          Jamerson Jones-Girls basketball coach

St. Cloud HS           Matt Milton-Wrestling coach

Poinciana High School Girls varsity basketball coach Jamerson Jones was named the 2010 HS coach of the year at Osceola public schools.

Next the Board recognized a parade of employees who have reached the 25 years of service to the district.

After the board meeting had to head over to the Kissimmee YMCA to go over some things for this summers basketball with their executive director Chris Wolf. I am coaching a team there this summer.

6/3/10 Met with Frank Satchell. Frank is the City Manager in Mulberry over in Polk County. Before taking that job he was a School Superintendent in New York state on Long Island, before that we was a long time Principal in Polk County and elected Mulberry city commissioner. The man is a wealth of knowledge from a variety of perspectives, and the kind of guy anyone can learn from. Next stopped in at Celebration HS to meet with their Principal Dr. Rhinehart. Dr. Rhinehart is doing an outstanding job at CHS. After our meeting it was raining very hard, and we bumped into the band director who told us that he moved instruments in the band room just in time to avoid the flooding. I was perplexed. After further discussion I learned that half the school floods with hard rains. The other half does not anymore because the faulty drainage on half the school was fixed.

I thought drainage issues at CHS had been resolved, not half resolved. As a result I spoke with the architect form who designed the school, they were unaware of this problem. They said they’d come out to CHS to look at it. I also spoke with Deputy Superintendent Mrs. Pace about it. This needs to be resolved. A HS that opened brand new August of 2003 should not be flooding unless we get Noah’s Ark rains.

Later that night attended the end of year band concert at the Celebration K-8 School. The show began with the choir, then went to the sixth grade or "beginner" band. Next was the jazz band, followed by the advanced MS band, the choir once more, all the bands from grades 6-12, with a finale from grades 7-12. This was a terrific concert. The crowd was overflowing in the K-8 gym. The music played included selections from The Sound of Music, James Bond theme song ( which I thought was the best song performed that night), West Side Story, Miley Cyrus, Van Morrison ( they credited Moondance to Michael Buble), Star Wars theme, etc. Middle School band director Mr. Cochrane recognized Dr. Kennedy for his support of the band program. The one thing missing is strings, which I have already spoken to Dr. Grego about. Everyone in attendance witnessed a great show-to bad it had to end !!

6/4/10 Began with the Kissimmee/Osceola Chamber of Commerce breakfast of champions at the Kissimmee Civic Center. Nice crowd. The guest speaker talked about how leaders need to be honest with those that they lead. That is only half correct, leaders need to be honest with everyone not only those they lead.

Next was the official grand opening of the new Kissimmee Boys and Girls Club. This has taken eight years to get opened up, and millions of dollars to make happen. Tupperware CEO Rick Goings gave the keynote speech. Meg Crofton from WDW also spoke. Between them they donated 1.75M to build this facility. The club is the Tupperware brands club. Tupperware is very involved with Boys and Girls Clubs. Rick Goings made it clear that it is very gratifying to be involved with a club right here at "home". 6/14/10 will be the first day the new club will be open with kids. This club will be able to handle twice as many children as the old club. Good stuff !

Yesterday spent a fair amount of the day working on Dr. Grego’s yearly review. He got high marks from me. He is doing a very good job and we are lucky to have him.

Have a great week everyone.

Jay Wheeler

Osceola County School Board

District One

cell 407-973-4141                                

5/26/10 Attended the Kissimmee Elementary School honor roll assembly in their cafeteria. Great event that recognized all the students who scored a 3 or higher on the FCAT. More students made it this year than last year. Dr. Meyers and his staff do a great job at KES. Next stopped in at Kissimmee Middle School to meet with their Principal Miss Evans. Finally stopped in at the new Boys and Girls Club on Dyer. The new Boys and Girls Club will be able to handle twice as many children as our existing club. The grand opening is 6/4, and 6/14 will be the first day with children.

5/27/10 Attended the super regional leadership conference at the Gaylord Palms. This is a yearly event put on by the Central Florida Partnership and the Tampa Bay partnership. Topics ranged from economic development, education, transportation, and space aviation. The final presentation of the event was given by US Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood. Secretary Lahood came with the first check for the high speed rail project for Orlando to/from Tampa for 66M. Also that day attended an Osceola Boys and Girls Board of Directors meeting. Based on what was presented at that meeting out new club in Kissimmee will open with a 300K operating budget deficit. Marc Reicher from Rida Development ( Champions Gate ) brought a local philanthropist who brought a 10K check for our club, reducing our shortfall to 290K. The board also talked about stepping up our efforts to reach out to more at risk children.

Later that afternoon attended the Celebration K-8 School National Junior Honor Society ( NJHS ) induction ceremony for new NJHS members. Our daughter is now an NJHS member at the Celebration K-8 school. Between sports, dance, band, etc. It seems like we know all these kids. After the Celebration NJHS ceremony, I raced over to Osceola Heritage Park for the Celebration High School graduation. CHS Principal Laura Rhinehart and her staff did a great job with the CHS graduation. They have a lot of students heading to UF next year, along with a few heading to Columbia University, UCLA, and Miami of Ohio out of state. One young lady got into Cornell but opted for UF instead.

Years ago only a very few state universities were considered truly elite. University of Virginia, University of California Berkeley, and the University of Michigan were always seen as the best among state universities. Due to the growth in the state of FL and the demand to attend the University of FL over the past 15 years. UF is right up there with those other top tier state universities. Chew on this: the only University in America with more National Merit Scholars than the University of FL is Harvard !!

5/28/10 Hosted a group from Putnam County Schools in Osceola. The group included District staff, school board members, parents and students. They came to Osceola to go through and see schools with school uniforms. Our first stop was Osceola High School where they got to see a class change and meet with OHS Principal Gary Preisser. Our next stop was Kissimmee Middle School, where again they got to see a change of classes, and meet with Principal Paula Evans. Our final stop was Parkway Middle School. At Parkway Middle School their Principal Dr. John Harris brought us into some of his music classes. We got to see a violin class perform a piece by Bach. He also took us into a really cool guitar class. Next year Dr. Harris will be Principal at Gateway HS. The group from Putnam ( especially the students ), commented about how much it seemed like school staff really cares about the kids in our schools. After those meetings, met with Dr. Grego and Deputy Superintendent Mrs. Pace about the upcoming school year and health clinics for employees.

5/29/10 Began with the Osceola High School graduation at Osceola Heritage Park. The young lady I have been mentoring for the past seven years graduated, and I could not have been any prouder of her if I tried. Also a young lady who lives next door graduated in the top 25 of her senior class this year. Just yesterday it seems like they were both little kids. I could go on and on about dozens of other students I know and have seen grow up. Gary Preisser and the entire OHS staff did a great job with the graduation.

Between yesterday and today went to three graduation parties. One for a student heading to UCF next year, another for a student heading to UF next year, and that last one today for a student heading to FSU next year. Good stuff.

On a personal note, the reason no update went out last week is because the week of 5/17 we had to head up to Rochester NY where my mom was terminal. She passed away peacefully in her sleep early 5/20. In 1989 my dad died. Not having any parents is new for me. I saw my mom 3-4 times each year with her usually coming here for 2-3 weeks at a time. We spoke on the phone every day, sometimes twice each day. I still feel like I need to call her every day and talk about when she’ll be coming down for a visit, which was usually planned around kids activities so shed could attend their ball games, band concerts etc. I did her eulogy, which was the toughest speech I have ever had to prepare for and give in my life. As exceptional as my wife is, she was even a thousand times more exceptional dealing with my extended family during this difficult time. My mom was one of three very close sisters, and was my sisters best friend-they all still live in Rochester NY within about a one square mile radius. Been a tough year with surgeries for my kid, and now this. An upcoming election almost seems like a relief by comparison.

Tomorrow is memorial day. Please think of the brave members of our armed forces who have made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can live free in the greatest nation in the world.

Have a great week everyone,

Jay Wheeler

Osceola County School Board

District One

cell/407-973-4141