ECSO Seeking Election Deputies
August 13, 2008
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Department is looking for you if you would like to do you part to ensure a fair election and pick up some cash at the same time.
The sheriff’s department is looking for election deputies to stand by during the primary election on August 26. Election deputies are unarmed and do not have arrest powers; they just work to ensure a fair election process.
A one hour class is being held at the Byrneville Community Center for prospective election deputies. For more information, contact Rhonda Ray at (850)436-9729.
Election deputies are paid $12 to attend the class and $110 for working Election Day.
Charter Application Filed Without Blue Ribbon Committee’s Knowledge
August 12, 2008
The Century Blue Ribbon had no idea that an application for a charter school was filed with what appeared to be their name at the bottom; committee members said they never saw the application until after it was filed.
The application for the Charter Magnet School at Century was prepared by the “Century Blue Ribbon Committee on Education and The Century Community Development Partnership, Inc”, according the bottom of 80 of 81 pages of the application.
Members of the Century Blue Ribbon committee question the application filing by Irvin Stallworth at a meeting Monday night. Stallworth is president of the Century Community Development Partnership (CCDP), and he is also chairman of the town’s Blue Ribbon Committee.
“We had our last meeting the Thursday night before he filed the application,” Blue Ribbon Committee member, and Carver/Century K-8 Principal Jeff Garthwaite said. “Why did we not see it?”
“The charter was not discussed,” he said. “If our name as our committee is going to go on a document, the committee should have seen it,” he said.
NorthEscambia.com was the first media to break the story that the application had been filed by Stallworth and the CCDP on behalf of a corporation to be formed to run the charter school, if it is approved by the school board.
Century Mayor Freddie McCall said he has spoken with Stallworth on Monday and was told “I will explain it when I can sit down and talk to you”.
“It seems he (Stallworth) is operating under the name of the Blue Ribbon Committee without the Blue Ribbon Committee knowing anything about it,” McCall said. “I wonder if he is just writing off the school and going ahead with the charter.”
The listed organizer of the charter school, James Sutton (pictured left), was present at the Blue Ribbon Committee’s meeting Monday night at the Century Town Hall.
Sutton said he was contacted Thursday night before the application was submitted on Friday and asked by Stallworth to sign it on Friday morning, August 1.
“As far as I knew, it was this Blue Ribbon Committee,” Sutton said. When asked by the mayor who wrote the document, Sutton replied “Jack Moran”. Moran is a Century businessman.
“That charter will not fly as it is written,” Garthwaite said. Previously in his career, Garthwaite actually worked in the school district’s Department of Alternative Education, the department that reviews charter applications. “There are so many missing pieces to that document. There are some serious gaps. There are several issues that are left very vague. If our name is attached to it, you don’t want junk going forward. You want a quality document.”
“I would have appreciated it if we had seen it that night before it went in with our name on it,” he said.
“We still had not seen it until today,” Blue Ribbon Committee member Laura Nelson said. “It if is stamped that we prepared it, we should have seen it. Why did he (Stallworth) not mention it the night before at the meeting?”
“This committee on there, is it us, or is it Mr. Moran, or Rev. Stallworth, or who is it?” Nelson asked. “And who will pay the expenses with this application?”
“Mr. Jack (Moran) will probably pay for it,” McCall answered.
“The effort should have been more visible,” Garthwaite said. “I don’t know Mr. Moran very well, but what did he have to do with the committee?” Moran was not named to the Blue Ribbon Committee as appointed by the Century Town Council.
The 81 page application does not indicate the exact address where the charter school would be located. It simply lists the address as “Hecker Road, Century, Florida”. NorthEscambia.com poised a hypothetical question to the Blue Ribbon Committee: “Could the application allow the Century Community Development Partnership to actually get approved for their own charter school at their legal address of 700 Hecker Road, the old Century High School? If the school board did not close the current Carver/Century K-8 School, could there actually be two schools?”
“That could happen,” Garthwaite said. “There could be two schools.” He said the way the application was written that it was not clear that it was filed to take over the current Carver/Century K-8 School if it should close.
Garthwaite continued several times during the meeting to express his displeasure over the entire application.
“It’s missing any required letters of support or financial plans,” he said. “I just have great problems with the committee named on this document having never seen this document. The people that have wrote this document are not on this committee.”
“The first step would be to sit down with Pastor Stallworth,” Sutton said. “I don’t think this was intended for anything.”
The charter application must undergo a lengthy review process before being considered by the school board.
To read more about the Century Community Development Partnership, click here.
NorthEscambia.com has been unable to contact Stallworth since we began trying Sunday afternoon; our phone calls have not been returned. We were unable to contact Moran Monday night due to the late hour the Blue Ribbon Committee meeting ended. We will attempt to contact both men again on Tuesday.
Pictured above: Blue Ribbon Committee members Rev. Willie Carter (left) and Jeff Garthwaite (right) listen to committee member Brenda Spencer Monday night. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Who Is the Century Community Development Partnership?
August 12, 2008
The Century Community Development Partnership, Inc. (CCDP) has taken an active role in applying for a charter school in Century without the knowledge of a Blue Ribbon Committee formed by the Town of Century. Documents filed with the state of Florida indicate that no one on the CCDP board of directors is actually from Century.
Irvin Stallworth, the president of the CCDP, is chairman of the town’s Blue Ribbon Committee. The committee acknowledged that they never saw or approved a charter school application that was filed using the name of the Century Blue Ribbon Committee on Education.
According to the 2008 Not-for-Profit Corporation Annual Report filed with the Florida’ Secretary of State’s office, Stallworth is the president of the organization located at 700 East Hecker Road, Suite 104 in Century. That address is the old Century High School, which is leased for $1 per year by Stallworth’s New Life Baptist Church. Stallworth lists his address at 700 Hecker Road on the CCDP corporate papers. On the corporation reports for the New Life Baptist Church of Century, Inc., he lists his address as being on Pomeral Stree in Milton.
Other members listed by the secretary of state’s office as being on the board of directors of the Century Community Development Partnership are:
- La-Vonne Haven, Creighton Road, Pensacola. Haven is executive director of the Gulf Wind Council of Camp Fire U.S.A
- Claudia Curry, North 10th Avenue, Pensacola. Curry is a current member of the Escambia County School Board and a candidate for Escambia County School Superintendent.
- Pat Crawford, University Parkway, Pensacola. Crawford is executive director of WUWF at the University of West Florida.
- Hosea Pittman, Bellview Pines Place, Pensacola. Pittman works for the Florida Department of Corrections.
- Sue Straughn, Mobile Highway, Pensacola. Straughn is an anchorwoman for WEAR-TV
According to the group’s website theccdp.org, Jack Moran is a director and treasurer of the group. The website says Moran is “a retired business management and development consultant living just west of Century.”
The CCDP was formed to “provide relief to the poor, the distressed and the underprivileged by engaging in or support activities to provide affordable housing, create jobs, eliminate blight, and provide needed services,” according to the group’s articles of incorporation adopted on September 4, 2006.
Area Man Travels To Beijing, Site Of The Summer Olympics
August 12, 2008
The 2008 Summer Olympics are well underway this week in Beijing, China. While Beijing may seem a world away and culturally odd to many in North Escambia, one area man that has made multiple visits to China says it is a great place.
Bill Busch, COO of Alto Products Corp. in nearby Atmore, travels to China at least twice per year to visit the company’s sales office in Shenzhen. Shenzhen is about 1200 miles from Beijing, but Busch has paid several visits to Beijing to visit Alto customers.
“Beijing has very, very nice people,” Busch said. “They are very enthusiastic.”
Besides the people, he said he enjoys the city and its culture.
“It is very much like New York City because it is such a big city,” he said. “But it is perhaps a little more modern. It is very Western. There is a Starbucks everywhere, plus you will find companies like KFC, Pizza Hut and McDonalds all over the city.”
“There is still a lot of old culture there, a lot of people that ride bicycles to work,” he said. “I enjoy things like the older parts of the city and the Great Wall; it is very impressive.”
But equally impressive is the “Bird’s Nest”, the main Olympic stadium that Busch has seen first hand.
Busch enjoys the food when he travels to Beijing, a city that announced it was ordering the removal of dog meat from restaurant menus during the Olympics.
“The food I enjoy contains a lot of vegetables and fish,” he said. “It is very different that the Chinese food in restaurants here in the United States.”
“I really, really enjoy visiting Beijing,” he said.
Alto Products is the world’s largest and oldest independently owned and operated transmission clutch manufacturer in the world, having manufactured over a billion clutches in the past 50 years. In addition to the corporate office and manufacturing facility in Atmore, the company operates offices and distribution facilities in California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Germany, India, China, Dubai and Australia.
“China is one of our fastest growing markets right now,” Busch said.
Alto employees many North Escambia residents at their Atmore facility.
Pictured above: Bill Busch (blue shirt, top middle) in the Alto China sales office with Alto employees Albert and John and their families. Submitted photo.
Teachers Head Back To School
August 12, 2008
Teachers headed back to school in Escambia County Tuesday.
They will spend the rest of the week preparing for the return of students on Monday morning.
Most area schools will hold orientation and “meet the teacher” times on Thursday or Friday. For more information, contact your child’s school.
School Board Town Hall Meeting Tonight At Jay High
August 12, 2008
Santa Rosa County School Board members will conduct a town hall meeting tonight at Jay High School.
The meeting will include a status report on the districts financial situation and detail the superintendent’s budget plan for the next two years. The discussion will include information on how schools will address loss of revenue and increased operational costs.
The meeting will take place at 7:00 tonight in the Jay High School auditorium.
For more information, call Tim Wyrosdick, assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment, at (850) 983-5040.
Charter School Application Started After Stallworth “Stepped Forward”
August 11, 2008
The charter application that has been filed for the Charter Magnet School at Century began when local Baptist minister Irvin Stallworth stepped forward to help save the town’s school, according to the charter application.
The application’s narrative reads, in part:
“With govermental financial pressures mounting, a rumor spread rapidly that the administration of the county school district was to propose the closure and consolidation of the K-8 school.
“Like a lightning bolt the prospect of closure galvanized the community behind the school, and a local Baptist minister stepped forward at the request of the town’s Mayor Freddie McCall to help the town keep a school.
“Several years earlier, the Baptist minister has seen a need in the community. He founded a church in Century, and then in the aftermath of a major hurricane, formed a Public-Private-Faith based nonprofit to help the community find its vision and purpose. The nonprofit was called the Century Community Development Partnership, Inc.
“Century Community Development Partnership, Inc. was founded by Rev. Irvin Stallworth in 2005 in response to a need for critical community infrastructure, especially affordable housing…especially affordable housing in the catastrophic wake of Hurricane Ivan and many long years of poverty in the community.
“The need for other elements of community infrastructure quickly became apparent, such as daycare, urgent medical care, local public transportation, communications and improved schools. Working closely with the mayor and town council, Rev. Stallworth helped organize a “Blue Ribbon Committee” to make sure the Town of Century would have a school. The Mayor and Town Council named Rev. Stallworth as chairman of the committee.”
The narrative ends with:
“At the request of Rev. Stallworth a new nonprofit corporation will be filed to hold the charter of the Charter Magnet School at Century. The corporation is being named the “The Charter Magnet School at Century.”
Stallworth is pastor of New Life Baptist Church in Century.
The Town of Century’s Blue Ribbon Committee referenced above in the charter application is not the same as the Century Blue Ribbon Committee on Education that prepared the charter application, according to Century Mayor Freddie McCall and other members of the town’s Blue Ribbon Committee. For more information on that story, click here.
Stallworth’s Nonprofit Files Charter Applicaton For Carver/Century; Town Of Century Not Involved
August 11, 2008
A charter school application has been filed for the Carver/Century K-8 School by a Century foundation and the Century Blue Ribbon Committee on Education. But that’s not the same blue ribbon committee than the one appointed by the Town Council to save the school.
The application was filed minutes before the Escambia County Schools Department of Alternative Education closed on August 1, the deadline to apply for charter school status for the 2009-2010 school year. It was the only application filed. Superintendent Jim Paul has indicated that he plans to recommend the closure of Carver/Century at the August 19 school board meeting.
According to the application, it was “Prepared by the Century Blue Ribbon Committee on Education and The Century Community Development Partnership, Inc.”. It was filed by “James Sutton as organizer of the Charter Magnet School at Century in organization” and “Irvin Stallworth as President/Executive Director of CCDP”.
The Town of Century formed its own Blue Ribbon Committee on May 19 and named several area residents to the committee, including Stallworth. That committee appointed by the town is not the committee that filed the charter school application, according to Century Mayor Freddie McCall.
“No sir, it is not it; it is not the same,” McCall said when contacted over the weekend. He did not want to comment further until he had the opportunity to further “study” the situation.
“The committee is unaware of this application,” Century Blue Ribbon Committee member and vocal Carver/Century supporter Laura Nelson said. Nelson was the organizing force behind a prayer walk and rally in support of the school on May 3. “We did not lay eyes on the application prior to it being filed. The committee had no part in that application.”
Century Blue Ribbon Committee member Brenda Spencer said the committee did not vote on anything related to a charter school application when they last met on July 31, one day prior to the application being filed with the school district.
“But if someone had the forethought to file this application before the deadline, at least we won’t miss our chance to keep our school if they vote to close it,” Spencer said. “It is always good to have a ‘Plan B’. If we don’t need to use it, that is good. But we needed another option.”
James Sutton, the man who is listed on the application as the organizer of the Charter Magnet School at Century, told NorthEscambia.com that he was called by Stallworth and asked to help save the school. Sutton is not a member of the town’s blue ribbon committee.
“Hopefully we don’t need it, but we had to have the application filed by August 1,” he said. “If we did not, and they voted to the close the school, the children would have been bused somewhere else. It would be hard to bring them back to Century if they had been gone for a year.”
When NorthEscambia.com asked Sutton if he knew that the Century Blue Ribbon Committee on Education and the town’s Century Blue Ribbon Committee were not the same group, he said, “I was not aware of that, but I have been told that since. It was my understanding at the time that it was the same group, but at the time I did not give it a lot of thought.”
“Regardless, we want the town to come forward to help the town and to help the school,” he said. “We lose our community if we lose our school.”
The charter application was officially filed by the Century Community Development Partnership, Inc., a nonprofit headed by Stallworth. But Stallworth is very clear in the cover letter of the application that the CCDP does not intend to be the corporation running the school. The letter reads:
“In an effort to expedite the process and to move forward as rapidly as possible with the application of the Charter Magnet School at Century, Florida, the Century Community Development Partnership, Inc. is allowing this application to be filed under their name and their established 501(c)3; however, the Century Community Development Partnership, Inc. will not be the Florida Corporation that will ultimately hold the Charter of the CMS@Century. This interim use of CCDP in this application is pending the CMS@Century obtaining a 501(c)3 designation. The Charter Magnet School at Century is in organization as a Florida nonprofit corporation.”
501(c)3 is the designation given by the Internal Revenue Service to officially designate an approved nonprofit organization.
If the school board votes to close Carver/Century, the charter application does not necessarily mean that the group will get the charter to operate the school, according to Vickie Mathis, director of the Department of Alternative Education that administers the charter school program in Escambia County.
“It is a lengthy process that must have input from every department in the system, including all four assistant superintendents,” she said. “They review the application very close, including the budget and curriculum. The main thing we are concerned about is the education of the children.”
NorthEscambia.com obtained the application for “The Charter Magnet School of Century, Florida” late Friday afternoon following a public records request submitted to the school district. The detailed 81 page application document spells out the plans for the school, which hopes to 150 students enrolled in grades K-8 in its first year, 175 in its second year and 200 by year number three of the charter.
“Our Charter Magnet School Vision will facilitate the building of a community where any American can live and accomplish good, moral works, enjoy and revel in an abundant life, while looking forward with excitement and interest to what the future will bring,” the applications says.
Mathis pointed out to NorthEscambia.com that of the application was missing required signatures, and the application was not a “complete, official application until both signatures are acquired”.
Editor’s note: NorthEscambia.com attempted to contact Stallworth late Sunday, but we were unable to reach him. He was presumably unavailable because he is the pastor of a Century church and services would have been schedule at his church Sunday evening.
Local Church Gives New Pastor A Pounding, And A Little Sugar Too
August 11, 2008
The members of one local church gave their new pastor and his wife a pounding Sunday night. And they gave him a little sugar too.
Ray’s Chapel Baptist Church in Bogia gave new Pastor Nathan Brown and his wife Danielle a pounding following their Sunday evening service.
A pounding is an old fashioned tradition celebrated in many churches were a new pastor is welcomed to the church with gifts of food. Traditionally, a pounding would provide a pastor and his family with a pound of staples, such as a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, a pound of butter and a pound of other basic items.
The Ray’s Chapel pounding for their new pastor was perhaps a bit more modern, with items such as Easy Mac, 100 calories packs of Oreo cookies, Kool Aid, Hamburger Helpers and snack items. The boxes of food also include handwritten recipes for many homemade dishes.
Nathan and his wife Danielle are from Dutton, Alabama, near Scottsboro in the northern part of the state.
He is a recent graduate with a master’s degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he interned at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola.
He officially began his service as Ray’s Chapel new pastor on August 1.
Poundings, we are told, are sometimes also given in a church to provide food for needy families in the community.
Pictured above: Danielle and Rev. Nathan Brown were given a pounding at Ray’s Chapel Baptist Church in Bogia Sunday night. Pictured below: Some of the food items in the pounding. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
FHP Plans Monthly Checkpoint On Highway 97
August 11, 2008
The Florida Highway Patrols says that it is planning a driver’s license and vehicle safety checkpoint somewhere on Highway 97 between now and Thursday. The checkpoints on Highway 97, according to the FHP, are becoming a routine monthly event.
Recognizing the danger presented to the public by defective vehicle equipment, troopers will concentrate their efforts on vehicles being operated with defects such as bad brakes, worn tires and defective lighting equipment. In addition, attention will be directed to drivers who would violate the driver license laws of Florida.
The patrol has found these checkpoints to be an effective means of enforcing the equipment and driver license laws of Florida while ensuring the protection of all motorists.