BROOKSVILLE — The principal of BEST Academy charter school appeared at a Hernando County School Board workshop last week to rebut a recent report by a district administrator, who recommended the board renew the school’s charter for just two years.

His efforts paid off, with the School Board agreeing to a three-year renewal.

Andre Buford, principal of Brooksville Engineering, Science and Technology Academy, or BEST Academy, submitted a list of what he said were inaccuracies in school choice supervisor Dawn Williams’ report, presented at a Jan. 28 workshop.

Buford told board members that he did not speak up at the earlier workshop, saying that he was angry because he felt the report did not represent “the entirety of BEST Academy.’’ He said what most upset him was the statement that the school’s academic performance had declined over the past two years.

“If a school has a C in ’16, a C in ’18 and a B in ’19, that school did not decline,’’ he said.

“He’s absolutely correct; it’s not in decline,’’ said Williams, interviewed this week. “What I indicated in my remarks in the January workshop was that there were some areas of student achievement that were in decline.’’

Williams said that she, Buford and Lisa Cropley, executive director of student support services, collaborated on the report delivered Feb. 25.

“I pointed out areas of concern" in the earlier report, Williams said. "What we shared at the workshop just last week or so were the positives.’’

Cropley supervises Jill Kolasa, executive director of student support services, who supervises Williams. Cropley told the board that the school "did have some significant gains in their overall points awarded.’’

Of nine school performance categories, BEST improved in four categories, decreased in four and stayed the same in one, she said, "but overall, they did have enough of an increase to go up a letter grade.’’

Cropley highlighted “a few minor errors’’ in the report from Jan. 28, among them that BEST scored the lowest percentage of learning gains for middle-grade students in English for the 2016-17 school year. In fact, it was second-lowest.

Also, Williams said that BEST had the lowest gains in the district for the 2017-18 school year. Cropley said the school was in the lowest quartile, but fourth from the lowest.

A cause for celebration, Cropley said, was that in 2018-19, BEST improved in all three areas of English. Also that year, the school posted the third highest scores for science proficiency in the district, behind Challenger and Gulf Coast.

BEST Academy declined in student acceleration for the third straight year, but achieved a higher score in that category than any other school in the district during the 2018-19 school year, Cropley said.

She noted that social studies and math scores did drop. Buford said he has hired a new math instructor and expects better results in that category next time.

Cropley said the administration’s major concern is declining enrollment at BEST, a Title I school whose economically disadvantaged population is nearly 59 percent. The amount of state funding is based on the number of students. BEST has dropped from 124 in 2017-18 to 87 this school year. The school’s capacity is 132 students.

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She said at the beginning of her presentation that the administration still recommended a two-year charter extension.

Board chairwoman Susan Duval acknowledged some academic achievements for the school, along with things that can be improved.

“My concern was — still is — the financial side of this," Duval said. "That’s why I’m reluctant to move off another two years.’’

She agreed to three years after Buford pointed out that a parent enrolling a student in the middle school program wants to be sure the child can attend the entire three years. Duval said it is vital that enrollment increases.

Board member Gus Guadagnino supported a three-year charter extension.

“And I believe that if we gave you three years, that is a good incentive for your staff, and it’s a good show of faith from us that we have faith that you can pull this off,’’ Guadagnino said.

Board member Jimmy Lodato originally pushed for the school’s requested five-year charter renewal.

“I think what you’re going to have to look at carefully is a marketing campaign to let people know what you are and what you’re offering,’’ Lodato said.

BROOKSVILLE — Archaeologists trying to locate the remnants of a historic Seminole village took another run at the Brooksville City Council this week, asking if they could examine unused land at the Brooksville Cemetery. They assured council members they would cause no harm.

But council member William Kemerer, who said he believed in the sanctity of the ground, brought the idea to an end.

Nearly a year ago, the council embraced the archaeological study, which is examining several sites around Brooksville to pinpoint the historic village of Chucochatti, which historians believe is the ancestral home of the Seminole people.

At that time, the City Council approved access to its 56-acre Griffin Prairie property east of Emerson Road and south of State Road 50. That site has served as a drainage basin and is part of the 1,000-acre area that the Gulf Archaeology Research Institute believes contains remnants of the village.

Late last year, researchers also asked the City Council for permission to excavate within the Brooksville Cemetery, but several council members thought it was a bad idea. The idea resurfaced lately.

In a letter to the council dated Feb. 20, Jill Principe of the research company asked to conduct metal detection, core samples and shovel test surveys on property north of the cemetery.

"GARI is very aware of the Council’s misgivings regarding the sensitive nature of this request,'' she wrote. "We would like to assure the Council that GARI would never intrude on the sanctity of any burial. As such, we have placed our proposed study area of the cemetery property well outside the vicinity of any visible graves.''

During Monday’s council meeting, she showed council members an overlay of existing burials in the cemetery. The area north of there is wooded and does not appear to have been used for burials.

"As you can see, the proposed study area is well outside the boundaries of any prospective plots and very far away from any possible human remains,'' Principe said.

Previous investigations into the archaeology of the area showed that the town of Chucochatti could have been located where the cemetery is now. But researchers hope that the northern end of the cemetery property could hold evidence of the edges of the town, said Sean Norman of the institute.

Council member Pat Brayton said he was concerned about what the team would do with any artifacts they found. Those would be studied and stored, rather than returning them to the ground, Principe said. Brayton said he was worried that would happen to human remains.

Researchers are not allowed to disturb human remains, Principe said. Norman added that, while he has found remains in the past, researchers know whom to call and how to properly handle any such case.

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Gary Ellis, director emeritus for the institute, said his team does not want to make any mistakes and that "we know what burials look like, both prehistoric and historic.''

"I still have the same concerns,'' Kemerer said. "The property was bought over 100 years ago. It was bought as a cemetery. Records go back to the day it was bought. We have no idea what may or may not have occurred in that area.

"Once it is dedicated a cemetery property, I think it ought to be kept for that use ... I don’t think it should be disturbed.''

Other council members were more open to the idea, but Ellis said he didn’t want to move forward without unanimous support. He withdrew the request.

"It’s a good project,'' Ellis said, "and the city will benefit from it greatly.''

Chucochatti, or “red village,” has multiple spellings in historical literature. It was one of the first settlements of the Creek people in Florida and is considered the birthplace of the Seminole Tribe.

With support from tribal leaders, the institute and the Historic Hernando Preservation Society have secured a $74,000 federal grant to delineate Chucochatti. Eventually, they hope to list the village on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ellis told council members that he respected their concerns. When the research is done, they will have a thick report on what was found and next steps that might be taken to further the research or tell the story of the area’s history, he said.

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Early voting locations open Wednesday in Pasco and Hernando counties.

The Pasco early voting period is Wednesday, Oct. 26 through Saturday, Nov. 5 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Early voting in Hernando County is Oct. 26 through Nov. 5 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Pasco County early voting locations include:

West Pasco Government Center 8731 Citizens Dr, New Port Richey

Hudson Library 8012 Library Rd, Hudson

J. Ben Harrill Recreation Complex 2830 Gulf Trace Blvd, Holiday

Regency Park Library 9701 Little Rd, New Port Richey

Odessa Community Center 1627 Chesapeake Dr, Odessa

Land O' Lakes Recreation Complex 3032 Collier Pkwy, Land O' Lakes

Pasco County Utilities Administration Building 19420 Central Blvd, Land O' Lakes

New River Library 34043 State Road 54, Wesley Chapel

Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus 3021 Sports Coast Way, Wesley Chapel

Wesley Chapel District Park (NEW LOCATION) 7727 Boyette Rd, Wesley Chapel

Alice Hall Community Center 38116 5th Ave, Zephyrhills

East Pasco Government Center 14236 6th St, Dade City

Early voting is no longer available at South Holiday Library and AdventHealth Center Ice, according to Pasco County officials.

Officials also said that Election Day precincts/polling places may have changed due to redistricting, but people can vote at any early voting site. Wait times at all locations are available here.

Voters must present photo and signature identification when early voting or vote a provisional ballot.

To expedite voting, voters with address updates are encouraged to call the elections’ office at 800-851-8754 or update their voter record online here before going to vote.

Hernando County early voting locations include:

South Brooksville Community Center 601 E Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Brooksville

Spring Hill Branch Library 9220 Spring Hill Dr, Spring Hill

Supervisor of Elections Branch Office/Forest Oaks Government Center 7443 Forest Oaks Blvd, Spring Hill

East Hernando Library 6457 Windmere Rd, Brooksville

Hernando County Utilities Bldg./Community Room 15365 Cortez Blvd, Brooksville

BROOKSVILLE — Hernando could be the next county in Tampa Bay to get an Amazon center, although no formal plans have yet been discussed publicly by county officials or announced by Amazon.

In March, the shipping and shopping giant Amazon spent $6.2 million to buy a 70.6-acre parcel adjacent to the Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport, according to property records.

The site is bounded by the Suncoast Parkway on the east, Anderson Snow Road on the west and Corporate Boulevard on the north. It is approximately the same size as the property the company bought last December in Pasco County for $11.8 million on the south side of State Road 52 at Bellamy Brothers Boulevard.

In January, the Pasco site was announced amid fanfare because the location was designed to be a robotic sorting warehouse, which could attract a specialized workforce. Work on the warehouse was expected to happen quickly, but there has not yet been construction on the site, which officials had hoped would open by early 2023.

The formal company announcement projected construction of a $150 million, 517,220-square-foot facility that would provide 500 new jobs. Just 2 miles from Interstate 75, the new Pasco warehouse is expected to assist with Amazon logistics.

“This facility will feature linehaul trucks which will utilize the Interstate 75 corridor to bring shipments to locations across the southeast,” the company said in a news release. “The most unique feature will be the approximately 180,000-square-foot mezzanine supporting a 100 percent robotics-based sorting system.”

The warehouse is planned for a site that Pasco’s economic development council had marketed as a “ready site,” a program designed to provide large sites with the necessary infrastructure in place to handle industrial development. In Hernando County, there has been no public announcement about Amazon and no discussion publicly about help the county might offer to assist the company.

Valerie Pianta, Hernando County’s economic development director, said she knew of the Amazon purchase but had no other information she could share on the site or the company’s plans.

George Southworth, the landowner who had sold the Pasco property on State Road 52 to Amazon, said he reached out to the Amazon developer after learning of the Hernando purchase but said he does not believe that it will have any impact on the company’s plans in Pasco.

“The Suncoast Parkway is not a major shipping artery like I-75,” Southworth told the Tampa Bay Times. “I doubt the intended use of a site along the Suncoast would be the same as the Eagle 1 (Pasco) site.”

He said he understands that the Hernando site will be used as a “last-mile warehouse,” which is the last stopping off point for Amazon merchandise before it is delivered to the customer.

Several other similar warehouses have been built in Florida in recent years, including one in Land O’ Lakes also in Pasco County that the company announced in 2020 and is now in operation. That facility, near the interchange of the Suncoast Parkway and State Road 54, is 110,000 square feet and cost an estimated $40 million.

“Regarding your questions on pending projects in Pasco and Hernando Counties — we do not have any updates to share right now,” said Amazon Central Florida public relations specialist Greg Rios.

AAC Championship Central

Tournament: American Athletic Conference Championship Schedule/Dates: April 17-19 Location: Brooksville, Fla. Course: Southern Hills Plantation Club

Follow: Live scoring via Golfstat | Twitter @USFWGolf

TAMPA, FLA., April 15, 2023 – The USF women's golf team will head up the road to Brooksville as USF is the host institution for the American Athletic Conference Championship. The Bulls head into the tournament following a season that saw multiple team and individual records broken.

The three-day 54- hole tournament begins Monday, April 17 and will be played on the par 72, 6,289-yard Southern Hills Plantation Club in Brooksville, FL.

Tee times will begin on April 17 between 8-8:34 a.m. (ET) off the first tee with No. 1 seed UCF and No. 2 seed SMU. Players from No. 3 seed Tulsa and No. 4 seed Houston will head out from 8:42-9:16 a.m., followed immediately by No. 5 seed USF and No. 6 seed Tulane at 9:25-9:59 a.m. No. 7 seed Memphis and No. 8 seed East Carolina are set to take the course between 10:07-10:41 a.m., and No. 9 seed Cincinnati and No. 10 seed Wichita State round out the entries with tee times from 10:50-11:24 a.m.

The field will be re-paired for both day two and day three based on the previous round's scoring, with split tee times off numbers one and 10 awaiting the round three pairings.

UCF enters the tournament slotted 20th in the latest Golfstat team rankings from April 11 to pace the conference. SMU (28), Tulsa (36), Houston (37), South Florida (56), and Tulane (60) are also ranked in the team top 100.

The Bulls are coming into the tournament ranked #26 in the country in scoring average at 290.7 and are ranked #56 in the country according to Golfstat rankings. This season the Bulls have set school records for team par or better rounds with 13, team season birdies with 357, and individual par or better rounds with 55.

Leading the charge for the Bulls will be junior Melanie Green who enters play with a school record rank of #14 in the country with a scoring average of 71.76 and is the #40 ranked player in the country. Green holds the school record with 42 career rounds of par or better and is on pace for several school records.

The Bulls Head coach Erika Brennan has announced the following lineup for USF: Sub: Emma Kim (Fr./ Ulsan, South Korea)

Quoting Head Coach Erika Brennan "We are ready to compete and look forward to playing in front of the home crowd. Southern Hills is a challenging course that will require us to stay patient and play percentage shots while being ready to capitalize when opportunities present themselves. This team believes deeply in one another, and they've had great focus heading into post-season so now it's time to go out and execute."

About USF Women's Golf The Bulls are in their sixth season under head coach Erika Brennan in 2022-23. USF is among the fastest rising programs in the country, as they climbed 75 spots in the national Golfstat rankings following Brennan's first season in 2018-19 and have captured three tournament titles under Brennan, while setting numerous program scoring records under her leadership. Junior standout Melanie Green has been an all-conference performer in each of her first two seasons, reached the 2022 NCAA Regionals as an individual and competed in both the U.S. Women's Open and U.S. Women's Amateur championships.

Follow @USFWGolf on Twitter for the latest information concerning the program.

- #GoBulls –

Over the last several weeks, the Good Neighbor Trail connector overpass has been taking shape and is starting to look like an overpass. The overpass is being constructed at the southwest corner of Cobb Road and 50. It will go over SR 50 just south of the intersection of 50 and Cobb Road and land bikers between the Hardees restaurant and Tractor Supply.

Large steel piles were driven into the ground to provide stability. This was a loud process that could pretty much be heard all throughout the center of Brooksville. Thankfully, this phase is complete, with the piles driven into the ground on both sides of SR 50.

John McShaffrey, Community Outreach Manager for the Florida Department of Transportation, District Seven, provided an explanation of the steel piles that have been driven into the ground for the bike overpass. “There is no uniform length for the steel piles for this bridge because piles are driven until they reach capacity. Reaching capacity largely depends on the materials the pile is driven into. The driven pile length for this bridge varies from 18.8 feet to 131.69 feet.”

Mr. McShaffrey then sketched out the process for the overpass construction:

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“Drive piles. Install rebar, then form and pour concrete for footings. Install rebar, then form and pour concrete for columns. Install rebar, then form and pour concrete for caps. Install the pre-assembled steel bridge over the roadway.”

As of Dec. 13, McShaffrey said, “The contractor has driven all the piles, installed rebar, and formed and poured concrete for all the footings. They are currently building the columns.”

“The installed bridge will have an 18’ – 3” clearance over the roadway surface (road to bottom of the overpass bridge).” After the overpass, the 12-foot wide trail will head to West Jefferson Street and extend to Tom Varn Park, where it roughly follows Darby Lane through and out of the park.

The trail then heads toward US 41. According to Kris Carson, FDOT District 7 Communications Manager, “The Good Neighbor Trail crossing at US 41 will be at street level (no overpass). There will be striped crosswalks in that area for the trail crossing north-south at US 41 and east-west at Mildred Avenue. The area will be well-marked with fluorescent sign panels to alert drivers to pedestrians and bicyclists.” The trail will follow 41 (N Broad St) into the city of Brooksville and then go south along South Main Street, then to Russell Street, where the Good Neighbor Trail begins.

The Good Neighbor Trail (roughly 10 miles) connects to the Withlacoochee State Trail. The trails through Brooksville will fill a gap in the broader Coast to Coast connector project. According to FDOT records, the Good Neighbor Trail connector through Brooksville will cost $20 million, and the contractor is SEMA Construction, Inc.

In Nov. 2021, the first leg of filling a gap in the Coast to Coast connector project was completed, creating a 12-foot wide bike trail from the Suncoast Parkway to Cobb Road and 50. According to FDOT, the cost of this phase of the project was $5,526,496 and was completed by Watson Civil Construction, Inc.

The Hernando Sun reached out to Patricia Laird, owner of Crank Works Bicycles in Brooksville, asking for insight on how the trail completion would change the local bike scene.

As far as Interest in bicycling through Brooksville, she explained, “We’ve had quite a few phone calls and emails from people from out of town who are looking for suggestions on the best way to bike through Brooksville. There are a few groups on Facebook specifically for cyclists who are undertaking the “coast to coast” ride, and I see posts regularly from people trying to navigate our specific area (without this trail). With the overall C2C trail getting closer to completion, I’m seeing more and more people riding the route. This trail connection will make traversing this section of the route much safer and will encourage more cyclists to ride the route.”

Laird says that the trail will be important to the economic vitality of the area once complete.“From an economic standpoint, this is an amazing opportunity for Brooksville that the trail is coming through our area. I’m frequently asked for suggestions on where to eat or where to stay by cyclists that are traveling the C2C route. Many stay at our locally owned bed and breakfasts and eat at our local restaurants. This all helps support our local businesses. The reality is that Florida is number one in the nation for bicycle fatalities. Many cyclists are tired of riding dangerous roads and looking for alternatives. That solution has come through either moving to off-road, “gravel,” or riding paved trails.”

Laird concludes, “The timing for this has worked out perfectly. This project was planned almost a decade ago; I was fortunate to be involved then. But outdoor recreation has been in huge demand since the pandemic, so the timing of the trail construction is perfect.”

The FDOT estimates that the 2.2-mile Good Neighbor Trail connector will be complete in Dec. 2025.