Unexpected Visitor Drives Into Cloud 9 Photo Studio

When a photo session at Cloud 9 Studios in Wesley Chapel scheduled for 1 p.m. on April 25 was cancelled, owner Jeanine McLeod took her one-year-old son, James, and went out to grab lunch.

The office manager, Mary Gullett, stayed in the studio while assistant Carla Holness photographed her own three children —ages almost 1, 4, and 5 — in the back.

That’s when, all of a sudden, a car came crashing through the front doors of Cloud 9’s building in the Summergate Professional Center behind Sam’s Club off S.R. 56.

“I heard tires screeching and felt the building rattle,” Carla says.

According to a report by the Florida Highway Patrol, 80-year-old Theresa Drummond was attempting to park her car when she pressed the gas pedal instead of the brake.

That sent her 2005 while Ford Taurus over the curb, in between two pillars and halfway through the door into the building at 27340 Cashford Circle.

“What’s crazy is that Jeanine is always there with James and I’m not usually there with my kids,” says Carla. “About half an hour before it happened, the kids were all running around playing, so I’m just so thankful that they were out to lunch and that my kids were in the back.”

Jeanine echoed Carla’s grateful attitude.

“All of us are a little shook up, but I’m just so thankful everyone is okay,’’ Jeanine said. “ My son loves to play at the windows with the curtains, and he’s always up there looking as the cars go by.”

Both ladies are amazed that the car fit exactly through the columns on either side of the front door. “The car had to be lined up perfectly,” says Jeanine. “Any farther to the left or right and she would have hit steel columns.”

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Drummond was not transported to a medical facility. The studio was temporarily boarded up until new doors could be installed.

Valedictorian Is Just One Impressive Accomplishment For This WCH Senior

Wesley Chapel High valedictorian Samantha Politano is congratulated by Pasco County school superintendent Kurt Browning and School Board member Cynthia Armstrong as Politano receives one of several scholarships.

When Samantha Politano steps on to the stage to speak to Wesley Chapel High’s graduating class of 2017 on May 26, it will be the culmination of a dream she’s had since the third grade, when the letter “A” first appeared on her report card.

It was at that time — when she saw not just one, but all As on that report card — that she says she became determined to always get straight As, and to become her class valedictorian. And now, she’s done it.

With a weighted GPA of 4.77, she has the privilege of the title, and the responsibility of making the speech.

“I’m really excited about it,” Samantha says, “I’ve been thinking about it since third grade, so I feel like it’s a lot of pressure.”

At the same time she’s receiving her high school diploma, she’s also earning her Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree from Pasco Hernando State College, thanks to dual enrollment classes she’s been taking for the last three years. She’ll be recognized as an “honors graduate” for maintaining a 4.0 GPA in her college classes when she walks across the stage at that graduation ceremony.

While she’s been busy studying, doing her homework and keeping her grades up, Samantha also has been committed to extracurricular activities as an officer in seven organizations. She’s not only student body president at WCH, she’s also vice president of the PHSC chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.

Samantha also received the Girl Scouts Gold Award, the highest award given by that organization. When she earned it in 2016, she was the only Gold Award recipient in Pasco County that year. She says she was an active Girl Scout for 12 years, and the project to earn the award was to make Wells Rd. — where Wesley Chapel Elementary, Weightman Middle and Wesley Chapel High schools are located — safer.

Currently, Samantha is planning to attend Florida State University in Tallahassee, where she’ll be in the Honors College.

“My parents never went to college, so I’ve always dreamed of going to college,” she says. “When I started at Wesley Chapel Elementary, I thought that was college.”

Samantha says her parents’ story is an inspiration to her. She looks up to her mom, who she says is, “so organized and gets everything done without getting distracted; she motivates me.”

She also says that her dad’s hands are a reminder of why she works so hard to be successful. “Dad used to be a gas fitter and he had to work hard, digging deep holes,” she says. “His hands are so rough. I want to work hard mentally so my family and I don’t have to work hard with our hands.”

Samantha is still on the waiting list at both Harvard and Yale, and should find out by the end of May if she’ll be accepted into either of those Ivy League universities. If she does end up at FSU, she has earned so many scholarships that she will have the cost of her education covered, and then some. She earned a prestigious scholarship for students who have overcome significant adversity, called the Horatio Alger Scholarship. She also was named a national semi-finalist from the Elks National Foundation for a “most valuable student” award, plus she was awarded scholarships from the Mary and Bob Sierra Family Foundation, the Florida PTA, Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative and from FSU.

Ultimately, she says she hopes to become a lawyer. “It’s unfair that lawyers charge so much and that low-income families can’t afford a lawyer,” Samantha explains. “I’d like to advocate for low-income families and help them.”

Because her scholarships will cover four years of education, “I’ll probably take my time,” she says. “Because I already have my A.A., it would be too easy to just do one major.” She’s planning to study both English and Biology, following a track for marine biology, and thinks she might study abroad.

Samantha says that, to apply for law school, she can have any degree, so her choice to study marine biology is purely for fun and the experience of learning more about something she loves. “I won’t be using that as a lawyer,” she says. “I’m just passionate about it. It’s going to be really enjoyable. I think more people should do things just because they enjoy them.”

New Start & End Times Coming, But Not Until Next Fall

 Note: This story has been updated since it was printed in our April 21 issue hitting mailboxes today and tomorrow. Superintendent Jeff Eakins made an announcement after we went to press that he will propose to the School Board that changes in the bell schedule be postponed to the 2018-19 school year.

Superintendent Jeff Eakins emailed parents April 17 saying that he will now recommend the proposed bell schedule be implemented in 2018-19, not next fall.
Superintendent Jeff Eakins emailed parents April 17 saying that he will now recommend the proposed bell schedule be implemented in 2018-19, not next fall.

Hillsborough County Public Schools has released a proposal that changes the times school will start and end, which will affect start and end times for all elementary, middle and high school students in New Tampa. While originally the plan called for changes to be made this fall, for the 2017-18 school year, school superintendent Jeff Eakins sent an email to parents on April 17 saying that he will now recommend these changes be implemented for the following school year, 2018-19.

“Currently, many students are consistently late to school because there’s not enough time for our buses to pick up and drop off students,” explains Eakins in a video emailed to parents and staff in late March. “This means our children are losing valuable instructional time. When students are late to class, it affects the learning environment for all children.”

The bell schedule originally proposed for 2017-18 adds instructional time at the elementary level in most schools, with one exception in New Tampa. Turner Bartels K-8 students would lose 5 minutes of a day that already is longer than most elementary schools. For middle schools, students would lose 20 minutes, and high schools lose 32. Middle and high school students will keep their seven-period day, but may see the elimination of homeroom, a shorter time for lunch, and class periods that may be reduced by a minute or two.

Eakins says additional benefits of changing school bell times are that the new times may allow for more time for music, art and physical education at the elementary level, and that “
 all students will benefit, due to an increase in quality planning time for teachers.”

Eakins wrote in his email to parents that he still feels the proposed plan is still the best option for meeting the school district’s goals. However, the proposal drew a large amount of public outcry, not only because of the time changes but also how the proposal was created. The plan, released on April 4 and available online at SDHC.k12.fl.us/doc/1855/administration/resources/belltimes/, proposes the following changes:

School Current Bell Schedule Proposed Bell Schedule for 2017-18
High (Freedom & Wharton) 7:33 a.m. – 3 p.m. 7:15 a.m. – 2:10 p.m.
Middle (Benito & Liberty) 9 a.m. – 4:15 p.m. 9:30 a.m. – 4:25 p.m.
Elementary (Chiles, Clark, Heritage, Hunter’s Green, Pride & Tampa Palms) 8 a.m. – 2:15 p.m. 8:35 a.m. – 3:05 p.m.
Turner Bartels K-8 8:45 a.m. – 3:35 p.m. 8:30 a.m. – 3:15 p.m.

The Board is still expected to consider the proposed recommendation — which may include revisions based on comments from the community — at a specially called meeting on Tuesday, April 25, 3:30 p.m.

To share your thoughts on the proposed changes, email bellschedule@sdhc.k12.fl.us.

New school zones irks some, pleases others

When Pankaj Jha moved to the Tampa Bay area, he was living in a condo in Tampa Palms while searching for the perfect school for his young children. He looked at homes in both K-Bar Ranch and Cory Lake Isles, and ultimately chose the neighborhood that would send his young children to Pride Elementary.

“We paid more to buy a house in Cory Lake Isles so my children would go to Pride,” Jha says. But, when it was time to move, his son — then in the 2nd grade — didn’t want to leave his current school. “It took me a year of driving him to school every day in Tampa Palms to convince him to go to Pride.” Last fall, his son — now in the third grade — and Jha’s daughter, who started kindergarten, both began the school year at Pride.

But now, if a proposal by Hillsborough County Schools is approved by the School Board and implemented, his children will be moved to Hunter’s Green Elementary for the 2018-19 school year.

“The biggest headache I have now is that it took time for them to adjust to going to Pride, and now I have to tell my kids they have to go to another school,” he says. “They don’t want to go to another school.”

He says not only do they have friends and feel comfortable at Pride, but they’ve built relationships with teachers. More than anything, he wants his children to go to Pride. He bought his house in Cory Lake Isles (CLI) specifically because he thought they would go there.

Jha was one of more than 300 people who packed the Benito Middle School cafeteria on March 30, when the school district staff presented its proposal for rezoning four New Tampa schools in the fall of 2018. While changes will happen at Clark, Heritage, Hunter’s Green and Pride, the loudest voices at the meeting came from residents of Cory Lake Isles and Arbor Greene (AG), where 563 stuSeedents are being reassigned from Pride to Hunter’s Green.

The proposal keeps a majority of students currently assigned to Pride together, with all residents of both CLI and AG now being assigned to Hunter’s Green. This makes room for residents of K-Bar Ranch — currently 154 elementary students — to be assigned to Pride. Right now, those students travel past Pride to get to their assigned school, Heritage. (Note-The actual number of students moving may be different because some students choose a school other than the one to which they are assigned).

It also opens up space at Pride for the residents of more than 1,500 new homes that are expected to be built in K-Bar Ranch in the coming years.

The proposed re-shuffling ends busing of students from the neighborhoods near the University of South Florida to both Hunter’s Green (HGE) and Clark and reassigns them to schools closer to their residences. From Hunter’s Green, 304 students will move to Shaw (just off of E. Fowler Ave. on N. 15th St.), and from Clark, 248 students will move to Witter (south of Fowler Ave. on N. 22nd St.). Additionally, 187 students who are residents of the Morgan Creek apartments, located just north of the Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. exit off I-75, will now be assigned to Clark.

Jennifer Ledford, parent of a second grader at Clark, attended the meeting to voice her support for the rezoning. She says this is the change she’s been looking for since before her son started kindergarten. “I moved to this area so my child could go to a neighborhood school with neighbors,” she says. “When you lose the geographic proximity to a school, you lose the investment in the community. I think the new plan is fabulous.”

But, not all parents agree.

“My grievance is that this reshuffling doesn’t address the elephant in the room, which is that Hunter’s Green is underperforming,” says Steven Hancz, a CLI resident whose seven-year-old twins are in first grade at Pride. “The school ranking has been dropping like a hot potato,” he says.

School grades for last year, which are based on test scores, rank Pride and Clark as “A” schools, Heritage as a “B,” and HGE as a “C.” While Hunter’s Green received an “A” grade for many years, it has been ranked a “C” the past two years. Pride has consistently been an “A” school.

School officials say the test scores of the students currently at HGE who live in New Tampa show that they are performing at an “A” level. They expect that the school grade will be an “A” once its attendance boundaries include students only from surrounding neighborhoods.

Elementary school grades for this school year (2016-17) will be released by the Florida Department of Education (FDoE) in July.

Lorraine Duffy Suarez, Hillsborough County Public Schools’ general manager for growth management, says the change is necessary. “We monitor growth, and we know how much growth is coming, and we have to accommodate it,” she says. “Pride was built on land that we bought from K-Bar Ranch. The school was sited there because we knew that development was coming. Now is the time.”

She says moving so many students should give the affected students a measure of reassurance. “The whole neighborhood is moving,” she explains. “You’re going to a different school, but you’re taking 562 of your friends with you.”

Not all Pride parents are angry. Some, such as Kellie Mulligan, an Arbor Greene resident whose three children have all attended Pride since kindergarten, are accepting it. Her youngest will be in fifth grade when the changes take effect. “I’m hoping she will be grandfathered in, but if her whole class and all her friends move, then I’m okay with that, too,” Mulligan says. “Honestly, I think the zoning makes sense.”

While many parents are at least accepting the change, they still have concerns they want addressed. Sigrun Ragnarsdottir is an Arbor Greene resident whose children attend Pride. As soon as she heard of the rezoning, she began researching all possible courses of action to stop it from happening, but hit dead ends. Now, she says she is embracing the change, but says she is still looking for answers.

“In the long run, I believe Hunter’s Green has a lot to offer the students,” she says, citing programs her kids don’t currently have, such as Hunter’s Green’s “Kindness Club” and garden plots with irrigation and soil available to teachers. “The question I’m still asking is, ‘What about busing?’”

With the school district ending so-called “courtesy busing” for middle and high school students this fall, elementary schools are expected to lose courtesy busing the following year, when this rezoning will take place (see story on next page). Anyone who lives less than two miles from the school will no longer be provided with a bus to school. Many Arbor Greene residents have a bus to Pride, but because Hunter’s Green is less than two miles for many of them, it is expected that there will be no bus to that school.

Ragnarsdottir also fears traffic will snarl coming out of Arbor Greene with residents waiting to turn left onto Cross Creek Blvd., then be backed up again as parents turn left onto Highland Oaks Blvd. to get to HGE. Other parents at the meeting expressed similar concerns, saying it will make traffic worse for everyone driving along the already busy Cross Creek Blvd. in the morning, and unsafe for those children who are walking or biking, as more are likely to do because of the end of courtesy busing.

“The school district says this will save money, but how much is a child’s life worth?,” Ragnarsdottir asks. “How much have they budgeted for lawsuits?”

All this adds up to a lot of changes for New Tampa parents, who are being hit with this school rezoning, the loss of middle and high school courtesy busing, plus the expected loss of elementary busing next year, and one more thing – new start and end times for all New Tampa schools (see story, next page).

Decision Day: May 16

Plans outlining the proposed new boundaries were released on the school district’s website on Mar. 21 and are available at http://www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/doc/251/growth-management/resources/boundary/.

Comments from parents and the community were accepted at the meeting on March 30. If you did not attend and would still like to comment, send an email to boundaries@sdhc.k12.fl.us.

Changes may be made based on the many comments received before a final recommendation is made by school superintendent Jeff Eakins to the seven-member School Board. The Board is expected to consider the proposed recommendation — including any revisions made as a result of comments from the community — at its meeting on Tuesday, May 16.

Duffy Suarez says she understands the plan means a lot of changes, and that parents leaving Pride are the ones expressing the most frustration with the proposal. “We’re changing a lot of students, and I understand that,” she says. “They have a lot of pride in their Pride, but Pride can’t hold all the students who are going to come there.”

Looking For An Upscale Nail Salon? Try Touch Nail Spa On S.R. 56!

Tiffany & Timmy Pham invite you to visit their brand new, elegant Touch Nail Spa on S.R. 56, which offers manicures, pedicures, and spa services including, eyelash extensions, waxing, facials and massage.

It’s officially flip-flop weather again in Florida. If you’ve been skipping pedicures during the winter and are looking for a new salon, the great news is that Touch Nail Spa is now open.

Located in the Cypress View Square shopping plaza on S.R. 56 (in the same plaza as Capital Tacos), Touch Nail Spa offers a beautiful, luxurious setting to enjoy a pedicure, a manicure, or one of the salon’s many other services, including eyelash extensions, waxing, facials and massages.

Touch Nail Spa is owned by Timmy Pham and his wife, Tiffany. Originally from Vietnam, Timmy has been in the U.S. 21 years and has been doing nails almost 17 years. Tiffany and Timmy met when he spent a year in Chicago about 10 years ago and have now been married about four years.

Timmy previously owned a nail salon in Kentucky. He moved to Florida seven years ago and has worked at other salons in the area. He says he opened Touch Nail Spa because of his desire to serve customers at a higher level.

“Working at other salons, I’ve seen owners not do right by customers and employees,” says Timmy. “Here, we are all about the customer experience — and the service.”

Touch Nail Spa celebrated its Grand Opening on March 25 by giving a free manicure or pedicure to 89 guests. He says the reaction everyone had when walking into the salon was, “Wow.”

With high ceilings, large windows, and beautiful dĂ©cor, Touch Nail Spa is 3,200 square feet — much larger than you might expect at a typical nail salon. Timmy designed the salon himself, which includes 16 massage chairs for pedicures and 21 manicure stations.

Traditional costumes highlighted the spa’s Grand Opening on March 25.

He says he’s thrilled with the way it turned out – beautiful and relaxing, upscale and clean. He credits Tien Vuu Construction, LLC, with executing his design perfectly. “They did an amazing job,” Timmy says.

He describes the way he and his employees keep the salon as “flawlessly clean,” including gleaming floors and spotless tabletops, a tidy restroom, with all surfaces and tools sanitized for each individual person.

Neighborhood News billing manager Stephanie Smith, who got a manicure during the salon’s grand opening, agrees. “I like the way everything is sanitized, like bringing out a new package of tools for each person, and using liners in the pedicure basins so that it is completely clean, not just rinsed out.”

Available Services

While the dĂ©cor reflects a more upscale experience — don’t let that fool you. Touch Nail Spa’s prices are very affordable.

Guests who choose a “Hot Touch Pedicure” get the royal treatment while enjoying their services in one of these thrones.

Timmy says most customers come in for a manicure and/or pedicure, and the salon offers a menu of options to fit everyone’s individual taste. From a simple polish, to acrylic or gel nails, or many other options, a wide variety of services are available and the licensed technicians can help each person find the service that’s right for them.

Currently, there are nine people working at Touch Nail Spa, all of whom are State-licensed in cosmetology.

“All of the technicians were very friendly and made an effort to talk to the customers, not just to each other,” Stephanie says. “They want you to feel pampered and feel that you came into a spa, not just a nail salon.”

A variety of spa manicures and pedicures is offered, and even the “Simple Touch” pedicure (just $25) includes a callus treatment, pineapple sugar scrub, hot towel wrap and lotion massage, along with nail trimming and shaping, buffing, and cuticle grooming.

For an even more spa-like experience, a variety of “Hot Touch” pedicures are offered ($45-$60). These include a hot stone massage for your legs and feet, plus additional treatments — such as specialized exfoliation for the bottom of the feet and a mask for legs and heels — along with a seat in the salon’s throne-like chairs reserved just for these pedicures (photo on next page). “You’ll feel like a queen,” Timmy promises.

Touch Nail Spa has two private rooms for services beyond nails, each with a beautiful floor-to-ceiling stacked stone wall, and its own music. In these rooms, cosmetologists offer facials, eyelash extensions, neck and shoulder massage, and even full-body waxing.

Stephanie also got an eyebrow wax during the grand opening event. “It was phenomenal,” she says. “They got them even and perfect.”

A Better Experience

“We want people to relax,” Timmy says, so first and foremost, “People are not rushed when they come in. They don’t have to hurry.”

To add to the relaxing atmosphere, he and his staff pay attention to details. He says they immediately greet each visitor as they walk through the door. The TVs are kept quiet, for example, and Touch Nail Spa offer a complimentary beverage with every service, such as water or even wine, served in a chilled glass.

Timmy says he chose a location with plenty of parking to be sure that everyone who comes in for services has a place to park.

And, he says, clients will be happy with their service. “We use good, quality products,” says Timmy, “We fix the mistakes other people do.”

He adds that you’ll always be able to find the color you want, and that every color he carries in a regular polish is available as a gel color, too. “We have five brands of nail polish and 1,000 colors.”

One final difference you’ll see at Touch Nail Spa is when you check out. “Some nail shops don’t give receipts,” Timmy explains. “We give itemized receipts saying what services you had and what you paid for. We also collect your name and email address so that we can email you specials.”

“We want people to come in to try it,” Timmy says. As its grand opening special, Touch Nail Spa is offering 10 percent off all services (see the ad on page 6).

Touch Nail Spa is located at 27233 S.R. 56 and is open Monday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m., and 11 a.m.–5 p.m. on Sunday. Walk-ins and appointments are welcome. To make an appointment or ask about services, call 973-4111.