Category: News

By Celeste McLaughlin

A 17-year veteran of Pasco Hernando State College (PHSC), Bonnie Clark, Ed.D., M.S., has been named vice president of distance education/provost, Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch.

The campus, located adjacent to Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) on Mansfield Blvd., opened just two years ago and is experiencing rapid growth.

Before replacing the Porter Campus’ original Provost, Dr. Stanley Giannet, Ph.D. last month, Dr. Clark was VP of Instruction and Provost of PHSC’s West campus, located in New Port Richey. Her many years at the school have included roles in both the student services side of PHSC’s operations (such as registration, advising and financial aid), as well as the academic side.

Dr. Clark earned her Doctor of Education degree in College Leadership in 2013 from the University of South Florida in Tampa. She also holds a Master of Science degree in Counseling Psychology, which she received in 1992 from Gannon University in Erie, PA, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Mercyhurst College, also in Erie, which she earned in 1984.

She says she enjoyed her undergraduate experience so much that she wanted to work for Mercyhurst College after she graduated.

“I love this atmosphere,” she recalls thinking, as she began her lifelong career in higher education.

“Every job I’ve done has prepared me for the next one, and I’ve loved all my jobs,” Dr. Clark says. “But, my favorite role was opening the Spring Hill campus of PHSC. Like Dr. Giannet did here at the Porter campus, I got the phenomenal opportunity to hire staff and really create a culture. Because the entire staff was starting something new, we really had the feeling of being tight-knit and ‘all in this together,’” she recalls.

Clark says because the Porter Campus is so new, she senses a similar culture here.

“I’ve only been here a week,” she said at our press time, “but everyone has been so welcoming, and the people I’m meeting with seem very dedicated, and I’m pleased with their work.”

As far as working at the Porter campus is concerned, she says, “It’s larger than the one I came from, and we’re growing by leaps and bounds. So, the challenges here are things like being sure we have enough classroom space and enough courses for our students.”

She adds, “The student has to be the most important person here at PHSC,” explaining that without the students, there’s no need for the school to exist. After the students, the faculty members are the ones who see the students every day and need to be supported, so Dr. Clark must be sure that all faculty members have what they need to do their jobs.

Clark says PHSC has a high percentage of 18-20 year olds, with many students coming from Wesley Chapel, Lutz, Zephyrhills, Land O’Lakes, and North Tampa (including New Tampa). She says because the campus is so easy to get to from I-75 and S.R. 54, it may draw students away from other campuses that aren’t as accessible.

She notes that about half the students at the campus are working toward an Associate of Arts degree, while others are working toward certificate programs such as nursing. PHSC’s Porter Campus offers both Registered Nurse (RN) and Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) programs.

The campus also currently offers two bachelors degrees, a Bachelor of Applied Sciences (BAS) and Bachelor of Science (BS) in Nursing. PHSC meets the high demand for skilled nurses in the community by offering a fully online program where RNs can complete their BS degree.

Dr. Clark says it was through meeting with community leaders that the school realized an online-only program would best suit the needs of the community.

“I’m looking forward to meeting more people in the community,” she says, “and getting involved with the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce and making connections.”

She says that even though PHSC went from being a “community college” to a “state college” at about the time the Porter Campus opened, the school’s leadership has been careful to make sure that serving the local community remains a primary focus of activities at the Porter Campus.

“Community is in our mission, even though it’s no longer in our name,” Dr. Clark says.

The Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch of PHSC is located at 2727 Mansfield Blvd. For more information about all of the degree programs at the school, visit PHSC.edu.

 

It’s just a 3.5-mile planned stretch of road running from S.R. 56 south to County Line Rd. through the Cypress Creek Center Development of Regional Impact (DRI), which has lots of progress on one side and undeveloped land on the other, but for the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) CEO and the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce, (CPCC) the road — an only partially built extension of what is now called (on public street signs) Wesley Chapel (WC) Blvd. — stands for a lot more than just some new pavement.

The WCCC and CEO Hope Allen believe the road — like the entire Wesley Chapel area — is a big part of central and eastern Pasco’s future. But, to CPCC Board member Sandy Graves, the road — which she feels should be called something other than WC Blvd. — should serve as a tribute to the area’s past.

The two sides are now awaiting a Pasco Board of County Commissioners (BCC) decision that ultimately will decide if the road’s name should be changed or not.

Graves, a longtime Land O’Lakes resident, is on the side arguing to have the still-under-construction southern extension (southbound from S.R. 56) of what is already called Wesley Chapel Blvd. (Note-it also is the only roadway we’ve seen labeled “C.R. {or County Road} 54 South”), renamed “Circle O Ranch Parkway” to more accurately reflect the area through which the remaining three miles of the WC Blvd. extension will run. There already is a portion of that extension that is open to traffic, but it is only a half-mile long and currently mainly provides an alternative entrance to the existing Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO).

To that end, Graves and other Land O’Lakes and Lutz residents asked the county to change the name of Wesley Chapel Blvd. and, on Jan. 19, the BCC voted to continue the item to a future date (that had not yet been set at our press time), to allow for consideration of alternative names to Circle O Ranch Pkwy.

Allen says she didn’t know anything about the BCC meeting until she got a Google alert two days after the story was posted on the Tampa Tribune website TBO.com. She says she was surprised that she hadn’t heard about the meeting before it happened and that the name change could have been voted on that day.

Even developer Bob Sierra said he also was surprised, although he told the Tampa Tribune he did find the time to rush to the meeting.

Graves said there was nothing sneaky about the meeting – a public notice was posted in the printed editions of the Tribune and she claims the Land O’Lakes-Lutz plans had been in the news, although she did not elaborate as to what news media may have aired or written a story about the meeting.

Besides, she claimed, it was more notice than her community got in 2004 when Wesley Chapel Blvd. sprouted along S.R. 54 “in the middle of the night,” according to Graves.

Back then, Graves and people in the Land O’Lakes-Lutz community thought the road was going to be named Worthington Gardens Blvd., but it ended up as Wesley Chapel Blvd.

“I don’t know how that happened,’’ Graves says. “We were all very shocked. The county needs to do the right thing this time.”

This isn’t the first time Graves has tangled with a Wesley Chapel sign. In 2013, the Florida Department of Transportation put up a green “Wesley Chapel” placemaker (photo on this page) sign a few hundred feet west of where Wesley Chapel Blvd. begins that was clearly on land in Lutz’s 33559 U.S. Postal Service zip code. Graves fought for eight months until the sign was eventually removed.

Both sides will get their chance to make their arguments for and against the WC Blvd. name. At our press time, Pasco BCC chair/Dist. 3 Comm. Kathryn Starkey was to have met with both sides.

Meanwhile, Allen says that the dispute over the roadway, from her perspective, should be less about geographic borders and more about the thriving and ever-expanding number of businesses that are located on and near it.

“Our Board of Directors believes that we are entitled to just as much conversation with the county as the other people who have petitioned this,” Allen says. “We have businesses that have a strong interest in (all of) Wesley Chapel Blvd. remaining as it is.”

Allen says changing the name of the road could impact the businesses along that corridor by creating an intersection which would then need to include signs for S.R. 56, C.R. 54, S.R. 54, Wesley Chapel Blvd. and whatever new name is chosen for the southern extension.

“It is our (the WCCC’s) position that there not be an unnecessary change,” Allen says. “If it is a wanted change that has gone through a process, we will support that. But, we want to make sure the businesses in this area have the chance to voice their opinions, too.”

While TPO and businesses now under construction like Costco and Culver’s today have Lutz zip codes, Allen says those businesses were sold as “being in Wesley Chapel” and being on or near Wesley Chapel Blvd. helps them market themselves as such. In fact, she says, most of the marketing and advertising materials of nearby businesses use the name Wesley Chapel Blvd.

“Wesley Chapel has a brand, and a name that is appealing to business,’’ Allen says.

Graves says Land O’Lakes and Lutz have a brand as well. “It’s about identity, it’s about branding for us, too,’’ Graves says. “It’s about our history and our reality. This is about the county that did something for one area at the expense of another.”

The disagreement over Wesley Chapel Blvd. may have re-sparked an even bigger debate over community boundaries.

Graves also claims that Wesley Chapel’s boundaries appear to be malleable and based on incorrect census maps, and as a result continue to encroach on Land O’Lakes and Lutz.

“It’s a bigger issue,’’ Graves says. “We have a right to have a brand, too. You can’t create a map for your own agenda and expect people to say, ‘Okay, I’ll give all that up’”

As an example, much of the burgeoning development in the S.R. 56 corridor is credited as being located in Wesley Chapel even though all of the property located west of I-75 on both sides of S.R. 56 have Lutz addresses, meaning they have Lutz’s 33559 zip code.

Pasco officials have said the BCC will address the boundaries prior to considering a name change for Wesley Chapel Blvd. Meetings will be scheduled with the Land O’Lakes and Wesley Chapel communities and coordinated with the county’s Planning & Development Department in the hopes of bringing forward a boundary recommendation to the Board in March or April. Allen says the WCCC also would like to see the boundaries of Wesley Chapel more clearly defined.

Comm. Starkey is hosting a Town Hall meeting on Thur, Feb. 18, 6:30 p.m., at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (20735 Leonard Rd., Lutz). It would be great to have some Wesley Chapel folks in attendance for that open-to-the-public event.