Another Crume’s Eagle Scout Project Beautifies Heritage Elem. 

Donovan’s work crew (All photos provided by Jean Josephson)

Heritage Elementary is grateful to Donovan Crume and the New Tampa Scouting America Troop 148, which meets at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church, for their accomplishment at Heritage Elementary.

(l.-r.) Davis, Donovan & Dylan Crume are all now Eagle Scouts whose Eagle projects have helped beautify Heritage Elementary.

On Aug. 2, Donovan completed another Eagle Scout project at Heritage Elementary off Cross Creek Blvd. He is now the third member of the Crume family who chose a Heritage Elementary beautification project as his Eagle Scout project!

Donovan took the initiative and coordinated the meeting times to assess the scope of the project and to make a supply list. He also confirmed project days and times, put together a fund-raising event to secure the funds needed and then purchased all of the materials he needed.

Donovan’s project consisted of spreading 10 cubic yards of mulch throughout the school’s learning butterfly garden and pressure washing and painting 16 concrete benches that are used both in the parent pickup area and as seating at the learning garden.

Members of the crew paint the benches (above) for the school’s new Butterfly Waystation (left).

The week prior to the project’s execution, Donovan and his brothers (Davis and Dylan) loaded the extremely heavy benches into their Dad’s truck to transport them home to do the pressuring washing and prepare for painting the following week.

On the day of the event, Donovan and his family arrived at 7:30 a.m. to set up a comfort tent with food and drink for their crew and soon, about 20 scouts, leaders and parents from Troop 148 arrived, ready to work!

Donovan showed great character and leadership skills in all his communications, not only with me, but also with his fellow scouts. He made sure everyone was hydrated throughout the day and suggested cooling off breaks, especially for the younger scouts. He made sure everyone knew their tasks and had the supplies to complete it. Even the 100-degree heat did not keep these scouts from completing the project and the transformation is amazing!

Heritage is a designated Monarch Way Station, so we take our butterfly, bird and insect habitats seriously, as well as our learning gardens for our students, families and staff. — Submitted by Jean Josephson,Gifted Elementary Teacher, Heritage Elementary.

2024-25 School Grades Are Out & Two New Tampa Schools Improved 

Source: Florida Department of Education

New Tampa’s Hillsborough County public schools continue to earn impressive grades from the Florida Department of Education, which released its 2024-25 School Grades Report earlier this month. 

All but one of New Tampa’s elementary and middle schools earned an “A” grade, with Tampa Palms earning a “B” for the second year in a row, after many years of consistent A ratings. 

Two New Tampa schools improved from a B to an A. Heritage Elementary earned an A after dipping to a B in 2023- 24. Turner Bartels K-8 earned an A after several years of earning Bs. 

“We are so proud of everyone’s hard work,” says Heritage Elementary principal Mary Booth. “It’s a true team effort from teachers and staff, plus our students work so hard and our families are supportive.” 

The six schools that maintained their A status include Chiles, Clark, Hunter’s Green and Pride elementary schools and both Benito and Liberty middle schools. 

Both of New Tampa’s high schools again earned a “C” grade, as both schools have consistently, going back to 2016. 

“But, we’re making growth,” says Taryn Anello, the principal at Wharton High. “Across the board, we’ve made gains in every category, and we’re on an upward trend. We’ve improved 22 points over last year.” 

She says she hates for teachers, students and families to feel disheartened because the school’s grade did not improve to a B, when the students, teachers and staff are all working so hard to make gains that they hope will show up in the school’s rating. 

“With the storms and the chaotic year we had, sometimes it’s a heavy lift to maintain that focus,” Anello says. “It wasn’t just the adults who went through those hardships, but our kids went through that, too.” 

Even those schools that earn an A recognize that boiling so many measurements into just one letter can be problematic, and may not be representative of all of the complexities of an entire school and all of the students within it. The letter grades take into account various measurements to represent student achievement, learning gains, graduation, acceleration success and maintaining a focus on students who need the most support. 

For example, Heritage lost just a slight percentage in 2023-24 and dipped an entire letter grade. “It depends on the students in front of you and their needs,” explains Booth. “We look at student learning gains, for example, but sometimes the tests don’t accurately measure the gains we’ve seen.” 

Hillsborough County received an overall B grade from the state, which Hillsborough Superintendent of Schools Van Ayres said in an email to families was only one percentage point away from an overall A rating for the District. 

“These achievements are a result not only of the hard work of our students, teachers, support professionals and school administrators, but also of our laser-like focus on high-quality core instruction in every classroom and intentional progress monitoring to drive these impressive results,” Superintendent Ayres said in a media release. 

For more info about school grades, visit FLDOE.org/accountability/accountability-reporting/school-grades/.

Here’s A Look Back At Some Of New Tampa’s Great American Teach-In Speakers! 

Although photographer Charmaine George and I couldn’t get to all eleven New Tampa public schools for the Great American Teach-In on Nov. 21, we did make it to four local schools for that event and on this page are photos from our respective visits. 

Charmaine was at Benito Middle School when teacher Justin Swaim brought members of the Wharton High orchestra (l.-r. in left photo) Travis Bivins, Eliza Connell, Zoie Bowers and Sofia Salazar — all of whom are Benito alumni, to their former middle school, as well as for Michael Harvey of the Florida State Guard Aviation Response Squadron’s visit to Richard Roy’s math class (bottom left photo). 

She also visited Heritage Elementary, where the Kids and Canines organization visited Heather Leitzki’s Exceptional Student Education (ESE) class (top photo). Charmaine also took pics at when Waste Connections lead truck driver and instructor Thomas Benton (middle photo below) demonstrated how the trucks work. 

I was able to stop in at Tampa Palms Elementary for online star Zackery Turgeon (below right) captivated all of the school’s 4th-grade classes (where most of the kids wanted to follow in his footsteps) with his discussion of how he makes a living, thanks to the 700,000+ subscribers to his “Corny” channel on YouTube. 

I then visited teacher Jamie Miller’s class at Freedom High (bottom right), where I talked to her students about not only the Neighborhood News, but also writing and editing in general, and I was thrilled that some of her students actually asked me questions about my job. — GN 

Dylan Crume’s Eagle Scout Project Also Benefits Heritage Elementary 

Older Brother Davis Crume’s Eagle Project Also Benefited Heritage; Younger Brother Donovan Also Is Expected To Go For His Eagle 

New Tampa Troop 148 Eagle Scout Dylan Crume, with his grandfather Rodney Hawkins and one of the four bird feeders Dylan installed at Heritage Elementary for his Eagle Project. (Photos provided by Dylan Crume) 

Our heartfelt congratulations go out to Meadow Pointe resident and Wiregrass Ranch High junior Dylan Crume, age 17, who recently earned the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout. 

Dylan’s Eagle project was the installation of four bird feeders at New Tampa’s Heritage Elementary. According to Heritage Gifted K-5 teacher Jean Josephson, Dylan and many of his fellow Scouts in Troop 148, which meets at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church, installed “bird feeders/boxes with flower boxes to attract more birds and pollinators to our campus. Dylan researched ideas for his project, put together a fund raiser to purchase all of the supplies, met with me several times in person and by email to discuss his ideas and beautifully executed the installation.” 

“Mrs. Josephson needed some help, so I offered my services to help make their outdoor classroom look better,” Dylan says. 

Dylan, whose older brother Davis also earned his Eagle Scout rank and also did an Eagle project that benefited Heritage (he created a micro-irrigation system at the school), says that the project took about three months to complete, from conception to conclusion, and that he appreciated the help of his Scoutmaster Jay Sheridan, his Eagle mentor David Thompson and all of the other Scouts in Troop 148 (see photo below) who helped him with the project. 

The Troop 148 Scouts who helped Dylan with his Eagle project. 

For those who don’t know, Eagle is the highest rank a Scout can achieve, and only 5 or 6% of all Boy Scouts earn the recognition. An estimated two million Scouts have earned the rank since the Boy Scouts of America were founded in 1912. Here are the requirements for earning the Eagle: 

• Earning at least 21 merit badges, including 13 Eagle-required ones, covering subjects like personal fitness, environmental science, public speaking, citizenship and financial management. 

• Learning valuable morals and life-lessons alongside friends, as they work together to overcome challenges. 

• Serving as a leader within their troop by taking charge of a patrol. 

• Learning to independently plan itineraries for campouts, backpacking trips and troop excursions. 

• Competing as a unit against other troops in exhilarating, large-scale scout “camporees.” 

• Involving themselves in service by volunteering with local organizations and making valuable connections with community leaders. 

(l.-r.) Dylan, Davis, Alison, Donovan & Donny Crume 

• Coordinating and leading a large-scale volunteer project for the betterment of their community (the Eagle Project). 

Colleges, businesses, the military and community service leaders all respect an Eagle Scout. This performance-based achievement has high standards that not everyone will earn. 

Dylan’s parents told me they are “super proud of Dylan and his Eagle Project,” and that their youngest son Donovan also plans to go for his Eagle. I don’t know what the numbers are, but I’m betting there are very few families with three Eagle Scouts. 

Dylan says he plans to become a firefighter, so service to the community is obviously in his blood. He also says he plays varsity lacrosse and plays tenor sax in Marching Bulls marching band. He also is on the Youth Ministry Team at St. Mark’s. 

So, congrats again, Dylan. The Neighborhood News salutes you!

Heritage Elementary Has A New Butterfly Garden, Thanks To Eagle Project

Heritage Elementary School gifted class science teacher Jean Josephson had an idea to plant a beautiful butterfly garden at her school, but needed some helping hands to bring that project to life.

She got more than she bargained for when she reached out through a friend to Scouts BSA (formerly called the Boy Scouts of America) Troop 148, which meets at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church on Cross Creek Blvd., just down the street from the school.

That’s when she connected with Isaac VanMeter, a senior at Wharton High, who is on track to become an Eagle Scout and was thinking about ideas for a project to help him reach his goal. 

The butterfly garden project seemed like a perfect fit.

“I had other ideas, but I really like helping with the environment,” says Isaac, who adds that the school beautification aspect appealed to him, as well. “Having a really nice-looking school is good for students, and it’s great for the entire school to have a garden to play in and learn in.”

Jean says Isaac took her idea and ran with it. 

“He did a really, really good job,” she says. “It really exceeded my expectations. I thought I would have to do more planning and directing, but he took control of the whole project.”

While the school already had a vegetable garden and a small butterfly garden, it also had a butterfly mural and space for a much bigger garden to be used for instructional purposes, such as studying the life cycle of butterflies.

Teachers bring students out to the garden to release butterflies raised in the classroom, or to watch worms or bees. They use a curriculum from a nonprofit educational organization called “Agriculture in the Classroom” to bring the lessons to life.

Jean explains that some resources for which plants would work in the garden and how to plant it came from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), but Isaac did the fundraising to pay for it and did additional research, making the final selections for what would go in the garden and how it would be laid out.

He brought a team of Scouts out for a workday to make it all happen.

“The soil was so bad that they had to build it up with about seven yards of soil,” explains Jean, “Then, they replaced the edging, put the plants in, mulched the garden, gave it a good watering, and they also mulched the whole courtyard. It was really great.”

Isaac’s next steps are to finish his paperwork and the last three of the 21 required merit badges before his 18th birthday in January. Then, he’ll go before a Board of Review to make his case for why he should be awarded the rank of Eagle Scout.

“This is a big accomplishment,” Isaac says, “something I’ve been working toward for six years.”

Before and after.

Isaac completed the project during his first season playing varsity football, while his team went on a playoff run. He decided to try football his senior year, in addition to competing for Wharton in lacrosse and track and field — throwing discus, javelin and shotput — in previous years.

After graduation, he plans to go to college on a Florida Bright Futures Scholarship — likely at the University of Central Florida in Orlando — and major in finance.

“I really think the whole process of (Scouts) BSA has changed me to be more of a leader and have that mindset of how I can help encourage everyone around me,” he says. “The project taught me how everyone can come together to accomplish things.”

He says he’s pleased with the way the garden turned out and is looking forward to seeing how the plants grow and fill in the garden over time.

Jean says the teachers and the entire school community are thrilled with the opportunities they see for learning in the new garden.

“Everybody is so impressed,” she says. “I can’t wait until it all grows up.”