As youâre receiving this issue, the 2025-26 school year is about a week old, but because our deadline to finish this issue was the day before school started, we couldnât get photos from the actual opening day of school onto these pages, so our amazing photographer Charmaine George went to as many âMeet the Teacherâ events at as many of our area schools as she could.
Charmaine included shots from each of these events not only in the beautiful collage on this page, but also put together the best of the best photos she took and gave us dozens of options to fit on these pages.
A few things to note:
1) Neither Freedom nor Wharton high schools held their own âMeet the Teacherâ events, so we have no photos from those schools on these pages.
2) Charmaine was careful to ask permission at each school, so the faces of children who are not allowed to be photographed were not included.Â
Charmaine was able to get photos at Clark, Heritage, Hunterâs Green, Pride and Tampa Palms elementaries and at Turner Bartels K-8 School. We apologize that she was not able to get pictures at Chiles Elementary, Benito or Liberty middle schools or Freedom or Wharton high schools. â GN
I was excited to see a sign posted next to Fine Ink Studios (the former location of Pinotâs Palette) that Haraz Coffee House was âBrewing Soonâ at 1722 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., in the Publix-anchored Shoppes at New Tampa of Wesley Chapel plaza.Â
Iâll admit that Iâd never heard of Haraz before, but any coffee shop that isnât Starbucks that opens in our area is definitely worth a try and Harazâs website says that the brand and founder Hamzah Nasser are âon a mission to share the rich heritage of Yemeni coffee with the world. By sourcing the finest beans and honoring traditional craftsmanship, we bring the bold, authentic flavors of Yemen to every cup. As we expand across the U.S., weâre committed to creating unforgettable coffee experiences that connect communities and celebrate culture.â
Since starting off in Detroit in 2021, Haraz has grown to 31 locations in 13 states (with the closest one to us, and the only one in Florida, in Orlando), with 185 more âin the pipeline.â
Whether you like traditional lattes or cappuccinos or prefer Turkish, Saudi, French Press or cold brew coffee, or even coffee with cardamom, ginger or other spices, Haraz has got you covered.
Thereâs also hot chocolate, green and matcha tea and pistachio and saffron lattes. Haraz also features milk cakes, cheesecake & cinnamon rolls, and sells items like coffeemakers and bulk coffee.
I called the Orlando location but they said the Wesley Chapel shop is owned by another franchisee, so they had no idea when our Haraz is expected to open. Of course, weâll keep you posted, both in these pages and on our Facebook page.
Taylor Gardner Gutters owner Taylor Gardner is proud of his new location in Dade City, but he and his crew (photos below) are still installing and repairing gutters at homes and businesses in Wesley Chapel and New Tampa, too. (Photo by Charmaine George)
Although Gardner Gutters had been serving the Tampa Bay area since Ed Gardner established it as a small business in Lutz in 2000, Edâs son Taylor has grown the business immensely since taking it over in 2020 and renaming it Taylor Gardner Gutters.
Itâs grown so much, in fact, that the business outgrew its previous location in Land OâLakes and recently moved to four acres in Dade City.
âWe have 15 vehicles on the road every day,â Taylor says. âOur front two acres are filled with trucks, trailers and an employee parking area. Itâs more space than we need right now, but I know weâll end up growing into it.â
Taylor Gardner Gutters installs and repairs gutters, soffits and facias, and also offers gutter cleaning, which keeps the gutters on your home or business working properly and in good repair.
Taylor says that adding gutters is the least expensive thing you can do to protect the value of your home, ensuring that Floridaâs famous summer downpours donât destroy its foundation or even its aesthetic upgrades.
âProtecting the foundation of your home is the main purpose of gutters,â he says, âbut they also protect your paint and will help your grass and sod last longer, too. Gutters protect anything on the outside of your house to help it stay in great shape for as long as possible.â
Without gutters, Taylor says water is much more likely to settle at the base of your homeâs foundation. With that saturation, the water can cause erosion to the side of the home, leading to cracks in the stucco and window ledges and forming unsightly trenches. Water under the home also can cause wood floors in the home to pucker or pop.
Taylor first joined the business to help his father after serving in the Marines for nine years, including a tour of duty in Iraq. He used his experience and his Business Administration degree from Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, to start a different career, but came home when his dad needed his help after receiving a cancer diagnosis.
Taylor took over the business when Ed passed away, and Taylorâs older brother, Brandon, who had decades of experience working with their dad, led installations. Unfortunately, Brandon was then diagnosed with cancer as well and passed away just eight months later.
So now, Taylor continues the legacies of his dad and older brother, running the business in a way that would make them both proud.
Photo provided by Taylor Gardner
âOur installers are great, and we have several who have been with the company more than 15 years,â Taylor explains. âThey know exactly what theyâre doing.â
Thatâs important to Taylor because his company offers a lifetime warranty on its installations. He says this is what sets Taylor Gardner Gutters apart from its competitors.
Company policy is that any customer who experiences a warranty issue will have the problem inspected within 48 hours and fixed as soon as possible â no matter how many years itâs been since the gutters were originally installed.
âOne of reasons weâve been successful in this business is because we always answer the phone, especially if thereâs a problem after installation,â Taylor explains.
He contrasts that with many of his competitors, who are often just one-person companies doing as many jobs as they can, without employees to keep up with other things, such as going back and fixing something if it isnât right.
âMy focus from the beginning has been to really hit customer service as our number one priority,â Taylor says. âWe give people what they ask for at a very reasonable price.â
Taylor says some of his customers have been coming back to the company for two decades, since his dad first started the business.
The companyâs lifetime no-leak guarantee is a another unique way Taylor builds those lifelong relationships.
âAll gutters will leak eventually,â he says. âMine wonât leak for at least 10 years, but if they do and you still live in that house, call us and weâll fix it.â
He has one team that is dedicated to only doing repair work, even if itâs not a job originally done by Taylor Gardner Gutters. The repair team also handles any warranty calls that come in.
âAfter the hurricanes last year, that team was very busy,â Taylor says, with homes that had a gutter or piece of soffit that came down. âNine times out of ten, itâs not something we did wrong â sometimes itâs because a customer has done no maintenance â but as a courtesy we still take care of the problem. They then tell their neighbors how much they love us and how good we are, and thatâs really good for our business.â
Itâs also good for his business that there is such a construction boom in our area. Taylor Gardner Gutters also works with several homebuilders to install gutters on newly built homes, including many of the new neighborhoods in Wesley Chapel, such as The Ridge, Winding Ridge, Valencia Ridge and all David Weekley Homes throughout the area.
Photo provided by Taylor Gardner
Those builders are growing in other areas, too, such as further north in and around Brooksville. And, Taylor says his business is expanding into Lakeland, which he describes as âeven crazier in construction than Wesley Chapel.â
In addition to helping homeowners, the company installs, repairs and cleans gutters on commercial building for business owners.
Taylor Gardner Gutters just did its largest job ever, replacing gutters at the CENTCOM building at MacDill Air Force Base.
âIt was a huge job on a seven-story building that took us four weeks,â Taylor says.
Taylor Gardner Gutters has 200+ reviews on Google, with an average rating of 4.8 stars out of 5. Recently, Scott Hutchison said the companyâs crew âarrived on time and did a fantastic, professional, careful, and respectful job of adding new gutters to my two-story metal roof.â
Scott added that he highly recommends Taylor Gardner Gutters, writing, â[The] house looks great! No more water pooling up near my foundation.â
Taylor Gardner Gutters is now located at 10301 U.S. Hwy. 301 in Dade City and serves homeowners in Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando, Polk and Citrus counties, including New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. For more info, visit TaylorGardnerGutters.com or call or text (813) 515-0844.
(L.-r.) Reggie, Ryder, Erica & Ryleigh invite you to check out Final Touch Quality Cleaners, which will make sure every inch of your home, apartment, business or Airbnb will be sparkling when they leave. (All photos by Charmaine George)Â
Reggie Wakefield and Erica Poniatowski, the owners of Final Touch Quality Cleaners, have become mine and Jannahâs friends over the course of the last two years, since they took over cleaning our previous apartment and especially, since they have been cleaning our larger, new apartment at the Silversaw Apartments.
Jannah first met both Erica and Reggie at her Business Networking International (BNI) meetings. Erica joined the group and we all hit it off instantly.
Both Erica and Reggie have cleaned our place, but Erica is more focused on her career as a RealtorÂź with Great Western Realty in Tampa, while Reggie…well, Iâll let him tell you.
âI was cleaning houses and apartments in New York City when I was seven or eight years old, when my mom used to take me and one of my sisters (Brittany) with her. We were both young, so we thought she was just doing favors for our neighbors, but we later found out she had made a business out of it!â
He adds, âWe were both kind of chunky kids, so we loved cleaning food trucks because they would pay us with free food!,â he laughs.
And, although Reggie got into the home alarm business when he and Erica graduated from the same high school in southern New Jersey, he says, âIâve just always loved to clean! I get a feeling of satisfaction when I leave someoneâs home or business sparkling.â
So, when both he and Erica made the decision to move from New Jersey to Florida, after both of them left different alarm companies, it was Reggie who pushed for them to start their own cleaning service in the Sunshine State, especially since Brittany, the sister he used to clean with when they were kids, already owned a successful âsisterâ cleaning company in Norfolk, VA.
The couple ultimately settled in nearby Lutz and Erica became the public face of the new Final Touch Quality Cleaners â despite Reggieâs winning smile and hard-to-resist personality â so he could focus on the cleaning side while she ran the business and handled the billing and marketing.
âEven though sheâs great at it, I know that cleaning isnât Ericaâs thing,â Reggie says. âWhen Erica said she wanted to get her real estate license, I was happy for her to go for it.â
In the meantime, Final Touch has continued to grow, with all-5-star reviews on 16 reviews on Google. Customer Jackie P., in a 5-star Google review, says, âIâve used Final Touch Quality Cleaners for everything I have! My home and my business! They do phenomenal work and their detailed approach is very reassuring. They also make our appliances look like new each time they leave and we always have a great smelling house afterwards. 10/10. Will always recommend and use.â
One thing Iâve noticed when Reggie cleans our apartment is how methodical he is. We havenât had an actual office for him to clean, but I can imagine how he would be able to expand what he does for us for a much larger space.
Speaking of larger spaces, after Erica and Reggie met Rock & Brews general manager Kareem Nelson at a BNI function at the restaurant a year ago, they immediately were hired to clean it.
âKareem told me they had an in-house cleaning crew they werenât happy with,â Reggie says. âI told him âI got youâ and weâve been cleaning it ever since. Iâm sad theyâre closing it, not just because weâre losing a commercial client, but because Kareem has been so great to work with.â
So, as of now, Reggie says he and Erica are focused on finding another big commercial account to replace Rock & Brews.
âWe have a crew and we all work the commercial accounts together to get it done â not just fast, but right!,â he says. âWeâll always make sure your office, restaurant or other place of business always looks as good as your home when we finish cleaning.â Reggie and Erica also are happy to clean your Airbnb, and provide move-in, move-out and post-construction cleans, too.
Final Touch also is looking to hire additional cleaners after an amazing occurrence with part of their crew. âWe had a couple working for us but they recently won a million dollars on a scratch-off ticket!,â Reggie says. âAt first, they said they would keep on working…after all, a million dollars isnât worth as much today as it once was… but they ended up leaving anyway.â
Erica and Reggie have a daughter named Ryleigh and a son named Ryder and you can see how much they love their little family.
âWeâve got to make it work for them,â Reggie says, âand I have no doubt we will.â
New clients who mention this storywill receive 10% off their first clean with Final Touch Quality Cleaners. For more information and a free estimate, call (813) 530-5591 or email FinalTouchQC@gmail.com.
New Tampaâs 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 Tampaâs elementary and middle schools earned an âAâ grade, with Tampa Palms earning a âBâ 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.
âWe are so proud of everyoneâs hard work,â says Heritage Elementary principal Mary Booth. âItâs a true team effort from teachers and staff, plus our students work so hard and our families are supportive.â
The six schools that maintained their A status include Chiles, Clark, Hunterâs Green and Pride elementary schools and both Benito and Liberty middle schools.
Both of New Tampaâs high schools again earned a âCâ grade, as both schools have consistently, going back to 2016.
âBut, weâre making growth,â says Taryn Anello, the principal at Wharton High. âAcross the board, weâve made gains in every category, and weâre on an upward trend. Weâve improved 22 points over last year.â
She says she hates for teachers, students and families to feel disheartened because the schoolâs 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 schoolâs rating.
âWith the storms and the chaotic year we had, sometimes itâs a heavy lift to maintain that focus,â Anello says. âIt wasnât just the adults who went through those hardships, but our kids went through that, too.â
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. âIt depends on the students in front of you and their needs,â explains Booth. âWe look at student learning gains, for example, but sometimes the tests donât accurately measure the gains weâve seen.â
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.
âThese 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,â Superintendent Ayres said in a media release.