• Building Strong Brains: Trauma Sensitive Strategies for Alternative Educators
• Thrive More Than Survive: 8 Key Strategies to Achieve Educator Well-Being
• Inspire Greatness with NAEA Continuous Improvement Tools
• Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA)
• Gallery Walk of Alternative Schools  
• 5 Different School Tours

Our EPIC Community - involved, engaged and Preparing Students For Life!

I wanted to share this Brandon EPIC success story. We as HCSD employees work with passion to support the positive outcomes for our kids! Community plays an integral role in every part of our success. We as educators and our business community have a shared responsibility to support our kids. As a Tampa Bay region we are truly inspired by the ongoing support of Jennifer Currie with Bill Currie Ford, Bob Conigliaro with Caspers, John Daux with Daux Reality and our local Seffner Wal-Mart store manager Mitchell Hughes. Every year Bill Currie Ford and Caspers funds our PBIS stores at Brandon and North Tampa EPIC. This past fall we launched our "Challenge the Situation" project. We informed the students that they will compete weekly for their PBIS points earning Currie/Casper dollars based on behavior, academics and attendance. After two months of school wide competition which resulted in an incredible display of positive student behavior and effort norm values which we can all celebrate, the top 15% went on to round two of the competition. Round two we hade our top 15% students write a 500 word essay making their argument for us to qualify them for this field trip. Students explained about many of their challenges, their dreams, their families and inspiration. Our students asked me personally rubric questions and debated over word count wishing to extend the essay to 1,000 words. The top nine students then moved on to the final round of competition which was a panel interview. All nine students, in business attire, answered high level questions, made incredible appeals and competed at the highest level.

Our effort was to secure funds for seven students to attend a field trip that would create an event beyond their experiences. Most of our students have never left the state, flown in a plane, seen snow, stayed in a hotel or visited a college campus. We understand as an EPIC family our work is to provide possibility, in part, for our kids. Mr. John Daux went out and helped us secure the funds needed to make this event a reality. Zero cost was asked of our families as for many of our student body that would create an obstacle. As the final round of panel interviewing was completed Mr. Daux insisted nobody of the nine be eliminated and he was able to secure funding for all nine students to attend. Our good friend Mitchell from our Seffner Wal-Mart even stepped in to help us with enough gift cards to fund some of the food needed while on this trip. Our nine students flew to Pittsburgh and visited the University of Pitt, paid tribute to the lives lost on Flight 93 on 9/11, toured the city of Pittsburgh and had their first ever snow ball fight. 

The young lady seen in the picture by herself will be graduating next week. She came back last week to thank our sponsors for helping send her on a trip that meant so very much to her. She spoke about how she had never seen snow before and how this experience opened her eyes. This trip and the nine students lives were impacted due to the support of Mr. John Daux, Mr. Bob Conigliaro, Mrs. Jennifer Currie, and Mr. Mitchell Hughes. Our community plays such a valued role in our success. I frequently have shred with my community friends that often some of our kids do not have the largest, metaphorically speaking, cheer section in the stands of their lives. However, that section is increased because each of our business partners, are heard loudly and passionately screaming support for our kids and their success! Our community represents pats on the backs, go get em kid, and most importantly help us guide kids towards success. We value, recognize and celebrate each of you for your continued involvement in our kids lives! We are infinitely stronger as a school district having friends like you working with us to  Prepare Students For Life!