The Foundation for Rural Education Excellence, a registered 501 (C)(3) organization, was founded in 1998 to facilitate philanthropic support for rural school districts of the North East Florida Educational Consortium (NEFEC): Baker, Bradford, Columbia, Dixie, Flagler, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Nassau, Putnam, Suwannee and Union Counties as well as Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind and PK Yonge Developmental Research School. Working collaboratively, our mission is to enhance academic success and career opportunities for rural students in northeast Florida.

Nearly 300 educators gathered for NEFEC's Summer Leadership Conference July 27-28 in Ponte Vedra.

Dr. Eric Jensen got the conference off to a great start by providing innovative and real-world strategies for reaching all students. Dr. Jensen is a former teacher and educational leader who grew up in San Diego, California. For over two decades he has synthesized brain research and developed practical applications for educators. Jensen has authored over 29 books including 3 bestsellers. His books include, Teaching with Poverty in Mind, Tools for Engagement, Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind, Turnaround Tools for the Teenage Brain, Poor Students Richer Teaching, and Different Brains Different Learners.

Day one concurrent sessions included: Leadership for Staff Engagement, Constructing Conversations to Solve Problems, Leading for Resilience, Secrets to Accelerate School Change, An Afternoon with NEFEC Teachers of the Year, and Putnam STEM + Artificial Intelligence Education.

DJ and Mrs. Porter practically brought the house down on day two. Donna Porter and DJ Batiste inspired the audience with their story.

The Institute for Small and Rural Districts (ISRD) facilitated the FLIP IT Strategy professional development for seven NEFEC districts in Bradford County to start the new school year.

The FLIP IT is a strategy that offers simple, kind, strength-based, common sense, and an effective four step process to address children’s day to day challenging behavior in the classroom.

The four steps are embodied in the FLIP mnemonic which stands for F-Feelings, L-Limits, I-Inquires, and P-Prompts. FLIP IT is nothing new but transforms best practices into a strategy that is easy to remember.

Throughout the years, ISRD has played an integral part in providing high-quality research-based professional development to school administrators, school psychologists, school counselors, social workers, and school nurses in special education.