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Want to drive a school bus? Bus driver shortage pushes Flagler Schools to the limit, with 12-18 drivers needed. PAGE 2

FCSO receives high honors MELISSA MORREALE FCSO PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER

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The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office received its sixth law enforcement re-accreditation from the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation on Oct. 7. Sheriff Rick Staly was also recently elected by his peers to serve as the chair for the CFLEA. He has served as a commissioner since 2018. CFLEA is an independent 15-member commission established by Florida law whose members are appointed by the Florida Sheriff’s Association, Florida Police Chief’s Association, and city/county government organizations. After review by CFLEA onsite assessors in August 2021, which examined proofs of compliance on 239 mandatory and optional standards, inspections, and interviews to verify FCSO has complied with CFLEA standards, the onsite team unanimously recommended FCSO’s re-accreditation to CFLEA Commissioners. “Receiving re-accreditation is confirmation that we are delivering the most professional law enforcement practices to the citizens of our community,” Staly said. “It was my honor to accept this award on behalf of the dedicated men and women serving our agency and community that made this recognition possible.”

Adopt me! Adopt a washback turtle (symbolically) to support the Sea Turtle Hospital at Whitney Laboratory. PAGE 3

Some hatchlings are pushed back to shore and don’t have the energy to return.

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Hammock Dunes Club - Oceanfront Links Course is one of 829 courses in the world to be designated as a certified ACSP for Golf course.

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Audubon International is recognizing Hammock Dunes Club - Oceanfront Links Course for 20 years of certification as an Audubon International Cooperative Sanctuary through its commitment to environmental stewardship and efforts to maintain a comprehensive environmental management program focused on wildlife and habitat management, water conservation, resource management, and outreach and education. “We are proud to be honored by Audubon International as a good environmental steward of our courses,” said General Manager

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OCTOBER 2021

Bus driver shortage pushes Flagler Schools to the limit BRENT WORONOFF STAFF WRITER

Help wanted Photo by Brian McMillan

The Flagler County school district is down 12 to 18 drivers.

ontarrious Rowls knew what he was getting into when he became the director of transportation for Flagler Schools: bus driver shortages exacerbated by COVID-19; a pay scale that can’t keep up with driver options in neighboring counties; parents understandably upset about late-arriving buses, long walks to bus stops and doubling up bus runs. The school district currently has about 64 school bus drivers, which is about 12 to 18 drivers below optimum efficiency, Rowls said in an interview on Oct. 1. “Right now, I have drivers being stretched thin,” he said. As a result, buses are late and drivers are doing double runs. Rowls said his department has had 12 to 15 resignations from the start of the school year. “We started the year down, but we had enough to get the job done. Now it’s even more stressful,” he said. Rowls said some drivers are “terrified” to be working in confined environments because of the pandemic. Others are finding better paying jobs at Waste Pro, or transit authorities in neighboring counties or in other school districts. The Jacksonville Transit

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Authority has offered $10,000 to $15,000 bonuses for drivers because of its own shortage. Rowls said Flagler Schools pays a starting salary of $13.58 an hour for drivers with no experience and $14.67 for drivers who come in with five years’ experience. Other school districts pay more, he said. The St. Johns County School District pays a starting salary of $16 an hour for drivers with no experience, $17.94 for five years’ experience and a sliding scale that goes up to $23.93 for 14 years’ experience, according to the district’s website. “Our goal right now is to stabilize our workforce,” said Flagler Schools Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt, speaking of employee shortages across the school district. Mittelstadt said about 200 district employees make less than $15 an hour, which is scheduled to become the minimum wage in the Florida by 2026. Increasing their wages will cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, she said. Rowls and Mittelstadt said the school district trains drivers to get their commercial driver’s license.

“We do pay training, we prepare them to get tested on equipment and we pay for testing,” Rowls said, referring to the state certified exam. Drivers are also trained how to manage students and de-escalate situations, he said. The training takes three to six weeks, depending on the individual, Rowls said. Right now there are three driver candidates in training, he said, but added, “It takes 30 seconds for someone to tell me, ‘I resign,’ and to replace them we’re looking at up to six weeks.” Commenting on a recent post in the Facebook group, Flagler Parents, many parents praised their children’s bus drivers. Others noted that bus stops can be a long walk and through traffic for some children, and buses are often late. “A bus shows up and then tells us that there will be another bus … wait and another bus doesn’t show up,” one parent said. Rowls said the department is inundated with parents calling in that their child’s bus is late or didn’t show. Typically, the bus is late and parents are leaving before

the bus arrives, he said. Rowls said there are about 75 bus routes in the district in addition to field trips and after-school programs. For those routes there are 64 active drivers and four or five part-time drivers who work as needed. Rowls said he knows transportation has to fill in for nine routes every day. If drivers call in sick, nine routes can easily become 12 or 15, he said. Children are arriving home late because some parents drive their children to school before they go to work but rely on the buses to take them home, Rowls said. With full loads in the afternoons, the buses will double up as needed, sending out a short-route first with that bus, then returning to school to take the longer route. To save time sometimes smaller routes are combined on the same bus. “We share with parents the situation we’re facing,” he said. “We’re going to get children picked up. We can’t guarantee it’s going to be at the time on the route sheet. We just have to use all our resources and maximize them to the best of our ability to get the job done. “If we can find funding to retain people that will stop the bleeding,” he said. “But it will not fix the problem.”

“We started the year down, but we had enough to get the job done. Now it’s even more stressful.” DONTARRIOUS ROWLS, Flagler Schools director of transportation

OCTOBER 2021

Adopt a washback turtle Supports the Sea Turtle Hospital at Whitney Laboratory Symbolic. Adoptions available Oct. 21-31. HEATHER KRUMHOLTZ COMMUNICATIONS, WHITNEY LABORATORY

Join the Sea Turtle Hospital at University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory to help support hundreds of washback turtles cared for by hospital staff each season by symbolically adopting a washback this October, named by you! When a gift is made in any amount to support the Sea Turtle Hospital, you will receive an email with your personalized washback adoption certificate. (The washback turtle naming is symbolic, but the certificate is real. For questions, please contact Jessica Long at jessicalong@ whitney.ufl.edu.) Last year over 150 washback turtles were symbolically named. To adopt a washback turtle, visit whitney.ufl.edu beginning Oct. 21 through Oct. 31. Washbacks are sea turtle hatchlings that have made it to the open ocean, began eating, and are on their way to the line of Sargassum seaweed, 50-100 miles in the ocean. With storms, strong currents and winds, hatchlings that make it to the seaweed can be pushed back onto the beach even months later — and become a washback. Washback turtles cannot get back to their Sargassum habitat by themselves. They used all their egg nutrition to swim out that far, and now can’t swim back out to thrive. “We received our first post-

hatchling or washback of the season in September. Typically, we see these post-hatchlings/ washbacks anywhere from Aug. 1 to Dec. 31 and we could see anywhere from 20 to 400 babies,” said Catherine Eastman, Sea Turtle Hospital program manager. “Who doesn’t love lots of tiny turtle mouths to feed?” When they are brought to the Sea Turtle Hospital, staff watch over and care for them. They make sure they get their energy back for a boat ride home to continue on with their incredible turtle journey. Each washback is treated just like a patient in the hospital. When they arrive they receive a full exam, fluids if dehydrated, a patient number, and a swim test. If any of the washbacks have injuries, they are treated by our veterinary care team. Each washback receives a two character ID which is written on their carapace with marker (don’t worry it is removed before they are released). This ID helps track who is eating and improving or who needs extra attention. Washbacks get fed 3-5 times a day and the animal care team monitors their overall body condition and health. Once cleared for release, staff work with MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife and neighboring facilities to organize an offshore boat trip to release the washbacks in their habitat. If you encounter a hatchling, call MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife 1-888-404-3922.

WHEN IT'S TIME TO TURN OVER A NEW LEAF CALL US We are here to serve you! Hammock Specialists 386.310.3000

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HEALTH Education to address health care worker shortages Lawmakers are mulling ways to help bolster education and training programs for nurses and other health care professionals to address an ongoing staffing crisis in hospitals and long-term care facilities. Industry leaders warned the Senate Committee on Health Policy on Wednesday, Oct. 13, that worker shortages are driving up costs and leading to employee burnout. Florida Hospital Association president and CEO Mary Mayhew told the Senate panel that an “indescribable” strain on medical professionals, compounded by a sharp increase in hospitalizations caused by the delta variant of the coronavirus over the summer, contributed to a 25% turnover rate among nurses in Florida. The turnover rate is at 30% among nurses in intensive care and critical care units, she said. Nursing homes are experiencing similar problems, according to industry leaders. The uphill battle posed by providing services amid a staffing crunch is costing the long-term care industry nearly $1 billion annually, according to Deborah Franklin, the Florida Health Care Association’s senior director of quality affairs. “Costs per patient day are up almost $42 per day compared to the pre-pandemic time period, resulting in an additional cost to the profession of $660 million annually,” Franklin told the panel Wednesday.

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St. Clair’s ‘Chefs for Seniors’ provides nutritious meals, good company St. Clair cooks meals in people’s homes according to their tastes and nutritional needs BRENT WORONOFF CONTRIBUTING WRITER

As the owner of the Chefs for Seniors franchise in Volusia and Flagler counties, Mark St. Clair prepares meals for senior citizens. But while programs like Meals on Wheels deliver meals to people’s homes, St. Clair delivers the chef. St. Clair buys the groceries, brings them to his clients’ homes and cooks four different meals, a total of 14 to 16 servings, in their

Mark St. Clair said Chefs for Seniors is what he was meant to do.

kitchens. “It’s quite a unique service,” said St. Clair, 60. “I was actually looking for a business plan online to do a personal chef business, and Chefs for Seniors kept coming up. They’re amazing people. I put together a business plan for them, and, after several months, I got the franchise.” St. Clair opened his business in June. He has several clients in the Palm Coast and Ormond Beach areas. He starts with a free consultation in people’s homes, discussing dietary needs, health restrictions and tastes and planning a menu. “We focus on their big meal of the day,” St. Clair said. “The concept is to keep them healthy. Nutritious, quality food does in fact help seniors stay in their homes longer.” St. Clair, who has a ServeSafe certification, charges $149 in addition to the cost of groceries for his typical service, which provides meals for two for about one week or meals for one for about two weeks. He brings over the groceries and his own equipment and spends about 2 1/2 hours in the home. He packages and labels the meals with heating instructions and stores them in his client’s freezer and refrigerator. He offers a $20 discount for

FOR MORE INFORMATION Go to https://chefsforseniors. com/volusia-flagler-fl Call or text 386-682-3883.

“I love cooking and I love helping people out. I don’t feel like I’m working.” MARK ST. CLAIR

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Chicken, beef, pork tenderloin and shrimp dishes are among the most popular, Mark St. Clair said.

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each of the first two services if a client commits to two services because often adjustments are made after the first service based on their tastes. St. Clair said some of his clients are 55 and others are 95. Some

love to chat while he cooks, some don’t. For some, the socialization is as important as the meals themselves, he said. People use the service for different reasons. “Some people, like one gentleman whose wife passed away, just have never cooked,” St. Clair said. “Some just can’t get out.” Barrett Allman and his son, Nathan Allman, began Chefs for Seniors in 2013 in Madison, Wisconsin. The company now has 60 franchises nationwide, in addition to St. Clair’s. St. Clair does not have professional training as a chef but said this is the job he was meant to do. “My mom was a wonderful cook, and that sparked my love for cooking,” he said. “I love cooking, and I love helping people out. I don’t feel like I’m working.” St. Clair plans to hire two additional chefs as his business expands. “They don’t need to be trained chefs,” he said. “They just need to love cooking, enjoy seniors and be personable.”

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OCTOBER 2021

CREEKSIDE 2021

Cory, Kaylee and Tristan Olsen moved to Palm Coast from St. Augustine two years ago.

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Lorraine Beagley and Judy Smith brought chairs and a picnic. “We’re here all day,” they said.

HELP FEED FLAGLER THIS FALL With a focus on veterans, seniors and Flagler Schools students, Feed Flagler has a goal to provide 1,200 family meals for Thanksgiving this year. Make a suggested donation of $35 at www. gracecommunityfoodpantry. com. Click on the “Team Feed Flagler” tab. Fiddle Rat began the music festival at Creekside on Oct. 9.

Photos by Brian McMillan

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Creekside Festival brings all ages together

aising money for the Grace Community Food Pantry, Flagler Broadcasting hosted Creekside Music and Arts Festival on Oct. 9-10 at Princess Place Preserve (2500 Princess Place Road). — BRIAN McMILLAN

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