bserver O
EAST COUNTY FREE • Thursday, FEBRUARY 28, 2013
You. Your neighbors. Your neighborhood.
sports
Reid family takes running to new levels. PAGE 18A
OUR TOWN
SEASON SPECIAL The Observer’s Guide TO The ArTs And sOcieTy | sprinG 2013
Look inside for our quarterly guide to arts and social events.
LIVING HISTORY
COMMUNITY
Orange blossoms, fragrance come early this year. PAGE 6A
by Pam Eubanks | Managing Editor
+ Students send handprints to capitol
Photo by Be-Be Hansen
Evonn Collins, of the club’s Ways and Means Committee, sported a Mardi Gras mask for fun.
Stephanie Lloyd, leading Katy, and her daughter, Cassie, on Baxter
East County residents Stephanie and Cassie Lloyd have made a family tradition of traveling the Florida Cracker Trail each year. EAST COUNTY — East County resident Stephanie Lloyd and her daughter, Cassie, love to ride horses, although they don’t have as much time for the hobby as they’d like. In fact, each year, the pair turns its passion for horseback riding into a weeklong historical adventure. On Feb. 16, the Lloyds pulled on their jeans and cowboy boots, saddled their horses and headed off on a weeklong cross-state ride — one that relives Florida’s history by reenacting the trip Florida cowboys, called
“crackers,” would take back home to the east coast, after driving their cattle to the Bradenton area for sale. The Florida Cracker Trail Association’s Cross State Ride this year celebrated its 26th year, with more than 120 riders participating in the 110mile journey through five counties. “It’s keeping history alive,” said Cassie Lloyd, 11. Stephanie Lloyd, a secondgrade teacher at Braden River Elementary School, agreed.
SEE TRAIL / PAGE 8A
Courtesy photo
Riders enjoyed time with one another on the trail.
+ Palm-Aire women enjoy Mardi Gras The Palm-Aire Women’s Club held its annual fundraiser Card & Game Party Feb. 15, at The Palm-Aire Country Club. The luncheon’s Mardi Gras theme made the affair extra colorful.
SEE OUR TOWN / PAGE 4A
by Josh Siegel | Staff Writer
Manatee Schools hires new leader Rick Mills, known for his work with Chicago’s JROTC program, will lead a district in turmoil.
Courtesy photo
Students in McNeal Elementary School’s prekindergarten program joined thousands of children across the country in participating in a project called Hanging of the Hands. Children submit pictures of their hands, which are hung in the state Capitol rotunda for Parent’s and Childrens Day April 7, to remind legislators of “our most precious commodity — our children,” teacher Vicki Paoli says. “Our children made Wildcats with our handprints,” Paoli says. “We hung our banners in our school lobby and now we are getting ready to ship them off to the Capitol to be hung in the Rotunda.”
new era
EAST COUNTY— As Paul Vallas, the first CEO of Chicago Public Schools, watched Rick Mills command a squadron at the U.S. Military Academy, in Fort Knox, Ky., he knew the lifetime military man should transition from serving his country to serving students. Mills had never — and still hasn’t — led a typical school Rick Mills classroom, with desks lining the front of the room and children reading from textbooks. But, he taught five courses from 1999 to 2001 as a squadron commander. But it didn’t — and still doesn’t — matter. Mills, the new Manatee County Schools superintendent, had the big-picture, take-charge style suited to serve as director of multiple Chicago military schools in 2001 and the city’s renowned JROTC program, and, later, as area superintendent of 26 Chicago schools in 2009. With a 4-1 vote Feb. 20, the Manatee County School Board assigned Mills, most recently the CEO of Minneapolis Pubic Schools, the task of restoring order to a district reeling from a 2011-12 $3.4 million deficit that spoke of unorganized, unstructured systems and rocked public trust. Mills replaces Tim McGonegal, who resigned Sept. 10, amid the budget fiasco. David Gayler has been acting as interim superintendent since Oct. 15. “I’m excited,” Mills said in a phone interview, the day af-
SEE MILLS / PAGE 12A
INDEX Business.............. 8B Calendar............ 14A
Classifieds ........ 19B Cops Corner....... 16A
Crossword.......... 18B Real Estate........ 12B
Sports................ 18A Weather............. 18B
Vol. 14, No. 9 | Three sections YourObserver.com