bserver Happy Halloween!
EAST COUNTY FREE • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2013
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
OPENING SOON HOLIDAY HAUNTS Nordstrom Rack prepares for its November opening. PAGE 3A
East County enjoys Halloween-inspired happenings. PAGE 8B-9B
SPORTS
Local petanque club to host world championships. PAGE 15A
uphill battle
OUR TOWN
by Josh Siegel | Staff Writer
+ Clock countdown Tick, tock! It’s time to turn back your clocks! Daylight Saving time ends Sunday, Nov. 3, so you can catch up on your sleep. Be sure to set your clock back by one hour before heading to bed Saturday night.
+ Sip and savor The Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch is selling tickets for its annual Suncoast Food and Wine Festival, to be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, at the Sarasota Polo Club, 8201 Polo Club Lane, Sarasota. Come sample 300 American and international wines and beers and sample foods from 40 local restaurants. The day’s festivities also include specialty beer tastings, cooking demonstrations, live music, a fashion show and more. Tickets cost $60, and 100% of proceeds benefit local charities. For tickets visit suncoastfoodandwinefest.com.
The Haunted Ranch, which benefits the YMCA Adventure Guides program, became a scream, after volunteer zombies learned how to scare. SCARE TACTICS by Josh Siegel | Staff Writer Like a football coach, Chris Grooms some from behind masks. huddled his team members together and “There are a couple of ways to scare,” tried to inspire them before the big event. Grooms told his troops. “Ladies, you can It hadn’t started, yet some participants let out a blood-curdling scream. Silence were bloodied and had oozing wounds. is also scary. It stops them in their tracks.” “The first thing is safety; judge your auAt the Haunted Ranch on Lorraine dience,” Grooms commanded, just like Road, in Lakewood Ranch, Grooms and any sensible coach would. Dennis Hyma, of YMCA Adventure Deep into the dark, deserted woods, Guides, coach their volunteers disrupted only by a graveyard and blood in the art of scaring to make splotches on the ground, the 25 zombies this first-time event aucircling Grooms thentic. stared intently ahead, SCREAM / PAGE 9A
+ Ballots ready! IRE contest continues Voting for The Observer’s “It’s Read Everywhere” photo contest continues until midnight Thursday, Oct. 31. Each person may vote up to 10 times per day. The winner will receive two travel vouchers courtesy of JetBlue.
+ Riding high Seventy-five people biked across the state Saturday, Oct. 5, to raise funds and awareness for the Team Tony Foundation. Bicyclists began the two-day, 211-mile bike ride in Ormond Beach Oct. 5 and arrived Oct. 6 in Lakewood Ranch. Team Tony is a charity founded by Sarasotan Tony McEachern; it strives to raise awareness and funds to fight cancer.
High school students and volunteers Damin Cartwright and Cheyenne Potter say scaring makes for a great date night.
School Board adjusts budget
Manatee School Board members have confidence in their new administration. EAST COUNTY — One month into the new fiscal year, the Manatee County School District announced it must adjust its budget by $3.9 million. District officials said they are working on a corrective action plan to account for unexpected costs since the School Board adopted its 2013-14 budget in September — such as the need to hire additional Exceptional Student Education (ESE) paraprofessionals and gifted teachers to meet state requirements. Those costs include $489,000 to hire 27 ESE paraprofessionals, $317,000 for seven gifted teachers, $407,000 for nine voluntary pre-kindergarten (VPK) teachers and $200,000 for nine VPK teacher aides. All current pre-kindergarten ESE classes are at full capacity or over capacity, district officials say, while 60 gifted students are not being served and 140 such students are considered underserved. Another cost — $800,000 — came from an error in transitioning teachers from Central High School, which recently closed, to other high schools. To make up the money, the district will freeze hiring of non-essential employees beginning in November, reduce the central office’s budget by $1 million and take $700,000 from reserves, among other things. “We are responsible for oversights and miscoding for $1.5 million,” district spokesperson Steve Valley said. “We accepted full responsibility
SCHOOLS / PAGE 9A
INDEX Briefs....................6A Classifieds......... 13B
Cops Corner....... 11A Crossword.......... 12B
Neighborhood...... 1B Real Estate........ 10B
Sports................ 15A Weather............. 12B
Vol. 14, No. 30 | Two sections YourObserver.com