- May 15, 2024
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The Flagler County School Board voted last month to fund the Flagler Youth Orchestra this year. But before the program can get started, the district needs to hire a new program director and fill out the staff.
Board member Colleen Conklin would like to get a new director on board as soon as possible.
“A lot of people are just waiting,” she said at an Aug. 1 workshop.
But fellow board member Sally Hunt questioned why an outside director is needed. She suggested having a district staff member run the program, directing the group of music instructors, who are contract employees.
“What does this person do? Is it on par with what people do for other programs?” Hunt asked.
Cheryl Tristam ran the program for 18 years before resigning last month amid a controversy over the FYO’s bank account, which turned out to be a Flagler Schools internal account that the district had lost track of.
Tristam earned about $30,000 a year as an independent contractor. Conklin said she put in 40-hour weeks as the program’s administrator.
Hunt questioned whether the program needs a full-time administrator along with an artistic director/conductor and four to six part-time instructors.
“If they spend 40 hours a week, do they have to, or can this program be run by someone spending five hours?” Hunt asked.
The program now falls under the purview of the district’s director of Teaching and Learning, Jeff Reaves.
“We’re building a plan as we’re flying it,” Reaves said. “We want to provide our students and our community with this exceptional opportunity, and we just want to do it in an effective and efficient way.”
Interim Superintendent LaShakia Moore said there isn’t time this year to restructure the program.
“We need to get it going and operating. Some of it will look the way it has looked in the past in order to move forward. — LASHAKIA MOORE
“Funding has been approved," Moore said. “We need to get it going and operating. Some of it will look the way it has looked in the past in order to move forward.”
The district has three FYO instructors under contract for the school year. In addition to Tristam, three other instructors, including the artistic director, decided not to renew their contracts. Reaves said new applicants have applied, and one of the instructors who pulled out has shown interest in returning.
Patty Wormeck, the district’s chief financial officer, said staff will be ready to present the results of an audit of the FYO’s bank account at the board’s Aug. 15 workshop. A legal opinion from the Tallahassee law firm Sniffen and Spellman stated that the program did not present any operational issues other than the account not being subject to an annual audit.
Board member Will Furry, whose request for three years of financial records for the FYO revealed that it had never been an outside entity, wanted to make sure the district will now have full oversight over the program. Moore and Reaves assured him that will be the case.
Moore said the Department of Teaching and Learning will provide the board with regular updates, and next year the board will have the opportunity to review the program and decide what it will look like in the future.
Reaves said he hopes that eventually, students will earn school credits from their participation in the program.
