PORT ST. LUCIE — St. Lucie County Fire District crews were called Wednesday morning to a crash involving a school bus with children on board and a small car, a fire district spokeswoman said.

No injuries were reported in the crash, officials said.

The bus had 15 children aboard and was headed for Parkway Elementary School, according to Janice Karst, director of communications for St. Lucie schools.

Crews were called at 7:39 a.m. to the incident at Southeast Walters Terrace and Southeast Ocean Lane, Fire District spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said.

No other information was immediately available.

ST. LUCIE COUNTY - A self-described Filipino/Portuguese woman who quit an assistant principal job at Fort Pierce Westwood High School in April 2008 is suing the school district, alleging that Westwood Principal Keith Brown passed her over for promotion based on race.

An attorney representing Teri Pinney, a Port St. Lucie resident currently running for school board, filed the civil rights lawsuit in federal court Friday afternoon. It alleges Brown ignored her seniority when he chose Ron Wright, a fellow black male, for a position as Westwood’s senior assistant principal, prior to the start of the 2007-08 school year.

Her lawsuit also claims that, during that school year, Brown “engaged in numerous instances of illegal race-based discrimination against Westwood employees in which he treated non-black employees less favorably than black employees.”

Pinney, a native of Hawaii, was named the school district’s “distinguished minority educator” in 2004.

She filed for the school board seat held by incumbent John Carvelli about two months after leaving Westwood - where, her lawsuit states, working conditions “became intolerable” because of retaliation by Brown after Pinney complained to school district Deputy Superintendent Sandy Wolfe. (more…)

The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office announced it charged a school bus aide Tuesday with child neglect for allowing an autistic child to injure himself on a bus.

Investigators said Patricia Davis, 44, of the 700 block of Avenue E, Fort Pierce, stood by while the child smashed his head against a bus window until it cracked during a ride to school last month.

Officials for the sheriff’s office and the St. Lucie County School District said they will not release the name of the school to protect the identity of the child.

A school resource deputy said a security video on the bus showed the child beginning to bang his head against a window at 9:10 a.m. Feb. 8. Davis gave the child a couple of treats, for which he stopped the behavior temporarily, the arrest affidavit said. After the treats, the child resumed banging his head, the affidavit states. The student was also striking himself in the face, the affidavit states. After seven minutes of nonstop thrashing, Davis began rubbing his shoulders to calm him down.

The student was treated by the school nurse for cuts and swelling to his head, she told deputies. The child’s father took the boy to the hospital, which determined he suffered no serious damage, deputies said.

The school’s behavior technician told deputies school employees are trained to respond to head-banging behavior by redirecting or blocking a student from the object, the affidavit states. But the school bus driver told deputies the school aide was hesitant to step in.

“I don’t think we’re allowed to touch him,” was Davis’ statement to the driver, he told investigators.

Davis, who has worked for the school system for more than nine years, was being held at the St. Lucie County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.

School officials declined comment on the arrest.

“I have no comment at this time pending any ultimate conclusions that may come through the legal system at a later time,” Schools Superintendent Michael Lannon said.

School District spokeswoman Janice Karst said Davis has been reassigned away from students.

Staff writer Colleen Wixon contributed to this report.

SEWALL’S POINT — Five men, including four believed to be Haitians and one thought to be a Cuban, have been detained after coming ashore in the early hours this morning, officials said.

The men are believed to have been dropped off between midnight and 1 a.m. on the north side of the Stuart causeway, according to Rhonda Irons, spokesperson for the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

They are believed to have been dropped off by a small, single-engine boat. (more…)

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — In one video clip, gingerbread men peel themselves off a cookie sheet and cavort around a playground made of kitchen appliances and utensils. In another, a background of peaks and valleys dances to music.

Leonardo Quert, one of 141 students studying digital design at Vero Beach High School, created both worlds on a computer. Using computers to make art and create Web sites is so popular that having another teacher could easily double student enrollment in such classes.

“We have waiting lists,” said Bobbie Miller, chair of VBHS’s business department. “We look at sophomores and juniors first, because we want to have them for two years, to build their education to either go on to post-secondary learning or directly into the workplace.”

Vero Beach and Sebastian River high schools each offer courses in digital design, new media technology and Web design. And public high schools across the Treasure Coast are working with Indian River State College to build career ladders into the burgeoning digital design industry.

What is being taught in high schools spans the range of modern business applications. But specialized, high-paying careers in digital animation are much on the minds of Treasure Coast students and educators with the arrival of Digital Domain Holdings in Port St. Lucie.

A little definition was given to the college and high school plans envisioned by Digital Domain Holdings to potentially train its future workforce Friday.

The head of Digital Domain Holdings announced the new company is finalizing the deal to have its digital media training institute overseen by Florida State University’s award-winning film school, with classes starting next year, during the Economic Council of Martin County’s 25th anniversary dinner at Indian River State College’s Wolf High-Technology Center.

(more…)

STUART — For years, the Martin County School District was a mainstay of Florida Mechanical LLC.

The district called the Riviera Beach-based contractor nearly every day for repair jobs, while authorities say school employees routinely signed off on company invoices that included extra charges.

So informal had the contractual relationship become that company President Ken Morgan described it this way: “They would call us when things would break.” So cozy had the personal relationship become that district workers lunched with company employees and allowed them to assist with home repairs.

One district employee even spent a weekend at Morgan’s vacation home in St. Augustine. In exchange, Morgan got the use of the employee’s frozen drink machine at two company parties.

That all ended last year. Acting on a tip, new schools Superintendent Nancy Kline launched an internal investigation into allegations of employee misconduct, and later purged staff in the maintenance, facilities and purchasing departments. She also stopped $235,000 in remaining payments to Florida Mechanical.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement report released Tuesday clears former district and company employees of allegations of fraud but details a business relationship that likely cost the district thousands in unnecessary expenses. (more…)

MARTIN COUNTY — A South Fork High School resource deputy used a stun gun on an unruly student Tuesday, according to an arrest affidavit.

Markee Deshawn Felton, 18, of the 8400 block of Southeast Comus Street, Hobe Sound, was charged with resisting arrest with violence and disruption of a school function. He was being held at the Martin County Jail in lieu of $2,750 bail. (more…)

STUART — Months after Martin County Schools Superintendent Nancy Kline conducted a sweeping housecleaning of district staff based, in part, on preliminary information in a state audit, a final report shows that employees violated board policies in bidding, contracting and purchasing.

None of the five violations merited the state’s most serious classification. The auditors deemed only two of the five “significant.”

The report came this week from the state Auditor General’s Office, which conducts routine audits of the state’s 67 school districts. The office has no oversight authority and cannot enforce its findings.

Kline said the final audit was no surprise, saying district officials fixed the most serious problems.

“Maybe, if anything, it kind of validates the decisions that were made,” she said.

Those decisions — to terminate long-standing employees and bring in consultants — brought fierce criticism from some school board members and former employees during much of Kline’s first year in office.

(more…)

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — It appears that quick and well-organized protests by residents of three neighborhoods has squelched, for now, a proposal to end a decades-old agreement that sends their children to Martin County schools instead of St. Lucie County schools.

As an upshot of their protests, residents of Beau Rivage, Beau Rivage Estates and Bay Colony are again talking about annexing their properties into nearby Martin County.

Schools Superintendent Michael Lannon will ask School Board members to remove from Tuesday’s board agenda his recommendation to move some 40 of the neighborhoods’ students from Martin County schools into St. Lucie County schools, according to a memo written Monday by Kathy McGinn, assistant superintendent for strategic planning at St. Lucie County schools.
(more…)

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