VOLUME 6 ISSUE 24
Reading With Horses
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Pg B1
JUNE 13 - 19, 2025
Praying for Paula
MCPS plan moves forward The Marion County School Board adjusted its school staffing to manage a budget gap. By Lauren Morrish lauren@ocalagazette.com
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with the ability to function as 16 volleyball courts and a full-sized synthetic turf soccer pitch. The complex also would house two restaurants and multiple fan-support buildings containing concessions, restrooms and field maintenance needs, according to the documents. “Sports
he Marion County School Board has reached consensus to move forward with the 2025-26 Central Office Staffing Plan and the five cost-saving recommendations that were made to close the anticipated staffing budget gap. The staffing plan was adjusted after the May 22 work session and was presented to the board again at a June 5 meeting. Chief Financial Officer Theresa Boston-Ellis shared the estimated working fund balance for the 202526 fiscal year based on this year’s financial records. Projected expenditures for the upcoming year total $568 million, while the anticipated revenue is approximately $483 million, leaving an $85 million deficit. Boston-Ellis said the district’s predicted beginning fund balance of $66 million will help offset that gap, reducing the expected deficit to $18 million. She added that the financial team has determined $64 million in cuts are still needed to balance the budget. “We are in unprecedented times,” board member Nancy Thrower said. “We’ve never not had a budget by now.” Boston-Ellis said she is unnerved by that fact and noted that Marion County, along with 66 other school districts in Florida, is concerned about its funding. One budget challenge mentioned was inflation, which is increasing the cost of school buses by $5,000 each, Boston-Ellis said. She said recurring costs are also large expenditures, such as Safe School hardening measures of cameras and fencing, aging building upgrades and charter school capital allocations. Historical grant funds that normally offset some highdollar amounts have decreased significantly. The district received $87 million last year, but this year’s anticipated funds are almost back to the amount the district first accepted in 2016-17, approximately $40 million. Boston-Ellis compared the 2024-25 and 2025-26 upcoming general fund operating budgets. She said the projected revenue will increase by $17 million, with a majority due to Family Empowerment Scholarships, while expenditures will increase by $63 million from the last fiscal year. The large expenditure change is due to increased salaries, benefits, health insurance and retirement costs, added staffing units and the cost of two new schools. The budget adds 206 staffer
See WEC, page A8
See MCPS plan, page A3
Khelva Ruiz-Rodriguez, the sister of Paula Diaz, left, becomes emotional as Diaz' mother, Mariluz Mateo, right, sits with her as they talk about Paula’s paranoid schizophrenia mental illness at Mateo's Silver Springs Shores home in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, June 9, 2025. Diaz was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2004 and has been held at the Marion County jail since Jan. 4, 2025, under no bond. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2025.
By Jennifer Hunt Murty jennifer@ocalagazette.com
year-and-a-half ordeal they wish no other family has to endure. Paula, 44, has been held without bond at the Marion County jail since Jan. 4, 2025 on two counts of battery on a law enforcement officer, a third-degree felony; and one first-degree misdemeanor count of battery. Yet, sitting in court watching other hearings pertaining to those who are incarcerated and clearly mentally ill makes them concerned about the lack of resources to help families like their own. On June 9, during a monthly status conference hearing for Paula, who is still awaiting trial, her mother, Mariluz Mateo, and Ruiz-Rodriguez cried as Circuit Judge
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aula Diaz’s family will tell you they’ve had to reach out to law enforcement for help many times over the 23 years they cared for Paula, who has been troubled ever since being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2004. Most of the time, the experiences have been positive. “Some law enforcement (members) have talked to her gently and convinced her to go with them to the hospital,” said Paula’s sister Khelva Ruiz-Rodriguez. Their first call for help after moving to Marion County from Orange County on Jan. 3,2024, however, has resulted in a
See Praying for Paula, page A9
Paula Diaz
Massive sports complex proposed for WEC Multiple sports fields, indoor ice hockey rinks, restaurants and a hotel are envisioned for what was supposed to be low-density residential acreage. By Belea T. Keeney belea@magnoliamediaco.com
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orld Equestrian Center leaders are proposing a massive sports complex to be built on 236 acres of pastureland that was intended for low-density equestrian estate homes on large lots and polo fields.
WEC’s requests for Comprehensive Plan amendments, rezonings and other land-use matters revisions to its 2017 Planned Unit Development (PUD) have sparked a pushback from Horse Farms Forever, which compared the enormous proposal to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney World. “Sports at WEC,” the
tentative name for the complex, proposes eight full-size synthetic turf multipurpose soccer, lacrosse and football fields; three natural turf soccer/ lacrosse fields; six synthetic turf multipurpose baseball/softball fields; and a championship soccer field with increased seating. The indoor facility will have two full-sized ice sheets, eight full-sized basketball courts
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A second chance............................ A4 Eco-friendly initiatives................ A5 Standing up for veterans............. A6 Social Scene................................... B5 Calendar......................................... B6
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