VOLUME 6 ISSUE 37
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“The Heart of the Turf” meet and greet. Pg B1
SEPTEMBER 26 - October 2, 2025
Automatic aid vs. Mutual aid
Which local public safety agencies share real time information for a unified response? By Jennifer Hunt Murty jennifer@ocalagazette.com
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aw dispatchers in Marion County work from two locations—one at the Marion County Public
Safety Communications Center under the Sheriff ’s Office and the other at the Ocala Police Department under Police Chief Michael Balken. The agencies work under a mutual aid agreement stating
that if one calls for help, the other will lend support. But the coordination is not automatic. The two agencies use different computer-aided dispatch systems and do not share calls in real time, only on a case-by-case basis.
They also do not share their unit locations, which could help dispatchers decide quickly whether the Marion County Sheriff ’s Office or Ocala Police Department has units closer to a call for help.
This stands in contrast to fire departments in Marion County, which work under an automatic aid agreement. Under that system, either county or city fire See Aid, page A8
Triumph of teamwork Two dynamic teachers raise Reddick-Collier Elementary’s VPK program to lofty heights.
Teacher Nicole Lambert, left, and para-professional Terry Crawford, right, show a student’s drawing and writing in the book “Be The Star You Are” in the VPK classroom at Reddick-Collier Elementary School in Reddick on Sept. 19, 2025. Reddick-Collier Elementary VPK is the highest-rated public school program in the state of Florida, with the only score of a 99. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2025. By Susan Smiley-Height susan@magnoliamediaco.com
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t has been said that teamwork makes the dream work. And nowhere in Marion County is that more evident than in the dynamic team of Reddick-Collier Elementary School teacher Nicole Lambert and paraprofessional Terry Crawford. The two educators have
been working together at Reddick-Collier in northwest Marion County for 21 years and sometimes even finish each other’s sentences. Crawford has been at the school for more than 30 years total and will be retiring at the end of the 2025-26 school year. The duo’s hard work and dedication recently was rewarded as RCE earned the highest rating
of any public school Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) provider in the state. With a score of 99, Reddick-Collier outperformed every other Florida public school program, with the next closest scoring 90%. “While six private centers in Florida achieved perfect scores, Reddick-Collier stands alone at the top among all public schools statewide. This recognition comes as part of Florida’s new VPK
Provider Performance Metrics and Designations, the first year of the statewide accountability system for early learning providers,” Kevin Christian, Marion County Public Schools director of public relations, stated in a news release. RCE serves more than 350 students in pre-K to fifth grade. The recent recognition for the VPK class of 2024-25 came through the Teachstone program, which has a Classroom Assessment Scoring System, or CLASS. According to its website, CLASS defines teaching quality through the lens of interactions, provides the ability to measure and improve the interactions that matter most for children’s outcomes and is a journey of continuous improvement that is data-driven. “This is an assessment tool that Gov. Ron DeSantis put in place to replace how, years in the past, VPK was evaluated. I think it’s a better way to evaluate during the present time and it’s a big undertaking. They go into every single public and private school, so over 6,000,” Lambert explained. “And the CLASS assessment isn’t just for VPK, it goes all the
way up to the collegiate level. It’s a very high-quality evaluation system. Marion County has their own, so all VPK teachers have to do their formal evaluation, which is a specific rubric, but the CLASS one is very good. It’s intense,” she added. “It’s what the state of Florida has chosen as one of their metrics, or one of their scoring points, to really to designate whether VPK programs across the state are making the growth that they should make, so they chose CLASS and Star Early Literacy,” shared Jennifer Beck, director of early learning for MCPS. According to the Florida Department of Education, the Coordinated Screening and Progress Monitoring Program is the statewide, standardized program known as Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) Star Early Literacy. It is implemented in all VPK programs and used to assess student achievement of the performance standards established in early literacy and mathematics. “Star Early Literacy, which is
Keeping a promise
Dorothy Antonelli, left, whose uncle’s remains have never been recovered from his service in the Korean War, looks over the symbolic POW/ MIA table on National POW/ MIA Recognition Day, Sept. 19, 2025, at the Ocala-Marion County Veterans Memorial Park, during which U.S. Army veteran Kathy Henderson, center, and U.S. Navy veteran Donald Kennedy, performed a ceremony that explains the meaning of each item on the table. [Photo by Andy Fillmore/ Ocala Gazette]
The National POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony in Ocala included former service personnel and ROTC cadets. By Andy Fillmore andy@ocalagazette.com
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ceremony was held Sept. 19, on National POW/MIA Recognition Day, at the Ocala-Marion County Veterans Memorial Park to remember and honor America’s prisoners of war and service members missing
See Triumph, page A5
in action. “Delivering on the nation’s promise” was the theme. Daisy Diaz, a U.S. Navy veteran and Marion County’s director of Veterans Services, opened the ceremony and welcomed attendees. The West Port High School AJROTC, See Keeping a promise, page A4
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INSIDE:
Property taxes............................... A3 Board vacancies............................ A6 State briefs..................................... A7 Sports.............................................. B2 Calendar......................................... B8
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