Tag Archives: daytona beach

Kent Sharples Ousted with $1.2 Million Severance Package

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Kent Sharples and Bruce Cook, Spring 2008

In September 2010, Daytona State President Kent Sharples lent nearly $1.5 million to the Community Cultural Foundation for the “American Music Festival,” with approval of the previous Board of Trustees. The festival was a money-loser and the foundation owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to many local businesses in addition to the college, which has now cut ties with both the Foundation and Sharples, and the new board ousted Sharples.

Sharples’ attorney negotiated a $1.2 million severance package for the retiring president and he will also be receiving over $0.5 million in accrued benefits. This puts his entire package at six years salary at his current rate of $290,000.

In other news, Vice President Rand Spiwak is retiring in January and Frank Lombardo, Acdemics VP, is becoming the Interim President on Monday, Nov. 22, 2010. Sharples’ last day as president is Friday, Nov. 19.

READER COMMENT BY DONALD ON THE DAYTONA SUN:

“We lost a builder for education and a true force of growth in our community with Kent Sharples resignation from Daytona State College. When will we receive the resignation of Ms Hosseini and her blonde puppet, Ms Haas? Maybe the pocket stuffer of our former Governor…Mori Hosseini will text them with instructions!”

I think it’s disgraceful that Forough Hosseini has led this crusade against Sharples for no good reason, and to much negative publicity. If he remains president, he won’t be able to do anything anyway, since she basically owns the Board of Trustees. Under Sharples’ 11-year tenure, the college has seen unprecedented growth. I sincerely hope this growth continues under Lombardo and the future DSC president.

Sources:
2010-11-18: DAYTONA SUN: Sharples Out
2010-11-18: DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL: Sharples out as Daytona State president; $1.2 million buyout
2010-11-11: DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL: Daytona State financial head retiring
2010-02-22: DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL: Forough Hosseini quits as college board chairman

Revised at 10:00pm EST, Nov. 19, 2010.

SGA Spirit Wars Photos, Wed., Oct. 7, 2009

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Last Wednesday, 2009-10-07, the Student Government Association held Spirit Wars (codenamed Club Wars) on the quad out back of bldg. 130 (the cafeteria) at Daytona State College. It was from 11 AM to 2:25 PM and trivia indoors was from 2:30 to 3 PM. I didn’t get over there till 1 PM and I my job was helping to set up the chairs and tables for trivia, but I took a few photos. It was a contest with real scoring. At the end, the psychology club won, but there was a 3-way tie for 2nd.

Note that as always, each caption is for the ABOVE photo… not the one below. Also, all of these photos are in chronological order.

Club Wars High-Res

Karen Zamora on the left waving, 12:54 PM. She was the co-host with Brian Portwine for the 2009-10-02 Talent Show. Each club wore different-colored T-Shirts made specially for SGA from club funds. Unfortunately I didn’t get a program so I don’t know the clubs. All I know is there are 12 official clubs on campus. Cheerleaders, pshchology, student newspaper, science, AASU, etc.

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Daytona State College 2009 Talent Show: Photos & Videos

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Photos from the show at the News-Journal Center, Fri., Oct. 2, 8-10 PM. I was act one. I played The Entertainer on the piano with a slideshow of my photography. I got a big applause and I didn’t clam up at all, so I was lucky. It was my first time on stage in over a year and this was my largest audience. After my act I took lots of photos below. My Dad also took videos from the audience, including my performance, later in the post. Read my post yesterday.

Press info: You can use these photos for editorial purposes such as newspapers, newsletters, and websites. None of the people in pictures signed release forms so don’t use any of these images commercially. Click “high-res” to the right of each thumbnail to download the 10 MP version. They’re pretty grainy… I was using ISO1600 a lot on my Canon Rebel XTi. But they should look alright up to 8×10. Please credit me with the line “Photos by Richard X. Thripp.”

Photos of the Show

2009-10-02 Talent Show High-Res

Jerred T. Mason reciting an inspirational poem “This is How I Am.” He was act 2 and I was act 1 but I have no photos of my act because I couldn’t take photos while playing the piano. We were both running for Mr. Daytona State. Congratulations to Jerred for winning the Mr. Daytona State title! I got a special consideration certificate. 8:16 PM.

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Daytona State College 2009 Talent Show

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I just played piano at the Daytona State College Talent Show at the News-Journal Center, 221 N. Beach St., Daytona Beach, FL 32114. The show was 8-10pm Fri. Oct. 2 (tonight) and it’s 10:45 now.

We had a full house… there were probably 800 people in the audience. It was great and I actually performed better than in the rehearsal. I was the opening act at 8pm, playing The Entertainer by Scott Joplin on the baby grand piano while a slideshow of 58 of my photos played including all 30 in my portfolio. The Rebel got a laugh from the audience.

I was also running for Mr. Daytona State against Jerred T. Mason, Zach Smith, and Tad Jennings. Jerred won with his monologue on overcoming obstacles in life and reaching your dreams, which is a lot of what I wrote last year in personal development. Michelle Underwood and Shawana Brown were running for Ms. Daytona State, and Michelle won with her improvised comedy act.

The show as very good. It was much better than the rehearsal Mon. and Thu. I told dozens of people about it at Daytona State College all this week and it seemed no one knew about it. I was only expecting a couple hundred people but Dad estimated there were 800-1000 students in the audience.

I took about 300 photos with my DSLR and my Dad filmed my performance. I’ll cull and edit everything by Sunday and post it then. It’s almost 11pm and I need some sleep.

Have a nice weekend everyone! Please leave your comments about the show on this blog post.

I also posted this on my personal blog.

Coming Soon to Daytona State: Dorm Rooms

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I just got word of this from the News-Journal. The Board of Trustees is negotiating with University Housing Services Inc. to build student apartments on or near the Daytona Beach campus.

Actually, no negotiations are happening yet. Plans to negotiate have been approved. You’ve got to love paperwork.

The college already owns a whole bunch of property around it (29 lots), so they might use those for something. They still don’t have enough parking though. I can’t believe they want to build dormitories.

“A 120-bed building might be built with eventually as many as 500 beds becoming available.

They’re counting student housing by the number of beds. Sounds like a prison to me, ha ha. It’s enough for me to be at class five days a week. I don’t need to start living at the college.

Daytona State College is supposed to be catering to local residents, most of which already have houses, apartments, or are living with their parents. You don’t hear of many people moving 500 miles to go to Daytona State. Maybe for Florida State University, but not for our little school.

This doesn’t support the college’s mission at all. It’s just mindless expansion and further embezzlement of public funds. Community colleges are socialist institutions, meaning they’re funded by mandatory tax dollars. If DSC had to pay property taxes (~$1.2 million / year) and other fees, and received no public funding, you can bet this wouldn’t last long, because colleges provide a small amount of value to the community, proportional to what they take. Daytona State is no exception. Professors and administrators are overpaid for their contribution to the world, but more importantly, rampant waste and sweetheart contracts expunge more public funds. How much did the name changes cost them? How about all the advertising they send out? They sent me a big pamphlet, $1 in postage, welcoming me to the college last semester. But I started three semesters ago. My mother left for California 10 years ago, yet we continue to receive newsletters and advertising from the college, addressed to her, on a biweekly basis. Why not use some logic instead of shotgunning?

“But on-campus housing provides a campus with a more vibrant campus atmosphere that can enhance students’ engagement and experience.”

No more having to drive home. Yay! :x x:

Daytona Beach City Commission to Vote 2008 Sept. 3 on News-Journal Center Acquisition

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An update on the News-Journal situation: it’s getting closer. Daytona State’s board of trustees has said yes to leasing the News-Journal theater center from the Lively Arts Center for one year.

The Lively Arts Center is giving $800,000 to the college, but I suppose the college will pay even more back. However, the state has to match this gift, so the college will get 1.6 million dollars. That should help a little.

The transfer is in fact mandated by a judge, because the Seaside Music Theater isn’t paying for the center anymore. The News-Journal won’t either, and the land is the city’s, so a profitable tenant must be found. Enter Daytona State College.

Kent Sharples (DSC president) says the state legislature needs to vote too, because they’ll be paying $700,000 per year toward the operating costs if the transfer goes through.

Clay Henderson of the Lively Arts Center’s board of directors said something interesting:

“We all are trying to keep everything going in the same way Tippen Davidson envisioned. Because that could not happen, this is the best way.”

Tippen Davidson was the News-Journal president till his death in 2007 January. He was the “driving force” behind the News-Journal Center, says the News-Journal. Apparently, he’d be rolling in his grave now, because Daytona State’s acquisition of his center is repugnant to his beautiful vision.

Either way, I’m excited that the college’s classes resume tomorrow at 8 A.M. My schedule: Calculus I 8-9 A.M., Speech 9-10, Physics I 10-11, and Biology 11-12. I wish my bag had wheels. The books are so heavy.