Our Bay County School System is wrestling with some serious budget concerns. In the Sunday edition of the News Herald (July 13), Alvin Peters laid down a challenge seeking alternative solutions to how the system can absorb a 20.4 million dollar reduction from the 07-08 budget year to the 08-09 year. Time is short. People in and out of the school system are worried. Mr. Peters says it isn't so simple when you get into the nuts and bolts of the district's spending. So, I've decided to weigh in on the subject.

First, let me assure you that I won't be shooting from the hip. I did spend eight years of my younger life (and it made me older) as an elected school board member in another state. We had a number of budget woes too. In fact, it was a serious budget crisis resulting in a 24 teacher lay-off that prompted me to throw my hat into the ring and run for the office. (On a side note, I was paid three dollars a month to serve my school district. We considered it true public service. Hmmm, could that be a source of funds to be reduced from the budget?)

Here's my story. Our district had just constructed a new gymnasium with an indoor running track. The facility seats four thousand spectators. It's a first class structure. But it really didn't sit well with the public when we were told that we had construction dollars to build the place, but not enough money to operate the school system in the following year. Whoops. I think I've heard that in the recent past here in Bay County.

Long story short, I've been to the Bay County Schools Web site and downloaded a copy of the executive level budget document. It doesn't contain a lot of detail, but I think it has enough information for me to make a few suggestions. I've just started, but I hope to have a lean budget recommendation by the end of the week. Perhaps I'll be ready to share my insights in next weeks PCityLive column. We'll see.

I'm really motivated to get this done. Mr. Peters put a $50 bounty offer to those of us willing to accept the challenge to "Effect $20 million in cuts to the general revenue portion of the Bay County school budget without detracting from the quality of public education."

I don't think it will be too tough. Satisfying the specification of not "detracting from the quality of public education" is the first point of attack. How can anyone really know if cuts made affect public education over one-year period. Or for that matter, how could anyone argue factually that the school system did not actually improve over a one year period because of the cuts. It's all pretty fuzzy stuff, FCAT not withstanding.

Let's see. How can I spend my fifty bucks?

Image courtesy of foundphotoslj & used under the creative commonse license.

Panama City has it's own Broadway, only it's not called Broadway it's called Harrison Avenue and the venue is called The Martin.

This past weekend brought out the talent from the Summer Stock players by twenty one year veteran director Bruce Taws.

Let me just preface this article by saying I have seen my fair share of off Broadway plays and church musicals alike and I have been astonished at some and put to sleep by others.  Annie Jr. did not fall next to the latter.  It was a pleasantly well put together play with a solid cast of kids who should be proud of what they have accomplished.  The cast was very energetic and funny and I can honestly say that I was not bored during any of the hour and a half performance.  Although the set design was a little bit on the sparse side the cast and their love for the stage more than made up for that small detail.

Annie, played by Kristen Ratliff, did a fantastic and wholely believable job as the orphan who finds out her parents won't be coming back for her during the great depression.  Ratliff has a great stage voice and she handled herself well during the classic "Hard Knock Life", and "Tomorrow" solos.

I had a fantastic time at the theater this weekend and I guess my only compliant would be that there isn't more fantastic theater like Summer Stock for me to attend any time soon!

Images by Living Visions Photography

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I have had just about every smart phone on the market. Most have done about a third of what they promised to do, but they did more than any other flip or brick phone, so they ended up being worth it.

Then the iPhone stepped into the game and everything, and I do mean everything changed.

Today brings the second in what will no doubt become a long line of iPhones. The new beauty boasts 3G technology that has much faster Internet speeds and is much more reliable. Unfortunately, we don't have an AT&T 3G network in Panama City so don't be alarmed when you new iPhizzle isn't any faster than your old one.

Your new phone will be a bit slimmer and if you use it in public it may just work a lot like cologne.

For those of you who braved the early morning heat and dehydration we salute you.

To find out all the awesome new features watch this video from Apple.com.

Note: Please send any photos of you waiting in line, stinky and happy to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or upload them to your community page and tag the photos with "iPhone".