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Speaker says prayer could help School BoardBy Times staff writers © St. Petersburg Times, published January 15, 2001 The School Board was engaged in a heated discussion about school prayer last week and people were streaming up to the microphone to express their opinions. One speaker was Vincent Treacy, a teacher and longtime attendee of board meetings. Treacy wanted to read the board some statistics about how the majority of Americans wanted to see prayer return to schools and how Christians dramatically outnumber people of other faiths nationwide. His purpose was to ask why School Board member Carol Snyder would want to remove prayer from the board meetings. "God knows, you guys need it," he said. Snyder is actually trying to change from strictly Christian prayers to a moment of silence. TIME TO MOVE ON: After surviving the long and difficult prayer discussion, the board finally got to its final business item: discussion about whether to restructure a previous employee's job into a public relations position. Executive director David Watson stepped up to the microphone, noting as he arrived, "this is deja vu." Watson, who is a former School Board member, recalls sitting through many long, difficult board meetings. But he acknowledged it could be worse. "We are still in the day that we started," he said. Board Chairwoman Patience Nave said she hoped Watson's presentation wouldn't be so long that it made his statement inaccurate. "Don't take us there," she said. FIRST THINGS FIRST: At the conclusion of the Tourist Development Council meeting last week, someone mentioned that Camp David, a campground that allows visitors to roam nude if they wish, had opened in Citrus. People immediately started joking. But the council, which uses money from the 2 percent tourist tax to attract more visitors, never ignores a revenue opportunity. "Are they paying their tourist development dollars?" one person asked amid the laughter. The answer, for the record, is yes. BUMPER STICKERS WE LIKE: Help! I'm having an out-of-money experience. - Times staff writers Barbara Behrendt, Jim Ross and Greg Hamilton compiled this report.
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