 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
School principal closes doors to homeowners
By BILL COATS
© St. Petersburg Times, CARROLLWOOD -- The phrase "brandishing uzis" did not inspire comfort at Cannella Elementary School. A campaign flier, meant as humor but mentioning violence, prompted Cannella principal Rose Ann Cuervo Tuesday to block plans by the Plantation of Carrollwood to hold a homeowners election at the school next week. Plantation's managers quickly asked the principal to reconsider. She brought her supervisor into the discussion, and a final decision is likely today. Cuervo's decision came the morning after Dave Cutting, the Plantation board member who wrote the flier, received a brief scolding from a Hillsborough County sheriff's detective about the flier's language. The Sheriff's Office concluded, however, that the flier wasn't a threat and wasn't illegal. Cutting, a 60-year-old graphic artist, intended to satirize the many accusations flying through the 1,832-home Plantation development in the home stretch of a board election. So, after introducing himself at the top of the flier, he inserted a headline: "WHAT WILL I DO ON AUGUST 15, 2001?" One of two possibilities: "I will arrive at Cannella in army fatigues, brandishing Uzzis, and "take out" all opposition, to effect a coup d'etat, and declare myself Dictator for Life of Plantation of Carrollwood. I will proceed immediately to sell the park, the clubhouse, and all the tools and equipment, and place the proceeds in a numbered Swiss bank account, in my name only." Cutting's second possibility was that he would be a responsive, positive board member, and perhaps president of the association. Cuervo cited the flier in rejecting Plantation's plans to meet on her campus, which is adjacent to Plantation. "I read it and said, "Oh gosh, I feel a little uneasy,' " she said. "It just didn't feel like this was the atmosphere we normally expect at a homeowners meeting." Tom Jones, community association manager for Plantation, said the development's current controversies are the hottest he has seen in 20 years there. They have intensified since June, when residents rejected the management's proposal to allow a permanent Boys & Girls Club in Plantation. Nine candidates are running for three board seats in next week's election. The alternate meeting site, the India Conference Center on Lynn Road, would be proposed in an emergency board meeting, Jones said. Cutting said he respects Cuervo's decision, but he questioned why community managers showed the flier to Cuervo without the board's approval. "I think there's been blatant overreaction, really," Cutting said. Jones disagrees. "As a responsible person, in today's society, with everything that has taken place, and at a school that has a zero tolerance for any weapons on the school property, it would have been irresponsible for us not to share this with them," he said. - Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 226-3469 or coats@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
|
