- July 22, 2026
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It was a student-teacher day in my eighth grade social studies class when my classmate and friend, Steve Mitchell, yelled a rather rude comment that flustered our student-teacher and enraged our social studies teacher, Mr. Ochner.
"Heater, out in the hall."
And out I went, without time to explain that it wasn't me who was guilty of the transgression. Mr. Ochner, all 220 pounds of him, punched me in the face so hard my 100-pound body bounced off the wall behind me and crumpled to the floor.
I looked up at Mr. Ochner, wondering if a second punch was coming, but I could see in his face that he knew he had done something horribly wrong. He didn't have to worry, though, because I didn't want to tell my father, who would not have been happy about me getting in trouble in class.
My classmates inside the classroom could hear my body hit the wall and they had a good laugh about that one. Steve Mitchell wrote in our senior yearbook that he would always remember the day "Jay got punched for something I said."
I actually liked Mr. Ochner, who was an assistant football coach when I played varsity years later. I knew teaching was a tough job. Even at that time, I respected teachers, even the one who mentally snapped.
My respect for teachers is even higher today. It's not like the Ochner incident wouldn't happen in today's world, but it is likely that would be the last day of that teacher's career. Today's teachers are under an intense microscope, which they, indeed, should be.
That being said, teachers have a tough assignment, making sure their own behavior is impeccable while dealing with students who in some cases aren't interested in walking the straight line of acceptable behavior.
Teachers deal with very bright, top-notch students who are dedicated to their academic journey. They also are teaching students who see school as a long babysitting session that eventually lets them out so they can do something more important.
Teachers also deal with everything in-between.
I never have liked the state's rating system for school districts because it doesn't take into account differing assignments each teacher faces even though he or she might be instructing the same course.
The goofy movie "Summer School" always struck a chord with me as teacher Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon) was forced to teach a class of academic losers in order to save his job. When his students scored a collection of bad marks at the end of the summer, it was deemed that Shoop should be fired. But the principal correctly surmised that Shoop actually was a good teacher. Those students who had been averaging 45s had recorded 65s, and those who had sunk to 50s had raised to 70s.
That's improvement worthy of note.
So no East County school had the kind of problems that Shoop had to overcome, but there was improvement worth celebrating when the state school grades were released on July 1.
Myakka Elementary Principal Carol Ricks said everything came together for her school to achieve an A grade, up from a C in 2024-2025.
"This just feels so good," Ricks said. "It took years of dedication. We all poured ourselves together into the students."
Ricks said the release of grades can be a frustrating time because sometimes circumstances can dictate a grade, no matter the staff's and the students' work.
"We've known that we are an A school," she said. "It just hasn't been showing that we are an A."
Ricks is in her eighth year at Myakka Elementary and she said the school's A grade hit her with a combination of pride and relief. She became principal and the next year was COVID-19. The school also gained approximately 100 new migrant farm students.
"We had to tweak a lot of things," she said.
One of the tweaks was to educate the students about how important it is for them to track their own personal growth.
"We call it 'jumping a bucket,'" she said. "We had to hold them accountable (for their personal growth)."
She said once the students began tracking their own progress, everything took off. There were plenty of events to celebrate their successes.
Kimberlain Zenon, the principal at Braden River Middle School, was elated to find her school moved from a B in 2024-25 to an A.
"It is so much work," Zenon said. "For me, it is all about consistency. For seven years, we consistently worked hard and used strategies that would give us the highest yield."
Even so, Braden River Middle School couldn't quite reach the A level.
"The past few years we have been right on the cusp," she said. "We missed by one point one year. (In the 2025-2026 school year) we kept doing what we've been doing, but we added a lot more support for both the teachers and the students. We are monitoring data and we have a new instructional coach."
Zenon thanked volunteers from Harvest United Methodist Church (Lakewood Ranch) who mentored and tutored students.
She said it was an overall effort by the students, the teachers, the staff and the community.
"We have wonderful teachers and wonderful kids," she said. "And we have the highest expectations for every kid."
Like Ricks, she said it was important for students to track their own growth.
"Every testing day was an exciting day," she said. "All the kids were on board."
You could hear and feel the emotion in the voices of both Ricks and Zenon as they talked about their schools. As a resident of Manatee County, it makes me feel good about supporting the district through the millage referendum. It is money well spent.
So here is the scorecard for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years for East County schools:
