Florida, Polk County | featured news

Johna Jozwiak's aversion to math started in fifth grade when her teacher assigned work without much explanation. "He never taught and I just shut down," said Jozwiak, the principal at Eastside Elementary School. "If I had had some of my teachers here teaching me I wouldn't dislike it so much." Jozwiak, her teachers and the students at the Haines City school must be doing something right in math and other subjects. The school recently increased its letter grade from an F to a C with improvements in reading, math and science.

Where the distressed Lincoln Square Apartments once stood, the city's Community Redevelopment Agency will build a neighborhood. And in what is becoming an accepted tactic for blight-fighting projects in the 4,500-acre Midtown Community Redevelopment District, the city won't select a developer and then heavily subsidize its project. Instead the city will be the developer as it is with the Mass Market conversion of the former Salvation Army shelter site on Massachusetts Avenue.