In the past, strings programs were offered in isolated situations at certain schools. The district is taking steps to begin to develop programs in feeder patterns so that students interested in strings can begin instruction in the fourth grade and continue to play in orchestra through 12th grade. The Osceola County School Board has invested in stringed instruments to grow this program from the bottom up.
During the 2009-10 school year, the following elementary schools will be equipped with strings instruments: Boggy Creek, Cypress, Sunrise, Thacker Avenue and Ventura elementary schools. Expansion of existing programs have already begun at Neptune and Parkway middle schools and the Osceola County School for the Arts by providing significant repair money to get all existing instruments in working condition, as well as to provide basic instruments to the schools.

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It’s been a little over three weeks since Osceola County schools let out for the summer, and two St. Cloud juveniles have already found themselves in trouble with the law.

18-year-old Demetrius Rios, of 1406 Maryland Avenue, and 16-year-old Marcus Rex Haney, of 600 California Avenue, were arrested June 28 and charged with Grand Theft Auto, Criminal Mischief and Unoccupied Burglary after their joy ride in a John Deere cart came to a crashing halt.

In the early morning hours of June 28, deputies from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office responded in reference to a disturbance on Eastern Avenue in St. Cloud. Deputies and St. Cloud Fire Rescue met three juveniles who were identified as Marcus Rex Haney, Demetrius Rios and Devon Beck. The former two were treated for injuries sustained when the John Deere cart they were riding in crashed into a barbed wire fence on Eastern Avenue.

Rios told sheriff’s deputies he, Beck and Haney were attending a party in Narcoossee when law enforcement arrived on scene. He and Haney then left for Narcoossee Community School, Rios said. He said Haney took the John Deere cart from a shed on the school’s property, and upon driving back to the party, they picked up Beck. The young men drove through the yards of several residents and hit more than a few mailboxes before they struck the fence on Eastern Avenue and crashed in a field.

An on-going investigation is being conducted with pending additional charges.