The 2011 high school grades are finally out, and it's great news for Crooms Academy of Information Technology. Students at Crooms AoIT rose to the occasion and earned the school an 'A' grade for 2011. School grades are based on student performance and learning gains on the FCAT standardized test. Crooms AoIT is one of two high schools in Seminole County to have received an 'A' grade for four out of the past five years.

Spread some holiday cheer this winter season. For the next three people that join the Alumni Association before Christmas at the Orange Croomie or above level ($30/year or more) we will send you a $35 gift card for Wal-Mart while receiving all the other benefits of membership in the alumni association. You seriously cannot beat this deal; you can actually walk away having received more holiday cheer than you gave while still supporting a good cause. Join now at http://www.croomsalumni.com/join.

Crooms AoIT Class of 2006 graduate John Amirrezvani (pictured center with the tablet) competes in the 2011 CSAW Capture the Flag Competition

Crooms AoIT Class of 2006 graduate John Amirrezvani celebrated a major victory when he and his University of South Florida teammates traveled to the Polytechnic Institute of New York University's Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) CyberSecurity Competition. Together, the USF team placed 4th in the nationally recognized CyberSecurity CSAW Capture the Flag competition.

The Capture the Flag competition is designed to evaluate application security skills. Competitors attack vulnerable applications and solve offensive challenges. Challenges are divided into technical categories and assigned point values based on how difficult they are. The CSAW CTF is loosely based on the DEFCON Capture the Flag competition.

As one of 12 finalists from around the global, the USF team had a lot prove: their team was the only Southern school and public university to compete in the finals, and they were also a defending finalist from last year. Students – from high school level to PhD candidates – competed in multiple stages of the event, and it all came down to these finalists, which would compete for 24 hours. When the dust settled, John and his USF colleagues were in a three-way tie for 3rd with teams from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After the tiebreaker, USF's team ended the competition in 4th – ahead of the MIT team.

This year marked the eighth time NYU-Poly has hosted the CyberSecuirty Competition and the second time John has been a finalist. NYU-Poly is the perfect battleground for these emerging leaders in cybersecurity. NYU-Poly’s Information Systems and Security (ISIS) Laboratory is funded by the National Science Foundation, a designated Center of Excellence in Information Assurance Research and in Education by the National Security Agency, and is a renowned member of the cybersecurity community.

Seminole County Public Schools' estimated revenue shortfall for the next fiscal year has more than doubled since July. According SCPS' Finance and Budget Executive Director John Pavelchak, the worst case scenario could amount to a $42 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2012-2013. That is more than double the estimated $20 million figure tossed around this past summer. The increase is largely due to continued declines in property values and new and proposed tax cuts from Gov. Scott and the Legislature.