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Hernando Today

The Brightest Star Of All

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Linnea Brown

Published: February 2, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - BROOKSVILLE - From the moment Vince La Borante arrives at work each morning, he begins putting out fires.

An exceptional student education teacher at Star Education Center in Brooksville, he spends his days working with students with noticeable challenges, such as those with emotional handicaps, learning disabilities and dysfunctional behavior patterns.

In the classroom, La Borante, 47, teaches social skills. The rest of the time, he is either filling out the extensive paperwork that goes with each child or diffusing tense situations for other teachers when students' emotions run amok.

He is a teacher, psychologist, father figure, counselor and policing agent, all at once.

And on Saturday evening, he became the Hernando County Education Foundation's Teacher of The Year for 2008.

Students drastically improve under his energetic and creative guidance, he said.

"When they come here they are completely dysfunctional and fly of the handle easily, have no social skills, no coping skills and are (generally) used to getting their way," Shepherd said. "He works with them to teach them what they need to know to survive in the world."

Though he started his journey in education at Star in 1988, this is La Borante's first year back at the school.

He has been with the district for 19 years. He instituted the dropout prevention program at West Hernando Middle School, has been Coordinator of Student Services at the district level and has worked as an administrator at Nature Coast Technical High School.

However, he is most passionate about working with at-risk and special needs students.

With a philosophy based on the premise that teachers are architects and are instrumental in helping students plan and build their futures, he focuses on motivating and engaging his students by focusing each day's lesson plans on individualized development, behavior management, juvenile justice laws and literacy initiatives, among others.

"The classes are much smaller here, so kids get more one-on-one time than they would in a regular classroom," Shepherd said.

The school houses a dropout prevention program for 85 students in grades 6-12. Students who are chronically disruptive in regular school come to the center in lieu of expulsion, and — if successful — return to regular school.

"Some do it 45 days, some three years and some never change. But we turn around 90 percent of the kids who come here," Shepherd said.

And it takes a special kind of teacher to be successful at the school, he added.

"Not just anyone can come into an alternative program and be successful," he said. "You can't 'just' teach academics or 'just' teach social skills. You have to do a combination of both (constantly)."

In his social skills class, La Borante teaches students about career planning, goal-setting, study skills, self-esteem and self-control, including anger management.

If a student has an emotional problem in another class, he pulls the student into the hallway and provides a place to talk, one-on-one.

"When you have a dysfunctional kid that goes off the wall, cussing and carrying on, he uses the approach of staying silent and waiting until their off their emotional rollercoaster to talk to them," Shepherd said. "He does a great job at working with them, and understands that you can't get a word in until they come down from that."

"He shows a lot of empathy, has a caring heart and he models what he preaches," he added. "He treats the kids like he would expect to get treated, and they understand and like him."

La Borante was honored Saturday evening at an awards ceremony held at Hernando High School's performing arts center.

The event was sponsored by Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union and Progress Energy, among others.

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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