Latest news with #JamieLewis
Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Mansion owner was enjoying vacation...then nightmarish phone call left her feeling sick and 'violated'
A Las Vegas homeowner says her vacation was ruined after receiving a nightmarish phone call from the police telling her a raucous 200-person party was being held in her mansion. The wild party erupted at Vegas resident Jamie Lewis' home on Saturday night, when cops say hundreds of unruly teens broke in and caused mayhem inside. Footage showed a wave of young people emerging from Lewis' home after police showed up, after they were seen dancing on her countertops and destroying her home decor. Lewis said she was unaware of the chaos at her home until receiving a call from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police at around 10:30pm Saturday night, asking her if she was hosting a huge party. 'I really thought it was a fake call,' she told Fox5Vegas. Lewis said she only realized it was true when her neighbors also called her soon after to warn her that her mansion was being used as a party palace. She said they sent her horrifying videos of the teenagers all around her home, and said that made her race home and 'cut our trip short.' Police believe the wild party was part of a terrifying new trend known as 'mansion partying', where teens break into vacant properties while their owners aren't home and stage huge events inside, often charging for entry to make a profit. Investigators believe the teens entered Lewis' home by kicking in a garage door, and have launched an investigation to determine how they knew Lewis wouldn't be home. The Las Vegas Metro police described the break-in at Lewis' home as a 'juvenile disturbance', and issued only two citations, one for a 'vehicle stop' and one for a 'person stop.' Lewis said she has been left stunned that the unexpected party would take place at her home, and is facing having to pay thousands in repairs including her front door, smoke detectors, and countertops. 'The feeling of being, first of all, vandalized and then just 1000% being violated is something that you just don't ever want to have to deal with,' she said. Lewis said she has shared her footage across social media and is working with the police to track down the perpetrators, adding: 'I have to do something about this. I cannot let this happen to somebody else.' Footage from neighbors captured the moment cops showed up to end the party, which led a mass of the teenagers inside to flee the scene and evade the officers. Hundreds of teens were seen dancing in Lewis' home, and she says she is facing having to pay thousands in repairs including her front door, smoke detectors, and countertops Lewis' elderly neighbor Joe Neal said he was relaxing at home when he was startled by the commotion across his shared fence with Lewis. '(I'm) 77-years-old, and to hear a bunch of noises, and look in your backyard, and it looks like there's a hell of a party going on and you weren't invited,' he joked to Fox5Vegas. He said he went outside at the same time the cops showed up to shut down the party, and was even pushed aside by one of the teens as they used his yard as a getaway route. One of the partiers used a bolt-cutter to cut through the lock on his side fence, a tactic that raised his suspicions over how 'spontaneous' the party really was. 'Who comes to a party and brings bolt cutters?' he questioned. 'They're not somebody wanting to party, that's somebody wanting to steal.' Investigators say the unauthorized party at Lewis' home is not the first-time a mob of teenagers have swarmed an empty home in the area and used it for a wild bash. Neal said one of the partygoers even pushed him out of the way as they evaded cops, and showed off the lock on his side fence that the revelers cut with bolt cutters It is believed that the parties are an organized effort by local youths to occupy a home for a night, and often charge money for other teens to enter to make a profit off the events. Lewis said since sharing her story, she has learned that the party at her home was just one of a spate of break-ins across the area in north-west Las Vegas. 'It's called a mansion party, and these kids go from house to house to house, sometimes multiple houses in the same night. They charge money at the door, they bring in a DJ,' she said. 'Be vigilant for your property, if you see a strange car, if there's too many kids in your neighborhood, something feels off, call the police right away,' she warned.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hillsborough County schools facing $18 million budget gap
As school districts across the state anticipate tightened budgets next year, the Hillsborough County School District is facing a more than$18 million shortfall this year due to a lower reported enrollment count and state overspending. During a school board meeting Tuesday, Chief Financial Officer Jamie Lewis told the board that the budget saw an $18.3 million cut during the month of March, though he anticipated some of that money to return within weeks. Lewis pointed to four main reasons why the decrease — news of which which received audible sighs from the board — happened. More than $9 million, he said, was attributable to the change in full-time enrolled students this year. He said that was based on the third survey count of the year, which was delayed due to hurricanes Helene and Milton. A fourth count is expected within a few weeks. In October, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz sent a memo to superintendents offering school districts directly impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton two alternative attendance windows to report. 'We fully anticipate our FTE (full time enrollment) will rebound somewhat, because of the timing, and of course everyone was disrupted and that was in the fall and everything that was going on,' Superintendent Van Ayres said. Another $2 million was related to last year's full time enrollment count, Lewis said, and a little under $3 million could be attributed to readjustments from the county on the amount of money they received from millage, or funding from property taxes. But $4.1 million, Lewis said, was taken back because the state department of education was $231 million over budget and split that cost across districts. 'That's unavoidable,' he said. 'There's nothing we could've done to stop that. All districts were impacted, we did confirm that.' Lewis pointed out that charter schools in Hillsborough County also saw a decrease of $25.1 million after the third count, but the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program, the voucher program which grants public funds to families to allow them scholarships for school choice, saw an increase of $19.2 million. Lewis said the district's healthy reserves — currently more than $283 million — will help them cover the cuts. 'We're thankful we have that ability to navigate through this,' he said. Board member Lynn Gray pointed to the colluding factors of absenteeism, a decrease in full-time students, students opting for Florida Virtual School instead of Hillsborough Virtual School and competition from the Family Empowerment Scholarship, which impacts 19,000 students. She asked how big a factor the scholarship program was. 'Are you alluding to the fact that this growth is going to further deteriorate our enrollment?' she asked Lewis. 'It's a great question,' he said. 'I don't know if I'm alluding that, I'm just pointing out that we're seeing that on the numbers that are coming out.' Ayres quickly jumped in, adding that despite the third count, the district was growing. He said the state had projected full-time enrollment would be around 174,000, but the actual count ended up more than 1,000 higher. 'As a school district, we are going above the state's projection, which is a good thing,' he said. 'We're in a better position than some of the surrounding school districts that are seeing a dramatic decline in enrollment. We are not. 'The question becomes which of the 19,000 were never part of Hillsborough Public Schools to begin with?' he said. 'They were never part of our budget to begin with.' Two board members pushed back on the idea that the district was growing. Board member Nadia Combs said that with the number of people moving into Tampa, they should be seeing far greater numbers in schools. She questioned the oversight of the voucher program, which she estimated helped only a small fraction of students able to attend private schools out of financial reach with higher tuition. 'You can get that scholarship and no one can check on you for five years,' she said. 'You could sit at home, you could be that child who could be on lockdown for 30 years. No one's checking on you. No one's checking if you're getting an education.' Board chair Jessica Vaughn said that at many schools, she saw employees being cut due to enrollment, and questioned the narrative of a growing district. 'I think we need to do a better job of making clear to our employees specifically that we're losing that and more money is projected to be lost for next year with trending legislation and what that looks like and what the impact is,' she said. '$18 million for our district is huge.' Vaughn pointed out that much of it was out of their hands. 'The disconnect between what our budget actually looks like when the state comes in and takes back money that we earned for no reason, and the disconnect that we don't need any money, it's confusing to our constituents, it's confusing to our employees, and we need to make sure we have clarity around it,' she said. In an interview, Vaughn said she anticipates next year's budget reductions will be more drastic. She said she worries it could mean fewer educators and support staff in schools. 'You see school districts across the state trying to figure out, with such a drastic reduction within such a short amount of time, what kind of impact that's going to have,' she said.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Valley Center schools unite for new elementary school
VALLEY CENTER, Kan. (KSNW) — On Saturday, a groundbreaking ceremony in Valley Center became special for the whole school district. USD 262 Valley Center Public Schools gathered people for a 'groundbringing' as well as a groundbreaking for a new elementary school. Students and representatives from every school and department brought soil from their buildings and poured it onto the site for the new school. The district said the action symbolized 'our unity as one district, one community, and one family.' The groundbreaking part of the ceremony followed, and it included Superintendent Greg Lehr, Assistant Superintendent Jamie Lewis, and members of the Valley Center Board of Education. Valley Center voters approved a $58.9 million bond last May to build the school and improve other school buildings. The goal is to have the new elementary school open and ready for students in the fall of 2026. USD 262 Valley Center posts updates on the school bond projects online. Click here to learn more. For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
