April Highlights at a Glance
- The Road to Bitcoin & Beyond PD Seminar, Take Two
- Inaugural BA x NABA Roundtable Meeting
- Gratitude for Sarasota Schools
- Reconnecting with OptimaEd
The Road to Bitcoin & Beyond, Take Two
Stephen Crane, CPA and Sarasota County Schools teacherAfter missing our opportunity to present the professional development seminar in March, Stella Karas helped us organize another chance for us to host Sarasota County high school teachers after school. Although we had a few sign up, only Steve Crane arrived during the appointed time. This actually worked out quite well because it allowed me to have a 1-on-1 setting and provided plenty of time for me to stop whenever Steve had questions. It was a great first delivery, and I received plenty of feedback from him at the conclusion of the seminar.
Inaugural BA X NABA Roundtable Meeting
Initial meeting on stablecoin frameworks in various US statesThanks to an initiative led by Michael Postupak, the Blockchain Association launched a new monthly roundtable meeting in collaboration with NABA, or the North American Blockchain Association, an organization that is more active on the state level through a coalition of individual state associations. Our first meeting was specifically set up to discuss the various attempts at stablecoin frameworks being created at the state level, and I was proud to discuss how involved ABE is in Tallahassee, noting that Florida was the first state to pass its own legislation based on the GENIUS Act this year with SB 314.
Gratitude for Sarasota Schools
After addressing Sarasota Schools nearly one year ago in May of 2025, I believed it was time to do so again. Specifically, I wanted to express my gratitude on behalf of the entire ABE team to the board members and particularly Superintendent Connor, as he was undoubtedly instrumental in getting the ball rolling with his district. Without question, Sarasota County Public Schools has been the first district to really take us up on our offer and work with us, and I’m quite confident this relationship will only continue to blossom in the months and years ahead. The comments above are from the meeting on April 21st, and can be viewed by clicking play on the embedded video.
Reconnecting With OptimaEd
OptimaEd a.k.a Optima Online AcademyAfter my last interaction with Dr. Kim Abel and the teachers of OptimaEd during their December faculty meeting, when I presented ABE’s mission, I promised her that I would circle back with more. I reached out to her again to share the new folder of all seminar materials , and she had her administrative assistant coordinate our next meeting. She looped in the school’s new assistant principal, Jesse Thompson, and we reviewed the materials together as I shared our success story with Sarasota Schools. Our next steps will be to plan “lunch & learns” for relevant high school teachers, where we can cover the seminar one module at a time, and those educators can then use the materials in their lessons for the virtual classroom. After our very lively and excited discussion, I’m sure there will be more to report on this in the months ahead.
As always, stay tuned for our next update. We will have more great news to share, including links to the online professional development seminar videos on our YouTube channel!
