Finalists for two of the four annual employee recognition groups for St. Lucie Public Schools were awarded plaques and presented during the February 11, 2014, school board meeting. The St. Lucie County Education Foundation recognized and presented plaques to Teacher of the Year (TOY) finalists Oak Hammock K-8 media specialist Heather Bolitho, Fort Pierce Central High School band and choral director Matthew Boswell, and Fairlawn Elementary School media specialist Kelly Ridle. School Related Employee of the Year (SREY) finalists recognized were Palm Pointe Educational Research School health paraprofessional Michelle DeGarmo, Allapattah Flats K-8 School office clerk Adela DellaCroce, and Parkway … Read More

The St. Lucie County School Board was presented a rebate check in the amount of nearly $680,000 at the February 11, 2014, business meeting from Florida Power and Light Company (FPL) as a result of completion and verification of chiller plant replacement projects at Port St. Lucie High School, Mariposa Elementary and Southern Oaks Middle School. The school district has partnered with FPL over several years on school energy upgrades that both reduce energy consumption and reduce the need for FPL to upgrade their systems or build new power plants. The rebate program covers thermal energy storage, demand control ventilation … Read More

More than 70 students and their parents braved inclement weather to attend Mariposa Elementary’s Math Night. Students were engaged in meaningful, real world problem-solving as they walked grocery store aisles. Pictured, from left to right, students Joshua Locklar, Tyshon Crawford, Paul Lesser, and Shane Lesser, observe as parent Don Lesser shows the students about the stacking of oranges (spheres). The families enjoyed the problem solving activities. It was a great evening enjoyed by all who attended.

St. Lucie County Schools Superintendent Genelle Yost was special guest at Dan McCarty Schools’ January Student of the Month ceremony. Superintendent Yost delivered a very compelling message to the C.O.T.M. recipients, ecnouraging students to remain focused in their learning, set goals and work hard to accomplish them. In addition, Superintendent Yost challenged the students to go to college and earn doctoral degrees in any area of their choosing and perhaps even in education. Pictured are Superintendent Yost, left, and Assistant Principal Bennie Montenegro.

Northport K-8 eighth grade students received special guests in classrooms recently as two cadets from the Port St. Lucie High School Jaguar Battalion under the direction of Major U.S. (Retired) Richard Thompson, visited and imparted great information about available JROTC programs. Cadets Auger and Ryun talked about building leadership skills and the camaraderie that is attained when joining a JROTC Unit. Cadets spoke about after school teams including, drill, orienteering, raiders training and marksmanship teams and told the students that the after school and weekend activities are the best part of the program. The cadets encouraged the eighth graders to … Read More

The students and staff at Samuel S. Gaines Academy are very appreciative to the mentors from the Calvary Compassion Church, who act as mentors for students in the Butterfly Tea mentoring group. Mentors assist student mentees with leadership strengths, and build on improving challenges, and expose mentees to best-practice in leadership and life skills. Pictured are members of the group with mentors.

Students Carlie Frizzle, left, and Elizabeth Stone in Todd Hibbard’s Advanced World History Class at Southern Oaks Middle School, sang the lyrics to the song “Walk Like an Egyptian” during a unit on Egyptian culture. The students found that the lyrics from the song use several of the key terms and phrases from their unit of study. The song allowed the students to infuse Social Studies with the musical arts, as well as language arts. Though not required to have a costume, these students “walked like an Egyptian,” going the extra mile to make the presentation even more special!

Northport K-8 sixth grade students in Georgia Stone’s World History classes took learning about Egyptian studies to the next level recently as students learned how the Nile River shaped Egypt. Students marveled at the fact that the ancient Egyptians valued the afterlife so highly and that every aspect of their lives on Earth was a road map for their afterlife. Students learned that burial tombs were placed on the west side of the Nile River, which was called the “Land of the Dead.” Following in-depth studies and intensive research about Egyptian culture, students created a burial chamber or tomb of … Read More

Northport K-8 seventh grade students are busily preparing their Project Citizen presentations. After a semester of research, phone calls, letters and policy studies, students in Mary Ellsworth, Christopher Prusa and Angel Bracero’s civics classes are fine tuning and refining their presentations. Students selected topics of interest to help raise awareness about hot button issues and learned how to become change agents to help make what seems to be impossible become the possible. Some of the topics selected by students are sidewalks in Port St. Lucie, school dress code, school budgets and textbooks, animal shelters and the issue of stray animals, … Read More

The Port St. Lucie High School Jaguar Battalion hosted this year’s Treasure Coast Air Rifle Match sponsored by American Legion Post 318. This competition was made possible by the continuous support of the American Legion Post 318, which provided the competition’s trophies and medals. Competing against four other schools in St. Lucie County, Port St. Lucie placed second overall. This was a standard shoulder-to-shoulder match, shooting the three standard shooting positions: standing, kneeling and prone. Cadet Captain Michael Hutchinson was the “Top Shot” from Port Saint Lucie scoring 222 points. Each cadet preformed to the best of his or her … Read More

Frances K. Sweet Elementary School students Ruben Medina, left, and Olivia Gomez, pictured, in Michelle O’Keefe’s kindergarten class enjoy sorting two-dimensional flat shapes and three-dimensional solid shapes. After sorting, students ate their shapes! Ruben enjoyed the cheeseball sphere and Olivia enjoyed eating the Hershe’s Kiss cone.

Kindergartners at C.A. Moore Elementary School in Fort Pierce recently celebrated 100 days of school with a myriad of activities. Students had fun counting to 100 as they popped 100 balloons, in “I am 100 Days Smarter,” students colored a graph as they counted each shape to match the number of shapes, and during word work, the students wrote 100 words that they use in the classroom. Students counted out 10 groups of 10 snacks to equal 100, during writing, students responded to, “If I had 100 dollars, I would buy…” and used their creativity to see what they could … Read More

Fairlawn Elementary School fifth grade teacher Shirley Helton learned February 4, 2014, she has been named the 2014 Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) national Citizenship Teacher of the Year. Helton was awarded the state honor in January at the organization’s state conference in Orlando. Helton expects formal recognition from the organization later in February.

Fort Pierce Central High School student council co-presidents and future business owners Terrence McQueen, left, and Tatiana Peterkin, right, are shown with former and long term St. Lucie County School Board chairman and local business leader Dr. Samuel S. Gaines during the recent All About Black Businesses of the Treasure Coast event. Participants displayed their spirit for the Black History Month celebrated in February. The students were treated to breakfast, heard advice from some of the top local businesses owners, and enjoyed a book signing by former 104.7 WFLM morning show host and ESPN analyst Vera Jones.

Northport K-8 School kindergartners in Shana Cicio, Kara McNair, Nancy Yost, Melody Nieves and Tiffany Tredor’s classes celebrated being 100 days smarter recently by giving a big “Hip Hip Hooray!” to a “One Hundred Days” celebration. Students and teachers collaborated by reading the book “100 Day Worries” by Margery Cuyler. Students also made “100 Day trail mix” with 100 ingredients, counting by tens. Students practiced counting to one hundred and reading and writing one hundred words. Kindergarten teacher Tiffany Tredor thrilled the students by dressing up as a 100-year-old woman. By the end of the day, every kindergartner was absolutely … Read More