Cadets of the Port Saint Lucie High School Jaguar Battalion participated in the annual JROTC Cadet Leadership Camp which took place at Camp Tanah Keeta in southern Martin County.
Every leader has to start somewhere and Boys’ State has been the starting point for many successful young students. The Boys’ State program is a summer leadership and citizenship program sponsored by the American Legion for High School students between their junior and senior years. Port Saint Lucie High Jaguar Battalion’s cadet Lieutenant Colonel William Benagh was this year’s representative. The citizens of each of these cities elect mock municipal officials and representatives to the mock state legislature. While learning about the government and politics of Florida, the cadets also get the opportunity to receive High School and College credits. … Read More
Teachers doing final preps for new school year Story by Lauren Hills / CBS 12 News FORT PIERCE, Fla. — It’s down to the wire for back to school and teachers are putting the final touches on their classrooms and lesson plans. “I started spending hours putting things up and slowly moving things around,” said Amanda Hayes, a teacher at Samuel Gaines Academy in Ft. Pierce. “I have laminating projects, name tags, every little thing.”…..read more and watch the video at: http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_9518.shtml
At an emergency meeting scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 21, 2013, St. Lucie County School Board members will consider a recommendation from Mr. Jim Huge, consultant for the superintendent search, to postpone the superintendent candidate interviews currently scheduled for August 29, 2013. This action is being recommended to accommodate Board consideration of the Interim Superintendent for the position of Superintendent of Schools. At the next regularly scheduled Board meeting set for August 27, 2013, Mr. Huge will bring forth a recommendation to suspend the current search for a new superintendent and name Genelle Zoratti Yost as Superintendent of … Read More
Northport K-8 School is preparing to address the needs of a very diverse population through a targeted and focused ESOL program. Longtime instructor, Mary Toto along with two paraprofessionals will incorporate RTI or Response To Intervention into small group, multi-tiered learning groups. Each student targeted as ESOL will receive direct instruction in English Language skills to quickly assimilate into the regular education classroom. Students, equipped with support from Mrs. Toto and her team, heritage language dictionaries and classroom instructors who are trained in offered ESOL support strategies will be offered every opportunity to excel and achieve quickly. Each child’s needs … Read More
The entire Northport K-8 School community welcomed new and returning students and their families with a fabulous “Welcome to Northport!” Open House recently! The year was kicked off with teachers and staff that have feelings of renewal and revitalization and are charged with a coordinated effort to bring the best experiences possible to their students. Many Northport students and their familes are thrilled with the K-8 concept that allows students to remain in the same school their entire middle and elementary educational years. Students that are returning are thrilled to look up their teachers and visit with familiar faces. Another … Read More
St. Lucie County students rank number one in the nation for the Middle School Zero Robotics Challenge held on the International Space Station on Tuesday, August 13th. Two teams of students participated in the 5-week summer program held at Southern Oaks Middle School. Kevin McInerney and Brian Jones facilitated the teams to learn about and write programs that could control satellites in space. The participants competed with 26 other teams across the nation to win a technically challenging game by programming their strategies into a SPHERE satellite. A series of elimination tournaments were conducted with astronauts on the International Space Station and the event was … Read More
Northport K-8 School administration, teachers and staff incorporated the St. Lucie County School Board’s theme of “Cruising To Excellence” into the overarching theme of the Northport message for the 2013-14 school year. Faculty and staff returned to the school Media Center for introductory meetings, review of Common Core initiatives, team planning, Instructor evaluation reviews and reinforcement of positive messages. They were welcomed into the center completely decorated in a Hawaiian Islands motif complete with tiki hut and totem pole. The messages of unity with the focus on student achievement were clear and the brevity of polishing the collective Northport halo was … Read More
Two additional candidates for Superintendent of Schools will visit St. Lucie County on August 29, search consultant Jim Huge informed the St. Lucie County School Board. Ronald Scott Fritz, currently chief Academic Officer for the Orange County, Florida, School District, and Constance Ann Jones, currently Executive Director of School Development for the Lee County, Florida, School District, have joined the list of potential successors to Michael Lannon, who retired June 30, 2013, after a decade of service leading St. Lucie Public Schools and a 45-year career in public education. Former Deputy Superintendent Genelle Yost is the Interim Superintendent until a … Read More
The St. Lucie County School District begins the 2013-2014 school year on Monday, August 19, expecting approximately 41,000 students in its 42 elementary, K-8, middle, high, and alternative schools, including five charter schools and Mosaic Digital Academy, a three-county virtual K-12 school operated by St. Lucie Public Schools. Eleven school sites will have a Tunnel of Hope of adults who mentor students, welcoming children at the beginning of the first school day. This is an activity at Kids At Hope Schools, an initiative in its third year in St. Lucie Public Schools where the philosophy is that all children can … Read More
Kudos to the St. Lucie Public Schools Human Resources Department, which has experienced another busy summer season providing excellent customer service for over 500 new hires including full-time, substitute, and summer school positions. Processing includes reviewing applications, scheduling drug screens, and completing finger printing for background screening as well as data entry of each newly hired employee into the Skyward system. Pictured is finger print specialist Lynn Louderback, right, assisting a new employee in the process.
The St. Lucie Public Schools Student Assignment department has experienced another busy summer, providing customer service to thousands of parents and students in the registration process for the new school year. Pictured is Cynthia Howard assisting a parent registering her child. Ms. Howard is a bus driver during the school year but helps during this very busy time for the department.
The Office of Title I/School Renewal hosted a three-day institute for teachers and administrators from nine St. Lucie schools on August 7, 8 and 9 at Samuel Gaines Academy. The institute provided the opportunity for additional guidance, support and motivation to those supporting these schools as they work together to increase student achievement. Each day there was a keynote speaker, as well as a full day’s agenda of breakout sessions for teachers and administrators. Pictured is Sam Foerster, who currently serves as the Deputy Chancellor of School Improvement and Student Achievement for the Florida Department of Education (FDOE). In this … Read More
Fort Pierce, FL — From Monday, August 5, through Thursday, August 8, the Child Nutrition Services program of the St. Lucie County School District is hosting Open House events at various school sites for parents to complete an on-line or paper application for free and reduced meal prices prior to school starting. Parents must complete an updated application every year, though only one application per family is required, and are encouraged to do so prior to school opening for the 2013-2014 school year August 20 so that each student will have an updated meal plan. New students to the district … Read More
Fort Pierce, FL — Despite students in many cases performing better on the FCAT and other standardized tests compared to 2012, due to multiple changes in the state school grading formula, many St. Lucie Public Schools – mirroring statewide results — saw a drop of at least one letter grade in 2013 compared to last year, according to results for schools with grades kindergarten through eighth grade released today by the Florida Department of Education. High school grades are expected to be released later in the fall because of other calculations for their school grades. School grades are primarily calculated … Read More
State Board of Education members voted in support of Commissioner Tony Bennett’s emergency rule to provide a “safety net” that schools’ grades would not drop more than one letter grade for FY13, continuing the same provision for FY12. It also changes the premise by which districts may have originally decided that ESE center students’ grades would be counted against the regular school to which the student would be assigned or against the center school. (St. Lucie County’s only ESE Center to be impacted is Positive Expectations Academy). Several State Board members acknowledged the fact that the current grading system has … Read More
The St. Lucie Public Schools’ 2013 Annual Report to the Community is posted on the school district web site at http://www.stlucie.k12.fl.us/pdf/AnnualReport2013.pdf. Please enjoy the growth in student performance in academics, performing arts, educational opportunities and athletics. Due to limited resources, only several hundred printed reports will be published and distributed to agencies serving children and families throughout the community.
All subscribers to AT&T U-verse service in St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River, and Palm Beach counties can now view programming on the St. Lucie Education Channel, WLX-TV. This advancement adds thousands of viewers to the school district programming to those already watching on Comcast Channels 13, 19 and Hometown Cable 19 covering St. Lucie County. Connectivity to the AT&T network utilizes V-Brick technology that has been in place in the school district for five years through Media Services; there is no cost to the school district to be added to the AT&T U-verse lineup. St. Lucie Public Schools joins the … Read More
The St. Lucie County School Board today decided to extend the search for a successor to retiring Superintendent Michael Lannon during a meeting with search consultant Jim Huge. Huge began the meeting by announcing that finalist Scott Bailey withdrew his candidacy due to personal health issues. Board members could come to no clear consensus in selecting a new superintendent, so they discussed several options suggested by Huge, from selecting one of the finalists, to beginning the process anew later in the year. Board members named their top three candidates — Agnella Perera, Mark Rendell and Darci Mohr — whom Huge … Read More
The Port St. Lucie High School Jaguar Battalion supported the Port St. Lucie High’s graduation ceremony with the Presentation of the Colors. Leading the color guard was C/CPL Lily Durst, C/2LT Ashlee Seipel carrying the State Flag followed by the two guards, C/1LT James Williams and C/SSG Tyrone Salazar. Afterwards, the band played the National Anthem, led by John McGallagher, and senior class president Jemima Thermidor led the Pledge of Allegiance. The Senior Class of 2013 played a major role in leading the Jaguar Battalion to success. Pictured, from left, C/1LT James Williams, C/CPL Lily Durst, C/2LT Ashlee Seipel, and C/SSG … Read More
