Author: LYNNE Gruszka

What a wonderful morning at a school that is on the move, flourishing and continually growing! Northport VPK-8 School in collaboration with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, welcomed a host of community leaders to read Dr. Seuss books and to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss with VPK-3 grade students. Local leaders who visited the school recently for breakfast, participated in the Pledge of Allegiance and Kids at Hope Pledge lead by Northport VPK students and read and discussed Dr. Seuss with the students need to be heartily thanked for spending quality time with the children of Saint Lucie County. Special … Read More

Northport VPK-8 School, using social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter, have brought a whole new level of “Parent and Community Involvement” to the school. Parents, extended families, community members, volunteers, business partners, teachers and students are kept up to date, on a daily basis about information and programs occurring at the school. Parents visit the site to catch a glimpse of their own child engaging in an activity or to learn about special programming that takes place at the school. Using social media, the school is better capable of building a culture of family that extends far into … Read More

It was a sincere pleasure to host Port Saint Lucie Mayor, Greg Oravec recently at the school’s sixth Student Leadership Summit. The mayor fielded a variety of questions from sixth grade Sharks students and interacted with the large group of students for nearly two hours. The Leadership Summits, held in the school’s Media Center, have been host to Florida State Representative, Gayle Harrell, SLC school board member, Deborah Hawley, Deputy City Manager of Fort Pierce, Nick Mimms, a cadre of twelve local veterans and SLC Children’s Services Council Communications Coordinator, Ashley Mock. Each community leader extended the list and scope … Read More

With much pomp, circumstance and practice, Northport students gave local hero, Attorney Willie Gary a welcome fit for a “Giant Killer!” Cheerleaders, flags, Northport band and student ambassadors led Attorney Gary to the school gymnasium to be seated on the dias along with Saint Lucie County School Board chairwoman Dr. Donna Mills, principal Glenn Rustay, program coordinator Diane Reynolds Crumpton, program emcee DeLacy Brown, and student speakers. After a beautifully orchestrated Northport jazz band performance and cheer, student speakers gave examples of the accomplishments of famous Black Americans. Attorney Willie Gary, guest speaker, held the middle grades students in the … Read More

Northport K-8 students are preparing to participate in the annual Relay for Life to benefit cancer research this year with a variety of activities. Students in grades K- five participated in a Valentine’s dance with music, food and their finest dress up clothes recently. A wonderful time was had by all students, parents and staff that attended the evening dance. Students in grades K-2 were visited by representatives from the American Cancer Society. Lori Finkel and Robyn Young discussed cancer and what it means to have cancer and several things that can be done to protect against the dangers of … Read More

Northport K-8 School was so pleased to participate with hundreds of other schools across Saint Lucie County and the state of Florida in the annual “Celebrate Literacy, Florida” initiative. Northport students were able to participate in a wide array of events including, “Buddy Reading Day” where students partnered with younger or older children to read, “Reading Rocks, Crazy Socks Day”, “Drop Everything and Read Day”, “Buddy Bear Reading Day” and “Community Reading Day.” The school welcomed twelve local veterans from the “Northport Veterans Partners in Education Program”, Superintendent, Genelle Yost and school board member, Deborah Hawley to read to our … Read More

Middle grades students at Northport K-8 School have been working diligently on learning how to build strong leadership skills. Through a series of guest community leaders, students are learning to generate and pose deeper level questions about a variety of topics and to dig deeper and get into a more provocative atmosphere of questioning. Students have asked extended, well thought out questions of each guest and then have been learning to respond to those questions with follow up questions. The platform allows students to get out of their comfort zone, stand up and pose questions on serious issues and to … Read More

Northport K-8 School is pleased that we can announce our 2015 Spelling Bee champion. Our first place winner is eighth grade Northstar student, Ashley Quijada who was submitted by instructor, Nick Carey. Ashley will represent Northport at the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee on March 14 at the Port St. Lucie Civic Center. The competition went five rounds with the winning word as “epoch.” Students withstood intense pressure as the words became increasingly more difficult. Students who participated in the bee were: Hailey Wrench, Destiny Diaz, Claudio Quant, Maya Kurasawa, Giselle Fernandez-Cerda, Anthony Otero, Kahlani Walk, Blake boyer, Dudley Olibrice, Miles … Read More

Northport K-8 students in grades six through eight participated in the Northport Science Fair recently. The young scientists entered projects in eight categories. The projects integrated scientific thinking and processes with literacy, writing and mathematics. Students researched and developed a problem statement which had real world applications, wrote cited background research reports, formulated a testable and quantifiable hypothesis based on their understanding of the background information, designed and performed their controlled experiment, made statistical calculations to analyze the data and stated their findings in a conclusion. The four judges selected the following students for awards in their entered categories: 1st … Read More

Northport K-8 School Choral and Band Departments under the direction of Brian Hoce and Thomas Conner offered a variety of musical performances to showcase the hard work and the talents of music students from grades three through eight. The students practiced and honed their musical prowess to offer programs at the school and in the community. The students kicked off their productions at Bass Pro Shop with a beautiful late afternoon concert in the front of the store. Students performed beautifully at the Port St. Lucie Festival of Lights at the Civic Center and offered a dinner theater with the … Read More

Northport K-8 School has taken a leap forward by engaging students in a community atmosphere where growth, development, social mores and guidance are the focus. Many students experience difficulty making the transition to becoming productive and achievement oriented individuals with positive goals and dreams. Boys and girls in the middle grades often times succumb to peer pressure and make decisions that can be long lasting and counter productive. At Northport, two groups, “Girls To Women” and “Boys To Men” assist and guide selected students in a three prong approach to address issues academically, behaviorally and socially. The students meet with … Read More

Northport K-8 School is very proud to commend ESE instructor, Evan Jones, ESE instructor, Alex Phillips and paraprofessionals, Reggie Williams, Isaac LeBrun and Donald Patterson. The teachers, paraprofessionals, and their students have been utilizing Think Through Math. Think through Math is an online computer program that provides unprecedented differentiation for grades 3 through Algebra I. The program is thoroughly research based and is a winner of the 2014 CODiE in Best Math Instructional Solutions. During the month of October, TTM is featuring a THINK 30 contest as one of the incentives for utilizing the program. Classrooms are eligible to compete … Read More

Northport K-8 Media Services program held its third Leadership Summit recently just in time to commemorate Veterans Day. The Leadership Summit is an authentic example of student Inquiry about Leadership skills and what qualities are necessary to become a great leader. The Leadership Summits, held on a monthly basis, incorporate community leaders as primary source guests. The guests make the most of the focused and well formulated student questions by talking about their own careers and experiences and the leadership skills necessary to maintain and build their careers with aplomb. The first guests were Florida State Representative, Gayle Harrell and … Read More

Northport K-8 School community including administration, deans, teachers, staff and parents, provide a multi-pronged approach to discouraging bullying on the campus. School staff is well trained and very well versed in quelling any issues pertaining to all types of bullying. One of the events on the campus to bring the students together to promote a singular message is the annual Unity Day Walk. Modeled after the Pacer program founded by the National Bullying Prevention Center, the Unity Day Walk is an exciting event that is promoted annually at the school by the teachers and parents. Students are encouraged to wear … Read More

Northport community was so pleased to host the Riverside Children’s Theater recently for a live production of “The Greatest Invention Never Invented!” Students were in awe of the performance that showcased actors Allison Heinz, Emily Parrish and Wen Powers. The theme of the production was the history and science of electricity. Students learned how electricity was discovered rather than invented and how that discovery led to other inventions that utilize electricity. Students were also introduced to autobiographical information about historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Nicola Tesla and Michael Faraday.The production elaborated how these scientists developed inventions using … Read More

Northport K-8 School has been providing instruction and a variety of opportunities to expand student knowledge, understanding and awareness of individuals with disabilities, disability history and the disability rights movement recently. Disability and History Awareness Instruction was signed into law in 2008 and Northport K-8 School gladly acknowledges the designation of the first two weeks in October as an opportunity to celebrate Inclusion and Awareness. One in every five Americans is a person with a disability. A great example of the instruction occurring at Northport K-8 School showcasing Disability Awareness has been in the classroom of Dr. Laura Woodworth. Dr. … Read More

Northport K-8 Media Center has initiated and developed a brand new program this year called “Leadership Summit!” Students are learning all about leadership skills and what qualities are required to be an effective and inspiring leader. The vision of the program is to not only teach leadership skills through discussion and role modeling, but to bring in community leaders to talk to the students about their own leadership qualities and some of the prominent issues that they face each day. The first guest in September was Representative Gayle Harrell. This month, our guest was Deputy City Manager, Nick Mimms. Mr. … Read More

Northport K-8 School Culinary Arts students in Rachel Ellsworth’s class competed in the desserts category for the Future Chef competition at the Fort Pierce Farmer’s Market recently. The event was organized by Slow Foods of Ft. Pierce. Students were thrilled to learn that their entry, pecan bars with fresh whipped pumpkin topping won first place in the desserts category. Students chose the recipe and some of the ingredients were purchased from local vendors at the Farmer’s Market. The pecans were purchased from Yun’s Produce and the vanilla was purchased from Lola Tortola Sugar and Spice. Four judges analyzed the bars … Read More