Category: School News

After rigorous, intensive work and deep critical thinking, Northport K-8 School students celebrated a third place win at the St. Lucie School District Project Citizen showcase. Students from Mary Ellsworth’s seventh grade Civics class prepared their project very competitively. The project is titled “What is the Cost of Ruining Your Child’s Education?” The topic centered around the issue of education and budget cuts and how the cuts have affected the purchase of textbooks for many classrooms. The students will have their board and binder displayed in Tallahassee at the Capitol Building! Students at Northport, a Title I school, hold true … Read More

Students in Hillary Cruz’s class at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition recently won the first place award at the St. Lucie County School District’s Project Citizen Showcase! Project Citizen is a seventh grade county-wide competition in which students identify a problem within the community, brainstorm and research possible solutions, create a public policy to solve the problem, and develop a plan of action for implementation. Students selected the problem of puppy mills, or breeders who neglect and abuse mothers and puppies for the sake of profit, and the lack of legislation at the state level. Florida is one … Read More

Lakewood Park Elementary Cafeteria Manager Andrea Pierson and students from Loretta Humphrey’s second grade class help harvest cilantro from the student-grown garden. The cilantro will be used in a salad for the school’s lunches. Students have worked the garden all year around, yielding all types of vegetables such as tomatoes, tomatillo, and herbs. Pictured, from left, are students Jennifer Onofre, Kylee Corona and Kevon Blocker with cafeteria manager Andrea Pierson.

Lakewood Park Elementary School students and families recently enjoyed Student Led Conferences, where students can show, with examples, their learning to their parents who can then see and experience materials and activities that students engaged in during the school day. Awards are presented during the evening event, such as for perfect attendance, the Kids at Hope Award, and honor roll. Parents may also see PowerPoint presentations outlining their child’s future goals, while teachers enjoy observing the interaction among all active participants. Pictured is a group of students with Superintendent Genelle Yost in Lori Checchi’s kindergarten class, who have taken charge of their … Read More

Northport K-8 School recently celebrated Black History month with a wonderful program that included guest speaker Dr. Dwight Dawkins, who encouraged students to do their best and to have high aspirations. Port St. Lucie High School Jaguar Battalion led the program with an honor guard, and Northport choral students from all grade levels sang the “National Anthem,” “Elijah,” and “Tribute to Martin Luther King.” Students also listened to a Black History moment on the morning announcements showcasing contributions of Black Americans. The school cafeteria, along with culinary program students under the direction of instructor Rachel Ellsworth, offered a tempting Southern … Read More

A member of the Fort Pierce High School wrestling team placed fourth in recent regional competition and is advancing to state competition. Pictured, from left, is Jarvis Gamble, district champion in the 195-pound weight class who is now preparing for the statewide meet, Coach Michael Torres, and Errol Pottinger, district champion in the 120-pound weight class.

St. Lucie West K8 School kindergartners recently enjoyed visiting the Florida Oceanographic Center. Students enjoyed opportunites to learn about local ocean life, such as petting stingrays. Pictured, from left, are Abigail Wiley, Lilliana Boham, Sophia Rodriguez, Jahari Wiggan, Caden Ongel, Kiara Rodriguez, and Adrian Pardo-Canedo.

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.