Spotlight On Education

Here are some recent great accomplishments from our schools:

• Students from Dinsmore Elementary won the Fox 30 Junior 2K for the fifth consecutive year! Dinsmore is a leader in educational fitness. Principal Christina Lord would like to thank all parents, students, staff and business partners that helped make this possible. They look forward to next year and trying for six wins in a row!

• Third- through fifth-grade students at New Berlin Elementary celebrated their hard work on the FCAT with a surprise visit from Jacksonville Jaguars mascot Jaxson de Ville. Jaxson told the students they could do anything they wanted to in life if they just "Dream It!", "Do It!", "Believe It!", "Become It!"

• The LaVilla School of the Arts Vocal Department recently attended a festival in Williamsburg and had very successful results.

  Also, the LaVilla Creative Writing Students celebrated poetry month in April by writing their own poetry and putting their works into pocket-sized books that were distributed to teachers throughout the school. The books were also distributed to the Starbucks at Margaret and Riverside streets, and were available to patrons at the school’s recent book fair at the Barnes and Nobles in the St. Johns Town Center.

• CSX and other partners recently visited Brentwood Elementary to spruce up their courtyard. Volunteers, as well as school staff and parents, spent a Saturday afternoon working together to beautify the school campus. The next week, Brentwood students held their annual Poetry Festival is the courtyard of the school. Their theme was “Poetry Blooms at Brentwood” which fit perfectly with the newly planted flowers around their school.

• In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, BJ's Club donated ice cream and Publix and Winn Dixie donated all the toppings for the Hospital Homebound teachers. Everyone really enjoyed their special treat, and thank BJ's, Publix and Winn Dixie for their donations.

• The Kirby-Smith Middle Challenger Learning Center rocket team placed as an alternate finalist for the national Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) competition. The rocket team ranked 115th in the U.S. for rocketry out of 669 teams comprised of thousands of students. Team members were Nervo Arreguin, Patrick Cordek, Nicole Davis, Christian Lebron, Rebecca Lowe, Hannah Pafford, Damon Edmond, Adam Storm and adult leader Sheree Kearns.

  The TARC teams were challenged to design, build and launch a model rocket with a raw egg payload to an altitude of 825 feet and achieve a flight duration between 40 and 45 seconds. The rocket had to return the egg safely and unbroken without using a parachute. The Kirby-Smith team reached 821 out of 825 feet and returned the egg to the ground unbroken for 33.6 seconds of flight time.

• Students, staff and families of Woodland Acres Elementary recently participated in a movie night. Students and their families watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and ate a spaghetti dinner served by teachers and staff. Everyone had a wonderful evening spending time together!

• Marcellus Mitchell, an eighth-grader at River City Science Academy, won third place in the Historical Paper Junior Division of the State History Fair, and he received a bronze medal and a $50 gift card.

• Alyssa Green, a senior in Linda Cugini's AP Literature class at Sandalwood High School, recently won first place in the Florida Realtors Scholarship Essay Contest for district one. She is one of thirteen district winners in the state, and is now eligible to win one of three $5,000 state scholarships.

• Students from Stanton College Preparatory School and Mandarin High recently attended the state-wide Chinese competition held at the University of Florida and received superior awards in multiple competitions. Their director is language teacher Qin Li.

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