This message is from Cindy Barrow, Lake County School Board Chair. This message is NOT an official communication from the Lake County School Board. This message contains my thoughts and opinions. Please fee free to share your thoughts with me at: barrowc@lake.k12.fl.us
Dear Citizens:
We opened our meeting last evening with an announcement of a joint effort between our School Board and the Lake And Sumter Emergency Recovery (LASER) program titled, "Kids Helping Kids for Haiti". We will be raising funds for meals to be delivered to children in Haiti. Students are being asked to donate 25 cents to be collected at school for these meals. If each child donates 25 cents we will raise $10,000.00 for 45,000 meals that will be packaged at the LASER office in Eustis next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. These meals will be delivered by LASER to an airplane in Ft. Lauderdale that will fly them directly to Port-au-Prince and the village of Jacmel.
Lake County Schools' mission is to provide the skills necessary to succeed, and service learning, and helping other is important to all of our children of Lake County! I am proud that our board is working with the LASER group to sponsor this important project. We are being told that Lake County will become the temporary home for approximately 300 children from Haiti. More information will be provided to the public as we receive updates on this effort. Thank you to Ms. Stivender and Ms. Fischer who have worked with LASER and to Mrs. Rhonda Hunt, Director of Elementary Curriculum who is helping our district to organize this effort.
Last evening we recognized two outstanding teachers who won the Excel Award for their contribution in bringing up the scores of children in the areas of math and reading. Ms. Venessa King, Fourth Grade Teacher was recognized from Clermont Elementary School and Ms. Anjanette McGregor was recognized from Tavares High School.
Last evening we also recognized two students who won a state wide poster contest on the perils of Radon. Windy Hill Middle School had two of three state wide winners of this contest. The posters were a combined demonstration of the student's artistic skills along with scientific information conveyed in a poster meant to educate the public on the dangers of Radon. Jennifer Wiltrout and Sara Mohess won 1st and 3rd place in the contest.
In other board business, we approved changes to policy 9.70 - Relations with Governmental Authorities. This was the debated policy that confused the issue of the viewing of the President's message to our children. A policy review committee was erected and changes were recommended by the committee to submit to the board for approval. The changes were supported by all board members and each board member thanked the committee for their hard work and recommendations.
The changes to policy 9.70 state that as the leader of our country, a sitting President of the United States may address the students of Lake County while attending school. The timing of the address and the manner and method of presentation of the address will be at the discretion of the Superintendent. The Superintendent will provide by standard operating procedure, a method for students, whose parents do not want them to observe or participate in a Presidential Address, to opt out of attending the presentation. All supporting lesson plans and materials will be reviewed by the Superintendent and utilized at the discretion of the Superintendent.
In other great news from the district, three finalist for teacher of the year were "tapped" this past week and they are: Tracy Johnson Berry, Tavares Elementary Kindergarten Teacher, Rose Sedely, Eustis Heights Elementary ,Math and Science Coach, and Lori Westphal, Rimes Early Learning and Literacy Center, Deaf Education Teacher. A heartfelt thank you goes out to the Education Foundation for helping us to recognize and support these teachers for their outstanding efforts with our children.
Last Tuesday, our board met in 6 hours of meetings to accomplish goal setting for the year and to participate in a Master School Board Training module on Strategic Planning. We were thankful for the time together and for the information provided by the Florida School Board's Association to perform our jobs at the highest level. During our budgeting process we will be focusing on funding our most important initiatives in our Strategic Plan. These initiatives will focus on supporting student achievement.
I am proud of our board and our Superintendent and her leadership team. Everyone is working in the same direction and we have structures in place to ensure that we stay focused and productive.
I hope that you have a great week and I wish all of our students a productive and successful new semester starting today!
Sincerely,
Cindy Barrow
Dear Citizens:
We opened our meeting last evening with an announcement of a joint effort between our School Board and the Lake And Sumter Emergency Recovery (LASER) program titled, "Kids Helping Kids for Haiti". We will be raising funds for meals to be delivered to children in Haiti. Students are being asked to donate 25 cents to be collected at school for these meals. If each child donates 25 cents we will raise $10,000.00 for 45,000 meals that will be packaged at the LASER office in Eustis next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. These meals will be delivered by LASER to an airplane in Ft. Lauderdale that will fly them directly to Port-au-Prince and the village of Jacmel.
Lake County Schools' mission is to provide the skills necessary to succeed, and service learning, and helping other is important to all of our children of Lake County! I am proud that our board is working with the LASER group to sponsor this important project. We are being told that Lake County will become the temporary home for approximately 300 children from Haiti. More information will be provided to the public as we receive updates on this effort. Thank you to Ms. Stivender and Ms. Fischer who have worked with LASER and to Mrs. Rhonda Hunt, Director of Elementary Curriculum who is helping our district to organize this effort.
Last evening we recognized two outstanding teachers who won the Excel Award for their contribution in bringing up the scores of children in the areas of math and reading. Ms. Venessa King, Fourth Grade Teacher was recognized from Clermont Elementary School and Ms. Anjanette McGregor was recognized from Tavares High School.
Last evening we also recognized two students who won a state wide poster contest on the perils of Radon. Windy Hill Middle School had two of three state wide winners of this contest. The posters were a combined demonstration of the student's artistic skills along with scientific information conveyed in a poster meant to educate the public on the dangers of Radon. Jennifer Wiltrout and Sara Mohess won 1st and 3rd place in the contest.
In other board business, we approved changes to policy 9.70 - Relations with Governmental Authorities. This was the debated policy that confused the issue of the viewing of the President's message to our children. A policy review committee was erected and changes were recommended by the committee to submit to the board for approval. The changes were supported by all board members and each board member thanked the committee for their hard work and recommendations.
The changes to policy 9.70 state that as the leader of our country, a sitting President of the United States may address the students of Lake County while attending school. The timing of the address and the manner and method of presentation of the address will be at the discretion of the Superintendent. The Superintendent will provide by standard operating procedure, a method for students, whose parents do not want them to observe or participate in a Presidential Address, to opt out of attending the presentation. All supporting lesson plans and materials will be reviewed by the Superintendent and utilized at the discretion of the Superintendent.
In other great news from the district, three finalist for teacher of the year were "tapped" this past week and they are: Tracy Johnson Berry, Tavares Elementary Kindergarten Teacher, Rose Sedely, Eustis Heights Elementary ,Math and Science Coach, and Lori Westphal, Rimes Early Learning and Literacy Center, Deaf Education Teacher. A heartfelt thank you goes out to the Education Foundation for helping us to recognize and support these teachers for their outstanding efforts with our children.
Last Tuesday, our board met in 6 hours of meetings to accomplish goal setting for the year and to participate in a Master School Board Training module on Strategic Planning. We were thankful for the time together and for the information provided by the Florida School Board's Association to perform our jobs at the highest level. During our budgeting process we will be focusing on funding our most important initiatives in our Strategic Plan. These initiatives will focus on supporting student achievement.
I am proud of our board and our Superintendent and her leadership team. Everyone is working in the same direction and we have structures in place to ensure that we stay focused and productive.
I hope that you have a great week and I wish all of our students a productive and successful new semester starting today!
Sincerely,
Cindy Barrow
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