Charlotte County Schools in the News
Career Education Prepares Students for the Working World
As part of a state curriculum plan put into place in 2006, CCPS schools offer a variety of career pathways to students as early as eighth grade. As students progress through high school, the focus of those pathways narrows so that students are receiving electives that compliment their major area of interest. The Charlotte Technical Center has a number of dual enrollment programs for high school students, offering community college credit or leading to a career certificate or employment. Read more about the career pathway opportunities at www.sunnewspapers.net
Port Charlotte High School's National Honor Society Club Built a Habitat for Humanity House
As part of the club's community service outreach goals, members of the PCHS National Honor Society committed to building a Habitat House. The project, which started back in October, 2009 as a cement slab, finished right before Christmas. Many of the students who worked on the project started with little or no knowledge of home construction, but they finished not only with new skills, but also a sense of pride and accomplishment. Read the details of this inspirational story at www.sunnewspapers.net.
Meadow Park Elementary Staff and Students Will Move to Punta Gorda Temporarily During the New School Construction
It was announced at a meeting on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 that the Meadow Park students and staff will be temporarily moving to the East Elementary campus while their school is being rebuilt. This transition will be for approximately one year. The reason for this move is to keep the Meadow Park family of students and staff together, rather than scattering them throughout the county. East Elementary was chosen because of the available space that will provide separation between the two schools, but still house both populations adequately. Read more details about this story at www.sunnewspapers.net.
Vineland Elementary Staff and Students Designate a Memorial to Sadie the Therapy Dog in their Butterfly Garden
Sadie the Pet Therapy Dog has been a constant source of inspiration and comfort at Vineland Elementary for the past seven years where she visited every Wednesday to Mrs. Murphy's third grade class to help children read. Sadie was certified as a Reading Educated Assistance Dog, R.E.A.D. by the Delta Society. Sadie was a unique dog, beloved by many at the school, as well as other community facilities that she visited on a regular basis. Many students who have attended Vineland over the last seven years, contribute their success in reading to Sadie's presence. Please visit www.sunnewspapers.net to read the full story.
CCPS Students Compete in the National West Point Bridge Building Contest
Several Charlotte County students are participating in the United States Military Academy's Annual West Point Bridge Building Competition. The competition is a virtual engineering project open to middle and high school students nationwide. The competition runs through May with the Final Round hosted in New York. Finalists are competing for a $5,000 scholarship. Read the full article at www.sunnnewspapers.net
Charlotte Technical Center Culinary Students Demonstrated Organic Cooking at Fisherman's Village in Punta Gorda
Culinary Instructor, Chef Jason Osborne, along with two Charlotte Tech Center students, Behatriz Rivera and Chasity Martin, demonstrated three inspirational recipes for a crowd of people at Fisherman's Village on Wednesday, February 10, 2010. The demonstration highlighted the use of organic foods and took place during Worden Farm's weekly Green Market.
Read the full article at www.sunnewspapers.net.
Murdock Middle School Eighth Grade Students Will Represent CCPS in an Entrepreneurship Conference at Florida Gulf Coast University
Tim Conte, Murdock Middle Career Education teacher had the difficult job of selecting 5 female student candidates to attend the "Girls Going Places - Income of Her Own Entrepreneurship Conference" host by Florida Gulf Coast University.
The five exceptional young ladies chosen were Kristina Bilokopytova, Renee Johnson, Noelle Anderson, Abby NcVety, and Tanya Sharma.
To read more details of this story, visit the www.sunnewspapers.net.
Sallie Jones Elementary "Stuffed the Bus" Successfully!
Sallie Jones Elementary staff and students, along with other CCPS schools and community members worked diligently to "Stuff the Bus" with clothing, shoes, and linens for Haiti Earthquake Victims. The clothing drive was a huge success and actually required the help of a second bus to transport all the donations. Donations will be shipped from Miami to the Dominican Republic where employees from New World Trade, Inc. will truck the items from their workshop in the Dominican Republic to their workshop in Haiti and be distributed from there. To read more details of this story, visit www.sunnewspapers.net.
Teacher "Tech Cadre" at CCPS Boosts Technology Skills
"Called the "Tech Cadre," teachers from around Charlotte County Public Schools have been given a unique opportunity to learn more about technology and properly apply it to their classrooms.
The cadre program began after Hurricane Charley destroyed six schools in the district. When rebuilding efforts were under way, the district chose to update the sites with the latest in educational technology..." - Pamela Staik, Staff Writer for the Charlotte Sun
Read this full article published in the Charlotte Sun Newspaper on February 1, 2010 online at www.sunnewspapers.net.
CCPS Enhancing Learning with Technology
"Classrooms across Charlotte, DeSoto, and Sarasota counties have beefed up their use of classroom technology in the past few years, as research has proven that students respond positively to the ever-changing science...." - Pamela Staik, Staff Writer for the Charlotte Sun
Read the rest of this article published February 1, 2010 in the Charlotte Sun online at www.sunnewspapers.net.
CCPS Superintendent, Dr. Dave Gayler announced his plans to retire at the Tuesday, January 26, 2010 school board meeting. Dr. Gayler has served Charlotte County Schools as superintendent for almost nine years; the longest serving superintendent on Florida's west coast. Dr. Gayler will retire as of January 2011 and looks forward to spending more time with his family. Visit the Sun Herald for more information.
Port Charlotte Middle School students were treated to an inspirational writing workshop led by famous poet Paul Janeczko on Monday, January 25, 2010. Mr. Janeczko was already in Southwest Florida to speak at Florida Gulf Coast University for the National Writing Project. He was asked to extend his visit and provide a writing workshop at Port Charlotte Middle where he focused on making the students more comfortable about writing poetry while expanding their horizons. Read the full article about his visit in the Sun Herald.
Charlotte County Public Schools featured in EdTech Online Magazine for implementing high-tech classrooms, as well as the CCPS Teacher Cadre for IT Training. Visit EdTech Online to view both videos.
LA Ainger Middle School gets the chance to study the wonders of solar power and save the school over $800 in energy costs thanks to a grant funded program through Florida Power and Light. A new solar panel array was recently unveiled at LA Ainger Middle and was featured in the Florida Weekly Newspaper. Visit the Florida Weekly Web Site to read the full article.
For more information about school news, or if you would like to post news information to this page, please contact:
Mike Riley
School and Community Relations Officer
941-255-7430
Michael_Riley@ccps.k12.fl.us