Category Archives: News Release

Chiles Students Win Astronaut Challenge!

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STUDENT ASTRONAUT CHALLENGE ANNOUNCES WINNING
TEAM OF SECOND ANNUAL COMPETITION
– Statewide program brings attention to Florida’s STEM initiatives –
Tallahassee, Fla., March 11, 2013 – The Chiles High School team from Tallahassee is the winner of the 2013 Florida Student Astronaut Challenge. The Florida Department of Education, in partnership with Florida State University Schools, NASA, Flightline Group, Inc., Florida Engineering Foundation, Inc., Coaxis International, and the Tallahassee Automobile Museum, hosted the second annual Florida Student Astronaut Challenge Friday, March 8-10, 2013, in Tallahassee.
High school students from across the state participated in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics or STEM-focused competition designed to test their knowledge of space-shuttle operations, engineering, launch, orbit, and landing of the Space Shuttle “Enterprise” flight simulator.
“This program provides an excellent opportunity to recognize the talents of STEM students across the state,” said Public Schools Chancellor Pam Stewart. “As a former high school principal, I know how students and their teachers welcome challenges that call for extraordinary creativity, effort, and team work. Setting the bar high for our students in STEM programs will help Florida’s students compete for jobs in the 21st century.”
This year the Florida Student Astronaut Challenge received 350-percent more team applications, with nearly 200 students from 30 schools in southern, central, and northern Florida competing at the regional qualifier. Regional qualifier events consisted of a written examination based on reference material supplied by the competition and supervised and administered by the Florida Department of Education. A panel of experts in the field of science and science education evaluated the proposals and selected the top teams, and last year’s challenge winner – Pompano Beach High School – to travel to Tallahassee to compete in the 2013 finals. Six teams competed for this year’s top spot.
Each of the six teams received tickets to Universal Studios-Orlando and an invitation to tour the Kennedy Space Center and meet an astronaut. In addition, Chiles High School received special recognition and medals at Sunday’s awards ceremony and an automatic entry into next year’s competition.
For more information about the competition, visit Student Astronaut Challenge.

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Ms. Rebecca Kirchharr from Leon High Named 2013 LCS Teacher of the Year!

Rebecca Kirchharr Named LCS Teacher of the Year
Selected from 5 Finalists out of 42 School Winners

Tallahassee, FL—Superintendent Jackie Pons made a surprise visit today to Rebecca Kirchharr’s classroom. Alongside Leon High School Principal Billy Epting and a gathering of supporters, Superintendent Pons recognized Ms. Kirchharr as the 2013 Leon County Schools Teacher of the Year.

“This is an exciting day for the entire Leon Schools community as we recognize Ms. Kirchharr as the 2013 Teacher of the Year,” said Superintendent Jackie Pons. “We have some of the best teachers in the state of Florida and their hard work and dedication are the reason our district continues to be one of the best.”

Ms. Kirchharr has been teaching English and Reading at Leon High the previous three school years. She is the target team leader of her department, gifted coordinator, reading coach and the coach of the JV tennis team.

Ms. Kirchharr writes in her Teacher of the Year application that she is relentlessly committed to her students. “When students are encouraged to learn how to think, student performance undergoes profound change,” she wrote. “It is my responsibility and I am honored by the opportunity to help students learn to think for themselves.”

“Rebecca Kirchhaar has a true passion for educating students and is a dedicated and gifted educator,” said Principal Epting. “We are proud of her and know that she is an outstanding representative of the teachers at Leon High School, Leon County and the State of Florida”

Rebecca was selected by a committee of teachers, administrators, parents and community representatives from among 42 candidates. The committee first selected five finalists based on their reviews of ‘blind applications’ (no names or schools on them) from each respective LCS school level Teacher of the Year. Then the committee interviewed the finalists based on questions and criteria established by the state TOY program. All committee members score and vote to determine the winner.

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!LCS BLUEnew

2013 Finalists for LCS Teacher of the Year!

Leon County Schools is excited to announce the five finalists for the 2012-2013 Teacher of the Year.

The five finalists are:

Lenita Joe, Sealey Elementary—Lenita has been teaching for 45 years, 23 of which have been with LCS and 17 years at Sealey. She is currently the Library Media Specialist.

Chuck Kilbourn, Godby High—Chuck has been a teacher with LCS for 13 years, the last 11 at Godby. He is currently teaching Intro to IT and Digital Design.

Rebecca Kirchharr, Leon High—Rebecca has been a teacher for just shy of 7 years, the previous 2.5 at Leon High. She is an English teacher and Reading Coach.

Jennifer Powell, Deerlake Middle—Jennifer has spent her entire 6 year teaching career with LCS at Deerlake. She teaches 7th grade advanced Civics.

Ron Wetherington, Cobb Middle—Ron has been teaching at Cobb and with LCS for his entire 7 year teaching career. He teaches 7th grade advanced Civics.

The winner of the 2012-13 Leon County Teacher of the Year will be surprised at their school on the morning of Friday, February 15th.

The finalists were selected by a committee of teachers, administrators, parents and community representatives from among 42 candidates. The committee selected the finalists based on their reviews of ‘blind applications’ (no names or schools on them) from each respective LCS school level Teacher of the Year.  The next step for the finalists will be an interview process with the selection committee next week.

Leon County Schools cuts consumption, saves big

In its ongoing effort to reduce the consumption of electricity and natural gas and save money that can instead go for classroom use, Leon County Schools saved more than $1.3 million in fiscal year 2011-2012.

The savings – more than $4.4 million since 2006-2007, according to the school district’s energy office – reflect Superintendent Jackie Pons’ commitment to responsible financial and environmental stewardship.

“This is no accident. It’s the result of a planned and sustained effort to do a better job of energy conservation – to be not only a better financial and environmental steward, but also a role model for our students,” Superintendent Pons said.

“When we ask them to be better conservationists than we have been, we have to be able to demonstrate that we are continuing to do better ourselves.”

The past year’s reduction in the use of electricity and natural gas reflects a significant decrease in the use of kilowatt hours per square foot of space, the method the school district uses to calculate usage and savings. The previous year’s usage averaged 15.87 kilowatt hours per square foot versus 13.16 in 2011-2012, energy director Manny Joanos said.

Overall, the cut in consumption saved 13 million kilowatt hours district-wide, Joanos said, and a represents a savings to taxpayers of $1,367,125.

The school district’s success in reducing its electric bills is among several conservation-related initiatives for which Superintendent Pons was named one of three finalists statewide in the leadership category of Sustainable Florida’s annual Best Practice Awards. Sustainable Florida will announce the winner in the leadership category at an awards dinner Sept. 13 in West Palm Beach.

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News Release: State Releases 2011-2012 FCAT Scores

May 24, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

– NEWS RELEASE –

State Releases 2011-2012 FCAT Scores

Leon County Schools Beats State Average in Reading and Math

 Tallahassee, FL—Today the Florida Department of Education released the results from the 2011-2012 FCAT scores for the third grade reading and mathematics and also for the biology and geometry end-of-course exams. The scores reflect the State’s continued focus on increased rigor and changes to the third grade cut scores that determine proficiency. As expected, scores decreased across the state. Comparing the scores from this year to last year is difficult because of these changes.

The percent of LCS third grade students scoring level 3 or higher is above the State average in reading (+1%) and mathematics (+4%). Even with the increase in rigor, LCS showed a significant increase in the amount of students scoring at the highest level in third grade reading, with a 4% increase in those achieving Level 5 (10% to 14%). These scores ranked #3 in mathematics and #4 in reading for districts the size of LCS or larger. As expected due to the higher cut scores, the number of students eligible to attend the Summer Reading Academy, by scoring Level 1, increased from 445 to 504.

For the end-of-course exams, LCS was well above the state in students scoring in the top third on geometry (+18%) on biology (+15%). Eighty-one percent of LCS students scored in the top two-thirds in geometry and 76% in biology. End-of-course exam results are reported as a score in the “top-third”, “middle-third”, or “bottom-third” based on a Theta score. For this year’s ninth graders, the score will account for 30% of their course grade.

Fifty-two percent of LCS students scored in the top-third for the geometry exam, and 50% scored in the top-third in the biology exam. These scores ranked #2 in the state for districts the size of LCS or larger. At the middle school level, Deerlake and Montford both had 100% of their students score in the top-third in both geometry and biology. At the high school level, Chiles High had 75% of their geometry students and 70% of their biology students scored in the top-third.

“Leon County Schools continues to rank as one of the top school districts in the state of Florida,” said Jackie Pons, Superintendent of Leon Schools. “I want to thank our teachers, students and administrators for their hard work and dedication.”

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School Resource Deputies Create “Coats4Kids” Program

School Resource Deputies Create “Coats4Kids” Program to Meet the Needs of Many

As the winter season quickly approaches the students in Leon County begin to bundle up. Unfortunately, there will be some children in Leon County that will not have the necessary warm clothing they should have.
Last year School Resource Deputy Jessica Ikner created a coat drive for the students at Oak Ridge and Bond
Elementary Schools in order to provide under-privileged students with warm clothes, jackets, gloves and other clothing items necessary during the winter. During the Winter months of 2010, multiple agencies, organizations and individuals forwarded emails and passed on the information by word of mouth in order to help bring a large number of items to the children in need. Last year, the coat drive was very successful and greatly benefited the children and our community.

This year, other school resource deputies have discovered many students that simply do not have essential
clothing for weather conditions at their schools and are asking for assistance from the community. Together, Resource Deputies Travis Knight and Michael Feldman have joined with Deputy Ikner and Sgt. Bobby Green to create “Coats4Kids.” The goal of this program is to reach all students within the Leon County school system and provide them the clothing they desperately need. Resource Deputies are currently working with school social workers, guidance counselors and teachers in order to reach all of the students in need.

Coats4Kids is looking for gently used or new items such as: coats, sweatshirts, scarves, gloves, hats, pants, longsleeve shirts, sweaters, closed toe shoes, socks, underwear and belts. (All sizes beginning with size 4T to adult are needed).

Sheriff Larry Campbell stated, “These deputies have created a way for this community to meet a need in the lives of our most important resource – our children. This is definitely something that benefits us all. Remember, our children will pass on the things we do for them to the next generation also.”

Superintendant Jackie Pons said, “We are proud of the many accomplishments of our SRD program and this is
just one example of how they go above and beyond each day. I want to thank the Sheriff’s Office for taking the lead in this important area that directly helps our children.”

Currently, donations are being accepted at: The Leon County Sheriff’s Office (2825 Municipal Way), Kate
Sullivan Elementary, Bond Elementary, Oak Ridge Elementary, Pineview Elementary, W.T. Moore Elementary,
Roberts Elementary, Conley Elementary, Fairview Middle, Cobb Middle, Raa Middle, Montford Middle, Nims Lt.
Middle, Deerlake Middle, Lincoln High School and PACE Secondary School. The above locations will be
collecting donations from today until December 21, 2011.

For additional information contact can be made with Deputy Jessica Ikner at 850-488-3124 or
iknerj@leonschools.net or Sergeant Bobby Green at 850-922-3329.