Robotics teams take on the world!

Congratulations to robotics teams at Carver Middle, Cypress Ridge Elementary and Fruitland Park Elementary schools for their recent showing at the 2015 VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville, KY, where they competed with teams from China, South Korea, Mexico and various states across the country! The students are listed below.

 

Carver Middle School

Team 2049A: Dylan Humphrey, Andrew Junkin and Spencer Williams ranked 26^th in their division and placed 39^th in the world for middle school VRC programming skills

Team 2049Z: Caleb LeWare, Harrison Dicus, Allen Yox, Will Piles and Noah Burry placed 40^th in the world for middle school VRC programming skills

Team 2049G: Acadia Schartz, Marshall Widmann, Joey Jarrett and Matt Jutkofski placed 7^th in the world in the VEX IQ Challenge division

 

Cypress Ridge

Betabots: Ethan Loden, Mattias Peroni, Koen Phipps and Emma Schroer finished 47thM in the Programming Skills challenge

Deltabots: Matthew Tollini, Everett Hoffhines, Sammy Taylor and Gio Testa finished 68th in the tournament, jumping up in the rankings 12 places in their last two matches.

 

Fruitland Park Elementary

Robo-Wizards: Dencov Bryant, Alexis Cowgill, Nichola Desforges and Sydney Williams finished 8^th out of 88 in the World of Vex IQ Robotics – Elementary Level

 

 

 

 

 

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Lake robotics teams qualify for world competition, looking for sponsors to help with expenses

Five robotics teams from Lake County Schools have qualified to compete at the World Championship in Louisville, KY, April 14-19.

The teams from Fruitland Park Elementary, Cypress Ridge Elementary and Carver Middle schools were part of the Florida VEX Robotics State Championship on Feb. 21 at the University of South Florida’s Sun Dome in Tampa. The VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) is a STEM program with 300 Florida teams ranging from elementary to college students. VEX has grown to nearly 12,000 teams worldwide representing 36 countries.

Top teams from local events throughout the state qualified to compete in the 2015 state championship in high school, middle school and elementary school divisions. Lake County Schools brought 14 teams to the state competition.

The top teams in each division will compete at the world competition. Included are five teams from three Lake County Schools. They are:

• Fruitland Park Elementary Robo-Wizards (VEX IQ) – Dencov Bryant, Alexis Cowgill, Nichola Desforges and Sydney Williams (Teacher, Crystal Rizzo)
• Cypress Ridge Elementary Betabots (VEX IQ) – Ethan Loden, Mattias Peroni, Koen Phipps and Emma Schoer (Teacher, Ashley Phipps)
o State Design Award
o Teacher Ashley Phipps was named a State Volunteer of the Year

• Carver Middle Raider-Gators (VEX IQ) – Joey Jarrett, Matt Jutkofsky, Acadia Schwartz and Marshall Widmann (Teacher, Bart Nash)
o State STEM Research Project Award

• Carver Middle Hunters (VRC) – Noah Burry, Harrison Dicus, Caleb LeWare, Will Pyles and Craig Yox, Jr. (Teacher, Bart Nash)
o State Tournament Champions.

• Carver Middle Avalanche (VRC) – Dylan Humphrey and Andrew Junkin (Teacher, Bart Nash)
o State Tournament Finalists
o State Design Award
o State Programming Skills Award

The teams will have their robots on display before the Lake County School Board meeting on March 9 and will be recognized by the board for their accomplishments. Students will display the robots at 5:30 p.m. in the rotunda of the Lake County Administration Building, 315 W. Main Street, Tavares. The Board meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in Commission Chambers.

Teams are asking for community support to help with World Championship expenses. If you or your business would like to sponsor them, please contact Lori Humphrey at humphreyl@lake.k12.fl.us, Crystal Rizzo at rizzoc@lake.k12.fl.us, and Ashley Phipps at phippsa@lake.k12.fl.us.

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Online poll opens for next year’s school calendar

The entire Lake County community is invited to choose between two proposed calendar options for the 2015-2016 school year through an online poll at http://www.lake.k12.fl.us/calendarvote.

Parents, students, employees and community residents have until Tuesday, Jan. 13, to select an option. A summary of the options is shown below.

OPTION 1:
• School starts Monday, Aug. 24, 2015.
• Five days off around Thanksgiving – Nov. 23-27, 2015.
• Spring Break from March 21-25, 2016.
• School ends Thursday, June 9, 2016.

OPTION 2:
• School starts Monday, Aug. 24, 2015.
• Three days off around Thanksgiving – Nov. 25-27, 2015.
• Spring Break from March 21-25, 2016.
• School ends Tuesday, June 7, 2016.

Visit http://www.lake.k12.fl.us/calendarvote to view each option in detail.

The online poll will close on Tuesday, January 13.

The results of the poll will be forwarded to the Lake County School Board. The Board is expected to consider the 2015-2016 school calendar options at its meeting on Monday, January 26.

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Premiere of Home-School Connection to air tonight on Lakefront TV

Watch the premiere of the Home-School Connection at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 7.

Lake County Schools and Lakefront TV are teaming up to help parents and families of school children. The Home-School Connection is a unique new educational show where public school administrators and teachers discuss informative topics about the school system, classes, programs and ways you can help from home. Students also present school news and events from around the area.

The Home-School Connection is an open community forum about our schools. You are invited to e-mail a question or suggest a topic for a future show. Some questions will be answered on the show, so keep watching.

To send a message to the Home-School Connection email schools@lakefronttv.com.

Watch Lakefront TV on Comcast channel 22, Brighthouse channel 199 and Florida Cable channel 4.

TheHomeSchoolFlier

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New school gradebook will be unavailable this weekend for data update

Beginning tonight and through the weekend, the school district’s new online gradebook, Skyward Family Access, will be unavailable as data on the site is updated.

Parents and guardians of students who attend Lake County Schools are encouraged to create a Family Access account. Through the Family Access portal, parents and guardians will have the ability to view their child’s grades, attendance and other data.

The Family Access portal is replacing the district’s older online gradebook, eSembler. For parents that had an eSembler account last school year, many received an email on Sept. 17 from do.not.reply@lake.k12.fl.us with a link to begin the process of setting up a Family Access account. Step-by-step directions on setting up a Family Access account are available online at http://www.lake.k12.fl.us/familyaccess.

For parents and guardians who did not receive an email or did not previously have an eSembler account, they will need to print out a Family Access Enrollment Form. The form is available online at http://www.lake.k12.fl.us/familyaccess. Only one email address per form is permitted. Parents and guardians will have to fill out a separate form for each email address.

Due to security concerns, to complete the form parents and guardians are required to either:

• Bring the form and ID to the school and sign the form in front of someone at the school; OR
• Fill out the form; have it notarized by a public notary; and return the form to the school.

After returning the form, the school will verify the information. Once the parent account is created, the district will send an email with sign-in instructions to the parent automatically.

For more information, log on to http://www.lake.k12.fl.us/familyaccess.

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New school gradebook now available for all Lake County parents

After a successful pilot at Eustis High School, the Lake County School District is launching its new online gradebook, Skyward Family Access.

Parents and guardians of students who attend Lake County Schools are encouraged to create a Family Access account. Through the Family Access portal, parents and guardians will have the ability to view their child’s grades, attendance and other data.

The Family Access portal is replacing the district’s older online gradebook, eSembler. For parents that had an eSembler account last school year, they will be receiving an email on Wednesday from do.not.reply@lake.k12.fl.us with a link to begin the process of setting up a Family Access account.

Parents and guardians will use their current eSembler user ID (email address) as their username for Family Access. Step-by-step directions on setting up a Family Access account are available online at www.lake.k12.fl.us/familyaccess.

For parents and guardians who did not receive an email or did not previously have an eSembler account, they will need to print out a Family Access Enrollment Form. The form is available online at www.lake.k12.fl.us/familyaccess. Only one email address per form is permitted. Parents and guardians will have to fill out a separate form for each email address.

Due to security concerns, to complete the form parents and guardians are required to either:

• Bring the form and ID to the school and sign the form in front of someone at the school; OR
• Fill out the form; have it notarized by a public notary; and return the form to the school.

After returning the form, the school will verify the information. Once the parent account is created, the district will send an email with sign-in instructions to the parent automatically.

 

For more information, log on to www.lake.k12.fl.us/familyaccess.

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Lake County schools recognized with state’s Golden School Award for community involvement

For the third consecutive year, there is an increase in the number of Lake County schools receiving the Florida Department of Education’s Golden School Award, which recognizes exemplary programs that promote parent and community involvement in education.

Surpassing a record set last year for the Lake County School District, 19 local schools were recently honored at a School Board meeting for receiving the state award. Schools receiving the honor included:

• Beverly Shores Elementary
• Clermont Elementary
• East Ridge Middle
• Fruitland Park Elementary
• Grassy Lake Elementary
• Groveland Elementary
• Leesburg Elementary
• Lost Lake Elementary
• Minneola Charter Elementary
• Pine Ridge Elementary
• Round Lake Elementary Conversion Charter
• Sawgrass Bay Elementary
• Seminole Springs Elementary
• Sorrento Elementary
• Tavares Elementary
• Treadway Elementary
• Triangle Elementary
• Umatilla Elementary
• Villages Elementary

The Golden School is presented to schools that meet the following criteria: provides faculty training/orientation on volunteerism, designates a school volunteer coordinator to provide leadership for the school volunteer program, and fulfills a total number of hours in volunteer service that equals twice the number of students enrolled in the school. Hours donated from all forms of volunteering (i.e., mentors, tutors, advisors and advocates) are included.

For more information about volunteering, contact the Educational Foundation of Lake County at (352) 326-1265 or log on to www.edfoundationlake.com.

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