ST JOHNS SCHOOL UPDATE

State of The District: Monday October 5th, Superintendent Joseph Joyner will present his annual State of The District update. Dr. Joyner will discuss the goals and accomplishments from last year, present the goals for this school year, and then wrap up with a Question & Answer segment. The State of The District is open to the entire community and it will begin with a reception at 5:30 and the presentation will follow at 6:30 pm.

Parent Resource Guide: Our Curriculum Department has posted the 2009-2010 Parent Resource Guide on our website. This guide provides a wealth of information for parents concerning our school district. This readable format offers information from grade-level learning to testing to promotion requirements to graduation requirements to homework to career programs and many other topics. Parents can access this guide on our website www.stjohns.k12.fl.us and in the "For Parents & Students" section, click on Parent Resource Guide.

School Enrollment: Like a broken record, St Johns County School District has grown again. Through Sept 22, we have 29,334 students which is an increase of 766 more than last year. Our school district is, again, the fastest growing school district in Florida and even with the housing market as it is, families are still moving to our county. For the 2nd year in a row, the state of Florida has experienced a decline in enrollment, but not us.

It's not surprising since academically we're the Number 1 School District in Florida, we have multiple high schools ranked in the Top 1,000 high schools in America, we have multiple State Champions in athletics, an extremely high graduation rate, the best classroom teachers, our nationally recognized Academies in our high schools, and SAT & ACT scores that rank higher than most of the school districts in FL as well as nationally. Our (2) newest high schools, Ponte Vedra & Creekside, have added a senior class this year and even they saw a significant increase in their overall enrollment. On top of the senior class addition, Creekside grew by 4.1% and Ponte Vedra grew by 3.7%.

To handle this additional growth, we are expanding (3) of our elementary schools in the Northwest and (1) elementary school in the southwest. We are also revising our future building plans based on growth projections but no new schools are planned at this time.

National Merit Semifinalist: St Johns County School District has (19) National Merit Semifinalist, the highest number ever. These students scored in the Top One Percent of all students in the country taking the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test or PSAT given annually to high school juniors. These (19) students are now eligible to advance to the finalist competition to vie for 8,000 scholarships worth more than $32 million. There are (5) students from Ponte Vedra High School, 10 from Nease, (2) from Creekside, and (1) each from Bartram Trail and St. Augustine. Congratulations to these awesome students!!!

Adult Community Education: Our school district now offers an expanded Community Education Program for adults with evening classes held in some of our schools in the St Augustine area. Twenty classes are being offered, including painting, dog obedience, music, yoga, computers, and others. For more information and registration, please log on the following website: www.sjccommunityed.com

Bill Fehling
St. Johns County
School Board Member