Q: Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran recently recommended that school districts dispense with mask mandates and instead make masks optional. What is the St. Johns County School District doing?
A: I’ve had a lot of questions regarding our mask protocols for next year. I’d like to reassure everyone that we will be going over all protocols and reevaluating them prior to sending our reopening plan for the 2021– 22 school year to the Department of Education for approval. While we are pleased that case numbers are decreasing, I would caution folks to not let their guard down as there are still cases of Covid in our community.
Q: What is the latest on High School III?
A: We are in the rezoning process for this new school and a final decision will be voted on by the school board on June 8. We are still soliciting public input; go to the district website (www.stjohns.k12.fl.us) to see the four plans and make a comment there or at one of our May board meetings. Although not in our immediate plans, as we continue to grow it’s important to note that within Nocatee there are still two additional school sites.
Q: What can you tell us about FSA exams for this year?
A: We are very grateful this year that the high stakes portion of FSA has been mitigated and will be used for benchmarking purposes only (not carry the same repercussions as years past). I think this will be hugely beneficial for our teachers and students to see what areas we need to focus on going forward.
Q: Do you expect leadership changes at our schools for next school year?
A: Every year in May, before we release for the summer, we begin to evaluate school leadership for the following year. This is normal for a growing school district like ours, especially in light of two new schools opening. We will have more details on this next month. We are so fortunate to have such quality educators in our district and we appreciate them all and the job they are doing very much.
Q: Do you have anything else to share with District 4?
A: I have a lot of kudos this month. First, I’d like to recognize our district’s School Related Employees of the Year: Julianne O’Brien (Landrum Middle School), Karen Cornelius (Nease High School), Michael Marimpietri (Ocean Palms Elementary), Wilda Limardo (Palencia Elementary), Geraldo “Jerry” Santiago (Palm Valley Academy), Daniel Burkert (Ponte Vedra High School), Christine “Crissy” Mineer (PVPV/Rawlings) and Marijean “MJ” Lechtrecker (Valley Ridge Academy).
Congratulations to our American Youth Character Award winners. From Nease High School we have seniors Kyle Bazler, Caroline Hunt, Nicholas Zuino, Ryan Roman; juniors Kaitlyn Boggs, Isabella Rivera, Logan Ryan, Tyler Covell, Amber Horn, Jayde Dauley, J’ana Ransom, Samuel “Sam” Dec and Pursuing Victory with Honor student Olivia Peoples. From Ponte Vedra High School we have seniors Jared Reinheimer, Risa Slepikas, Annabelle Barnett and Alana Edwards; juniors Tayler Dietrich, Eugenio Abruzzini, Eden Daughtry, Sean Caracciolo, Luke Hargitai, Lauren Paton, Taylor Baggs and Joley Hill and Pursuing Victory with Honor student John Campbell Parker.
And finally, congratulations to the Nease NJROTC unit, which finished third overall in the nation recently.
Q: How can our readers contact you?
A: They can email me at kelly.barrera@stjohns.k12.fl.us or call me at (904) 547-7510.
