School year begins at Beach Elementary
The 2009-10 school year is underway at Beach Elementary and roughly 150 students have attended classes. The enrollment number is similar to last year’s total and is down from previous years.
The Beach school has 10 classes in session: two kindergarten, two first grade, one second grade, two third grade, one fourth grade and two fifth grade groups.
“The economy has had a huge effect on our enrollment,” said Beach Elementary School Principal Larry Wood. “When the jobs left, so did the people. They didn’t live here so they either had to search for that job out there and take their kids with them or they are now taking them to their neighborhood school. There’s no point on driving your kids to the Beach if you don’t work here.”
Beach Elementary has undergone a few changes with its building structures.
“We’re redoing all the buildings’ old plumbing with PVC instead of the old cast iron pipes,” said Wood. “With that same bid we were able to get the buildings painted, covered walkways done, new windows in the lower classrooms and some bathrooms redone. We’ve had some really positive comments from the parents when they were here last week for open house.”
Wood believes “well-over 80 percent of the families” were in attendance for the school’s open house event Thursday, Aug. 20.
“People were looking forward to going into the classrooms to find out from the teachers what the next grade level was all about,” he said.
Wood smiled when asked about the new generation of kindergarten students.
“The kids don’t cry, it’s the parents that cry,” he said. “The Parents/ Teachers Organization has a Boo-Hoo Breakfast designed for the parents who bring their first kids to kindergarten class to leave the room so that the teacher and the child can get acclimated. That way they can meet some of the other kindergarten parents and cry if they need to.”
The school’s success -five straight “A”s in the district- is nothing to cry about.
“Our successes last year with our FCAT scores and student successes were just phenomenal,” said Wood. “We’ve been meeting to re-establish goals and set them even higher than we did last year. We feel we are going to be able to meet them.
Wood explained that in the next two weeks, Beach Elementary officials will be writing their school improvement plan with some community members who are involved in the SAC committee. Before that chore, the staff, children and their families will be attending a pool party at the Town Pool -the brain child of PTO parent Dennis Miller.
“We’re really looking forward to the Back to School Pool Party later this week,” said Wood. “We think it is going to be fun for kids and their parents. Our PTO is scouting out other kinds of activities for us. We’re looking for family type of events.
“The kids have just been so well behaved. They couldn’t wait to be here in school. They look so happy. They’re really working hard, and we expect them to work hard.”
Beach school has new art teacher
Beach resident Clayton Roberts was recently hired as a part-time art teacher at Beach Elelmentary. He will teach art on Monday and Fridays during the first half of the year.
Girl and Boy Scouts host information nights
Beach Elementary School at 2751 Oak Street will be among the host sites when Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida, Inc. hold Girl and Boy Scout information nights on Thursday, Sept. 3, at 6:30 p.m. Discover how scouting builds courage, confidence, and character and about the rewarding volunteer opportunities for adults.
Information nights will offer a brief description of today’s Girl and Boy Scout programs and volunteer opportunities for adults. Scouting helps girls and boys develop qualities of responsible citizenship and service, build feelings of self-esteem by accepting responsibility, strengthen values and respect diversity, develop leadership and decision-making skills, and better the quality of life for others.