Welcome to The Connection, our new weekly newsletter connecting you to important news, events, and activities happening in the School District of Indian River County. This newsletter will highlight events throughout all grade levels and include district news. We are looking forward to your input in The Connection and hope that you will submit important news and information to be considered for publishing. Please email socialmedia@indianriverschools.org to submit potential highlights.

The Florida Department of Education announced the names of schools in Central Florida that have earned the Five Star School Award for the 2017-2018 school year. The award is bestowed upon schools that are committed to incorporating family and community members into the school environment to enhance student learning. Statewide, over 700 schools earned the recognition.

To earn Five Star School recognition, a school must show that it has achieved all of the benchmarks and criteria in five categories – Community/Business Partnerships, Family Involvement, Volunteerism, Student Community Service and School Advisory Council. Schools must also earn a grade of “C” or above or a school improvement rating of “Maintaining” or “Commendable” for the year being recognized.

Eighteen School District of Indian River County Schools (SDIRC) were recognized as Five-Star Schools. Congratulations to the following schools!

Everyone is invited to the 2018-2019 Stars of the Year Gala. The theme for this year’s gala is “You’re Out of This World,” and we will be showing everyone that we have the best teachers and employees in the UNIVERSE…each and every one of them! The Gala will be held at the Vero Beach High School (VBHS) Performing Arts Center, and it will be a celebration like no other! Prizes will be handed out to the first 100 people through the door, and everyone is encouraged to GLOW. Glowing attire (necklaces, bracelets, etc.) is encouraged, and will surely enhance the experience! Performances include the SRHS drumline and the Dodgertown Elementary School Music Honors Group; both groups are guaranteed to “light up” the night! Music throughout the event will be provided by DJay Barwick with Barwick Entertainment! Please see the invitation below and join us in celebrating our Teachers and Employees of the Year. At the end of the night we will recognize our five TOY finalists, five EOY finalists, and announce the Teacher and Employee of the Year winners for our district!

Over the holiday break, the Vero Beach High School Marching Band flew to London where they performed in London's New Year's Day Parade! London’s New Year’s Day Parade starts January 1st on Piccadilly, one of the capital’s most famous thoroughfares. The Parade route weaves through Piccadilly, Piccadilly Circus, Lower Regent Street, Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, Cockspur Street, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, and Parliament Street. A far cry from the inaugural parade in 1987 with 2,000 performers, the 2019 Parade included over 10,000 participants from the USA, UK, Europe and beyond to delight our street audience of over 500,000, and our TV audience, which reached more than 300,000,000. Along with performing in one of the world's most viewed parades, the students toured London experiencing the sights and history of the city. This trip was truly a once in a lifetime experience, and a very exciting way for these students to start the new year!

The TEEN TRUTH school assembly gives students a voice and empowers them to be the difference on campus. Featuring student-shot films, interactive activities, and motivational storytelling, our assemblies are the backbone of our mission to develop strong culture in schools across North America.

Little ELITES is a new program for children ages 6-12 with intellectual disabilities, developmental delays, and autism designed to introduce them into the world of sports. Little ELITES stands for Elementary Level Introduction to Entry-level Sports.

The program includes physical activities focused on developing fundamental motor tracking and eye-hand coordination. It also concentrates on the application of these physical activities through a sports skills activity program and developing skills consistent with Special Olympics competitive sports. Special Olympics provided us with soccer equipment, t-shirts, and ribbons for participating.

HHH Presents:
first green at Indian river club


On Monday, January 14th, at 9am, approximately 70 fifth grade students from Indian River Academy will visit our club on a field trip. The range and putting green will turn into a learning lab. Several Superintendents from the GCSAA, Ian Killen and myself will set up this 90 minute hands on experience. The students will rotate through individual learning stations on soil, water, mowing equipment display, putting, hitting a driver and finishing with a hole cutting demonstration.

There is a different dynamic when you take students outside the classroom. A teacher could demonstrate in the class with a bucket of water and some soil, however, it wouldn't have the same effect at all.

We are excited to have the kids get their hands in the soil and experience the course as I do each day. I'm sure that many of these kids have never been on a golf course and they have no idea what happens on a golf course.

The First Green Program is an innovative environmental education program using golf courses as environmental learning labs - the only program of its kind. First Green has been providing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) learning since 1997 and has extensive resources for golf course superintendents including online lesson plans. Golf course superintendents host students on field trips where they test water quality, collect soil samples, identify plants, design plantings, assist in stream bed restoration and are involved in the ecology and environmental aspects of the golf course. The students are also introduced to many other aspects of golf.

If you have some time on Monday at 9am and would like to see first hand the benefits of educating these students as well as see the enthusiasm of the superintendents as they share what they are most passionate about with our younger generation, please stop by!


Best,
Bobby Wallace, GCSAA
Superintendent
Indian River Club

800 Carolina Circle SW, Vero Beach, FL 32962
P: 772.770.0757

Peter and his wife, Gail

Peter Sayles, United States Marine Corps, Combat Veteran of the Vietnam War.

Peter is the facilitator of the "Toys for Tots" program for North Indian River County. Peter is also President of the Victory Center Military Store at the Indian River Mall. The Victory Center is a non-profit store, whose profits are used to pay for a gathering place for veterans at the mall. Thank you for your service, Mr. Sayles!

Recommended Instructional material will be on display in the lobby at the district office through January 14th.

The School District of Indian River County will be accepting magnet school applications between December 1, 2018, and February 1, 2019, for the kindergarten classes of 2019 – 2020. In order to enter kindergarten for the next school year, students must be 5 years old on or before September 1, 2019. Applications will be accepted until February 1, 2019, at 5 p.m. Kindergarten slots are filled by a lottery conducted in mid February. Families may indicate only ONE choice of a magnet school. The three magnet schools in Indian River County are Osceola Magnet, with a math and science focus; Rosewood Magnet, with a Core-Knowledge curriculum; and Liberty Magnet, with an international studies focus. Families who apply for their student to attend a magnet school must agree to follow the requirements of the Magnet School Commitments. Applications can be picked up at the School District office at 6500 57th Street or any of the magnet schools.

Student applications will be given a computer generated number to determine their rank in the lottery. Families will be notified by mail of their acceptance or non-acceptance. Kindergarten siblings of students currently attending one of the three magnet schools will automatically be accepted, if they have an application on file by 5:00 pm on February 1, 2019.

SDIRC cordially invites you to participate in our 2019 SDIRC Teacher Job Fair on Wednesday, February 13, 2019, from 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

Research

LLS is at the forefront of the fight to cure cancer. Compared to other blood cancer nonprofits, LLS is the largest funder of cutting-edge research to advance cures. We have invested more than $1.2 billion in research. We are leaders in advancing breakthroughs in immunotherapy, genomics and personalized medicine. This research saves lives. These revolutionary new treatments originally discovered through blood cancer research are now being tested in clinical trials for other cancers.

Patient Access

As the leading source of free blood cancer information, education and support for patients, survivors, families and healthcare professionals, LLS helps patients navigate their cancer treatment and ensures they have access to quality, affordable and coordinated care. Research will help us achieve an end to cancer. In the meantime, patients need help before, during and after their diagnosis and treatment. LLS is the leading nonprofit that does just that.

Policy and Advocacy

Through our nationwide grassroots network of more than 100,000 volunteers, we advocate for policies at the state and federal level in a commitment to remove barriers to care for cancer patients. Our efforts have helped increase federal research funds, speed the review and approval process of new therapies and ensure patients are able to access lifesaving treatments. Many of the policies that we advocate for, at the state and federal levels, are universally beneficial for all cancer patients.

It's official! The new design of the Support Education license plate is available now! The main branch of the Tax Collector's office has 19 to sell.

Each time a tag is sold $20 goes toward the Education Foundation of Indian River County to fund classroom and school grants!

The full release was on December 14th. Hurry, and buy your plate today!

We are pleased to announce that the FortifyFL app is LIVE. Now, any student, educator, parent, or member of the public can report school safety concerns directly to law enforcement and school administrators anonymously and easily through the FortifyFL app or www.getfortifyfl.com. The app, which is available for download on Apple and Android mobile devices, is critical to ensuring all Florida schools are safe environments where students and educators can experience and share the joy of learning without fear. We hope that you will become familiar with this tool and help us spread the word about it with our students and their families. Please note that the official app’s logo will look exactly as it does in the graphic above.

The Reading Scholarship, administered by Step Up For Students, was created to help public school students in third through fifth grade who scored a 1 or 2 on their English Language Arts FSA. The program offers parents access to education savings accounts, worth $500 each, to pay for tuition and fees related to part-time tutoring, summer and after-school literacy programs, instructional materials, and curriculum related to reading or literacy.
The scholarships are worth $500 each and can be used for reimbursement for the following:
*Tuition and fees for part-time tutoring provided by a person who holds a valid Florida educator’s certificate, a baccalaureate or graduate degree in the subject, an adjunct teaching certificate, or has demonstrated mastery of the subject area knowledge.
*Fees for summer education programs designed to improve reading or literacy skills.
*Fees for after-school education programs designed to improve reading or literacy skills.
*Instructional materials and curriculum related to reading or literacy.
Click to apply: https://www.stepupforstudents.org/for-parents/reading-scholarship/how-the-scholarship-works/

Thank you to the Indian River County Sheriff's Office and all local law enforcement agencies for your partnership with the SDIRC, and your dedication to keeping our students, teachers, and staff members safe.

Click below to see our District's Strategic Plan

Email: cristen.maddux@indianriverschools.org
Website: www.indianriverschools.org
Location: 6500 57th Street, Vero Beach, FL, USA
Phone: 772-564-3000
Facebook: facebook.com/SchoolDistrictofIRC
Twitter: @IRCSchools