Dr. Sue Woltanski, member of the Monroe County School Board, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the schools.
While spring break is currently in session, next week schools are back in session and there are a number of drama productions coming up.
Woltanski said, “The high schools all have three big productions coming up in April. I think the first one is at Coral Shores. It’s the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. That starts on April 4. It’s a musical. Marathon then is doing Saturday Night Fever, the High School Edition. That starts on April 12. And Key West drama club, who performs at the Williams Theater, is starting April 10 with Mamma Mia. They have an incredible amount of talent at all of the schools. It’s always fun to see.”
Spring sports are well under way.
Woltanski said, “I think we’re finishing up the state competitions like wrestling and we’re well into the spring competitions of obviously baseball and lacrosse and boys weight lifting. We’ve always been pretty successful in that at the state level. So track and field, excited to see where the kids go and Key Largo School has recently opened a new baseball field. For the first time Key Largo School now has a real baseball field. Key Largo School is serving as the middle school sports program for many sports, not basketball or volleyball, where everyone can do in the gym, but they have football up there and baseball, and they’re putting together elementary track and field, and in order to get a big enough team up here, there they have been allowing all the Upper Keys schools, so the two charter schools and Plantation Key School, all of those kids can play on one team, which is really exciting because it gives them big enough teams to be able to actually compete. But it also means that the kids will be playing together in middle school and high school, which should help Coral Shores, too, in the future to have that many more years of real competition.”
The state science fair is coming up next week.
Woltanski said, “I’m going to give a shout out to Violet Matthews, because I’ve known her since she was three. She has been working on a project that has to do with making blood draws easier using some external light. I don’t even know how what her project the details are, but that’s been something she’s been working on for a while, and then also Collin Palomino, the son of the Key West High principal is also going to state science fair. So lots of great projects there.”
There is also a superintendent search.
Woltanski said, “The application window is open. All the information about superintendent search is on the school district website, there’s a tab for superintendent search, and we’re working with the Florida School Boards Association superintendent search division and every time a application comes in that they then verify is complete and qualified, it will be posted on that superintendent search page. We’ve had applicants from outside the state, already applying. So that was really our goal, is to cast a wide net and see what we can get, because we’ve had a couple of good superintendents recently, and we want to keep that up.”
Theresa Axford is retiring this year.
Woltanski said, “The last week of April, we’ll be having our finalists come in. We’ll have three to five finalists. They will be visiting the Upper, Middle and Lower Keys. They’ll have a broadcasted interview with the board as a whole. There will be, I guess we’ll call them meet and greets at each separate middle and lower keys, where the community can come out and meet the candidates before we make any decisions. Each board member will also have private interview time with the candidates, and then the following week, the first week of May, or the first board meeting in May, is when we should be choosing our superintendent. So a lot going on for the board, as well as the kids getting ready to graduate. The plan is that their applications will go up once they’re completed, and everyone can take a look.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keysschools.com/