Theresa Axford, superintendent for the Monroe County School District, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the schools.
There were a number of different essay contests in the district recently.
Axford said, “We have a really outstanding Social Studies coordinator, Jennifer Barrios, and she keeps everything running in tip top shape. Of course, we encourage writing by students in the district, because you know what an important skill that is, the ability to communicate. So the Harry S Truman Foundation yearly has an essay contest, and it’s principally the Society of Presidential Descendants. Many of them come to Key West in February every year, and they judge an essay contest. So this year, listen to the topic: historic preservation, artifacts, objects and sites, preserving our nation’s history for future generations. We had a first place winner. It was Kai Lamontagne. She’s a junior at Key West High School. And the third place went to Davin Leggett, who is also at Key West High School. The first prize was $1,500 and the third place for Davin was $500. So congratulations to them. Real congratulations to those teachers who encourage students to write and participate. Everything helps kids get ready for those college essays that they have to write. They say that essay is one of the critical factors in acceptance to college. So I think that’s pretty interesting. We encourage writing every chance that we get.”
Monroe County School District also participates in a regional STEM fair.
Axford explained, “Every school conducts their own STEM fair, and that means it’s the classical, traditional science project where students propose a hypothesis, and then they test their hypothesis. The winners of those school STEM fairs go to a regional STEM fair, and at that regional STEM fair, our winners are selected for the state science fair. There’s a lot of work in putting on the school STEM fairs, and of course, you know, going to the regional. But we’ve pressed on, and now we’re taking winning prizes at the state science fair. We’re accredited by Cognia, that’s our accrediting agency, and they’re actually an international accredit agency, but they have a special designation for districts who are exceptional in STEM. That’s science, technology, engineering and math, and we just went through the process and received a STEM accreditation. It’s a huge thing, and part of it is because we have partnerships with 17 environmental organizations over the Keys, and our main thrust has been in helping students to become environmental stewards. We want to make sure our students are never guilty of throwing a refrigerator in the water. It’s ridiculous what is found out there.”
One project for the STEM fair is from a student at Sugarloaf School.
Axford said, “It’s Taylor Thomason, and our her dad is the Director of Transportation. She is doing an investigation on assessing the effects of plastics on calcium dynamics and the health of shrimp. Then Collin Palomino has done and is working on an investigation on sea turtle nest shades. The reason that he’s doing that is because it has to be cool under that shade, and we’re not getting enough male sea turtles. So this investigation could affect the rate of growth for male sea turtles. I’m fascinated by that, too. He’s tried out different types of shade structures, and all the local scientists and Mote Marine is very interested in his project. So I’m saying these kids are not only testing hypothesis and really working at it, they’re coming up with things that are impacting the science community. So I just can’t even begin to tell you how thrilled I am about it.”
Monroe County School District is also working on becoming a NOAA Guardian district.
Axford said there is a “very committed teacher up at Sugarloaf for her project, because we want to become a NOAA Guardian district as well. She has collected 3,000 pounds of beach trash up at Sugar Loaf. The students are really embracing this. We love our beautiful environment here, and we certainly don’t want to contribute to anything that disrupts it, distorts it, makes it less inviting, especially for our guests, our tourists coming in.”
Axford recently attended the National Summit of School Safety.
She said, “This is See Something, Say Something week, and so all the schools are really celebrating this and doing things that help students understand how important it is that if you do see something, you need to talk to a trusted adult and let them know. What this does is train students to recognize the warning signs of at risk behavior, and helps them to identify a trusted adult and say something about it, but this was the first National Summit on School Safety, and there were 20 states represented. Our commissioner wanted to put this together, and it was just a great opportunity to meet with other school officials and talk about the things that we can do, and training is one of them. It’s just train, train, train. One of the serious problems and three of the parents of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas, horrible incident on February 14, on Valentine’s Day, where 14 students and three adults were killed, they talked about leakage. That’s the term that we use for someone who saw something and didn’t say anything. They do case studies of these incidents, and it’s becoming more and more clear that there were signs and there were people that knew something, but they just didn’t have the wherewithal to talk about it, to say something to somebody. So that’s what we’re trying to convince students and help them understand that it really is important. It’s not just for harming others. It’s also if a student were going to harm themselves. It’s really a concerted effort by the school district, and I was just really glad to attend that summit, because it reinforces all the things that we’re doing here. You can never do too much in this area. You have to be strident. You have to be on top of it all the time.”
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