Theresa Axford, superintendent of schools 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 our schools.
STEM is always a very big part of the curriculum, and some students exceled at the state science fair.
Axford said, “I’m so proud of them. When you say STEM is really featured in Monroe County, we’re actually recognized as a STEM district by our accrediting agency, Cognia. So we’ve got extraordinary science teachers working in all of our schools, and it’s really paying off in the performance of the students. So yes, Taylor Thomason from Sugar Loaf School, she won first in the state in her area of Earth and Environmental Science, and so this is in the junior division. I just picture Taylor doing incredible things for the world in terms of accomplishments as an adult. She’s investigating the effects of plastics on calcium dynamics and the health of shrimp. Think about that. It’s amazing. Then Collin Palomino, also from Sugarloaf, won the Thomas Edison Award for outstanding project, and Collin is investigating sea turtle nest shades. The temperature of the of the environment affects the sex of sea turtles, so those nesting shades are really important, because when you keep the temperatures cool, there are more males sea turtles who are born and lately, because of climate conditions and things getting warmer, we’ve been having more females than males. So this is an important study that Collin is doing, and these are our kids. A big hats off to our science coordinator Donna Tedesco, who makes all this happen, and the Sugarloaf science teacher Alena Ellerbee, she’s working with these kids all the time, but I just can’t even tell you how proud I am of that work that we’re doing in science and then we’re getting those kids out culturally too. Yesterday we had, I love the performance, it’s called Buckets and Boards, and it was these two guys, Matt and Garth, who just used drumsticks, and they play all different kinds of buckets, but it’s fascinating to show how much music you can create with just buckets. The students were absolutely enthralled, and they’re very engaging. They call themselves a comedy act with music involved, but it is absolutely wonderful. So I was there with the students yesterday and in our strategic planning, which we did in ’22, a new strategic plan, I guess, is going to be put together by the new superintendent, parents asked us in ‘22 that they wanted more cultural opportunities for students. So last year, we had 6,000 kids who attended field trips and cultural events, and now this is an example of one of those. So I think we have really met our goal for exposure for students to cultural and entertainment and other kinds of events.”
An employee recognition event is coming up.
Axford said, “On April 11 at Hawks Cay and so last week, we kind of finished up notifying our people. At Poinciana School, the principal there is our Principal of the Year, Tara Whitehead, and this is a surprise. She didn’t know, and the students were lined to the halls. Everybody was like whispering, and they’re all holding signs up, Principal of the Year. She was in a kindergarten class, and we pulled her out, and they started playing celebration, and she walked through all the halls the kids were giving her flowers. It was so nice. Then we did the same thing at HOV with Mr. Scott Meier. He’s our Assistant Principal of the Year. He was so humble. He said he could never even believe that he would get this recognition and those are the people who deserve it the most, really. I mean, it was just a beautiful, beautiful day. We’re going to recognize our wonderful teacher of the year, who is a music teacher, and we think that is just great, Katharine Yarbrough, and we’re going to be recognizing Effie Jackson, our wonderful food services director. She is our Employee of the Year in that area, and we’re going to recognize all of them on April the 11th. It will be a wonderful evening.”
Axford will retire this year after more than 33 years of service.
She said, “I was checking yesterday, and there were 18 applications, but the deadline was midnight last night, so I would imagine a flurry of applications came in as we got up until midnight, and so yes, it’s a very exciting time for the school district, wonderful applicants and the board is meeting next Tuesday, which I believe is April 8. The school board is going to select semi finalists, so that’ll be an exciting workshop, starting at four o’clock on Tuesday at city hall in Key West.”
The selection of a superintendent is scheduled for May 6.
Axford said, “We’re in the thick of it right now at schools, because there’s so much going on. Yesterday, we had our Florida writing for the Florida assessment of student thinking. We had the fast writing test. So the kids are not only working hard, but they’re trying to get all their grades and everything taken care of for the fourth quarter. So exciting times. It’s wonderful in schools. I was up in Plantation Key School on Monday and at Coral Shores High School, visiting classrooms. I want to give a big shout out to the ELA department at Coral Shores. Just incredible things going on in those classrooms and PKS as well. It’s so wonderful for a superintendent, I think I’ve visited over 100 classrooms this year. I really enjoy getting to the schools and getting in classrooms and writing notes to teachers and just supporting them and letting them know what a great job they’re doing. It’s what I love.”