The Connection
Connecting you to the School District of Indian River County
Welcome to The Connection!
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.
Have a safe and fun summer break! Students return on August 12, 2019!
Join us on Saturday, June 1st at VBHS for FREE, NEW BOOKS!
First Book Distribution Project
Saturday, Jun 1, 2019, 10:00 AM
1707 16th Street, Vero Beach, FL, USA
VBHS Student receives congressional medal of merit
The Medal of Merit is designed to recognize, honor and acknowledge outstanding students in our community who have demonstrated exemplary citizenship and academic excellence throughout their high school careers.
Pictured left to right: Principal Shawn O’Keefe, Congressman Bill Posey, Andrew Keller, Renee Keller, IRC School Board Chairman Laura Zorc.
2019 Treasure Coast Technical College Medical Assisting Graduates
Front row, left to right: Siobhan Adams, Norma Almanza, Joseline Olvera
Back row, left to right: Sheila Creighton/CareerSource; Maria DeLeon, Sarah Mallory, Andrea Ramales, Jayme Sheffield, Latoyia Paris
Academic Games Team recognized at Board MEeting
science fair students recognized at board meeting
More than 10,000 students in our district participate in school based science fairs. 550+ students advance to the regional science fair in January. At our Board meeting on 5/28, we recognized the students who advanced to the State and International Science Fair, and their teachers. These students represent the top 1% of all high achieving students in the State of Florida! 80% of these students brought home top awards! Vero Beach High School students Griffin Wagner, Lauren Amos, and Sydney Tran competed at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair in Phoenix Arizona. Congratulations to these hard working students, and their teachers, families, SDIRC science department, and community partners for their support.
motus tower installed at vbhs to track migrating wildlife
Thanks to a partnership between our school district and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an antenna was mounted to the top of Vero Beach High School last week that will help bird watchers around the world track migratory bird movements through Indian River County as part of a wildlife tracking system called “Motus.”
Motus is essentially a coordinated system of automated receiver stations used to track migratory animals, primarily birds and bats, through terrestrial and coastal environments. These migratory animals have been affixed with digitally-encoded radio transmitters, usually attached by a Teflon ribbon harness, which broadcast signals several times each minute. The signals are detected by the automated receiver stations that are scanning for signals 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. When the tracking data collected from multiple receiver stations are combined and analyzed, the results enable researchers to study the movements of migratory animals over large distances.
May is Mental Health Month
May's Casual for a Cause
May is ALS Awareness Month
What is ALS?
Veteran of the Month: Rev. Dave Newhart
Reverand Dave Newhart currently serves as Chaplain on the Board of Directors for the Veterans Council of Indian River County (VCIRC). He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and grew up in a military family. His father retired after 20 years in the Air Force and was awarded the Distinguished 'Flying Cross' while flying missions in Viet Nam, his sister served 7 years in the Navy, and his son served in the Army.
After graduating from high school and attending one year at the University of New Mexico, he joined the Air Force in January 1975. Father Dave served during the Cold War Era with assignments at Eglin AFB Florida with the 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing, Spangdahlem AFB, Germany, with the 52nd Tactical Fighter Wing, and with the 59th Aircraft Generation Squadron at Luke AFB, Arizona. His specialty was working on F-4 D, E’s and F-15’s.
Following his time in the military, he attended Arizona State University and received a BS in Ag-Industry with an emphasis in Food Service. Upon graduation, and two years of post-graduate studies, he worked 18 years in the food industry as Quality Manager for a food distribution company until 2002, when he entered the seminary.
As an Episcopal priest he served in Boerne, Texas, and is currently serving at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church, in Sebastian.
Fr. Dave has served as Chaplain for the past three years on the Veterans Council, and his passion is meeting the needs that help and serve all our veterans who actively served their country. He promotes veteran activities in his community and reaches out to others to make them aware the of special needs of our veterans. He is a member of American Legion 189 and American Legion 189 Riders.
2019 Summer VPK Enrollment Information
Introducing our NEW SDIRC Mobile App!
Introducing our new SDIRC mobile app, designed to enable parents, staff, students, and the community to stay informed and up-to-date on important issues, information, and activities underway within our school district. The free app, which proudly displays the SDIRC logo, provides the most used resources from our website directly on your mobile device; including, lunch menus, maps, event calendars, social media updates, school contact information, and notifications from the school(s) of your choice!
Download for Apple iOS at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sdirc/id1451344822?mt=8
Download for Android at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.relianceco.cma.SDIRC
ESE Parent Survey
STEP Into Kindergarten
fortifyFL security app
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.
support education with a fresh, new look!
The Support Education specialty tag has a fresh new look! For the first time in 25 years, the tag has undergone a total makeover.
Since its introduction in 1994, more than $13 million has been raised through the collaborative efforts of the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations (CFEF) and local education foundation members across the state.
While the look has changed, one thing remains the same – when Florida residents purchase or renew their Support Education specialty tag, $20 goes directly back to support education programs in the county where the tag was purchased or renewed. Funds support programs like classroom innovation, education enrichment programs, supporting and recognizing teachers, extra help and mentoring for at-risk students, school supplies, and school scholarships.
Visit www.LicenseToLearnFL.com to learn more, purchase, or trade in your current Support Education tag today!
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/
IRCSO Tips Hotline and School Tips Email
School information
Posting of flyers does not imply endorsement or recommendation by the School District of Indian River County.
School District of Indian River County's Strategic Plan
Click below to see our District's Strategic Plan
Follow Us!
The School District of Indian River County
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