Nassau Notebook
Recording Outstanding Education
Volume IV, No. 7
Nassau County School District continues to have positive events occurring on our campuses. Take a look at some of the things that have happened recently.
🧥 Caring for Others
Mrs. Van Sickle's 6th-grade Citizenship course at Callahan Middle School hosted a jacket drive to help those in need stay warm this winter. The students were elated to know that they were making the world a little better for others.
Li'l Virtual Holiday Pirates
The virtual students in Mrs. Lendry's and Mrs. Goltry's classes at Southside Elementary were not excluded from the school's holiday festivities. The classes had a drive-by parade and poster contest. Their holiday spirit was joyful!
🎄Hornets' Holiday Buzz
Mrs. Szubelak was ready to visit "Whoville".
Pirates Supporting School and Neighbors
Fernandina Beach Middle School's Student Council has been hard at work all year promoting school spirit and supporting their community.
At the start of school, they sold FBMS t-shirts with students' names. In October, they raised money for Breast Cancer Awareness and Gerri's Corner by having students guess how many M&M's were in a jar. In November, they held a food drive and collected over 550 cans/boxes of food for the Barnabas Food Pantry. In December, they sold candy bars to raise money to purchase toys for the Toys For Tots program. Fernandina Middle is certainly supporting their community.
They continued to promote school spirit by providing snacks and water for sports teams before games. Over winter break, they met at the school and created the chainlink fence's FBMS Pirates signage at the front of the school.
Members of the Student Council are Hadleigh White (President), Neriah Giedrys (Vice President), Brittany Cochran (Secretary), Stella Behm (Treasurer), and the Representatives: Loretta Stephenson, Jayla Washington, Steven Virden, Clay Hicks, Isaac Leon, Will Featherston, and Mrs. Lindy Lesoine (Faculty Advisor).
Happy Holiday Readers 📚
Before winter break, the teachers at Callahan Elementary School were gifted a Holiday Reader to visit their classroom which allowed the teachers to take 20 minutes to themselves. CES had many school district leaders and their office staff reading to the classes.
The teachers and students were so delighted to have visitors on campus to read to them. Thank you to all that made it happen.
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Many Thanks to You!
Callahan Intermediate School celebrated School Resource Officer Day by surprising Officer Caldwell with a Thank You sign, cards from students, and lots of treats.
Callahan's Hero
January 8th was to celebrate your school resource officer. Callahan Elementary showered Officer Browning throughout the day with his favorite things.. starting with his favorite breakfast casserole made by Mrs. Johnson!
"Heroes are made by the path they choose not the powers they are graced with."
Thank you Officer Browning for all you do at CES!
Trailblazers ♥ SRO Steel
Safety Officer Day couldn't pass without Wildlight Elementary show SRO Doug Steel how much they appreciate him.
Celebrating Officer Smith
Yulee Primary School's Officer Jacob Smith was honored with a cake and many signs and cards from our faculty and staff.
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Rockin' the 80's 🎵
Callahan Elementary celebrated the 80th of school with "Going Back to the 80s". The teachers all dressed the part and had a "tubular" time. We can't wait to watch the staff grow old to ring in the 100th day of school!
🎨Graffiti Learning
Mrs. Lundquist, Callahan Middle School, had her 8th-grade students review their Ecology unit by participating in a Kagan Carousel/Round Table Consensus/Graffiti Activity. Each group was given a colored marker and topics on chart paper around the room. Teams were to dump learned information on their chart as a review. Students had only a small amount of time to place their graffiti on the chart before Mrs. Lundquist rang the bell to rotate to the next chart.
The students recalled their learning about the six major Ecology topics required in 8th grade. This was a fast-paced, LOUD, activity that engaged all students and gave students an opportunity to get up and move. Teachers at CMS took pictures of the graffiti and posted them on Canvas for students to review.
🏆Nassau County School District Wins Competitive Grant Funds for Entrepreneurship and Training
In October, the Florida Department of Education announced a competitive funding opportunity for school districts and state colleges. While there are 74 school districts in Florida (67 counties and research and specialty schools) and 28 state colleges, only 22 projects were awarded across the state. Nassau County ($50,000 award) was one of 12 school districts to receive an award and the only district in the 8-county workforce region. Florida State College at Jacksonville ($25,000) was one of 10 state colleges receiving funds.
Monies from the project will be used to offer an Entrepreneurship and Marketing Summer Institute for 8th through 11th graders across the district, construction of a half credit hybrid or virtual business leadership skills course for 8th graders, and classroom tie-ins between high school multimedia courses and the Institute for Enterprise (I4E) NTCC (Bean Center) Entrepreneurship program. In addition to I4E, Nassau County 4-H will become a partner in several of the new endeavors. According to CTE Director, Brent Lemond, the goal is to create a more systemic pipeline for the NTCC program by exposing students to business skills at a younger age. “Ultimately, we are growing the innovators of tomorrow,” said Lemond.
Brian Simmons, the district’s Entrepreneurship instructor, was the project lead on the grant application and will be coordinating most of the grant activities. Simmons is not only an accomplished teacher, he owns a local business, Compute This! in Callahan, and is a member of the Northeast Florida Fair Board. In addition to the Entrepreneurship program, he also teaches the Computer Systems and Information Technology program, both at the Bean Center.
“With this grant more students will be exposed to the characteristics of an entrepreneurial mindset and have the opportunity to meet local small business owners. It is exciting that we are able to expand our entrepreneurship program in a way that reaches middle school students.” said Simmons.
Contact Us -
Email: bassca2@nassau.k12.fl.us
Website: nassau.k12.fl.us
Location: 1201 Atlantic Avenue, Fernandina Beach, FL, USA
Phone: 904-491-9900
Facebook: facebook.com/NassauSchoolsFL
Twitter: @NassauSchoolsFL