Congratulations to Paxton Art students for winning third place at the Florida State Spanish Conference in Orlando, Florida for their poster entry. Over 35 schools were represented at the Conference. Paxton art students and their teacher, Corinne Wilson, represented Walton County School District in EPIC2 fashion!
Picture courtesy of Corinne Wilson
Congratulation to Mrs. Sue Brack upon her retirement from Walton County School District!
Mrs. Brack graduated from Paxton High School, Class of 1958. She began her career at Walton County School District in March 1990 in the ESE Department covering for Johnnie Kay Ealum who was on maternity leave.
From the ESE Department she went to Paxton High School in the summer of 1990 as a career aide. She only worked at Paxton for a few months when there came an opening at Walton Middle School for an 8th grade instructional aide.
After working at Walton Middle School for a year, she transferred to Paxton High School as Bookkeeper where she remained for five years. Mrs. Brack reminisces that this was a great opportunity to work at the school where she received her education. She transferred to the district office as a bookkeeper in September of 1997.
Mrs. Brack has been employed at the Tivoli complex district office for nearly 22 years. In her position at the district office she has had the privilege of working with several different Coordinators and Supervisors. Mrs. Brack says she is known as the “budget lady.” She shared that she has had the opportunity to work with many different employees throughout the district as she executed her responsibilities ordering textbooks, library media, science labs and school improvement.
Mrs. Brack stated she has witnessed much growth in the 29 years she has worked in the district, under several different Superintendents. When she began in 1990, Mossy Head School, South Walton High School, Emerald Coast Middle School, and Van R. Butler Elementary School did not exist. During these years she saw the Freeport community increase from two schools to three.
“After working for 28 years in banking, transferring to a position in education was very challenging. I have learned a lot about education and how everything works together for the students in Walton County” she said. Mrs. Brack also served as bookkeeper for the Walton Education Foundation for 20 years.
“As I retire and look back on my many years in the district, I have made many new friends and memories that will last a lifetime.”
Superintendent Hughes and the entire Walton County School District thank Mrs. Brack for her dedicated service, and wish her many happy, healthy years enjoying retirement!
Photo credits: Stephanie Rhodes
WCSD recently hosted an inservice training developed by the Florida Department of Transportation for Florida Safe Routes to School (bicycle/pedestrian) at the WISE/Carlene Anderson Training Center in DeFuniak Springs. The purpose of the professional development, led by trainer Caitlyn Cerame, was to train teachers to introduce children to safe pedestrian behaviors and the concept of traffic. The goal is to teach children the necessary skills to be safer pedestrians whether walking to and from school, to the school bus stop, or other common situations.
The training was designed to:
Bay Elementary Second grade has been busy with a broad curriculum of applied knowledge and problem solving using STEM and the recent celebrations of Dr. Seuss’ birthday and Read Across America Day through a series of daily centers. Second Grade student, Rori, read The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss to the class, then each student colored a part of the piece to reveal the hidden message. Students talked about how we are all different and unique which makes them special. Teachers read aloud “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish,” and then students used their themes from the book to work math problems graphing and plotting points with goldfish. After reading “Cat in the Hat” students worked in groups to create a crazy hat for their teammates. From “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” students were asked to complete a journal playing off of ELA-structured questions that asked students to form an opinion and make predictions about the author’s meaning.
In STEM, students used applied knowledge of, “How Natural Disasters Can Impact Building Structures,” with hands-on learning. They built structures and tested their strength with a hair dryer and then problem solved. Keep up the good work Second Grade! Submitted by Lindsey Harp
Freeport Middle School art students studied Traditional African Adinkra Cloth making for Art in World Cultures. We created original stamps with historical symbolic meanings to learn about the Ghana Ashanti culture. Way to go FMS artists!
Submitted by Kendra Estes
Mrs. Amanda Callahan’s 3rd grade class at WDE explored the character trait - Love of Learning - by completing a STEM project about the strength of cylinders. The class asked the question, “How many books will one piece of paper hold, when it is rolled into a cylinder?” Students were amazed at how strong a paper cylinder could be! One group was able to stack 16 books!
Submitted by Jessica Dawkins
Safety remains a commitment of Superintendent Hughes and priority for our school leaders, teachers and district! He stopped at a school to observe and give feedback on an ALICE Training drill!
Matthew Lynch (12th) and Holden Mitchell (10th) tied for third place in the Northwest Florida Regional Seaperch Competition. Held at the University of West Florida's Aquatic Center, they competed against thirty-two teams in two underwater challenges with an underwater robot that they built from scratch. Way to go, STEM-Cats! Submitted by Kalli McMillan
