St. Lucie County Public Schools

St. Lucie County is indeed on the rise. A region once perceived as primarily an agricultural area, as part of Florida’s Treasure Coast, is emerging as the premier site in the state for expanded research and education, as well as a highly desirable location for families and business enterprise.

Thus, a budding transformation of identity as Florida’s Research Coast casts the spotlight on public education as the cornerstone of the foundation for this emergence. Currently rated a “B” by the Florida Department of Education, the St. Lucie County School District aims to earn an “A” based on student performance in 2007.

The school district employs approximately 4,500, more than half of whom are classroom teachers. With over 38,000 students in the 2006-2007 school year, and with an annual operating budget exceeding $470,000,000, millions of dollars are being invested in many existing campuses to renovate and expand to the K-8 instructional model. Educational research has shown to enhance the academic and social environment for students and their families.

Rapid growth in the district’s student population has generated the need for additional student stations – and teachers for those students -- in new and expanded schools throughout the county, but primarily in the southwest region of St. Lucie County. In 2006, two new, state-of-the-art schools – Treasure Coast High School and WestGate K-8 School, both in Port St. Lucie -- joined Oak Hammock K-8 which opened in the 2005-2006 school year, as the newest schools in the district. In 2007, a new K-8 facility, Samuel S. Gaines Academy in Fort Pierce, and a K-8 campus comprised of hybrid portable classrooms in western Port St. Lucie, will open their doors to students. Students attending the hybrid portable school will attend a school under construction in Port St. Lucie that will open for the 2008-2009 school year. And Fort Pierce Central High School will move less than two miles from its current location on Edwards Road to a new, state-of-the-art facility for the 2008-2009 school year as well.

St. Lucie County Schools Superintendent Michael Lannon led a group of district leaders that were recognized the top in their field in 2006. Mr. Lannon was named the 2007 Florida Superintendent of the Year, for his activism for children, and his involvement with many organizations to improve the quality of life for all sectors of the county and region.

Lannon also has led the district in many challenging initiatives in the last several years, including re-drawing student attendance zones, establishing a district-wide student dress code, managing an aggressive building program to accommodate tremendous growth in student population, as well as personally ensuring the school district supported the entire community during the challenges of recent devastating hurricane seasons.

Glen Rustay, for Port St. Lucie Elementary School, earned the Florida Elementary Assistant Principal of the Year award, and Charles Cuomo of Forest Grove Middle School was recognized as a regional finalist for 2007 Middle School Principal of the Year for the state.

St. Lucie County public schools showed significant improvement district-wide in school grades. The report card-like assessments are primarily based on student performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests, or FCAT. Seventy five (75) per cent of schools either raised their letter grade by at least one, or maintained their grade from last year. There were no F schools in the district.

These advances are significant, especially in context of the district being in the first year of a three year plan of transformation in the academic business plan. These reformations include a district-wide Scope and Sequence plan outlining curriculum, as well as a major reading initiative. Teachers, support staff, and administrators are credited with the improvement in student achievement.

For 2006, school grades across the district showed a 10 per cent gain in the number of A and B schools, 60 per cent this year as compared to 50 percent in 2005. There was a five percent improvement in the number of schools earning As, up from 19 to 24 per cent; a five per cent improvement in schools earning Bs, from 31 to 36 per cent; an eight per cent drop in schools earning Cs, an improvement from 41 to 33 per cent; and a three per cent drop in schools earning Ds, an improvement from 9 to 6 per cent.

The St. Lucie County school district was for the second year in the top 10 districts in the state for learning gains by minorities as compared with their white counterparts as Hispanic students again outgained learning gains in mathematics, closing the learning gap for minority students.

St. Lucie County third through 10th grade students significantly exceeded the national average score by at least 11, and as much as 21 percentile points on the standardized Norm Referenced Tests in mathematics and reading. St. Lucie County students scored from the 61st to 67th percentile in reading, as much as 17 points higher than the national average; in math, students scored from the 63rd to the 71st percentile, as much as 21 percentage points higher than the national average.

Communication is very important to St. Lucie County Schools’ administration. The district has increased use of its computerized telephone messaging system to communicate with parents and the community, publishes weekly an electronic newsletter focusing on the accomplishments of students, teachers, and staff that is distributed internally and externally, and has expanded public information cablecast programming on local the education channels.

To register your children for school you may go to the Orange Blossom Business Park located on Okeechobee Avenue in Fort Pierce, from there you will need to go to student assignment. When registering your children in local public schools for the first time, parents should present the following: One document showing proof of residence, a certificate of immunization, proof of medical examination during the past 12 months, birth certificate and a copy of the child’s last report card is helpful. For the public school your child should attend please contact: 772-429-3600.

For additional school information, visit www.stlucie.k12.fl.us.