Hello Sasquatches!

We continue to build our staff here at Lakeside with some incredible people.  The hiring process is continuing, and we are adding amazing teachers from within the district and from outside as well.  We have teachers coming from south Florida, from Texas, and a recent graduate from Florida State University who was friends with my oldest daughter, Peyton, when they were in elementary school.  Yes, I’m getting old!

The Board voted on our contract with the YMCA as our approved before and after-school program.  I should clarify that the YMCA will be sending their employees to Lakeside Academy for the program, students will NOT be bussed to the YMCA.  I’m working with their director to get the registration process underway and will send that information out to you all once it’s available.  The process will be entirely online.

We are also working with various spirit wear vendors for shirts and stylish gear for our students and our staff to show off their pride in Lakeside Academy.  This information will also be forthcoming.

Finally, it’s time to get our PTO up and running.  The PTO is a parent organization and is not run by the school, but by our supportive parents.  We have a small group of PTO members from our feeder schools setting up the apparatus for a successful school year.  This includes setting up a PTO Facebook page, filling out the necessary paperwork for non-profit status, and other various necessities.  In addition, they will be organizing a general PTO meeting in May (tentatively scheduled for May 13^th depending on space) where parents will be able to vote on our inaugural PTO president.  The PTO president might be the most difficult job in any school, and we are looking for folks interested in serving in this capacity.  The pay isn’t very good (there isn’t any) but if you have a passion for supporting our kids and our teachers and staff, you might be just who we are looking for.  If you are interested in serving, please fill out this form.

https://forms.office.com/r/zCqeqX8Dnr

The work continues. . .
Thank you, have a great evening!

Dr. Gates

 

Here’s a link to last night’s community meeting!

Logo Reveal-20240404_175958-Meeting Recording from Jesse Gates on Vimeo.

Here’s a link to our logo reveal video!  Thank you to our future teachers for their enthusiasm!

Lakeside Academy Mascot Introduction from Jesse Gates on Vimeo.

 

 

Non-Instructional Positions

If you are interested in working at Lakeside Academy next year, I encourage you to apply and attend the job fair on April 27 at Nease High School.  We are looking to build a great staff to support our students.  See link below to apply:

https://www.stjohns.k12.fl.us/recruitment/jobfairs/

Updates

We are in the process of finalizing our agreement with the YMCA to provide before and after care for our students.  Once everything is finalized, we will send out the registration information!

Good morning!

I hope you all are having a wonderful spring break.  I’m happy to announce that the school board has approved the name Lakeside Academy for our amazing new school.  This choice was the most popular one based on the community’s feedback.  We are now diligently working on the logo and mascot for the new school and will unveil the logo early next week!  We are putting the finishing touches on it now and want it to be perfect!

Thank you all!

Dr. Gates

Good morning, School OO families!

Happy March everyone!

A few updates:

School Enrollment

School enrollment for the 24-25 school year is now open!  The enrollment process is all online and can be done here:

https://www.stjohns.k12.fl.us/student/enrollment/update/

School Zoning Information

I’m getting a few questions from families regarding zoning.  Here’s a great resource for determining your school zone.

https://sjcfl.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/lookup/index.html?appid=2b39e954724b436aaa9ee1a156dc7ce3

School Name Update

I will be presenting to the school board our communities list of top names and mascots on Tuesday March 5th.  The school board will officially vote on the school’s name March 12.  I’m very excited to finally get a real name our community can begin rallying around!

Middle School Elective Update

Just a reminder that we are putting together our middle school schedule.  Please fill out this form if you have a future 6th or 7th grade students coming to our school.  Thanks!

https://forms.office.com/r/9rsPUNTKCW

Thank you for your support!

Dr. Gates

Good morning!

Our third community meeting will take place this evening at 6pm.

Here’s the agenda:

1.  Present the top school names.

2.  Present the top school mascots

3.  Review next steps in naming procedures with school board

4.  Present school colors

5.  Update on school hiring and non-instructional positions.

6.  School Website and News/Updates

7.  Questions

Here’s the link to the meeting this evening:

https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3Ameeting_OGVlMTMyNDctYmY2Zi00NmQ2LTg4OTYtMTE2OWYzMjBlOWYz%40thread.v2%2F0%3Fcontext%3D%257b%2522Tid%2522%253a%2522b3b3d057-fc12-4f3f-92f4-72be6e844351%2522%252c%2522Oid%2522%253a%2522e41fc288-24cd-4316-bd2b-c6cbae77f19e%2522%257d%26anon%3Dtrue&type=meetup-join&deeplinkId=c3fa9e87-47be-496f-8c46-a8d3305c7d8f&directDl=true&msLaunch=true&enableMobilePage=true&suppressPrompt=true

Dear Parents and/or Guardians of School OO!

The process of building a brand new school continues, and I’m excited to announce the process for our 6^th and 7^th grade students to select their middle school electives for the 2024-2025 school year by using the following forms link below.

https://forms.office.com/r/9rsPUNTKCW

Should you have any questions regarding the process, please click here to request support https://forms.office.com/r/puYV9njaiR Your request will have follow up within three (3) business days Thank you.

Your child may begin entering their selections on February 15, 2024 and will have until February 29th, 2024. Should your child miss the deadline for entering their electives, OO will assign an elective based on availability.

Below are the elective choices for rising 6th, & 7^th grade students.

ELECTIVE (NON-CORE) COURSES

Each student will receive three non-core courses.

1. Physical Education — REQUIRED for all students, 6^th & 7^th grade. This is a year-long course.
2. Computer Science Discoveries is required for all 6^th grade students. This is a year-long course.
3. 7th grade ONLY – Choose TWO of the following electives. (all electives below are a year-long course)

6th (Choose 1)	7th (Choose 2)
M/J 2-Dimensional Studio Art 1*	M/J 2-Dimensional Studio Art 2*
M/J Band 1*	M/J Band 2*
	Yearbook
	Beginning Spanish
	Computer Science Discoveries

 

*Band and Art may require a fair share fee, along with the cost of purchasing or renting an instrument.

If a student is required to take Intensive Reading, the second and/or third elective (non-core) course may be replaced with these necessary intervention courses, this may include PE.

 

Please realize that your child is making a year-long commitment to these courses, and once enrolled we cannot allow your child to drop them.

 

Your child’s teachers have already recommended Core Academic Courses such as Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies.

 

A reminder that the window to enter these elective choices is February 15 and closes on Thursday, February 29th at 11:59PM.

Thank you so much!

Dr. Gates and Mrs. Whaley