• Category 2

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 3,551
    Student Enrollment: 575
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 10%
    White/Caucasian: 76%
    Hispanic: 8%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 6%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:18
    % Reduced Lunch: 73%
    % ELL Learners: 1%
    Founded: 1988
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Nicole Wade
  • CONTACT:
    790 CR 482 North
    Lake Panasoffkee, FL 33538
    352-793-1093
    nicole.wade@sumter.k12.fl.us
Lake Panasoffkee Elementary School
Lake Panasoffkee, FL
A positive school culture is the foundation for a successful school. When everyone treats each other like family, success is imminent.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
LPES implemented "FAN Club Nights" a few years ago and have continued to offer them each year. FAN stands for Family Activity Nights. LPES boasts a 99% parent involvement rate for the 2016-2017 school year, meaning that all but one of our 530 students were represented by a parent/family member at one or more afterschool activities. Yes, just one student! We are striving for 100% this year at at least two events. We feel strongly that much of our success can be attributed to our great relationship and support from families and community members. We are working hard to build relationships with the community through our FAN Club Nights such as STEM night, our Holiday Musical, Young Author's Night, Chili BINGO, and Accelerated Reader (AR) nights. We partner with local businesses and community groups as sponsors and volunteers for the events. Our goal is to provide a free meal and educational activity for families to participate in at least monthly.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
Each year, our school hosts a "Back to School Luau" to bring together our community and help students get ready for the start of the school year. We distributed around 250 backpacks/school supplies and 500 hotdogs at this year's event with financial support from local businesses and organizations. We also had many community groups attend our "Resource Fair" giving away school supplies and sharing information about their organizations and what services they offer to our families. This includes local businesses, churches and community groups. Families could also meet their child's new teacher and receive information about the upcoming school year. Our PTO also sponsored bounce houses to add an extra dose of fun!
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
At LPES, we believe that change and improvement starts with a positive school culture. Students can achieve more when they feel comfortable and cared for. That is why we have focused so heavily on our Positive Behavior Support (PBS) and mentoring for students, monthly celebrations with staff and many parent involvement activities. We will continue to develop the Growth Mindset, based on research by Dr. Carol Dweck. We have used this research in our professional development and have also shared information this year at a parent night. Although we are a high performing school, we know that we have areas we can continue to improve. We as professionals can set an example for our students of how to have a growth mindset for our own learning. We share in each other's successes and support each other in areas in need of improvement.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Our top two goals for this year are:
1. To increase our lowest performing students' achievement by increasing their self-esteem and motivation to learn. We will do this through our mentoring program and weekly challenges. These students either have an adult and/or peer mentor providing feedback and positive motivation to keep trying their best. The weekly challenges allow these students to see small successes often which will build their self-esteem and endurance to make great gains this year.
2. To see 100% parent involvement. We would like to have 100% of our students represented by a family member for at least 2 of our afterschool events. We believe having involved parents greatly effects student achievement. Teachers have weekly communication with parents through the Remind App, Class Dojo or classroom newsletters or emails. We feel strongly that if we can meet this goal, we will see our student achievement rise higher than it ever has!
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
A positive school culture is the foundation for a successful school. When everyone treats each other like family, success is imminent. This family atmosphere comes from building relationships with our staff, students, parents and community. Even the smallest things make a huge difference! When staff and students feel appreciated, they will achieve great results. We have many activities that make this positive environment possible. Here are a few of our ideas: Our staff members celebrate each other's successes through a brag board in the office. We often have "pot luck" lunches so that teachers and staff can eat together, rather than making copies or grading papers alone during lunch. We have FAN (Family Activity Nights) Club to invite families into our school to see what we are doing. We honor our families through activities like our Veteran's Day Parade. Our students are celebrated and recognized often for their behavior and academic growth.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
For the past ten years or so, our district has been implementing the Learning Focused Instructional Framework (LFS), a research based system designed to support all students in improving achievement. Our district developed curriculum maps designed around the Florida Standards and revises them each year. Our teachers have attended trainings on a common lesson plan frame, using high yield/higher order strategies throughout the units of instruction, and how to accelerate and differentiate learning for all students. We believe this program has provided the support for teachers to close achievement gaps among students by providing a solid curriculum and instructional framework. As part of a solid framework, our school has increased the amount of technology available to students and teachers. The entire school uses Office 365. All classrooms are outfitted with a projector and document camera. In grades 3 - 5, each student has a laptop. We have 11 ebeams (interactive white board device).
Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Each year, with the help of our faculty and the SAC committee, we create our School Improvement Plan (SIP). From the goals outlined in our SIP, we determine our needs, create strategies to support learning and establish budgets. Title I funds are utilized to pay for some of our staff members that work directly with students. Paraprofessionals work daily in collaboration with classroom teachers to support our low performing students in practicing basic math and reading skills necessary to participate effectively during classroom lessons. Title I funds also purchase instructional programs. In the 2016-2017 school year, Title I paid for Successmaker (reading and math), Renaissance Learning (Accelerated Reader - AR), Brain Pop (all subject areas), and Explore Learning Gizmos (math and science). Title I provides funding for parent involvement activities and supplies for events such as Open House, STEM night, Young Author's Night, Science Fair Night and AR nights.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
Last year we began implementing personalized professional development by allowing teachers to plan and lead their own professional development days. Some of our days are predetermined based on district and school initiatives with required training, but we try to provide at least two days per year in which the teachers help create the PD plan. We based our approach on the "Ed Camp" philosophy. We have a wealth of knowledge right on our own campus. Using this philosophy, we are building up our teachers as leaders among their peers. On the morning of the training, we post a blank schedule for the day. Teachers write either trainings they want to lead or a training they need to attend on the schedule. They offer up their classrooms for the discussions. Some sessions are based on specific programs we utilize (such as Office 365) while others are more general topics like extra support for special education or ideas for one to one technology in classrooms.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Data drives everything we do. At the beginning of the year, we spent a lot of time looking over last year's data and created a School Improvement Plan designed to help us improve student achievement. That plan is a living document revisited by administration and teachers throughout the year. During Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), teachers analyze current classroom data and create lessons and activities based around the needs of their students We are supporting our students by closely monitoring our bottom quartile (BQ) students and those students who have two or more factors in the Early Warning System (including attendance, discipline, grades, etc.). Our school has a strong mentoring program over the past three years, allowing students to either have an adult or peer mentor regarding academic, social or emotional topics that effect achievement. We also have a targeted group of BQ students who meet with the assistant principal for weekly academic challenges.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
LPES has a family atmosphere. We are a Positive Behavior School (PBS). Our bus drivers, cafeteria staff, custodian, and teachers work together to reward students and classrooms who go above and beyond in their behavior. Students earn PBS dollars by following our school-wide expectations - "SOAR" - Stay on Task, Obey Safety Rules, Act Responsibly, and Respect Others." Students save their money for small trinkets or prizes like "Lunch with the Principal" or "Principal for the Day." Students love getting to carry the principal's walkie-talkie and help with lunch duty! Classrooms can also earn rewards like a movie or popsicles. This combined with our mentoring program has cut discipline in half from previous years.

As for staff, we have a "brag board" where things such as newspaper articles, weddings, new babies, and other things to pat each other on the backs! We also have a monthly staff drawing. Staff members and teachers give tickets to each other for good deeds or to say thanks.
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 3,551
    Student Enrollment: 575
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 10%
    White/Caucasian: 76%
    Hispanic: 8%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 6%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:18
    % Reduced Lunch: 73%
    % ELL Learners: 1%
    Founded: 1988
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Nicole Wade
  • CONTACT:
    790 CR 482 North
    Lake Panasoffkee, FL 33538
    352-793-1093
    nicole.wade@sumter.k12.fl.us