Mr. Ben Humphries, is our Veteran of the Month for the month of August. Ben served in the US Army as a Staff Sgt. from 1967-1971, and the U.S. Army Reserve from 1973-1975.

Our district is hosting a Community Needs Assessment for the Indian River Community Foundation, who has joined with the United Way of Indian River County, the Florida Department of Health in Indian River County, and the Children’s Services Advisory Committee to produce a comprehensive community needs assessment for Indian River County. This participatory survey will be conducted through September 3, 2019, with findings reported to the community in the spring of 2020. Please visit the website for more information. www.indianriverschools.org

We are proud to announce our Veteran of the Month for July, Jim Burk! Jim is a 30-year resident of Florida and a veteran of the U. S. Coast Guard. Through his 20-year association with the American Legion and American Legion Riders, holding the offices of Post Commander, District Vice Commander, Eastern Area Commander and Department (State of Florida) Riders Director, Jim has been instrumental in encouraging the local Legion Posts to engage in feeding and clothing homeless Veterans with much needed help from the community.

Tuttle Law recognized at the Commissioner’s Business Recognition Awards. Mr. Tuttle is a local attorney in Vero Beach, Florida. In the early 90’s, Mr. Tuttle worked in a law firm in Brevard county, and heard of the need for programs and contests specifically for students with disabilities. After running the holiday card contest for 6 years in Brevard county, he moved to Indian River County in 2002, opened his own firm, and carried on the contest, officially naming it the “Tuttle Holiday Card Contest.” For the past 17 years, during the holiday season, hundreds of students have submitted their drawings to the “Tuttle Holiday Card Contest.” Read more on our website's Current News. www.indianriverschools.org

Nicole Haagenson is an Air Force and Florida Air National Guard Veteran who served from 2001 to 2009. She is currently the Director of IT Enterprise Project Managment for Orchid Insurance, a small business headquartered in Vero Beach. Nicole has lived in Vero Beach since 2009 with her fiance Cari Haagenson, an Indian River County Firefighter, and their 5 children.

For the fifth year in a row, the School District of Indian River County (SDIRC) Mobile Cafés will be on the road serving children 18 years and younger with nutritionally balanced lunches at no charge. Visit our website for the schedule. www.indianriverschools.org

The Society for Science & the Public, in partnership with the Intel Foundation, announced Grand Awards of the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair 2019 held during the week of May 12, 2019 in Phoenix, Arizona. Student winners are ninth through twelfth graders who earned the right to compete at the Intel ISEF 2019 by winning a top prize at a local, regional, state or national science fair.

Families, staff, and community are invited to review the proposed changes for the 2019-2020 Code of Student Conduct. The public hearing will be held during the District School Board business meeting on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, at 6 p.m. at the J.A. Thompson Administrative Center, 6500 57th St., Vero Beach, Florida, in the Joe N. Idlette, Jr. Teacher Education Center. The last date for filing a written objection is April 30, 2019. A copy of the proposed changes is available for review in the office of the School Board Members, and on the website https://www.indianriverschools.org/news/what_s_new/2019-2020_code_of_student_conduct_draft

Congratulations to our April "Veteran of the Month," Bruce Cady, former Director of Operations for the Veterans Council of Indian River County, and founding member of the Next Generation Veterans organization. Bruce served in the USMC from 1992-2001. Thank you for your service, Mr. Cady!

Learn about the summer school programs in the District for students from Pre-K to 12th Grades.

Do not forget, THIS weekend, Saturday, April 6th, is the Moonshot Sports 6th Annual - Read Across the Field - to celebrate the Moonshot Moment! Line up on the SRHS field at 8 a.m. to participate in the aerial photo. The Bill Wilson Indian River County Elementary Track meet will take place at 9 a.m. All athletes in attendance are encouraged to wear their team uniform! Please consider bringing a gently used book to donate!

We want to hear from our parents! Each year the School District surveys our parents and uses the data to make improvements in our schools. The Parent Survey for this year opened on March 25th. Please visit us online to take the survey.

We are excited to announce the launch of our official mobile app designed to enable parents, staff, students, and the community to stay informed and up-to-date on important issues, information, and activities that are underway within our school district.

The Indian River County Tax Collector’s Inaugural Kids Tag Art Program provided our 5th grade students with an opportunity to create their own specialty license plates.

Reverend McIntosh is wonderful member of our veterans community and is a leader throughout the state of Florida. Rev. McIntosh is a member of American Legion Post 181 in Gifford, and was appointed by the City of Vero Beach City Council to serve on the Veterans Memorial Island Sanctuary Committee.

The Elks "Americanism" Essay Contest Winners were recognized in a ceremony last night at the Vero Beach Elks Lodge #1774. Congratulations to these students, and good luck to those who moved on to the state competition!Thank you to the Elks Lodge #1774 for your support of our students in Indian River County!

We are pleased to announce that the FortifyFL app is LIVE. Now, any student, educator, parent, or member of the public can report school safety concerns directly to law enforcement and school administrators anonymously and easily through the FortifyFL app or www.getfortifyfl.com.

Zora Hurston was a world-renowned writer and anthropologist. Hurston’s novels, short stories, and plays often depicted African American life in the South. Her work in anthropology examined black folklore. Hurston influenced many writers, forever cementing her place in history as one of the foremost female writers of the 20th century.

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents divorced when she was only three and she essencewas sent with her brother Bailey to live with their grandmother in the small town of Stamps, Arkansas.

In 1888, James Dean was elected to be the county judge in Key West, Monroe County. A graduate of Howard University College of Law, he is said to be the first black judge to have been elected in the South post Reconstruction.

Reverend James Page is recognized as the first ordained black minister in Florida. He served as the pastor of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church. Page arrived to Leon County as the slave of John Parkhill from Richmond, Va. Very little is known about his early childhood. He worked as a gardener, carriage driver, and body servant to his owner.

T. Thomas Fortune was born a slave in Marianna, Florida, on October 3, 1856, and was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. He attended Howard University from 1876 to 1877. From 1891 to 1907 he was the editor and co-owner of several influential New York-based black newspapers including The New York Globe, and The New York Freeman, the latter of which was renamed The New York Age in 1887.

Early in February 1863, the abolitionist Governor John A. Andrew of Massachusetts issued the Civil War’s first call for black soldiers. Massachusetts did not have many African-American residents, but by the time 54th Infantry regiment headed off to training camp two weeks later more than 1,000 men had volunteered.

Joseph E. Lee, one of Florida’s most distinguished adopted sons, was born in Philadelphia in 1849. Shortly after obtaining a law degree from Howard University in 1873, Lee began to practice in Florida as Jacksonville's first black lawyer. Joseph Lee´s achievements ranged over several aspects of public life.

Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, on a cotton plantation near Delta, Louisiana. Her parents, Owen and Minerva, were recently freed slaves, and Sarah, who was their fifth child, was the first in her family to be free-born.

Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to occupy the White House. Obama was born August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was a Kenyan graduate student studying in the United States and his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, a white American from Wichita, Kansas.

Repeatedly on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world, Oprah Winfrey is a television host, media mogul – in television, radio, film, and print – and philanthropist. Forbes magazine included her in its 2003 list of America’s billionaires, the first African American woman to become one.

Award winning actor, director, and author, Sidney Poitier broke racial barriers and stereotyping in the film industry to become the leading African American male actor of the 20th Century.  In a career that spanned 57 years, Poitier was a featured performer or starred in 48 films and directed six.

Dr. Condoleezza Rice is the first black woman to serve as the United States’ national security adviser, as well as the first black woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State (2005-09). Condoleezza Rice was born in 1954 in Alabama. She became the first woman and first African American to serve as provost of Stanford University. In 2001, Rice was appointed national security adviser by President George W. Bush, becoming the first black woman (and second woman) to hold the post, and went on to become the first black woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State.

Muhammad Ali, arguably the most famous professional boxer in the 20th Century and the only fighter to win the heavyweight championship three times, was born Cassius Clay in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, to Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr. and Odessa Grady Clay.  At the age of 12 Clay began training as a boxer.  

Our February Veteran of the Month is Jason M Patzer, who served 4.5 years active duty with USMC as an E-4 Non-Commissioned Officer and was honorably discharged. He is one of the founding members of the Next Generation Veterans, Inc. Jason is the Wolf Den leader for the Cub Scout pack 530, organizer of a youth to veteran pen-pal program, and a member and volunteer of the Vero Beach Veterans Social Club. Jason is currently the owner of a multi-inspection home company, “First and Goal Home Inspections,” that has been proudly serving IRC for over 5 years. Jason is married to Marcie Patzer, and has 2 sons, Nathan, who graduated from VBHS and is a Marine Corps “Poolie,” and Hunter, who attends Citrus Elementary, and is a student in the Autism Spectrum Program.

Usain Bolt will no longer be electrifying crowds with his speed on the track any longer, but the impact of the Jamaican speedster will undoubtedly live on. Bolt celebrated his 31st birthday as a highly decorated, record-setting sprinter. Usain St. Leo Bolt was born in Sherwood Content in the Trealawny Parish of Jamaica. As a boy, Bolt played cricket and soccer and was a standout in each sport. Coaches noticed his speed on the field and suggested sprinting, which led to the tutelage of former Olympic sprinter Pablction to McNeil and his conneo coach Glen Mills.

A native of Gifford, Fla., was born on January 13, 1958, to Harry and Dollie McGriff. Tyrone graduated in 1976 from Vero Beach Senior High School. He played on varsity Football team being select as an All-state and All-area player.

One of the most visible advocates of nonviolence and direct action as methods of social change, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. As the grandson of the Rev. A.D. Williams, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church and a founder of Atlanta’s NAACP chapter, and the son of Martin Luther King, Sr., who succeeded Williams as Ebenezer’s pastor, King’s roots were in the African American Baptist church.

Eight-time world No. 1-ranked professional tennis player Serena Williams was born September 26, 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan. She holds 23 Grand Slam singles titles, 12 in women’s doubles, and two in mixed doubles for 39 total—the most of any active player. Formerly coached by parents Richard Williams and Oracene Price, Williams is the younger sister and frequent doubles partner of former world No. 1 professional tennis player Venus Williams.

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was born in the town of Santurce, Puerto Rico (now part of San Juan), to María Josefa, a freeborn black midwife from St. Croix, and Carlos Federico Schomburg, a German merchant living in Puerto Rico. While Schomburg was in grade school, one of his teachers claimed that blacks had no history, heroes or accomplishments. Inspired to prove the teacher wrong, Schomburg determined that he would find and document the accomplishments of Africans on their own continent and in the diaspora.

Born two decades before American women won the right to vote, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander overcame obstacles as a female and also as an African American in the elite profession of law. In 1927 she became the first black woman to gain admission to the Pennsylvania Bar, beginning a long career advocating for civil and human rights.

Robert Smalls was an enslaved African American who escaped to freedom in a Confederate supply ship and eventually became a sea captain for the Union Navy. After the war, he became a successful businessman and politician serving in both houses of the South Carolina legislature. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1875 but was convicted of taking a bribe while in the state senate and sentenced to prison before he was pardoned by the governor.

W.E.B. Du Bois was one of the most important African-American activists during the first half of the 20th century. He co-founded the NAACP and supported Pan-Africanism. Scholar and activist W.E.B. Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. In 1895, he became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Civil Rights Activist, Educator, Journalist (1868–1963) ~

Carter G. Woodson was an African-American writer and historian known as the 'Father of Black History.' He penned the influential book 'The Mis-Education of the Negro.' Born in 1875 in New Canton, Virginia, Carter G. Woodson was the second African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard, after W.E.B. Du Bois. Known as the "Father of Black History," Woodson dedicated his career to the field of African-American history and lobbied extensively to establish Black History Month as a nationwide institution.

The School District of Indian River County invites stakeholders to join the Positive Climate and Discipline Advisory Team (PCDAT). The purpose of the PCDAT members will be to review, and provide input for the revision of the Positive Climate and Discipline Code of Student Conduct for the 2019-2020 school year.

The School District of Indian River County is excited to announce the launch of our new website. The new site has a clean modern design, improved functionality, and enhanced content focused on providing visitors quick and easy access to the information they need.

Congratulations to our new SDIRC Teacher of the Year, Dr. Nikki Mosblech and SDIRC Employee of the Year, Daisy Rios.

The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) released student graduation rates for the 2017-18 school year. Indian River County improved its graduation rate by almost 5 points; increasing from 87.1% in 2016-2017 to 92% in 2017-2018. This exceeds the State of Florida’s graduation rate by almost 6 percentage points.

Thanks to our partnership with US Fish and Wildlife, and S.E.A a Difference Environmental Services, our elementary, middle, and high school students experienced "Lagoon Days" in different locations on the Indian River Lagoon.

Mr. Douglas Tuttle, from Tuttle Law in Vero Beach, along with Mary-Therese VanHollenbeck, coordinator for Arts 4 All, presented Ms. Colleen Mulchay-Ladyzhinsky, ESE Pre-K teacher at Vero Beach Elementary, with an award for her class who won the Tuttle Holiday Card contest. Mr. Tuttle’s law firm has hosted this contest for several years, providing our students an exciting opportunity to design holiday cards for Tuttle Law. This was the first year an entire class was awarded for their collaborative effort in designing a card. Mr. Tuttle provided gift cards to the Book Center for each student in Ms. Colleen’s class.