Education News

The Guadalupe Center of Immokalee has received the national APPLE Accreditation from the Florida Association of Child Care Management. Full story »

At 19, Amy Scofield knows that she is one of Collier County’s oldest graduates. She delayed her graduation for one year. But it was worth it. That’s because, while other students were in class, Amy was traveling the United States and spending a month in Holland. Full story »

The little yellow school on Tenth Street North has been through it all. There was a hurricane that ripped off its roof in 2005, deeming the building a total loss. It survived budget cuts, financial woes and thousands of children’s sticky fingers. But come August, Fun Time Early Childhood Academy officials will say goodbye to the place they’ve called home for more than 45 years. Full story »

Saturday, after the stress of years of changes, moves and temporary situations, 124 master’s, undergraduate and distance-learning Ave Maria University students received their degrees in the new town of Ave Maria’s church, known as Ave Maria Oratory. Full story »

Graduate of Distinction Brielle Friedman: At the Community School, Brielle is a member of the Key Club and the Model Congress, where she is a member of the Supreme Court. She is also a cheerleader, a program which she said has grown exponentially since she was a freshman. Full story »

For some students at Manatee Middle School in Naples, the monotony of daily classroom activities was broken up Thursday and Friday by a chance to leave a lasting legacy on their school. Under the guidance of renowned Marco muralist Stephen Muldoon, a select number of students got to jazz up their school cafeteria by painting the walls with a large mural inspired by Calusa Indian masks. Full story »

The Collier County School District could contract with a private company for its custodial service and has sent out a request for proposals for cleaning companies to submit bids. But one company that worked for Collier’s superintendent when he was in Rockford, Ill., was communicating with the district weeks before it announced plans to consider privatizing its custodial services. Full story »

There were doubts. How could there not be? When Joreen Belocura moved from El Paso, Texas to Southwest Florida four years ago to attend Ave Maria University she was alone at a school that was unaccredited, at a campus that was temporary and in a student body that was 100 students smaller than her high school. Full story »

It was the day after classes ended for the year at Ave Maria University and the sounds of coffee grinding and babies crying greeted freshman Jackie Mitzel when she entered the town’s eatery, The Bean. Mitzel came with four sisters from her household, or spiritual sorority, called Daughters of the Little Way. Six of the household’s members live on the same floor as Mitzel in the school’s Siena dorm. The floor is base for the school’s women’s discernment program, reaching out to students who are considering Catholic religious life as a nun. Full story »

Friday afternoon, Collier County School District Spokesman Joe Landon said Elbrinet was off the respirator and breathing on his own. Landon said Principal Roy Terry told him Elbrinet was talking to family members and others who had driven to Tampa to see him. "The doctors see that as a positive sign," he said. Full story »

All around Ave Maria University’s campus, Michael Williams, the director of admissions, carries with him a leather portfolio that has the information everyone wants to see. Full story »

The new kid on the block is getting much larger. Ave Maria University expects to increase its undergraduate enrollment by as much as 60 percent next year. Full story »

Collier County students did not do as well as they have done in previous years on the writing portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. While the majority of the district’s fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders scored above grade level on the exam, but they were below the state average of the number of students scoring at or above grade level on the exam. When compared to last year’s results, the district’s overall mean writing scores, and percentage of students scoring at Levels 3 or higher, increased in grades four and eight, but declined in grade 10. The essay portion of the test remained about the same as last year in grades four and eight, but declined in grade 10. Full story »

The Lee County School District upped their students' averages this year on the state's standardized writing test, but failed to make significant gains in percentage of students passing the test. Full story »

The note that changed Mischa Talokonnikoff’s life sat unopened on the kitchen table before he came home from school.
His mother saved it for him, he said. She wanted him to do the honors. It was the note that got Talokonnikoff through high school and paid his college tuition. Full story »