Edgewater High School News

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COLLEGE PARK SCHOOL NEWS - JUNE 2009 Edgewater High School News • Edgewater Crew Goes for Glory at John Hunter, City Championship • Construction Begins on New Campus for Edgewater High School

DECEMBER 2008 EDGEWATER HIGH SCHOOL RECONSTRUCTION UPDATE - by David E. Rose, President, College Park Neighborhood Association The Orange County Public Schools, OCPS, held an informational meeting on November 11th at Edgewater High School to give an update on the plans and progress of the planned reconstruction of the school.     This has been a long and sometime controversial process but the community has come to a strong consensus on the current plan. OCPS has purchased the three parcels immediately north of the existing campus, those being the existing shopping center, an undeveloped lot on its western border, and the “College Park Leisure Homes” on its northern border. That adds about twenty seven acres of land available for the school. On October 21st the City of Orlando’s Municipal Planning Board approved the rezoning of the land for public use and also vacated its right of way for what is now Preston Drive.     Those actions combined to provide enough room to build a comprehensive high school at the existing site, it will still be the smallest site for a comprehensive high school in Orange County. C.T. HSU + ASSOCIATES, PA have been hired to design the school and presented their plans to the assembled crowd on Tuesday evening. The land that the current Administrative offices, music room, and Auditorium sit on will not be used for the new school, the land fronting Edgewater Drive south of Preston, effectively moving the school’s Edgewater Drive frontage north to Par Ave. There will be three vehicular entrances to the new school, the main entrance at Par, a second Edgewater drive entrance at a new driveway about were the current music building sits, and a third bus only entrance on Maury Road.     Site work on the former mobile home park may begin anytime, the shopping center will continue business through the end of the year and demolition is scheduled to begin in January. The actual construction is phased so as to minimally impact the operations of the school. The “first phase” will be the bulk of the new school which will be built on the new land with an estimated construction time of eighteen months. During that time classes and school activities will continue in the existing facilities. At the beginning of the 2010 school year the new buildings will hopefully be ready for grades 10 thru 12 while 9th grade will continue in some of the designated existing buildings while the new 9th grade academy is completed on the south campus.     The College Park Neighborhood Association is working to get links to the plans up on their website as soon as they are available. So to take a look at the plans check in with their website at www.collegeparkorlando.org , they should be up soon.     I think it is was a strong consensus among those at the meeting, many of whom have been involved in these plans for many years, that the plans for the new school are realistic and that Edgewater High School can be proud of its new home once it is completed.

NOVEMBER 2008 EDGEWATER HIGH SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION – STATUS UPDATE by: Kathleen Maloney Skambis Good news: The process of reconstructing Edgewater High School is well underway. OCPS now owns the additional land it needs. Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2009 and be completed in the summer of 2011. More good news: The daily lives of Edgewater High School students will be affected very little during the construction. Most of the construction will take place on the newly acquired land, on which a shopping center and closed mobile home park are now located. The details: A Construction Advisory Team (CAT) consisting of five community members, Edgewater High School personnel, OCPS facilities staff, and the architects from C.T. Hsu and Associates, has been meeting monthly for several months. The CAT has reviewed plans and elevations that have now been approved by OCPS. Preliminary concepts were presented to the community at a meeting on July 9, 2008. Updated plans will be presented at a joint meeting (open to the public) of the Edgewater High School PTSA and School Advisory Council on November 11, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. in the Edgewater Auditorium. Come, listen, ask questions, and provide your input. After site work is completed on the new property, construction will begin there. Tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade classrooms, a gym, auditorium, media center, cafeteria, administration building, and tennis and hard courts will all be built immediately north of the stadium, which will remain in its current location. A new parking lot will be built north of the new buildings. All of that construction will be fenced off from the existing campus, which will continue to function uninterrupted. Once the new buildings are completed and furnished, construction will begin on the current campus. The current media center and the business and science buildings will be completely renovated to become a ninth grade academy. The athletic fields and associated facilities will be renovated, including installation of a track around the football field. A covered walkway will be built between the ninth grade academy and the main campus. The existing 100, 200, and 300 buildings, the cafeteria, and the auditorium will eventually be demolished, and a new parking lot will be built. The construction phasing plans and schedule are not yet finalized. However, the move into the new buildings will occur during a school break, hopefully in the summer of 2010. While the ninth grade academy buildings are being renovated, either the new buildings will temporarily house the entire school, including ninth grade, or the ninth grade will be housed on the existing campus in buildings not scheduled for renovation. In any case, students will never be attending school in the middle of a construction zone and will experience very little relocation disruption. All construction will be completed and the ninth grade academy will be operational by the start of the 2011-2012 school year. Traffic in College Park and on the campus should be improved once the new campus is open. The buses will enter and exit the campus from Maury Road, and will use a dedicated bus loop on the campus. Plans call for school staff and visitors to enter the campus at Par Street, and for construction of a left-turn lane on northbound Edgewater Drive at that intersection. Students will enter the campus at a new traffic light on Edgewater Drive via a new driveway to be located between the existing band building and administration building. Leadership Needed: The current campus’s music and administration buildings will not be demolished, but will not be part of the new campus. The other parts of the current campus that front on Edgewater Drive will also not be a part of the new campus, but will continue to be owned by OCPS, at least for now. OCPS has said it has no plans yet for how to use that property. There are opportunities to work with OCPS to develop it into a use compatible with, and maybe even used by, the high school and other neighborhood schools. Would the highest and best use be a library? a YMCA? an OCPS administration building? What does the community want? The possibilities for development of that property with OCPS are almost limitless. Upon completion of the new campus, the group of leaders who fought for the school’s renovation are retiring. New leaders are needed. This is a great opportunity for the community and a new generation of leaders to envision and achieve a fabulous outcome. Conclusion: By the start of the 2011-2012 school year, Edgewater High School’s beautiful new campus will be open. In the meantime, Edgewater High School students will continue their education uninterrupted by construction, but energized by a bright future for Eagle traditions.

MAY 2008: Anne Geiger, OCPS School Board District 6 Article - College Park Schools Leading the Way MAY 2008 EHS Crew Competes at the John Hunter Regatta in Oak Ridge, Tennessee PHOTO CREDIT - Ms. Carol Winardi. Submitted by Bob Carr, Jr. On Saturday, April 5, 2008, while most Edgewater students were savoring the last days of Spring Break in the Florida sun, EHS Crew boats were competing in the 2008 John Hunter Regatta under the cold, grey skies of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Although the threat of foul weather caused Friday's practice to be canceled, the contest on the smooth, clay-tinted waters of Melton Lake took place as scheduled the next day. Novice Girls' 8 As teams from colleges such as Emory, Duke and host Georgia Tech contended, Edgewater raced against a number if national-caliber high school teams from several states, carrying home gold (girls' Novice 4), silver (girls' Novice 8) and bronze (boys' Varsity 4) medals. In total, 52 EHS rowers competed as parents yelled from the lake shore. Men's Varsity 8 Despite the weather, the team counted the trip as a solid showing and valuable experience, As a dividend, the varsity and novice girls paid a visit to the University of Tennessee's state of the art boathouse on the river in the shadow of mammoth Neyland Stadium. Lady Vol coach Lisa Glenn gave the girls a tour of her Division I program and its marvelous boathouse. Men's Varsity 4

APRIL 2008: EHS Crew Attends Sight & Sole Fundraiser, Shares Rowing Tips with Team Unity At the March 29 Sight & Sole fundraising walk for Lighthouse of Central Florida, Edgewater High School Crew members got acquainted with Team Unity, a group of visually impaired teens associated with the Lighthouse Transitions program. After a training session, the rowers walked with Unity members around Crane's Roost as part of the fundraiser. Then everyone was off to Edgewater's boathouse on Lake Fairview. ~ more Men's Varsity 8 Novice Girls' 8 EHS Crew Competes at the John Hunter Regatta in Oak Ridge, Tennessee On Saturday, April 5, while most Edgewater students were savoring the last days of Spring Break in the Florida sun, EHS Crew boats were competing in the 2008 John Hunter Regatta under the cold, grey skies of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Although the threat of foul weather caused Friday's practice to be canceled, the contest on the smooth, clay-tinted waters of Melton Lake took place as scheduled the next day. ~more

NOVEMBER 2007 - STUDENT OF THE MONTH Rotary Club of College Park Past President Dr. Troy Yeomans D.C., and Coach Sam Sibley with Edgewater High School November 2007 Student of the Month, Brooke Thomas, and her mother, Delores.

SEPTEMBER 2007 STUDENT OF THE MONTH The Rotary Club of College Park recognized  Fernandedz Jeune as the Edgewater High School Student of the Month for September 2007. Pictured (from left) Principal Rob Anderson, Steve Cook, Rotary Club of College Park president, Fernandedz Jeune, Student of the Month and Edgewater High School Dean, Sam Sibley.

MARCH 2007 Edgewater Crew competed in the 34th annual Miami International Regatta on March 17th, 2007 against teams from Miami, Sarasota, Orlando and as far away as Peru, coming away with gold, silver and bronze medals.

FEBRUARY 2007 Who Wants To Be An Engineer Contest Winners On Wednesday, February 21st, 2007, a team of three senior scholars from Edgewater High School participated in the annual Lockheed Martin sponsored "Who Wants to be an Engineer?" contest at the Orlando Science Center auditorium. This is part of "National Engineering Week" and an effort to promote engineering as a profession to aspiring scholars. Adam Gray, Alan Espinoza, and John Schoomaker brought home the first place trophy for Edgewater High School. Oak Ridge, Lake Brantley, and Lyman high schools all entered strong academic teams in the quiz bowl competition patterned after the ABC television game show, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" The Eagle team answered some very tough questions covering math, physics, astronomy, biology, engineering, and computer science. After all rounds of questions were completed Edgewater and Lake Brantley were tied, but EHS was able to prevail in the tie-breaker question by coming closest to "the number of days it will take the current Lockheed Martin built space probe to travel to the planet Pluto". Congratulations to this team and Mr. Paul Ackerman, EHS faculty sponsor, for winning first place and repeating as champions. And many thanks go to Lynwood Carter and the Lockheed Martin educational outreach committee for contributing their time and efforts to promoting engineering to the Central Florida community and local high schools.Justin Sumpter, Clay Woodard, Ben Zalneraitis. FEBRUARY 2007 CONGRATULATIONS "TEAMS" COMPETITION WINNERS! On Saturday, February 24, 2007, 15 Edgewater High School students competed in the Regional TEAMS Competition at the University of Central Florida. TEAMS, which stands for the Test of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science is a national one-day competition sponsored by JETS, the Junior Engineering Technical Society. At the regional competition, students worked in teams to solve real-world engineering problems. Competing against teams from area high schools, the two Edgewater teams won 1st and 3rd place in the Varsity category. Based on their strong finish, their scores will advance to the state and national levels. The 1st Place team members were Alan Espinoza, Brandon Feldman, Daniel Felsing, Adam Gray, Laura Hellinger, Jamie Lin, John Schoomaker and Jimmy Strates. The 3rd Place team members were Obed Calixte, Damien Denis, Priya Govindaraj, Max Jackson, Justin Sumpter, Clay Woodard, Ben Zalneraitis.

JANUARY 2007 STUDENT OF THE MONTH (Click to enlarge) Rotary Club of College Park President Diane Glassman Kish congratulates Edgewater High School Student of the Month for January, 2007, Obed Calixte. For more information on College Park Rotary visit www.CollegeParkRotary.org

MAY 2005 Edgewater High School Foundation Fundraiser is a Big Success! contributed by Alana Brenner |Orange County Commissioner Bill Segal and Foundation Board Member Joanie Schirm with the new marble tile campaign brochure. On February 10, 2005, Mayor Buddy Dyer and his wife, Karen, opened up their lovely College Park home to over 150 parents, alumni, neighbors and community leaders for a fundraiser to benefit the Edgewater High School Foundation. Speakers at the event included Rob Anderson (Edgewater Principal) who gave an update on the academic progress at Edgewater; Roger Neiswender, who spoke about the exciting campus rebuilding project scheduled for 2007; and Joanie Schirm, who introduced a new fundraising project involving striking marble tile dedication plaques. The event raised nearly $11,000 for the Edgewater High School Foundation, a private nonprofit organization formed 15 years ago by a group of concerned parents and teachers to support the students, programs and facilities at the school. The Foundation's most recent project is the Academic Resource Center, an on-campus learning facility. Edgewater Foundation President Alana Brenner stated, "We were very pleased with the turnout and the support we received from the College Park community which is the real 'foundation' of Edgewater High School." Mayor Buddy Dyer and longtime Edgewater supporter Ritzy Carpenter For more information about the Foundation, contact Ms. Brenner at 407-422-9010.