Winter Springs High School gets updated Serve Academy

In a meeting that included a proposal that could potentially add a student-shadowing program where administrators live the life of a student for a day, the Seminole County School Board voted Tuesday to approve a maximum funding level to renovate and update Winter Springs High School’s Serve Academy.

The Serve Academy helps teach students specialized skills and give them hands-on training in public service fields such as firefighting, criminal justice, emergency planning and teaching. It also helps them attain certificates for those career fields.

The vote Tuesday approved a Guaranteed Maximum Price of $229,104.00 to Mark Construction Company to renovate the Fire Academy lab and four supporting spaces in the Winter Springs Serve Academy. The renovation is expected to be completed by the end of this summer.

Shadowing students?

In a long list of items discussed during the School Board’s planning workshop, one item that didn’t make it to a vote later at the School Board’s regular meeting was a “strategic planning reimagining” discussion that included a presentation from Corey Gordon of DeliverEd, an educational strategic planning consultant firm contracted by SCPS.

The strategic plan for the School Board provides a more long-range guidebook for how Seminole County Public Schools will adapt to the future.

“We’re not starting from scratch,” Gordon said. “I like to think of this as reimagining the strategic plan.”

One idea that caught School Board members’ attention was a proposal by Gordon to shadow students, effectively living as a student for a day to gain an understanding more directly of how decisions impact their education.

“The student shadowing, I love. It’s such an awesome idea, and involving everybody,” School Board Member Abby Sanchez said.

The plan should see significant steps forward in October, and ready for presenting to the School Board next February or March, Gordon said.

You can listen to the School Board’s workshop here: