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SCHOOL NOTEBOOK

By STAFF WRITERS
Published May 26, 2006

Kindergarten preparation available

TAMPA - Next year's kindergarten class can get a jump start on their reading skills this summer at 14 public elementary schools including Gorrie, Just, Potter and Egypt Lake. Certified teachers will teach literacy-based skills to prepare children for kindergarten.

The state-mandated Voluntary Prekindergarten Program runs from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, June 1 through July 14. Breakfast, lunch and snack are provided. Attendance hours are flexible and students can attend any site where the program is offered even if they are not zoned for that school. Parents must provide transportation.

Students must have been born between Sept. 2, 2000, and Sept. 1, 2001. To apply, call 272-4840 or the school directly: Gorrie at 276-5673, Just at 276-5708, Egypt Lake at 872-5225, and Potter at 276-5564.

St. Mary's dedicates 19,000-square-foot hall

CULBREATH HEIGHTS - St. Mary's Episcopal Day School is a bit bigger. The Rev. John Lipscomb dedicated St. Mary's Hall, a 19,000-square-foot addition of offices and a multipurpose area on Sunday, following the baccalaureate service for the 41 graduates of the class of 2006.

The space will be used for performances, banquets and meetings when divided with temporary walls.

Kitchen 'donated' to make meals for school fundraiser

PALMA CEIA - Ten students from Gorrie Elementary School donned aprons and prepared 20 family-sized meals Saturday at Let's Eat on Bay to Bay Boulevard.

Let's Eat, a commercial kitchen where customers make a week to a month's worth of meals, donated the food and use of its kitchen and staff as an item in Gorrie's Gala auction.

Don and Erika Wallace of Lazydays RV supercenter purchased the item and invited their children's classmates and their parents to join in the cooking.

Over the past few years the school's John B. Gorrie Foundation has raised money to add landscaping, replace air conditioners and improve the school building.

This latest effort is part of a continued campaign to revamp and expand Gorrie, the oldest operating elementary school in Florida. Money raised will go toward a new gym, computers and a computer technician.

Student's work featured in Miss O literary compilation

TAMPA - Jamie Shepherd, a sixth-grader at Wilson Middle School, will be the only contributing author from Florida featured in Miss O & Friends Write On!: The Miss O & Friends Collection of Rockin' Fiction, which hits bookstore shelves Thursday.

The 64-page book about friendship, family, crushes and adventure includes 15 poems and stories written by girls ages 10 to 14 from throughout the country.

Jamie was chosen from more than 10,000 entries to the Miss O & Friends Web site for her piece, "Speak Your Mind."

The book is geared for ages 8 to 12 and will be available at major retail and bookstores for $4.99.

- ELISABETH DYER, MEAGHAN FORBES, ERIKA VIDAL

[Last modified May 25, 2006, 15:44:56]