Awards go to turnaround achievers

The Renaissance Center, which teaches kids with behavior problems, celebrates some success stories Wednesday.

By JORGE SANCHEZ

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 1, 2000

INVERNESS -- The Renaissance Center school on Wednesday honored students who took advantage of its "fresh start" theme and turned their academic and personal lives around.

Known as an alternative school, the Renaissance Center is for middle and high school students who have been removed from their schools because of disruptive behavior.

They remain enrolled in their original school but are instructed at the Renaissance. Most students are sent to Renaissance for a minimum of 28 days. The school has a standing enrollment of about 110 students, but serves about 300 a year.

Many of the students had failing grades when they first arrived but used the opportunity to bring the grades up to acceptable levels. In many cases, the award winners went from F grades to A's and B's. Two Renaissance students returned to graduate with their senior class at Lecanto High.

"Every day is a new day," said Renaissance principal David Cook. "We have a lot of successes today."

On Wednesday, Cook presented the Principal's Award to Marquee Scrivens and Charity Smith. The award is given to students who exemplify the center's mission of turning failure into success.

Other award winners were:

• Alyssa Reed and Dustin Kelley, who were presented with achievement awards as recognition of behavioral improvement.

• Dustie Spivey, given an achievement award by Exceptional Student Education teacher Steve Bomse for academics.

• Jesse Miller, given an achievement award by ESE teacher Pat Fogel for academics.

• Justin Lassiter and Brian Pummill, given achievement awards for excellence in vocational studies.

• Cloe Poole, given an achievement award for excellence in English.

• Thorne Norris and Jimmie Heath, given achievement awards for excellence in science.

• Jessica Fowler, given an achievement award for excellence in mathematics.

• Tina Duquette and George Lozito, given achievement awards for excellence in social studies.

• Brandon German, given an achievement for excellence in language arts.

• Kristina Widener and Jonathan Ferguson, given achievement awards for academic improvement.

• Laura Nugent, given an achievement award for academic excellence.

• Matt Jones, given an achievement award for improvement in the ESE class.

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