By John Peery
Apopka Chief Staff
More than 14,000 Apopka-area students will be among the nearly 203,000 who will begin classes Monday, August 15, in Orange County Public Schools.
Apopka High is the largest local school with nearly 3,100 expected on opening day. Wekiva High expects about 2,200.
Shari Bobinski, OCPS spokeswoman, said students are still registering for school and that enrollment numbers for individual schools won’t be available until after school begins next week.
Bobinski did say that OCPS expects about 5,000 more students for the upcoming school year than the previous year, putting the school district at more than 200,000 for the first time.
All three local middle schools – Wolf Lake, Piedmont Lakes, and Apopka Memorial – will each have more than 1,100 students with Wolf Lake having more than 1,200.
At least three Apopka-area elementary schools – Lakeville, Apopka, and Rock Springs – will each welcome more than 800 students next week. Dream Lake Elementary and Clay Springs may also be around the 800 mark.
Other elementary schools include Lovell, Phillis Wheatley, and Zellwood.
Three of the schools – Apopka High, Dream Lake Elementary, and Wolf Lake Middle – have new principals.
Apopka High
Matt Arnold has taken over as principal of Apopka High, replacing Doug Guthrie, who was at AHS for six years. Guthrie is now principal at a new unnamed high school in the southwest portion of the county that will open a year from now.
Arnold, 45, comes to Apopka High from Southwest Middle School in the Dr. Phillips area of Orange County and this is his first position as a principal at the high school level. He was an assistant principal at Evans High prior to his time at Southwest Middle.
He’s officially been on the job at AHS since July 1 and, like other school principals, welcomed back faculty and staff on Monday, August 8.
“The staff, the students, the parents have been so welcoming. It’s great. I’m really enjoying it. It’s a lot, of course, and it’s kind of like drinking water through a fire hose.
“From staff here, I’ve heard more faith-based comments and more family-based comments I think here than any school I’ve been at, which is really neat,” Arnold said.
“It’s going really well. I’m getting to know people, trying to learn names as quickly as possible.”
With a faculty and staff of about 240 people, learning names has been one of Arnold’s top priorities. Rather than making wholesale changes to the curriculum or other areas, Arnold said he’s also taking time to spend a few minutes with each employee at Apopka High.
“I’ve met with about 40 to 50 where we’ve sat down and talked. I want to meet individually with everybody, 10-15 minutes just to get to know them. My goal is by October 1 that I will have been able to meet with every staff member one-on-one just to get to know everybody better,” he said.
“I’ve been in other situations where I felt changes had to be made immediately. I just haven’t had that feeling here. It’s really more relationship-oriented and getting to know people, and trying to get to know the Apopka way.
“Even though I’ve been at six different high schools, I haven’t been at Apopka High School. I want to learn Apopka High School.”
Getting students in a routine and to class on time will be a priority, Arnold said.
“One thing that I have heard and that we’ve discussed as a team is tardies. We’re going to focus on getting kids to class,” he said.
“The why is, they’re going to have to be on time to their jobs and when they come in late, they disrupt others from learning. We’re going to try to really focus on getting kids to class on time. It’ll take a lot of manpower the first few weeks, I’m sure.”
Traffic around the school at 555 W. Martin St. is always a headache, but never more so than on the first day of classes.
Arnold said he met this week with Apopka Police Chief Mike McKinley and others about the traffic plan for morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up.
A city ordinance prohibits students from leaving cars while the cars are in line on the roadways and police officers will be watching for violators.
“They’re going to give some warnings out at the beginning, but there will come a time when they will start giving citations. They’re going to let me know so I can send out a voice mail to give everybody a heads-up,” Arnold said.
The new principal said his welcoming to AHS included a full breakfast sponsored by the school’s PTSA on the first day that faculty was on campus. “It’s really nice to have their support,” he said.
In addition, some of the school’s cheerleaders showed up at his office door with a large welcome card signed by all of them. “That was a pretty cool moment. It was very nice of them,” Arnold said.
Dream Lake Elementary
Carol-Ann Clenton-Martin has not only taken over from the retired Principal Gary Schadow, but is opening a new Dream Lake Elementary campus.
The Apopka resident was principal at West Creek Elementary in Orlando prior to being named principal at Dream Lake.
“There has been a lot to do, moving into a brand new building,” Clenton-Martin said.
“There are a little things, but it’s coming together. It’s a very, very busy time for us at Dream Lake. We are getting ready for our kids.”
Because the students and faculty have a campus that is new to everyone, teachers were allowed five extra days for planning and setting up their classrooms.
“We gave teachers an opportunity for three additional planning days and two days to come in and set up above and beyond their pre-planning days,” Clenton-Martin said.
The new campus also requires a new traffic pattern that everyone must learn, she said.
“We talked with Apopka police about our traffic plan and they thought our plan was sound.”
There will be just one entrance off Summit Street.
“Parents should always think safety first for their child and other children,” the new principal said. “They need to adhere to all the laws of the road, especially on the first day back. That includes parents not dropping their children off while still in traffic lanes.
Many of the students will also be coming in on foot or on bicycles, she said.
“We don’t have a lot of students who come in on buses. The majority of our students are car riders, walkers, and bike riders.”
Wolf Lake Middle
Caroll Grimando has been a principal in the Apopka area for several years, having served at Rock Springs Elementary School before opening Wolf Lake Elementary 10 years ago.
Now, she adds principal of Wolf Lake Middle to her resume, as she also will be principal of that school. The middle school is next door to the elementary school of the same name on Ponkan Road and was opened at the same time.
Grimando is now a master principal, taking over the middle-school duties from fellow Apopka resident Laura Beusse, who was named principal of Ocoee High School.
“We have had a great first few days of preplanning and are getting prepared for the students to return. The Leadership Team has been working on sharing our collective vision and setting goals with the staffs of both schools, so there is a lot of excitement about this upcoming year,” Grimando said.
“We believe we have made the necessary instructional adjustments and focused on specific, targeted professional development. These strategies will help move the students at both schools to even greater levels of success. We are counting on our very involved community to support our efforts.”
