FOREST CITY ADVENTIST SCHOOL AND ORLANDO JUNIOR ACADEMY GAIN EDGE STATUS

by Sandra Doran
The Florida Conference Office of Education is proud to report that Forest City Adventist School in Altamonte Springs and Orlando Junior Academy have successfully submitted applications to Southern Union Conference for money to become EDGE Schools (Educators Delivering GREAT Education).
“We recognize the amount of work that the administration and teachers have put forth in order to make this happen,” says Arne Nielsen, Florida Conference Vice President for Integrated Youth Ministries. “We are anxious to see all of our schools become EDGE Schools even as we congratulate Alipia Gonzalez (Forest City) and Nicole Agbonkhese (Orlando) for their leadership in this direction.”
Southern Union Conference provides schools with a double-match (up to $12,000) in SMART funds (Schools Making A Real Transformation) for establishing a solid plan for achieving excellence in the five areas of the acronym GREAT: God-centered, Results-oriented, Environment that nurtures, Aligned with Adventist and national standards, and Team effort. Schools that apply must demonstrate they have clearly adopted the EDGE philosophy and are well on their way to becoming EDGE Schools.
SMART funds at Orlando Junior Academy will be used to create a science lab. “We want to provide a place where the students can be engaged in science and design,” reports Anna Adkins, vice principal. “Our science lab will allow our students to experiment and demonstrate results through planned, hands-on activities.” Forest City Adventist School is applying their funds to the development of a cutting-edge library.
Florida Conference now has four elementary schools that have received funding. Beryl Wisdom Adventist School in Orlando and Forest Lake Education Center in Longwood received their official designation as EDGE Schools in 2010.