Osceola elementary school students gear up to meet their teachers
By Sasha Teman
Most Central Florida students are heading back to school on Monday.
But first, students in Osceola County got an opportunity to meet their teachers on Friday, as part of the Back to School Meet the Teacher event happening across all grade levels.
The event is intended to give students and parents a first opportunity to build rapport with their teachers and familiarize themselves with their classrooms, in preparation for the first day.
It’s an event that Osceola County Schools Superintendent Dr. Mark Shanoff said he believes will pave the way for a successful school year.
“It’s a good opportunity for everybody to get to meet the teachers that they have. It’s a good opportunity to walk around schools that may be new for some of our students. Maybe an opportunity to just get the lay of the land, maybe an opportunity to see what things look like, what things smell like, how long am I going to be outside between classes, those types of things,” he said.
But really what it boils down to is establishing personal connections with teachers and even other family members.
New bus tracking app will provide real-time information
One change being implemented for the new school year in the Osceola school district includes a new school bus tracking app, known as ReaXium, that will give parents a clear idea of when their children get on and off the bus.
“Because every child who rides a bus has to scan on and off, one of the things that we talk about is the idea that, let’s say, that a student doesn’t necessarily make it home right away,” Shanoff said. “We can confirm whether or a student got on that bus that afternoon or whether or not they got off at the stop that they were supposed to get off at.”
The new system will be a “game changer” because it will provide information in real time that Shanoff said can also be used for routing purposes.
Another update is the launch of ParentSquare communication platform, which will allow the school district to communicate information about students more efficiently with parents.
Teacher and student retention
This year marked the lowest number of teacher vacancies in Osceola County Schools since the COVID-19 pandemic, and Shanoff called the district’s recruitment efforts “fantastic.”
“We’ve had a very high retention rate of our teachers this past year, which was great. We weren’t looking for as many teachers this year because we had so many that were ready to come back, so that’s a good sign about what our school district culture is like and a good sign to see that loyalty from our teachers and how they’re committed they are to our students,” he added.
But he explained that the search for teachers doesn’t end there. The district will fill remaining vacancies with resource teachers to ensure that every student has a certified teacher in his or her classroom on the first day of school.
Shanoff also said the school district projects a net increase of over 1,000 students this year.
With that increase, he also noticed more families opting for other options, like homeschooling and charter schools.
“At the end of the day, we love being the preferred choice, but we also recognize that parents have a choice to make, and so whatever they believe is going to be that best pathway, whether it be traditional, or public charter or home education, we want to be supportive and respectful of that,” he said.
As the clock ticks before that first bell rings, Shanoff said he can barely contain his excitement to welcome back students.
“We want all of our families to know that it’s going to be a great year, and all we’re asking is for students to be the best version of themselves every single day. Represent themselves well, be proud of where you go to school and give yourself a chance to be successful. If you do those three things, it’ll be a great year for each individual student; it’ll be a great year for our teachers; it’ll be a great year for our administrators and for our community,” he said.