Congratulations Go Out To Wharton High’s Top Students Of 2018! 

Wharton High salutatorian Sonile Peck (left) and valedictorian Anthonia Elensi (center, as well as top left on this page), who together founded the school’s Black Student Union earlier this year, with sponsor Rachel Shellman, who also is the school’s media specialist.

Wharton High Class of 2018 valedictorian Anthonia Elensi and salutatorian Sonile Peck have a lot in common.

Both went to Turner Elementary and Bartels Middle School before the schools were combined to become Turner-Bartels K-8 School.

They are both the youngest siblings in families with high achievers who previously graduated from Wharton in the top five percent of their respective classes.

Neither set out to have the highest Grade Point Average (GPA) in their graduating class, but once they realized they were on track, they kept doing what they were doing to stay at the top.

Both are getting ready to attend college and both plan to become doctors.

Anthonia and Sonile are both are widely respected for what may be the jewel in the crown of their high school careers — founding a Black Student Union at Wharton, which has become one of the school’s most popular clubs this year.

“We wanted to create a platform for black students to feel comfortable and have a community to be empowered,” Anthonia says.

They approached school librarian Rachel Shellman last year and asked her to sponsor the club.

Now, Shellman has nothing but praise for the pair. “They are phenomenal,” she says. “They have very strong leadership skills. They are both well spoken and they had a great year.”

She says the pair’s biggest success was planning the school’s first Black History Month celebration. They planned a school-wide event that Shellman says was very well received. “Students and teachers were very complimentary,” Shellman says. “No one knew what to expect for a first-time event, but they got a lot of positive feedback.”

Nearly 90 students joined the club, which Sonile and Anthonia say is a large one for Wharton, especially for one in its first year.

“Both young ladies are tremendous students – obviously, since they are valedictorian and salutatorian,” says principal Brad Woods. “But the way they were able to create the Black Student Union and grow its membership this year is also tremendous.”

Magda Rodriguez, the school’s college career counselor, who has been there since Wharton opened in 1997, says the pair are the first black, female valedictorian and salutatorian at the school.

“I don’t want my skin color to matter…,” begins Sonile. Anthonia finishes her sentence, “But it does matter.”

Last year’s Honor Court, which includes the Top 10 students in the school academically, had no black students. Anthonia and Sonile say the Black Student Union is a platform to help students do what they want to do, both academically and culturally.

As they graduate from Wharton, they are passing the torch to new leadership. Both hope that eventually, the club will include mentorship opportunities for its members. “If you can do something that can empower people of your skin color, you should,” says Anthonia.

In addition to the Black Student Union, both girls participated in clubs such as the National Honor Society and the Science National Honor Society at Wharton.

Sonile also participated in HOSA, the club for students who intend to be future health professionals that was previously called “Health Occupations Students of America.” Through this program, Sonile says she has prepared to take an exam in May to become a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). She says she thinks being a CNA will be a great job for her while she is attending college.

Anthonia and Sonile took a combination of high school classes, advanced placement (AP) classes and dual enrollment classes. Anthonia’s weighted GPA of 7.81 just edged out Sonile’s weighted GPA of 7.77. They both expect to have more than 60 college credit hours when they start their college careers this fall.

As for her Wharton experience, Anthonia says she’ll take with her a lot of memorable lessons, such as perseverance.

“At times where I felt like I was doing a lot both academically and with clubs,” she says, “I learned it’s important to finish what you start – and finish strong.”

Sonile was accepted to prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, the school of her dreams that she says motivated her to do her best throughout high school.

She is now looking at scholarships, which she says is the “harder part.” She also has been accepted at University of Florida in Gainesville, and will go there if it doesn’t work out for her to go to Johns Hopkins. Sonile hopes to one day be an oncologist.

If she does end up at UF, she’ll be there with Anthonia, who will attend the school to study health sciences, with the goal of becoming a doctor, although she’s not sure what field she wants to go into yet.

Sonile has some advice for younger students.

“Focus on the day to day,” she says. “Senior year is fun and exciting and eventful, but make sure you’re doing what you need to do right now.”

Congratulations to all of our graduating New Tampa high school students, whether at Wharton, Freedom or other public and private high schools. We will feature Freedom High’s Valedictorian Catherine Wang in our May 18 edition of New Tampa Neighborhood News.

2018 Wharton Top 10

1. Anthonia Elensi

2. Sonile Peck

3. Gregory Harvey

4. Stephen Maldonado

5. Yasmine Gillespie

6. Cameron Newborn

7. Alice Cheng

8. Rachel Hineline

9. Ashley Zack

10. Mackenzie Willman

In-School Clubs Inspire Students At Liberty; MATHCOUNTS Team Makes States 

Liberty students can choose from more than 35 club options, which focus on interests such as art, calligraphy, board games, guitar, sports and science. Other clubs focus on community service or helping students to be the best versions of themselves.

Typical middle school clubs might involve the same group of high achievers joining in multiple groups to celebrate their successes, give back to their communities and start prepping their resumes for the inevitable, if still far-off, college applications.

At Liberty Middle School in Tampa Palms, however, clubs are designed to include all students, offered once a month as part of the school day.

Spanish teacher Katie Smith is the coordinator for Liberty’s clubs program. “The entire school is following the same schedule,” she says, “so all of the kids get to participate.”

She explains that the clubs were started to provide extra support for some students who may not have role models at home.

“We want to give them a chance to find people they can connect with, adults they don’t regularly interact with, or peers with similar interests,” says Smith. “We want them to make connections and have a reason why they like to come to school.”

Katie credits Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Nelson Agholor, who attended Liberty (see story, pg. 1), with planting the seed that grew into the school’s clubs. She recalls him visiting Liberty a couple of years ago and telling the teachers how having opportunities to build relationships with people who cared about him made a huge difference in his life.

“He started a conversation about reaching those kids, and that’s where I got the idea,” Katie says.

Liberty students can choose from more than 35 club options, which may focus on interests such as art, calligraphy, board games, guitar, sports and science. Other clubs focus on community service or helping students to be the best versions of themselves.

One unique club is the “Gentlemen’s Club,” led by physical education teacher Bryan Erwine and school resource officer Victor Moreta. “They focus on what it means to be a man — a gentleman — and the power of believing in yourself and how you show yourself to the world,” Katie explains. “Some kids are hand-picked to be in that group because they show leadership potential and need a little coaxing. Once they’re in there, the two men running the group are amazing, so kids really want to connect with them.”

Students from the Rescue Me! Pet Club will visit the Humane Society of Tampa Bay on March 2. They were invited on the field trip after dropping off collected donations back in December.

Susan Stabile, a school counselor who co-sponsors the club, says her students are excited for their behind-the-scenes tour of the facility and that she hopes all 50 club members will attend. “We hope that our students will be lifelong animal advocates and inspire others as well,” Susan explains.

These kind of connections are exactly what Katie hopes the clubs will foster. She says she hopes to bring the community into the school to further enhance the goals of the clubs. “We’re trying to reach out to the community so people can see what’s going on and how the community can shape and empower these kids with their involvement.”

She adds, “It’s great to have teachers, but for some clubs, like our food club, is there a restaurant owner who wants to work with the kids? Are there athletes who want to help with our sports clubs?”

If you’d like to help in any way, email Katie Smith for more information at Kaitlyn.Smith@sdhc.k12.fl.us.

Liberty Middle School’s MATHCOUNTS team finished second out of 17 teams at the Regional competition on Feb. 2, earning the team a spot in the State competition, which will be held on Thursday, March 22, in Daytona Beach.

MATHCOUNTS Team Advances To States: Liberty Middle School’s MATHCOUNTS team finished second out of 17 teams at the Regional competition on Feb. 2, earning the team a spot in the State competition, which will be held on Thursday, March 22, in Daytona Beach.

“Liberty has been participating in MATHCOUNTS for the past 10 or so years,” says coach Melissa Grier, a Liberty math teacher. “We have advanced to the State competition the last three years straight and are known in MATHCOUNTS circles as the team to always beat.”

Eighth-grade student Charley Cheng also finished second overall in the individual competition. “He actually had the highest individual score but lost in a head-to-head competition with the second place finisher,” explains Melissa.

Charley and eighth grade student Derek Wu also were on last year’s team, which went to the States, too.

Seventh-grade student Shreya Gullapalli and sixth-grade student Vignesh Saravanan also are on the team.

“These kids are wonderful,” says Melissa. “They are incredibly humble and they all share a love for mathematics.”

The MATHCOUNTS team from Benito Middle School on Cross Creek Blvd. finished in sixth place, with Saanvi Prasad, a seventh-grader, earning the sixth highest individual finish.

Garden Provides Serenity For Wharton

Members of the Wharton High “Beautification Club” hope to raise funds to add some green to this serenity garden, which serves as both a memorial and a place of peace and quiet on the school’s campus.

Several years ago, students in Wharton High’s Key Club created a place on campus to remember students and faculty members who had passed away. But, the quiet corner it’s tucked into doesn’t have sprinklers, so grass won’t grow, and plants planted in the “serenity garden” wither.

Over the years, it fell into disrepair. In fact, says Jennifer Bell, an English teacher at the school, “It became a weed-choked barren thing with a picnic table — not the kind of memorial garden we wanted.”

So Wharton’s “Beautification Club,” which Bell co-sponsors with fellow English teacher Lindsey Glenn, went to work.

Back in September, with the help of the school’s head custodian, Junior Cintron, club members completely overhauled the area, adding raised plant beds with drought-friendly plants.

Now it’s much improved, but members of the club think it still has a way to go. While other solutions have been tried, such as mulch (which washed away in heavy rain), it was decided that the best way to improve the space would be with artificial turf, since no water is available to keep grass alive.

The turf is expensive, so the club hopes members of the community might help to make this project happen. The turf is estimated to cost about $1,200.

“We know there are people in our community who have been touched by those who were lost,” says Bell.

She emphasizes that the area is not only a memorial, which is why it was named the serenity garden.

“We want to make it a place that is uplifting and beautiful, as a place of reflection,” she explains. “So, if you need to go and re-center yourself, it’s off the beaten path a little, so you can take a quiet moment to yourself if you’re having a rough day.”

She says that is already happening. “We’ve heard there are definitely students who have noticed the improvement and have been sitting out there if they are upset and need to take a moment to themselves.”

Bell says that the serenity garden isn’t the only project the Beautification Club has undertaken since its inception last year.

“One thing that’s striking at Wharton is that everything at the school is gray,” she says. “We felt like the lack of color and beauty was hurting morale at Wharton.”

She explains that while the club hopes to overcome the gray with some color, it’s about more than that.

“We want to boost morale and improve the overall climate around the school,” she says, explaining that the club takes on a couple of large and a couple of small projects each year. “We’ve placed anonymous Post-It notes to encourage students, we’ve made sensory bottles — also called calm-down bottles — to help autistic students, and painted murals at our on-campus preschool playground.”

To support the Wharton Beautification Club’s efforts to install artificial turf in the school’s serenity garden, contact the club’s sponsors via the school: (813) 631-4710. Checks, made out to “Wharton High School” and designated for the Beautification Club, can be dropped off at the school.

New Tampa 2017 Year in Review: Schools

These kids used to ride the bus to Benito, but “courtesy busing” for middle and high school students was eliminated in 2017. Courtesy busing ends for elementary students in 2018. Photo by Lisa Evison.

TOP STORIES OF 2017: One Word For 2017: Change

First, there were changes to the Hillsborough School District’s buses.

Then, it was boundary changes.

Then, bell schedule changes.

Add to that a hurricane that closed schools for eight days and teachers who are unhappy with the school district not giving them the pay raises they were expecting, and it’s easy to see: In recent memory, there hasn’t been a year that was more tumultuous for New Tampa’s public schools than 2017.

While all these changes were announced in 2017, most families will feel the pinch this coming August, when the 2018-19 school year begins.

That’s when boundary changes that were approved by the Hillsborough County School Board on May 16 will be implemented. The plan makes room at Pride Elementary for growth in neighboring K-Bar Ranch, shifting hundreds of students who currently attend Pride, Heritage, Hunter’s Green and Clark elementary schools to other schools.

More than 550 students who live in Arbor Greene and Cory Lake Isles who currently are assigned to Pride will be re-assigned Hunter’s Green.

The district is making room at Hunter’s Green by moving some students (residents of Morgan Creek apartments) to Clark, and moving many students who are currently bused to both Clark and Hunter’s Green from the area surrounding the University of South Florida to schools in their own neighborhoods.

However, because Pride will have some capacity available, many parents who want their children to stay at Pride will be able to do so, for at least a year or two.

Kristin Tonelli is a principal’s coach for Hillsborough County Public Schools who works with all of the New Tampa schools, plus a couple of dozen others. She’s also a New Tampa resident and a former teacher and principal at Hunter’s Green.

“This may be the first shift in boundaries for this generation of parents,” she says, “But, we’ve moved through boundary changes in the past, and we’ve found that students are very resilient and adjust well to new teachers and new schools. And, they take a lot of cues from their parents.”

While many students will change schools — and local traffic patterns will change along with them — more students will find themselves getting to and from school without a bus.

Middle and high school students who used to have “courtesy busing” — if they lived less than two miles from their school — had to find new ways to get to school this year, whether it’s walking, biking, or carpooling.

The School Board is expected to eliminate courtesy busing for elementary students this fall, adding to the challenges some parents already are facing.

And all students who attend public school in New Tampa will be on a new schedule next year, as bell times change at every school. The major change is that high schoolers get to sleep in a bit more — which experts say is good for them — while elementary school students will start and end their school days earlier.

While it does feel like things have calmed down from the craziness of all the announcements — and bell times that changed and changed again before they were finally adopted by the School Board (and then adjusted slightly one more time), parents can now plan for these changes for next school year.

“To move boundaries and line up bell schedules are large shifts that impact numerous families,” says Tonelli. “Those are things that required a high level of communication and community involvement, and we’ve given a lot of leeway and time for families to think through those impacts.”

She says she knows what it’s like, having had three children in New Tampa schools, with many years of one in high school, one in middle, and one in elementary.

“Just remember you’re not in this alone,” Tonelli says. “Across the board, we have nearly all two-income families with both parents out of the home, so we have more options than ever before for care for both before and after school.”

Teachers, Too

While all of these issues impact students and parents, they also certainly impact teachers. And, as the year 2017 came to an end, teachers expressed their disappointment in not receiving the raises they were promised.

They showed up in force at a School Board meeting held Nov. 14, then went to local malls, including the nearby Tampa Premium Outlets, to show the community how much work they do above and beyond their contracts. While the teachers’ union is not allowed (by State law) to go on strike, they did hold a week of what they called “work the contract” to demonstrate what it would be like if teachers only did the work for which they are contractually obligated.

Lisa Mayhugh, a Clark Elementary kindergarten teacher with more than a decade of teaching experience, supported these efforts. “We work so hard and sacrifice our time, our money and even our families to do what’s best for our students,” Mayhugh says. “We need to keep the pressure on to get what we feel we’ve been promised.”

At our press time, contract negotiations were still ongoing for the 2017-18 school year.  According to Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association assistant director Paula Haggerty, the CTA has filed for impasse, which would bring in a third party to resolve the issues, but the CTA is hopeful to continue negotiations in the meantime.

Students & Teachers Across Wesley Chapel Are Back In School

The lunchrooms and the walkway and courtyard at Cypress Creek Middle High School were finally filled by students as the new school, while others across Pasco County were back in business on Aug. 14. (Photo: Pasco County Schools)

Among the thousands of students who went back to school in Pasco County on August 14, more than 1,500 of them spent their first day at Wesley Chapel’s newest school, Cypress Creek Middle High School, which is located off Old Pasco Rd.

Cypress Creek Middle High was expected to open with about 1,500 students, but actually had 1,603 students show up on the first day. The school’s capacity is 1,958 students, so it still has some room to grow.

The new school was needed to relieve crowding at not only Wiregrass Ranch High and John Long Middle schools, but also has students who previously were zoned for Sunlake and Wesley Chapel high schools, as well as Weightman and Rushe middle schools.

All students at the new school follow the same bell schedule, from 7:25 a.m. to 1:50 p.m.

“The first few days have been outstanding,” said Cypress Creek principal Carin Hetzler-Nettles. “Our students are enjoying their new environment and are learning the layout of the campus. Other than the normal situation of getting used to the routine, and watching to see where we need to change procedures with car loop or bus loop, etc., we have truly had an amazing first few days.”

Hetzler-Nettles also said that the campus was filled with Parent Teacher Student Association members helping students find their classes, and even Pasco Superintendent of Schools Kurt Browning was on hand to help welcome the students and direct them to their new classes.

Cypress Creek Middle/High. (Photo: Cypress Creek Howler)

“It takes a village to open a new school,” added Hetzler-Nettles, “and our community has just been so welcoming and helpful! We couldn’t have done it without them and are excited for our future!”

Among those who helped get the teachers set up in their new digs at the school on July 26 were volunteers from the Pasco Education foundation and the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel.

At Long Middle School, one of the schools that lost students to Cypress Creek, principal Christine Wolff said, “You always miss the kids on campus that you have grown attached to, and my wish for all of our former students is to have a good adjustment and get excited for learning, and take that excitement for learning with them wherever they are.”

She says that while Long’s enrollment numbers are down slightly (1,488 students were enrolled on opening day this year, versus 1,810 last year), the school is still over capacity because of all the growth in the area.

“We did have a smooth start to the school year,” Wolff says, “And, just like all of our Pasco County schools, we’re focused on meeting our school improvement goals and making sure they (the teachers and students) are meeting the learning standards in the classroom.”

And at Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH), the 10-period schedule is a thing of the past, as many former students have new homes at either Cypress Creek Middle High or WCH.

A contentious rezoning process last year was designed to ease the overcrowding at Wiregrass Ranch while also filling the new school.

“We had a great start,’’ said WRH principal Robyn White. “We are back to the 7-period day, and while there are a lot of students on campus at the same time, it is manageable. We started day one with a little over 2,200, which was a decrease of 300 from last year.”

CORRECTION: We inadvertently omitted New River Elementary from our chart of Pasco County school grades in our last issue. We’re really sorry about that, because principal Lynn Pabst and the students and teachers at New River earned a “B” grade for the third consecutive year.