Polk County Public Schools

News Release

32 Schools Named Five Star By State, Most Ever In Program History

September 2, 2009

Thirty-two Polk schools have received the prestigious Five Star School designation from the Florida Department of Education to start the new school year. The Five Star Award is given to schools for community service and community involvement efforts by including family, volunteers, school advisory councils and business partners.

Schools compiled and submitted portfolios documenting and quantifying community service work and activities from the 2008-2009 school year for the Five Star Award.

The 32 schools are the most Polk schools named since the beginning of the Five Star Program in the 1997-1998 school year.

Highlights of the Five Star Awards include:

• Four Polk schools, Inwood Elementary (Winter Haven), Lake Gibson Middle (Lakeland), Lawton Chiles Middle (Lakeland) and North Lakeland Elementary have been named Five Star for 13 consecutive years since the inception of the program.
  
  
• Five schools, Churchwell Elementary (Lakeland), Crystal Lake Elementary (Lakeland), Dundee Elementary, Fort Meade Middle-Senior and Summerlin Academy (Bartow) were named Five Star Schools for the first time this year.
  
  
• All three schools located on the Bartow High campus—Bartow High, Bartow International Baccalaureate and Summerlin Academy earned Five Star status.

Five Star Schools are listed by community with the number of times they have achieved Five Star status listed in parentheses.

Auburndale: Caldwell Elementary (11), Lena Vista Elementary (9).

Babson Park: Dale R. Fair Babson Park Elementary (12).

Bartow: Bartow Elementary Academy (11), Bartow High (11), Bartow International Baccalaureate (11), Summerlin Academy (1).

Dundee: Dundee Elementary (1).

Eagle Lake: Pinewood Elementary (8).

Eloise: Snively Elementary (8).

Fort Meade: Fort Meade Middle-Senior (1).

Frostproof: Frostproof Elementary (2).

Lake Wales: Janie Howard Wilson Elementary (12), Hillcrest Elementary (9), McLaughlin Middle And Fine Arts Academy (4), Spook Hill Elementary (4).

Lakeland: Blake Academy (8), Churchwell Elementary (1), Crystal Lake Elementary (1), Dixieland Elementary (5), George Jenkins High (9), Lake Gibson Middle (13), Jesse Keen Elementary (2), Lawton Chiles Middle (13), Lincoln Avenue Academy (8), North Lakeland Elementary (13), Padgett Elementary (8), Rochelle School of the Arts (12), Sikes Elementary (2), Wendell Watson Elementary (8).

Winter Haven: Brigham Academy (11), Inwood Elementary (13).

Polk Schools Five Star History Since 2005
Number of Schools Named
2009- 32
2008 - 27
2007- 25
2006 - 22
2005 - 21