Polk County Public Schools
Middle and high school string instrument students will perform in an orchestra concert at 7:30 p.m, Friday, April 17 at Florida Southern College’s Branscomb Auditorium. The public is invited and there is no charge to attend. Florida Southern College is located at 111 Lake Hollingsworth Drive, Lakeland. Information: (863) 647-4727.
The public is invited to a reception of the “Free To Be Me” elementary school art exhibition on Saturday, April 18 at the Polk Museum of Art. There is no cost to attend and the reception begins at 11 a.m. The Polk Museum of Art is located 800 East Palmetto Street, Lakeland. The reception includes awards presentations from the museum and the school district to elementary school students judged to have created the best art. Information: (863) 647-4737.
The public is invited to the 17th Polk Video Awards on Tuesday, April 21 at the Victory Church, 1401 Griffin Road, Lakeland. Student-produced videos that include documentaries, animations, music videos and school news broadcasts will be shown. More than 2,000 people annually attend the event and the video award show is one of the largest school district events of the year involving students, staff and spectators. There is no cost to attend. The event begins at 6 p.m. Information: (863) 647-4254.
A team of public school students representing Polk County will compete in the state high school academic tournament to be held April 20 to 22 at the Disney World Contemporary Resort in Lake Buena Vista.
Representing Polk at the Commissioner’s Academic Challenge are Tyler Campbell, Alejandro Garcia, James Karson, T.J. Konkol-Bennett, Jessica Moore and Kathryn Phillips. Campbell, Garcia and Phillips are seniors at Lakeland’s Harrison School for the Arts. Karson is a junior in the International Baccalaureate program at Bartow High. Konkol-Bennett is a senior at Bartow High and Moore is a senior at Eagle Lake’s Lake Region High. This academic all-star team was chosen to represent Polk at the state tourney by virtue of their individual performances at the county academic tourney held in February. The team’s coach at the state tourney is Harrison School for the Arts teacher Geoffrey Freebern.
Polk will test their knowledge against other counties in mathematics, science, language arts, social studies, foreign languages, technology, fine arts and humanities. Polk was state runner-up in its division in 2008 and won the state high school academic championship in 2007. Polk also took second place in 2004. Polk was the third place team in 2005.
The public is invited to the Academic Challenge and there is no charge to attend the competition. Polk’s tentative competition schedule: Monday, April 20, 12:45 to 2:45 p.m., Tuesday, April 21, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. and Wednesday, April 22, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2 to 4 p.m.
