Reagan Mckendree

Reagan McKendree wasn’t shocked she achieved a near-perfect score on the SAT recently, but what it means for her future puts a smile on her face.

The Baker County High School junior scored 2320 out of 2400 points on the exam used as a common benchmark for college admissions and scholarship eligibility.

The 16-year-old from Cuyler garnered 220 out of 240 points on the pre-SAT, so she expected to do well on the SAT. “But I wasn’t thinking a perfect score on the math and reading,” Ms. McKendree said the morning of February 21, five days after taking the five-hour test.

She didn’t miss a single question on the reading or math portions of the test, but lost points on the writing and grammar sections.

“I was pretty happy,” said Ms. McKendree, adding that she didn’t realize how extraordinary her score was until guidance counselors and other faculty members, “made such a big deal of it.”

“I was like, ‘well, OK.’ This is a pretty big deal,” she said.

Students and teachers at the Pre-K Kindergarten Center on E. South Blvd. marked the 100th day of the school year February 3 by dressing up like geriatrics.

Teachers dawned grey wigs, robes, slippers, bifocals  or all of the above  and some like school principal Bonnie Jones completed the look with a walker. Children participated as well, some employing hair nets or faux beards made of face paint.

Activities for the day also incorporated the number 100.

“We’ve had so much fun today,” said pre-K teacher Amy Dennison, adding that one lesson tasked children with counting out 100 fruit loops and forming them into a necklace.

From left, Sydni Starling, Deirdre Riggs, Sarah Farnesi, Devon Burns and Kelsey Brown.

Four high school sophomores ventured to the 49th Annual Junior Science, Engineering and Humanities Symposium last week at the University of Florida to present a study on diabetes research they conducted in the classroom this school year.

The young ladies from the health academy — Kelsey Brown, Devon Burns, Sydni Starling and Sarah Farnesi — were selected from 127 students in biology teacher Deirdre Riggs’ classes to attend the three-day event and share their conclusions.

Ms. Riggs had her students pen a two-page paper about whether a rare form of diabetes called MODY (Maturity Onset Diabetes in the Young), that shares characteristics of Type 2 diabetes more common in overweight adults, is inherited or caused by environmental factors like lifestyle and diet.

The papers counted as final exams and followed laboratory research partially funded by the university as part of a program to enrich high school science classes by incorporating more hands-on activities.

Last summer, after an application process, Ms. Riggs was chosen to attend a two-week training session at UF along with about 20 other Florida high school teachers.

County Forester Andy Lamborn plants a river birch tree at Macclenny Elmentary.

Florida Arbor Day arrived at Macclenny Elementary the afternoon of January 19 when students lent many a helping hand to plant four river birch trees in the school’s backyard while learning about them from county forester Andy Lamborn of the Florida Forest Service.

Two hundred and sixty nine students in all were briefed about the history of Arbor Day and trees themselves — how they clean the air, soak up water and nutrients from the soil and contribute to many, many things we use everyday, including toothbrushes and paper products.

Groups of four classes at a time gathered outside their classrooms around a pre-dug hole and potted river birch tree, which Mr. Lamborn said was chosen over other varieties because of its heartiness.

“It can handle just about anything,” he said.

The soil at Macclenny Elementary is rich with clay, likely used as fill material during the school’s construction, but the river birch can still thrive there. It’s also cold tolerant.