Dr. Scott LeMaster is the principal of the new G. Weaver Hipps Elementary School on Homestead Rd.

The school year is coming to an end fast and that is good news for Scott LeMaster, the new principal at G. Weaver Hipps Elementary School, Lehigh’s newest elementary school.

The school will take over the former staging school on Homestead Rd., which this year has housed Lehigh Elementary School students while the school off of Richmond Ave. is being rebuilt.

LeMaster has been working in the building, which several years ago was the K-Mart building in Lehigh. School board officials renovated the building to become a high school for East Lee County High School while construction of the actual school was underway on Thomas Sherwin Ave. Designated as a staging school for the East Zone, next came students for the new Treeline Elementary school while they waited for their new school to be completed.

But come June, the building becomes G. Weaver Hipps Elementary and no longer a staging school. It will remain the Hipps Elementary School for the future.

It becomes Lehigh’s fifth elementary school. Others include Lehigh, Sunshine, Mirror Lakes and Harns Marsh elementary schools. Ten years ago, there were only two elementary schools in Lehigh, but a fast growing population has required to building of more such schools.

Principal with new secretary. Earthine Caldwell is the new G. Weaver Hipps Elementary School secretary, shown here with new principal Scott LeMaster. Photo by Mel Toadvine

While a lot of people in Lehigh don’t recognize the name of G. Weaver Hipps, new principal LeMaster says he was an assistant superintendent some years ago and the school system wanted to recognize him for his outstanding work during his life. LeMaster said he is trying to locate Mrs. Hipps, his widow, to invite her to the school when it is opened. She’ll probably get a tour and be introduced to the student body.

LeMaster has been working at the school for the past several weeks now with his secretary, Earthine Caldwell, have been working in hiring a staff for the new school. That staff includes teachers, assistants, office personnel, cafeteria personnel and maintenance personnel.

Already LeMaster says he has 15 teachers as of last week and has been notified that also as of last week, some 205 students have signed up to attend the school. They were the students who chose the student as their first choice in the first program known as the First Open Bath, which just closed. The Second Bath is now open and parents of students who want to attend the new school should report to the School Choice office on Beth Stacey Blvd. during the week and sign up. LeMaster said he should end up with a total of between 40 and 45 teachers. It will depend on the number of kids attending the school and class sizes, he said.

While the school as Lehigh Elementary has some 802 students, the new Hipps Elementary School has a planned capacity for its first year of 486 students. The second Batch may provide the remainder of the students who want to attend the new school. LeMaster says parents shouldn’t wait if they want to attend his school.

LeMaster is an enthusiastic young man with a “people personality” who can’t wait for school to officially open in August for students and teachers. He loves teaching and being an educator and gives credit over and over to Dr. Doug Santini, principal of North Fort Myers Academy for the Arts.

“He’s my mentor. I have learned so much from him. This man brought a school up from D to an A school when he became principal. I admire the way he administers his school and his insight into the educational process,” LeMaster said.

While at the Lehigh Elementary School which will be vacated in a few weeks, LeMaster says he can’t say enough for the help and support from principal Duane Courtney and his staff.

“They have bent over backwards to help me and I truly appreciate it,” LeMaster said.

When school closes in June, Courtney won’t be taking furniture and many of the other items to the new school because it will be provided. However, the furniture at the new Hipps School is like new.

“We’ll be getting all new computers and the latest in technology equipment,” LeMaster said. “We’ll get such things, too, as the new Smart Boards.”

LeMaster has his own office just off a teachers lounge and he and his new school secretary are working to open the new school. They are not part of the Lehigh Elementary School.

LeMaster can almost call himself a native of Lee County, having moved here with his parents when he was 16 in 1987. He is originally from Washington Courthouse, Ohio. He has degrees from University of South

Florida at Tampa and Nova University. In addition to his post graduate degree in education, LeMaster has a master’s degree and his doctorate and has earned the title of Dr. Scott LeMaster.

He’s 38 and is married to Sarah LeMaster who teachers at North Fort Myers Academy. They have three children, a 15-year old freshman and two twins boys in the fourth grade.

LeMaster said most of the teachers have hired as tenure; but a couple may have lost their jobs.

LeMaster said he loves challenging kids in their academics. He has also coached for high school and elementary and has taught on the middle school level for 15 years. He said he be believes in the PBS (Positive Behavior Support) way to teach with rewards for students. That can mean such things as dances, a Friday night move, and other things students would enjoy for doing a good job and getting good grades.

“We also want this to be ‘family school’ and we plan on doing things to bring them to school, to involve them. They are welcome to come to any classroom at anytime of the school day.

“When I am out on the parking lot and meet a parents I don’t know, I plan to get to know them and to shake their hands and invited them to become involved in our school,” he said.

He also is a friend of Jeff Spirio, another well-known principal at Lehigh Senior High School. LeMaster said students would be coming over to the new school as mentors and to read to students and help out. It’s a good program for both the younger students and the older ones in high school, he said.

Teachers will be following the Kagan Cooperative Learning method of teaching, a program that LeMaster admires and says works well in other schools.

It’s based on cooperative learning where student work together toward a learning goal. he said the Kagan learning program has been the most heavily studied cooperative learning program and continues to show success in cooperative learning because of their set structures which rely on individual accountability in the cooperative learning groups, which is something that is extremely important in order for cooperative learning to work.

According to a handout about the Kagan process, the academic benefits are that it promotes critical thinking, gets students actively involved in the learning process brining about improved classroom results. It models appropriate student problem solving techniques. It is especially helpful in motivating students in specific curriculum and it develops what educators call learning communities. There are also many psychological benefits to the program, LeMaster said.

For parents and their children, one of the best things about the school is its hours. G. Weaver Hipps

Elementary School will be open from 9:45 a.m. to 4 p.m., more traditional school hours than in some of the other schools that require students to be in classrooms much earlier and release them a couple of hours after noon.

“I’m really excited at G. Weaver Hipps Elementary School and I think our students will be, too,” LeMaster said.

“We plan to be an important part of the Lehigh community.”

So come June, the sign out front on Homestead Rd. will change from Lehigh Elementary to G. Weaver Hipps with more than likely a mascot of a friendly alligator smiling in a relaxed pose. As far as walkers and bikers to the school, LeMaster says he is looking into the safety factor in front of his school. Right now he does not know how many students will be walking or riding their bikes across busy Homestead Rd. For more information and becoming a student of the school, call 368-7042.