To the Editor:

Lehigh Senior High School Center for the Arts has had a banner school year! This was third year for the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program which has over 350 students enrolled. These students are taking College Board Advanced Placement and/or Honor level courses. In addition, over 50 percent of the AVID students are enrolled in Dual Enrollment courses. Lehigh held two State of Florida AVID Open Houses to showcase their program. Lehigh was the first public high school in Lee County to have the AVID program.

Lehigh Senior had its inaugural University of Cambridge class. This is the first public high school in

Lee County to offer the prestigious program. Students that graduated with the Cambridge diploma will receive up to 45 college credit hours and

100 percent Bright Futures Scholarship.

Lehigh Senior offered 27 College Board Advanced Placement courses and students took 674 sections

of Dual Enrollment courses with Edison State College. Eight students graduated with their Associates in Arts degree before receiving their high school diploma. Graduating seniors earned over $1.3 million

in post secondary monetary awards which is $100,000 more than last year.

The Center for the Arts has had record breaking enrollment and students competed at the local and state levels. New to the Center for the Arts

is the Academy for Digital and Media Arts. Through this program students will be able to earn an Industry Certification in programs such as Adobe

and four Microsoft programs.

The JROTC program received the Founders Cup

for the second time in three years. The Founders Cup recognizes the school with the highest number of community service hours. In addition, Cadet Mason Allen received the Superintendents Award for a male cadet with the highest GPA for JROTC in the entire school district.

Lehigh Senior had three Golden Apple Finalist (Terry Huge, Sara Gulnac, Natalie Lafferty), two Teachers of the Year for their content areas (Vanna Crawford and Paula Yaniglos), Learning for Life Teacher of the Year

(Maryellen Montana) and a Lehigh Chamber of Commerce Teacher of the Year (Matt Kaye). Two staff members (Ashley Sexton and Paula Yaniglos)

submitted their portfolios to be considered as a National Board Certified Teacher.

Lehigh Senior High School qualified for the Gold and

Silver School Award for community volunteering and is on track to be designated as a Five Star School.

Jeff Spiro, Principal

Lehigh Senior High

Center for the Arts