Tens of thousands of students in Palm Beach County returned to school on Monday.
“This is the best day of the school year. Always,” said Dr. Allison Castellano, principal of Spanish River Community High School in Boca Raton. “It’s absolutely amazing to see all the students come back refreshed and excited for a new school year.”
It’s an especially exciting and proud year for Castellano after Superintendent Mike Burke said the district is confident Spanish River achieved an impressive 100% graduation rate last school year.
“It’s unofficial, but we believe their graduation rate is 100%,” Burke said. “They dominate the school academically and they also have a pretty great group of student-athletes. So I’m really proud of Dr. Castellano. I think she sets the standard for how to run a really well-organized, high-performing high school.”
Castellano attributes the school’s success to students and teachers who welcomed changes in state testing requirements.
“We all pride ourselves on excelling and doing our best,” Castellano said. “Our mission here is to make sure every student reaches their highest potential. And we want to do our best to nurture them while they’re here so that hopefully they can not only succeed at the next level, but hopefully help them get a college scholarship.”
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Back to school
For many high school students, it was the first time they walked through a metal detector on campus.
Palm Beach County schools began installing metal detectors on all high school campuses Monday, following a pilot program last year.
Castellano said that at the end of last school year, Spanish River staff had a lot of practice with the metal detectors and learned ways to get students through the machines more quickly and efficiently.
According to Castellano, returning students had no problems with the metal detectors on Monday. For freshmen, there was a small wait time until they understood the system and knew how to enter their student number.
“We were all on time for class. It was an absolutely good experience this morning. Our students came early and well prepared. And we had our people lined up and ready to show them the way through the stations. And there were no problems at all,” Castellano said.
As for our other local school districts, Indian River County will continue to use metal detectors on its two high school campuses.
Officials from Martin, St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties said they would explore that option but are not ready to equip their campuses with metal detectors at this time.
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