It’s official! Lake County’s newest public school, serving students in kindergarten through 8th grade in the Four Corners area, will be called Lake Pointe Academy. The School Board unanimously approved the name at the Oct. 12 meeting.
Lake Pointe Academy, which had been generically referred to as the Four Corners K-8, will welcome about 800 elementary students and 400 middle school students in the fall of 2021. It will be located in the Four Corners area, at the southernmost point of Lake, where the county is seeing rapid, continuous growth.
With an environmental curriculum that weaves in science, technology, engineering and math, Lake Pointe Academy is touted as the first E-STEM school in the state. It will feature an Eco-Courtyard, Eco-Trail and Eco-STEM lab to enhance the curriculum, along with a garden to support culinary arts lessons and mini-collaboration areas within and across classrooms. The building décor will feature a yellow, green and blue color scheme to reflect the environmental focus.
Andrea Steenken, currently principal at Sawgrass Bay Elementary, will transition into the role of principal of Lake Pointe Academy later this fall. She said she is eager to build community support for the school and excitement about its opening. Now that the school has a name and curriculum focus, and construction is well underway, she said the next step is for the community to help choose a mascot.
A committee of community stakeholders narrowed the mascot choices down to:
- Blue jay: Blue jays are frequently found in Lake County. They are known for their intelligence and tight family bonds.
- Tortoise: The gopher tortoise is considered endangered. Prior to breaking ground for Lake Pointe Academy, an environmental team had to safely relocate gopher tortoises that were found on the land.
- Tortuga: Tortuga is tortoise translated into Spanish.
- Ibis: The White Ibis typically resides in wetlands. They are considered to be super protective.
Students, parents, district employees and others in the community are invited to complete a survey indicating which mascot they prefer. The survey LINK will be available on the school’s new FACEBOOK page. (Note: The survey is created in Google Forms. Users may be required to log into their personal Google account to access the survey.)
The survey deadline is Oct. 30.
