WEKIVA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is located in beautiful Central Florida in the city of Longwood. Longwood is a suburb of Orlando and is midway between Disney World and Daytona Beach (each of which is an hour drive).

The school was built in 1978 in the Wekiva subdivision. It is a golf community of 1500 homes with winding bike paths, two small lakes, three parks, tennis courts, and nature trails. The West Branch of the Seminole County Public Library is even located in our neighborhood.

Wekiwa is a Creek Indian word that means "spring of water." Wekiwa Springs is the headwaters of the Wekiva River. Wekiva means "flowing water."

Our school mascot is the koala. It was chosen by the majority of the students who were zoned for Wekiva before the school opened.

We were fortunate to be awarded the Florida Retrofit Grant in 1995. As a result, we are completely networked. We operate a Windows NT network. At least two to four computers are in every classroom, one of which is a new Windows XP computer. We have Internet access in all classrooms via Seminole County School's wide-area network (WAN) which is connected to a T1 line. We hope to share many of our online projects with you as the year progresses. In the fall of 1998, we have also established a 25-station Dell computer lab that is being used for whole class Internet access, multimedia projects, desktop publishing, and staff training. We also have a 16-unit mobile iBook lab that's ready to roll into any classroom bringing innovative digital tools right to where learning is taking place. In 2006 our school was one of five elementary schools in our county that won the Beyond Words: Digital Storytelling Grant. Five intermediate teachers and our technology facilitator received training on creating digital stories using iMovie. We were also excited about receiving a 10-unit mobile iBook lab where our students will create digital stories that artfully dance ideas and media together into illuminated understandings!

We are also very proud of our television production studio, home of KNN, the Koala News Network. In 1996, the wall between two small storage rooms in the Media Center were taken down and our news studio set was built. Gradually we have created a state of the art television production studio complete with two S-VHS video cameras on tripods, a video mixer, audio mixer, CD player, tape player, tape editing equipment, monitors, lapel microphones and spotlights. It is completely operated by our highly-trained fifth grade students.

In the spring of 1997, we were awarded a Seminole County Technology Grant to purchase the equipment, software, and furniture for a complete Music in Education Program by Yamaha. Each student plays a midi keyboard that is networked to the music teacher's computer. The students are really "turned on" to music and "midi madness" has spread throughout our campus.

In the fall of 1998, our Student Council was established for the first time at Wekiva Elementary. Officers are elected and members are chosen from students in grades 3-5. Their purpose is to make a difference at our school and in our community. Many exciting projects have been planned for this year.

You can also catch students reading all around our campus due to the excitement of our Accelerated Reader Program which is accessed from every classroom over our schoolwide network. Because of our flexible media schedule, students can come to the Media Center as often as they like to check out some great books! We have also adopted the STAR Program in which students' reading levels can be quickly and accurately calculated via their classroom computer.