| Welcome to Azalea Elementary |
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Azalea's History |
Azalea Elementary School (AES), founded in 1954, is a public, nonprofit school in the Pinellas County School District (PCSD), a governmental organization. AES is nestled in a neighborhood in St. Petersburg. The school was originally designed for 9 classrooms, but has grown steadily to now house 39 classrooms with our latest addition just having been completed in August of 2010. AES services approximately 645 students in grades Pre-kindergarten through fifth with 56% of the students qualifying for free or reduced lunches, the most common indicator of socioeconomic status (SES). Azalea has a 3/4 and 4/5 blended PreK; 6 classes of Kindergarten through third grade, 5 fourth and fifth grade classrooms, 2 ASD units 1 4/5 EBD unit, 2 full time Gifted teachers servicing 3 other schools as well as Azalea on our campus, 1 and 1/2 units of speech/language and one Varying Exceptionalities resource unit.
AES also has a full time behavior specialist, a part time social worker, psychologist, and an educational diagnostician.
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About the Administrators: |
Deborah Caven- Principal,
Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from USF -May 2004
Certification in EH-1991 USF
Bachelor of Science in areas of Special Education and Elementary Education-Northern Illinois University -1977
Mrs. Caven worked for 10 years teaching Self- Contained Emotionally Handicapped students from grades 1-5, who had behavioral and academic challenges. The diversity in the classroom ranged from Autistic, Hearing Impaired, Learning Disabled, and Asbergers. The 11th year consisted of teaching an full inclusion class of 5 EH and 17 general education students. Mrs. Caven then became a 5th grade general education teacher. During her 7 years of teaching 5th grade, her class included a variety of handicapped children. Along with the Autistic, Aspergers, SLD, EH, and physically handicapped students, she also worked with struggling students who were not identified for an exceptional student education program. Within the classroom Mrs. Caven demonstrated that she could meet the needs of the diverse population of a Title 1 school. Student data indicated upward trends in mathmatics and reading regardless of socioeconomics, race, gender, and disability. Mrs. Caven was then promoted to Assistant Principal at Azalea Elementary for five years.Mrs. Caven became Principal at Azalea Elementary this July upon the retirement of Sue Boyd.
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