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The Island News formerly Lady’s Island News
YOUR Local Newspaper
Bringing our community together
July 30 - Aug. 5, 2009
Covering Beaufort, Lady’s Island, St. Helena Island, Dataw Island, Fripp Island, Port Royal
Pillows for Patriots fundraiser begins
see page 7
Jennifer Morillo leaves LIMS to become principal at Beaufort Elementary by John C. Williams
With three weeks left before schools re-open, the Beaufort County School Board named Jennifer Morillo as the new principal at Beaufort Elementary School. In an interview with The Island News last December, Morillo said she hoped to be principal of a school within three years – she beat her own goal by 30 months. Morillo, an assistant principal at Lady’s Island Middle who was named the state’s top middle school assistant principal in 2008, takes over from Dr. Terry Hitch. Superintendent Valerie Truesdale made Hitch the school district’s new director of academic assistance.
Jennifer Morillo
In that role, Hitch will work closely with the district’s early childhood centers and kindergarten through second grade teams to promote early academic success for children, according to district officials.
Morillo came to the Beaufort County School District in 2001. She has worked as a mathematics teacher at H. E. McCracken Middle School from 2001 – 2004 and as assistant principal at Lady’s Island Middle School from 2004 until now. In a profile published in The Island News last December, Morillo already was voicing her desires to lead a school. “I realized in my first teaching job that I didn’t want to spend 28 years in the classroom,” she said in a recent interview. “I wanted to teach for five to eight years, and I taught for seven. I think I have a good eye for looking at data to find out where students are succeeding and where they need more focus, and I work well helping teachers find new ways to connect to students. “My desire is to meet the academic needs of the students,” she said in that story. “Gone are the days where we randomly put kids in classes – now we place them based on their needs, based on the data we have from any number of assessments” such as the MAP testing (Measures of continued on page 13
Elaborate – and huge -‘loggerhead’ family golf cart float wins Fripp contest by John C. Williams
Each Independence Day, Fripp Island holds a contest for the best decorated golf cart in its parade. Sometimes families string together some red, white and blue bunting and they’re done in five minutes. Other families take a different approach … Consider this story from Joe and Johnsie Brown of Lake Norman, near Charlotte, NC. “We have been coming to Fripp for the last four years. Our daughter, Carrie Canfield and grandchildren, Caite age 12 and Ted age 9, live live in Doha, Qatar where her husband is in the petrochemical business,” Johnsie Brown said. “Concept work began late spring shortly after the (Fripp) resort announced this year’s theme ‘Music through the Ages.’ The grandchildren used videoconferencing via computer to develop their idea of building a float replicating a loggerhead turtle. They decided that their entry would be called ‘the Loggerhead Limbo.’ “The top of the golf cart was removed about two weeks before the parade and actual construction started at that time,” Mrs. Brown said. “The first step was to erect a metal frame shaped like a turtle shell, then attach chicken wire reinforced with sheets of Styrofoam. The head and fins were done using the same method. Once these steps were accomplished, the children used glue and old newspapers to paper mache’ the actual body of the turtle. continued on page 11
In This Issue SCHOOL NEWS
PROFILE
NEWS
LIMS school supply list
Jenny Kopke and Denice Davis
Blood Drive
SEE PAGE 12
SEE PAGE 10
SEE PAGE 7