Daniel Jenkins Academy of Technology

Daniel Jenkins Academy of Technology
Location
701 Ledwith Avenue Haines City, FL 33844 United States
Information
Type	Public
Principal	Mrs. Eileen Killebrew
Color(s)	Red, white, and blue
Mascot	Jaguars
Website	Home - Daniel Jenkins Academy

Daniel Jenkins Academy or DJA is the first technology public high school in Haines City, Florida. The school is a 6-8th, formerly 6-12th, grade school in Haines City, Florida, which offers many programs and computer-based classes. The school's principal is Eileen Killebrew and its assistant principal is Telay Kendrick. The mascot of the school is the Jaguars.

High school

The high school at DJA was a single classroom supervised by a teacher where the students worked on online classes through Florida Virtual School. Students either took classes taught by one teacher throughout the state or by a teacher living locally in Polk County through a branch of Florida Virtual School, called Polk Virtual School. Some DJA high schoolers took classes such as elective classes at Haines City High School and traveled by buses, which commuted regularly between the DJA and Haines City high schools.

Phasing Out of High School

Daniel Jenkins Academy began phasing out the high school in the 2007-2008 school year. This was the first year that no incoming freshman were accepted. The 2008-2009 school year was the final year that the online High School was active. There were four final graduates from the high school; all other students were relocated to Haines City High School or Ridge Community High School.

Middle school

The DJA middle school, on the other hand, is much larger than the high school and takes up almost all of the campus. Its classes are taught like in any other regular school. The Daniel Jenkins Academy middle school is a school of choice, where hopeful students must enter a waiting list for the school. Graduates of Bethune Academy, an elementary school of choice also in Haines City, are automatically given a place in DJA's sixth-grade class should they decide to attend DJA. Every grade at DJA Middle has a teacher for the subjects of math, language arts, science (the area varies with each grade), reading, and geography or history, depending on the grade level. DJA has about 500 students in total between its three middle grade levels; starting with the 2009-10 school year, it increased in size from 300 students (100 per grade) to now about 170 per grade. With this enlargement, the campus of the school was also enlarged to include a set of portable classrooms and several more teachers. There is a media center, a computer lab, and a science lab for use by classes throughout the school year. The school office and cafeteria are located on opposite sides of the campus. The school day is divided up into eight class periods, with one period for each core class and three periods for elective classes.

Bell schedule

The DJA day runs from 8:40 A.M. to 3:45 P.M. (Eastern Time) and is divided into eight class periods plus one lunch for each grade level.

Sixth grade

• The sixth grade math class uses the Prentice Hall Course 1 Mathematics textbook and is taught in Room 3.
• The sixth grade language arts class is taught in Room 4.
• The sixth grade science class focuses on Earth science, uses the Glencoe Earth Science textbook, and is taught in Room 2.
• The sixth grade reading class is taught in Room 10.
• The sixth grade geography class focuses on Asia, the Pacific nations, and Africa, and is taught in Room 11.

Seventh grade

• The seventh grade math class uses the Prentice Hall Course 2 Mathematics textbook, and advanced students take Pre-Algebra with the Prentice Hall textbook of that title. The classes are taught in Room 9.
• The seventh grade language arts class is taught in Room 7.
• The seventh grade science class focuses on life science, uses the Glencoe Life Science textbook, and is taught in a room under the sixth-grade classrooms called the Cave until it was refurbished into a classroom for the 2007-08 school year.
• The seventh grade reading class is taught in Room 6.
• The seventh grade geography class focuses on civics, Florida, Europe, and the Americas, and is taught in Room 8.

Eighth grade

• The eighth grade math classes teach Course 3 Mathematics, Pre-Algebra, and Algebra I (regular and Honors versions) with the Prentice Hall textbooks of the same names for each class. The math class that each student attends is determined by the level of advancedness the student shows. The class is taught in Room 18.
• The eighth grade language arts class is taught in Room 14, with a higher emphasis on writing in preparation for the eighth-grade FCAT Writing+.
• The eighth grade science class focuses on physical science, uses the Glencoe Physical Science textbook, and is taught in Room 16.
• The eighth grade reading class is taught in Room 15.
• The eighth grade American history class is taught in Room 17.

Electives

DJA offers many elective classes to its middle-schoolers.

• Physical education is taught in the Daniel Jenkins Academy gymnasium.
• Art is taught in Room 11, near the Cafeteria.
• Music appreciation, band, and strings classes are all taught in the Band area behind the gymnasium.
• Environmental/marine science, also known as "research", is taught in a large double classroom, Rooms 12 and 13.
• Spanish is taught in Room 10 behind the gymnasium.

Other areas

DJA also includes as a part of its campus:

• A science lab, laid out to best benefit science teachers in lab activities, which is officially Room 1;
• A media center with nonfiction and fiction reading material, plus reference books, computers, and a school-broadcast news studio;
• Two computer labs in which students (1) work in Compass Learning Odyssey or FCAT Explorer as a part of their class assignments or (2) conduct research for an online project;
• A cafeteria that serves doubly as a large-scale meeting place; and
• Naturally, the portables.

Academic competitions

MATHCOUNTS

Daniel Jenkins Academy has participated in the MATHCOUNTS Ridge Chapter Competition for several years. In 2008, DJA was particularly successful^[1]:

• DJA won first place in the team competition, beating out, among others, Southwest Middle School and Jewett Academy, who won second and third place, respectively.
• DJA won first place in the Ciphering Round of the competition.
• One DJA team member, Jacob Renuart, won the Countdown Round of the competition; he had also received the number-one seed for the round.

Being the chapter competition winners, the Daniel Jenkins Academy team went on to the state competition in 2008 and placed eleventh out of the 52 competing teams. Jacob Renuart won seventh place individually at the state level.

References

1. ^ Daniel Jenkins Academy Wins Mathcounts Competition

External links

• Polk County Public Schools
• Home - Daniel Jenkins Academy