New teachers and programs highlight the new school year at Forest Lake Academy

Back to School 2021

By Ava Niemeyer, Interning Correspondent with The Apopka Voice

Welcome back, Forest Lake Academy (FLA) parents, students, and teachers. There is a lot to be excited about this school year!

“Students can look forward to new programs and initiatives that are aligned in academics, athletics, and community development,” said Susan Becker, the Vice Principal of FLA.

The administration focused on helping students be more prepared for their future, which includes two new programs to the 2021-22 curriculum.

Susan Becker - Forest Lake Academy Vice Principal

“We are adding to our Dual Enrollment program this year to offer Principles of Engineering and we have some other program extensions in the works as well,” says Becker. “We are adding our Overgrad program to help guide students in their journey to select the best career and educational institution to support their goals.”

FLA is also bringing in two new teachers to add to its roster.

“Misty Douglas will be joining us from Texas and will be teaching World History and Honors World History," Becker said. "Our second new teacher is Levi Phillips who has been teaching in Florida and is excited to join us at FLA. He will be teaching Algebra I, Financial Algebra, and Algebra II.”

Misty Douglas

New teachers and new students could potentially make it more challenging to keep COVID-19 off the campus, so in order to keep the environment healthy for students and faculty, FLA is keeping its COVID-19 protocols in place.

“Our priority at FLA is to keep our students and staff members as safe as possible while also ensuring we have the opportunity to maintain the high level of instruction our students and parents expect,” said Becker. “We will be starting the school year with face masks while members of our community are in our buildings and evaluating COVID-19 numbers on a weekly basis to determine our protocols moving forward and continue our extended cleaning protocols that we had in place last year.”

Levi Phillips

With hopes that these precautions will increase the possibilities of removing COVID-19 protocols in the future, the Forest Lake Administration keeps in mind that in the meantime it is unpredictable what might happen. Becker shares that the best thing to do is stay prepared.

“As we have learned, this is a fluid time period which requires us to frequently pivot and our plan is to use the data and recommendations available to us to make the best decisions possible,” said Becker.

Though there have been significant changes in the past year, FLA has continuously moved forward to provide only the best for its students. This shows through its hard-working faculty and opportunistic programs.

“We want our students to know we are committed to making this a great year at FLA,” said Becker. “We love and care about them, our faculty and staff are eager to create learning experiences and memories that will last them a lifetime. We are committed to providing each student with equal opportunities and support in their educational journey and career path. While this is an unprecedented time, we believe that we will have a wonderful year!”