VIN'S PEOPLE: Manatee County School District honors principal, assistant principal of year
A bow to both Joshua Bennett, principal at Braden River Elementary School, and Jessica Kane, assistant principal at Palm View K-8. The Manatee County School District recently named Bennett its Principal of the Year and Kane its Assistant Principal of the Year.
Bennett, with the district since 1999, has led BRE since 2019. Previously, he’d been principal at Bashaw Elementary, assistant principal at Bayshore and Kinnan Elementary Schools, and taught Exceptional Student Education at Mills, Bashaw and Oneco Elementary Schools.
Kane, with the district since 2007, has been at Palm View since 2021. She previously served as an AP at King Middle, a dean at Lakewood Ranch High, a student support specialist at Haile Middle, ESE department chair at Horizons Academy and ESE teacher at Manatee High.
Both now vie for the Florida Department of Education’s Principal and Assistant Principal of the Year.
· And bows to the newly crowned Miss Manatee County Fair Pageant’s royalty. They are Miss Manatee County Fair Queen Ally Carpenter; Junior Miss Anna Radojcsics; Little Miss Maci Osment; and Mini Miss Saige VanHyning.
The fair begins Jan. 11.
· Well done to the Lakewood Ranch High band members selected to the Florida State University Tri-State Honor Band and the University of South Florida Festival of Winds Honor Band.
The FSU Tri-State honorees are Connor Engelsberg, French horn, and Kathleen Montanaro, clarinet. The USF Festival of Winds honorees are Lauren Cunningham, clarinet; Emorie Lawrence, flute; Zoey Putter, trumpet, and Connor Wren, euphonium.
· Parrish Community High tennis player Sophia Juliano represents the Bulls in the Heisman High School Scholarship Program, which recognizes America’s most accomplished, community-minded high school senior athletes.
· School Crossing Guard Joseph Lanzi is the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Employee of the Month for October. Helping a child cross at 71st Street West and Cortez Road, Lanzi spotted a driver who appeared to be texting and not slowing to a stop. So Lanzi snatched the child from in front of the vehicle, avoiding possible injury or worse.
· Lastly, Sherri and I called my sister, Trish Goos, in New Hampshire the other day to sing her “Happy Birthday.”
The conversation eventually got around to our winter weather and how it was going down to the 40s here.
“That’s nothing,” she joked. “It’s going down to EIGHT here tonight.”
D’oh!
Vin’s People runs Sundays. Email Vin Mannix at vinspeople@gmail.com. Or call 941-962-5944. X (formerly Twitter): @vinmannix.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: VIN MANNIX: Manatee Schools honors top principal, assistant principal
