![\"Melissa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Byrd_Web_1745418963-e1767899592414.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLast week I was invited to attend Wheatley Elementary\u2019s \u201cBlack History Experience 2026.\u201d What a wonderful experience it was! I left the school feeling uplifted and filled with joy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
First of all, the event was packed with cars filling the parking lot and the surrounding streets. The cafeteria was filled with the smiling faces of parents, grandparents, children,\u00a0friends\u00a0and community members. It was a real community event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The evening featured performances of various grade levels and included a wide variety of genres, including gospel music, a\u00a0Motown tribute, drums, spoken\u00a0word\u00a0and poetry. It all had us all on our feet dancing and singing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I tell you it was\u00a0a good time, I mean it. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0think I have ever attended a school performance where the audience was so involved and excited.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the bright spot for me was seeing the pride on the faces of these young scholars. They quite literally stood with their chests out. They knew the message they were sharing was not just a report of the\u00a0past or\u00a0of times gone by but a living testament to who they are and the history that lives in each of them that makes them strong.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was a beautiful thing to witness, which nearly brought me to tears several times.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But what I also loved to\u00a0witness\u00a0was the tight community that lives within Wheatley Elementary. There is\u00a0a pride\u00a0within those walls that is a strong testament to the 140-year history it embodies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
That community feeling was on full display that evening with the crowd\u2019s involvement in the program, the cheers,\u00a0dancing\u00a0and singing. The PTA was out in full force as well. Staff members were there. It truly was a joyous feeling and quite electric.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u00a0particular day\u00a0was a long one that started at 8 a.m. with two conferences I attended in Orlando.\u00a0I\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0get home that night until almost 7 p.m.,\u00a0but it was worth it to cap my long day off with such a joy-filled event. As I shared with Principal Tabitha Brown after the performance, my spirit was lifted and renewed!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thank you, Principal Brown,\u00a0for the special invitation and thank you Phillis Wheatley Elementary scholars for treating me to such a special evening I\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0soon forget!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Melissa Byrd represents District 7 on the Orange County School Board. She has previously taught at Forest City Elementary and Pace Brantley Hall School, served as PTSA vice president and chair of the School Advisory Council at Piedmont Lakes Middle, and volunteered at Clay Springs Elementary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week I was invited to attend Wheatley Elementary\u2019s \u201cBlack History Experience 2026.\u201d What a wonderful experience it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":{"0":"post-182765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-orlando","9":"tag-orlando-headlines","10":"tag-orlando-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}