{"id":235861,"date":"2026-04-17T17:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/235861\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T17:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:14:08","slug":"events-showcase-best-of-ocps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/235861\/","title":{"rendered":"Events showcase best of OCPS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend was another beautiful example of how lucky we are to live in this community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both of our high schools hosted events for the community to enjoy. First was the\u00a0third-annual\u00a0Orange Blossom Jazz Festival hosted by the Apopka High School Band at the Apopka Amphitheater.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The event ran for two days\u00a0\u2014\u00a0on Friday, April 10,\u00a0and Saturday, April 11. The event\u00a0showcased\u00a0the finest middle school, high school, collegiate and community jazz ensembles during the two full days. This included not only our Apopka schools, but schools from areas throughout Central Florida,\u00a0as well as UCF, Full Sail University, Seminole State\u00a0College\u00a0and the University of North Florida\u00a0in Jacksonville.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ensembles featured fantastic jazz performances for the community to enjoy, but performers also received in-person clinics from an esteemed adjudication panel. The event was an opportunity for students to highlight all they have\u00a0accomplished\u00a0throughout the year and for the community to enjoy great jazz music.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This festival was supported by the\u00a0city of Apopka\u00a0and\u00a0numerous\u00a0Apopka High School volunteers and band parents. What\u00a0a great opportunity\u00a0for students to be a part of\u00a0such\u00a0a fun community event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also on Saturday, April 11, Wekiva High School hosted the third-annual\u00a0CommUnity\u00a0Celebration, which was a vibrant and\u00a0lively\u00a0school spirit event bringing Lakeville Elementary, Piedmont Lakes Middle and Wekiva High students and families together for a day of fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This event started\u00a0as a way to\u00a0bring our younger students into the local high school to\u00a0showcase\u00a0all the opportunities available in the high schools and for families to access community resources, but most of all to come together for a fun day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It has grown into a robust event, filling the gymnasium with local resources in the community and from OCPS for families. The entire courtyard was filled with\u00a0yummy\u00a0treats from local vendors as well as arts and crafts for kids, animals from FFA and bounce houses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I have been a sponsor of this event since it began,\u00a0along with\u00a0City Commissioner Nick Nesta, who sponsors a free hot dog meal for everyone who attends.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I reflect on these two events, I was struck by the\u00a0numerous\u00a0school staff who worked so hard to bring these events to life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0get paid for showing up on the weekend or for the hours of preparation to make these events happen. They do it because they see the value of bringing our community together for the benefit of our children.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I want to thank\u00a0each and every\u00a0one of them who gave their free time to make these events happen.\u00a0It was\u00a0a great day\u00a0throughout our community that\u00a0showcased\u00a0our local public schools.<\/p>\n

\"Melissa <\/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 weekend was another beautiful example of how lucky we are to live in this community.\u00a0 Both of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-235861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235861","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=235861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}