December 2023 Student Spotlights – Pike Road

Sydney Rhodes is in the business of saving lives. Last year after donating blood for the first time she realized it was so easy, anyone could do it. That’s when she started thinking about bringing the BloodMobile to Pike Road Schools.
The PRS Leo Club and her teacher, Ms. Amanda Fuller both knew this was a great cause and agreed to sponsor the event. Sydney spent time over the summer making calls and working with LifeSouth to organize the event.
This is the first blood drive at Pike Road Schools and they had almost 100 students, teachers, and parents sign up to donate. There were also more than 20 students who volunteered at the event throughout the day.
Life South provided students who donated a $20 gift card, and the Leo Club received a stipend for organizing the event. They plan to put the money aside to be able to help a family who needs it due to a medical emergency. They hope to never need to use it. All of the blood donated with LifeSouth stays in our community and each donation can help to save up to three lives.

Macon East Academy dedicated its new 7,500 square-foot multi-purpose building with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by city, state, and county officials. State House Representative Reed Ingram, Montgomery County Commissioner Doug Singleton, and Pike Road Mayor Gordon Stone were among the guests, in addition to the Headmaster Glynn Lott, school administrators, and trustees. The building offers an open-space design that can be utilized for school events, classrooms, and an all-sport indoor training facility with retractable batting cages for baseball and softball. Additionally, there are enlarged restroom facilities to serve the football, baseball, and softball complex. This new building is an investment in the campus, students, and faculty.

Excitement was in the air as the GW courtyard transformed into a sizzling spot for celebration. Dedicated volunteers were on campus early in the day tending to the grill, and packing lunch bags for students who achieved proficiency on some portion of the ACAP or reached a category 3 or 4 in Growth. 473 students from 7th, 8th, and 9th grades were able to participate in the hot dog cookout!

Pike Road High School Career & Tech instructors invited groups of first responders to speak to students about their jobs. The visitors included Montgomery City Police Officers, Montgomery County Sheriff Deputies, K-9 units, Alabama Power, Dixie Electric, Waugh/ Mt. Meigs Volunteer Fire & Rescue, and Pike Road Fire Department. Students could engage with the responders, ask questions, get in the emergency vehicles, put on their gear, practice CPR, go through the smokehouse, and more!

Catherine Kenny was awarded the Terry Marbut Excellence in Robotics Teaching Award on October 13 at the 2023 Southern Educational Robotics Conference. Mrs. Kenny teaches STEM/ Technology Education, Computer Science Discoveries, and Robotics Systems at Pike Road Jr. High School. She also serves as the junior high and high school VEX VRC robotics coach. Congratulations Mrs. Kenny for this honor!

Macon East Academy fourth graders enjoyed an Alabama History field trip to learn all about cotton. They started at the Milstead Gin Company in Shorter, AL. Mr. Joey Scarborough was a gracious host and provided the tour of the gin. Students then visited Segrest Farms in Shorter, and walked through the fields and picked bags of cotton to take home as a souvenir. After picking cotton, students enjoyed a picnic lunch. The students also enjoyed a presentation about the native Americans and Tes Jolly showed the students some ancient Creek Indian artifacts. They enjoyed learning about history and playing outdoors on a beautiful fall day!

Baptist Health donates nearly $7,000 worth of medical supplies to Pike Road High School Health Sciences Program. This generous donation equips more than 200 students in the Career Tech Program’s Health Sciences track with new medical tools, including stethoscopes, thermometers, gloves, masks, wheelchairs, and more, enriching their educational experiences.
Many of these students will not only use these supplies to learn skills in the classroom, but it will also serve to prepare students for future internships and potential careers at Baptist Health.

Pike Road Patriots are 6-A Area Tournament Champions! We are so proud of these girls!

On October 30, the high school SGA hosted their second annual Trunk or Treat for our community and it was a huge success! At least 25 “trunks” were handing out candy or offering games for more than 100 costumed visitors. The entire community joined in the fun from school clubs and organizations, to churches, and local businesses! The SGA even held a costume contest for the kids. Regardless if you were walking with a candy bag, or hosting a game, a good time was had by all!

Pike Road Elementary School placed 2nd in the Hay Look at Us! haybale decorating contest. This year, the PRES specialists transformed their haybale into Spookley, the Square Pumpkin. If someone was not familiar with Spookley, there was even an added QR code that could be scanned to hear PRES theatre teacher, Mr. Clark read the story.