Pettus

This week I wrote a feature story about Luke Lockwood, a 13-year-old Switzerland Point Middle School student who is also a top-ranked world class water skier. I've posted a photo album of Luke in action here at MyStJohnsSun.com, and now he is also the star of a multimedia slide show.

You can see and hear him in action at: Slideshows

If you haven't seen my earlier multimedia production, Behind the Scenes at Potter's Wax Museum, you should check it out too.

The first day of school for St. Johns County students was Aug. 24, so we thought that Superintendent Joseph Joyner should be the St. Johns Sun's difference maker for our Aug. 25 issue.

Some readers accepted our invitation to ask their own questions of the St. Johns County School District's leader. Joyner graciously accepted the opportunity to answer these questions -- his responses are in two different sections below. Each section was necessary due to the time necessary to gather all information to provide the answers.

The first set of Joyner's responses appeared in the Sept. 1 issue of My St. Johns Sun. He and district staff provided the second set of responses after deadline for the printed Sept. 8 issue, so they appeared here on MyStJohnsSun.com first though we plan to print them in the Sept. 15 issue. Thanks to all who participated, and a special thank you to Dr. Joyner.

 St. Johns County School Board Chairwoman Beverly Slough and community and school activist Kim Kendall submitted letters publicly this week about the issue of whether to elect School Board members by single member district, as is done now, or at-large, as was the case prior to 1986.

The County Commission has proposed shifting the county to a charter form of government. One of the changes being considered is to change how school board members are elected. 

I have some book news to share with you, and this time it is all local to St. Johns County.

First, I'm working on a story for next week's paper about an award-winning author of novels for young adults who has just moved into Julington Creek Plantation. She has two books heating up the presses at MTV books (the second hits shelves later this summer), and just contracted to write a third for a different publisher, and now she's your neighbor. I think you'll enjoy learning about her, her writing, and what brought her to St. Johns County (it's probably the same thing that brought most of you).

I wrote a story last summer about an incoming freshman at Bartram Trail High School who had won the title "World Champion" as a martial artist.

Drew Hayward, the then 14-year-old from Fruit Cove had won not one but two world champion titles at the American Taekwondo Association's (ATA) World Championship Tournament in Little Rock, Ark. The ATA is the largest martial arts association in the United States and boasts more than 350,000 members worldwide.