February 26, 2025
Lake Minneola High Named National Demonstration School for AVID & Career Readiness Program
By Kyle Coppola
Lake Minneola High Named National Demonstration School for AVID & Career Readiness Program
MINNEOLA — Lake Minneola High School has been named a National Demonstration School for AVID, a non-profit organization that works to improve college and career readiness. It is the first high school in the district to earn the recognition and one of just a handful in the state.
“This achievement is a testament to the hard work, dedication and passion we put in as a school community to ensure every Hawk is prepared for success beyond Lake Minneola,” Principal William Roberts said. “We could not be more proud of this milestone.”
AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) aims to narrow the achievement gap between high-performing and lower-performing students. It offers strategies to accelerate the performance of all students so they and their peers succeed in college, career and life. It helps students develop the writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization and reading skills needed to be successful on post-secondary campuses and on career pathways.
“AVID not only impacts the students in the AVID classroom, but the entire campus,” Roberts said. “What we do really well, and what we’ve been recognized for, is ensuring that AVID and the great strategies that prepare our Hawks for life after Minneola impacts every single student in every single classroom. We’re quite proud of that.”
Lake Minneola has three AVID teachers and more than 300 students who participate in the program, which is offered on every high school and middle school campus in Lake County. Lake Minneola on February 6 hosted a showcase for schools across Florida that are exploring the implementation of AVID. The day ended with a celebration.
“We did it!” Lake Minneola AVID Coordinator Kristen Pautienus said. “This is a culmination of 13 years of hard work. It’s really beautiful.”
AVID National Demonstration Schools are selected through a rigorous application process, screening and review, which includes a site visit. They must be revalidated every few years to ensure high levels of implementation.
East Ridge Middle School was the first Lake school to earn the distinction in 2014. Windy Hill Middle was second, earning the recognition in 2020, when Roberts was principal there.
“This recognition validates that we are providing opportunity for all of our students and preparing them for life after Lake Minneola,” Roberts said. “It’s very exciting for us.”
Photo Credit – Lake County Schools
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
