A word to know: Observer

When Southside Elementary School student Sienna Steiner was assigned the word Observer for the vocabulary parade she recognized where she had seen the word before. The third grade student sees it when parents Tre Michel and David Steiner, owners of State of the Arts Gallery, read the Sarasota Observer and New York Observer (not related) as part of their routine.

"She’s sees me reading it every Sunday and it just jumped off the page," Michel said. "She knows that if you want to know what’s going on in Sarasota just read the observer."

A pirate's life 

There weren't any hanging chads or a call for a recount for election day at Fruitville Elementary School. On the ballot Tuesday was the decision for a new school mascot. All day on Nov. 3 students cast their votes for a new mascot to represent the school. 

The school has been around since 1887 and has seen a change in mascots over the years. At one point it was a falcon, then an orange tree before former principal Laura Kingsley suggested a treasure chest. New principal Steven French decided it was time to settle the debate and let the students decide. 

Classes of students from kindergarten to fifth grade submitted ideas for what they thought best represented the school as a mascot. From there the list was narrowed down to five candidates: a frog, a fox, a falcon, a pirate and a shark. 

The students spoke by electing the pirate with a narrow win of 26.4%. A fox was in a close second with 25.5%, then sharks with 
22.4%, falcons with 17.7% and 8.0% for frogs.

Assistant Principal Jamie Hannon was pleased to see the mascot she voted for come out on top because of the connection to the previous mascot. 

"We had a treasure box because our slogan was 'a local treasure,'" Hannon said. "It was a heated race. People were really interested in the foxes too. It was pretty divided."