School News

We would like to recognize our Eastlake Middle School staff members who received the Impact and Connection Award for February 2026. Staff members are nominated by their peers for being extraordinary in their field. 

Superintendent Dr. Patrick Ward surprised the teachers and presented their awards in front of their students and colleagues. It was wonderful to see how excited the students were for their teachers to be honored in their classroom!

Amy Smith was recognized because she is a great role model and leads by example, both in the classroom with her students and with her fellow staff members. Her encouragement and leadership are appreciated!

Dr. Derek Grabski was nominated by his peers as a top notch educator who always puts his students first and cares very much for the learning process. He continually works to improve his skills to be the best that he can be in the classroom and he never shies away from a challenge. 

Congratulations to these outstanding staff members!

 

The Eastlake Middle School FIRST Lego League Team, "The Broken Artifacts,” competed in a tournament at Kirtland Schools against schools from all around Ohio. FIRST Lego League or FLL, is a robotics and project based competition, where teams compete to solve real world problems, as well as compete to build a Lego Robot to complete as many missions on a game board as possible in 2:30 minutes. 

Congrats to the Eastlake Middle School Power of the Pen team! On January 10th, they traveled to Baumgardner Middle School to compete against 19 other middle schools. We are proud of all our talented writers. Way to shine Eastlake Rangers!

Eastlake Middle School 7th and 8th graders are diving into the world of drone technology in their CTE class! Students are exploring how drones can revolutionize the roofing industry - improving safety, accuracy, and efficiency.

Eastlake Middle School teacher Mrs. Karla Schwenk was recently honored with the George B. Chapman Jr. Math Teacher Award of Excellence by the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation. Mrs. Schwenk is well respected by her colleagues and ensures that students have hands-on math experiences to reinforce concepts and make learning interesting. The awards ceremony was held in July, and our Board of Education recognized her for this outstanding achievement at the August meeting. Pictured with Mrs. Schwenk (left) is Ms. Nagaj, Director of Teaching, Learning and Innovation.
 

According to the MHJ Foundation website, "For more than 65 years, the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation has awarded more than $170 million in grants to Ohio’s non-religious, public PK-12 school programs for a wide variety of projects and initiatives that foster Deep Learning and Excellent Teaching."