Sunlake Weekly Update

Highest points of all traditional high schools in Pasco County!

Student Hours: 7:05 AM-1:39 PM

Email: kmerlin@pasco.k12.fl.us
Website: https://slhs.pasco.k12.fl.us/
Location: 3023 Sunlake Boulevard, Land O' Lakes, FL, USA
Phone: (813) 346-1000
Facebook: facebook.com/SLHSseahawk
Twitter: @SLHSseahawks

What an incredible start to the school year! This was the best start to a school year ever at Sunlake. Our students returned excited, engaged, and ready to learn, and it was wonderful to see so much positive energy throughout our classrooms and campus.

I want to thank our families for helping make the first week a success. Most parents have already learned and followed our procedures, which has contributed to a smooth opening of school. Our students have also done an outstanding job following expectations, especially regarding wireless communication devices, helping us maintain focused learning environments.

As a reminder, tardies begin this week, so please review the Tardy section below and help ensure students arrive on time and ready for learning each day.

This week also marks the beginning of our administrative focus on instruction. Our administrators will be in classrooms every day this year, supporting teaching and learning. I cannot wait to see our students grow and achieve while our teachers continue to showcase their top-notch instructional strategies.

Be sure to come out and support our Seahawks at the first home volleyball game. We would love to see our school community filling the stands!

A strong school-home partnership depends on sharing information both ways. If you have news, celebrations, accomplishments, or updates about Sunlake students or alumni to share with our community, please email me at kmerlin@pasco.k12.fl.us with the subject line: Weekly Update: News.

Let's have the most amazing first full week ever!

IT’S GREAT TO BE A SUNLAKE SEAHAWK!

Monday, Aug 17th-

1:45 PM-5:00 PM- Class of 2029 Hoco Practice: 4 Left Commons

1:45 PM-5:00 PM- Class of 2028 Hoco Practice: 3 Right Commons

1:45 PM-4:00 PM- Class of 2030 Hoco Practice: 4 Right Commons

Tuesday, Aug 18th-

1:45 PM-2:30PM- PBIS Student Group: Room 3-113

1:45 PM-5:00 PM- Class of 2029 Hoco Practice: 4 Left Commons

1:45 PM-5:00 PM- Class of 2028 Hoco Practice: 3 Right Commons

1:45 PM-4:00 PM- Class of 2030 Hoco Practice: 4 Right Commons

4:00 PM- School Advisory Council (SAC) Interest Forms Due

6:00 PM-9:30 PM- HOME Volleyball vs. Mitchell High School: Sunlake Gymnasium

Wednesday, Aug 19th-

1:45 PM-3:00 PM- Key Club Interest Meeting: 3 Left Commons

1:45 PM-5:00 PM- Class of 2029 Hoco Practice: 4 Left Commons

1:45 PM-5:00 PM- Class of 2028 Hoco Practice: 3 Right Commons

1:45 PM-4:00 PM- Class of 2030 Hoco Practice: 4 Right Commons

4:00 PM- School Advisory Council (SAC) Voting Begins

Thursday, Aug 20th-

2:15 PM-3:00 PM- Drama Club Meeting: Portable 1

1:45 PM-5:00 PM- Class of 2029 Hoco Practice: 4 Left Commons

1:45 PM-5:00 PM- Class of 2028 Hoco Practice: 3 Right Commons

1:45 PM-4:00 PM- Class of 2030 Hoco Practice: 4 Right Commons

5:00 PM-8:30 PM- AWAY Volleyball @ Calvary Christian

7:00 PM-9:30 PM- AWAY JV Football @ Land O'Lakes High School

Friday, Aug 21st- Kona Ice Day!!

1:45 PM-5:00 PM- Class of 2029 Hoco Practice: 4 Left Commons

1:45 PM-5:00 PM- Class of 2028 Hoco Practice: 3 Right Commons

1:45 PM-4:00 PM- Class of 2030 Hoco Practice: 4 Right Commons

5:00 PM- SAC Voting Ends

7:30 PM-9:30 PM- AWAY Varsity Football @ Central High School

Saturday, Aug 22nd-

7:30 AM-2:00 PM- SAT Testing: 3 Right

10:00 AM-9:00 PM- Colorguard Rehearsal: Sunlake Gymnasium

Sunday, Aug 23rd-

Happy Sunday!!!

We are serious about learning at Sunlake High School!

Every tardy student interrupts the entire class due to the state law of having doors closed and locked when students occupy the room. Our data last year indicated that first period tardies were the highest and our state testing revealed that greater than 60% of our first period classes had the lowest data during first period. However, students were arriving tardy throughout the day as well. Tardies were a problem that we have to address if we are going to achieve even greater success in 2026-2027.

New consequences for tardies are in place and will be tightly enforced so please help by ensuring your child arrives at school on time and do what you can to stress the importance of arriving at each class on time. We have also added a 4 minute warning bell so that students know to "pick up the pace" to avoid a tardy.

Our tardy policy is available at the end of each Weekly Update in the Frequently Referred to Documents section and the chart of consequences is also right below this article for your convenience.

More time in class with less interruptions equal increased achievement. Let's do better this year, Sunlake!!

Yes, you read that right! Last year we had Kona Ice on campus for our staff and boy were our students disappointed when they were denied access. Why not treat our amazing students to this same experience occasionally? ]

Seven times throughout the school year, Kona Ice and/or Travelin' Tom's Coffee Truck will be coming to campus near the end of the school day!!!

This Friday Kona Ice will be here to celebrate the start of the 2026-2027 school year. Students may visit the truck on their way to lunch and cash, cards and ApplePay are all accepted.

We saw A LOT of students out of dress code on Thursday and Friday!! While we choose to spend our time and energy focusing on instruction we do want our families to know that any staff member can enforce the Pasco County "Rules of Dress and Appearance" (p. 32 Student Code of Conduct) at any time. Below are the 3 biggest violations that we witnessed last week.

FYI- The picture to the right is a common shirt worn to school and is a violation of both the first and thrid bullet below.

• Shirts must have sleeves or straps (No tube tops) and extend to the waistband of pants/shorts/skirts/or other bottoms.
• Students may not have exposed undergarments, which would include any and all portions of a student’s underwear or bra.
• Students must wear opaque (not see through) clothing that has fabric on the front, back on the sides of the body extending from under the arms to cover the entire chest area (think straight line from armpit to armpit).

Welcome Back! Special Announcements

Scholarships, Volunteer Opportunity and Employment Advertisement & West Point informational session

SCHOLARSHIP ENDING SOON

GATES Scholarship Deadline Sept. 15th

https://www.thegatesscholarship.org/scholarshipLinks to an external site.

United States Senate Youth Program- Deadline Sept. 30th

https://ussenateyouth.org/Links to an external site.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY

City of Oldsmar- August 22.

Sign up required, QR Code provided on attached flyer

Now Hiring!

The After School Scholar Academic Tutoring for all elementary school ages.

Apply using this form: https://forms.gle/Ji79nPn2p8gVSSGW6Links to an external site.

WEST POINT INFO SESSION

Check out this flyer to learn more about the West Point admission process. This event is sponsored by West Point and will be held at the University of Tampa.

Registration Required, more info listed on flyer

Our very own Coach Danielle Fotopoulos, PE Teacher and Head Boys Soccer coach that brought the State Title to Sunlake last year, has been inducted into the Tampa Bay Soccer Hall of Fame. As a former player, Coach Fotopoulos holds the all-time NCAA Division I records for goals and points, and was a member of the University of Florida team that won the 1998 NCAA women's soccer championship. Coach Fotop, as she is commonly called, was also a member of the United States National team that won the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Our student athletes LOVE when you come watch them compete! Game dates and times are listed in the calendar each week and can also be found on the Sunlake website community calendar. Please read the expectations ahead so you are not caught by surprise (especially the clear bag rule) when attending a game.

Save yourself time and purchase your ticket before you come to the gate. Simply click the picture below to link to GoFan...better yet dowload the app on your phone for quicker access.

Passes are available:

Family Pass- All year, 4 Tickets $125.00 (+$8.25 fee)

Seasonal Student Pass- All sports for the season for 1 student $25.00 (+$3.25 fee)

Our School Advisory Council (SAC) has one parent position open for a two year term starting in the 2026-2027 school year. SAC meets 8 months during the school year on the 4th Tuesday from 7:05 AM-8:05 AM to discuss school improvement efforts, review data and stay informed on current events at Sunlake. Interested candidates will be placed on a ballot, along with their personal interest statement, to be voted on by the parent population at Sunlake between August 19th-August 21st. If you are interested in having your name placed on the ballot, please complete the interest form at the link below no later than Tuesday, August 18th at 4:00 PM.

Sunlake School Advisory Council Interest Form 2026-2027

Yes, students with B Lunch may leave after their 6th period class instead of remaining on campus for lunch if...

• This is their regular disimissal plan
• The student is a car rider, walker, bike rider or scooter rider
• The student has a completed B Lunch Early Dismissal Form

Please be sure to sign on to PascoOne and complete the acknowledgments including the Parent Bill of Rights and update your emergency cards. One of the scariest moments for school personnel is the inability to reach a parent or guardian when their is an emergency at the school. Please help us by keeping your information current and answering the Parent Bill of Rights questions.

Schedules are always a HOT topic in high school. While we desperately wish that we could give every one of our 2181 students the exact courses they want and in the exact order that they want, this is simply not possible.

The number of sections we offer for each course is determined by the course requests that students entered last Spring so space is limited. We have already received greater than 550 schedule change requests. If you have already submitted the form and have not yet heard back please do not submit another form.

There are 9 reasons our counselors can make a schedule change at this point in the year. We do not change electives for the first 10 days of school.*

1-Student has a class on their schedule they have already earned credit for.

2-Student is scheduled into a class that has a prerequisite that has not yet been completed.

3-Student is a senior and missing a graduation requirement.

4-Student has been accepted into an academy and is missing an academy class.

5-Student has less than 6 classes.

6-Student has a duplicate class.

7-Student is missing a core course.

8-Student has two lunches or no lunch.

9-Courses do not reflect changes request on the Spring Course Acknowledgement Form.

Schedule Change Request Form 2026-2027

*After the first 10 days of school we will have a better understanding of which students showed up as expected and which students have withdrawn. This attrition of students sometimes allows us to grant schedule change requests for electives so if we have the ability to change electives we will notify families of the procedure at a later date.

10/12-10/16- Homecoming Week

10/17- Homecoming Dance

5/8/27- Prom

6/2/27- Graduation (1:30 PM)

Click Here for the College & Career Specialist Newsletter

This link will remain in all future issues of the Weekly Update.

https://sunlakeperch.com/

The link above will take you to Sunlake's very own virtual newspaper with articles written by our talented student journalists! This link will stay active all year and be posted at the bottom of each newsletter so be sure to check it out each week. Who knows? Your child may end up in a feature article!!

Sunlake Handbook Edition of Weekly Update

2026-2027