OAKLEAF – Clay County District School’s Elementary Math Field Day, a high-stakes academic series featuring four teams and one individual event, activates the minds and instills pride during the annual event.
That’s because of the marathon-style, challenging-yet-fun series of team-style arithmetic competitions, including The Quiz, Word Problems, The Huddle, Relay and “Individual Assessment.” A multiple-choice test taken by each school’s competing student before the event has now become a county tradition that “learning is fun.”
Fourth and fifth-grade teams from R.M. Paterson won first-place awards, while Orange Park finished first among sixth-grade teams.
The highly-acclaimed awards ceremony at Oakleaf High is a true spectacle within itself.
After 470 students and more than 100 teacher volunteers competed in four forms of mathematical warfare that challenged students’ brains in fields like algebra and geometry. Afterward, more than 600 students and teachers moved to the school’s gymnasium, where “mathletes” picked up their awards.
After hours of tests, educators and learners were joined by hundreds of parents, family members, friends and residents heading into the Knights’ gym. The reception was so popular, many had to sit on the gym floor.
Superintendent David Broskie led the crowd through the wave and excited students with “drumroll” introductions of the top six teams.
Broskie hosted the event alongside Chief of Elementary Education Heather Teto and School Board Members Mary Bolla, Beth Clark, Ashley Gilhousen, Michele Hanson and Erin Skipper.
Argyle, Charles E. Bennett, Clay Hill, Doctors Inlet, Discover Oaks, Fleming Island, Grove Park, Keystone Heights, Lake Asbury, Lakeside, McRae, Middleburg, Orange Park, Oakleaf Village, Orange Park, Plantation Oaks, R.M Patterson, Rideout, Ridgeview, S. Bryan Jennings, Shadowlawn, Swimming Pen, Tynes, W.E Cherry, Wilkinson and the Coppergate School of the Arts were among participating schools.

Fourth grade
First – R.M. Paterson
Second – Orange Park and Thunderbolt
Fourth – Swimming Pen Creek

Fifth grade
First – R.M. Paterson
Second – Lake Asbury
Third – Fleming Island

Sixth grade
First – Orange Park
Second – Thunderbolt
Third – Fleming Island