Education Archive

A student on the school board? That is what a group of students called for at the June 13 Santa Rosa County School Board meeting.

While it may seem preposterous to some, it’s allowed by state law and has been implemented in some school districts across Florida.

For West Navarre Intermediate School Teacher of the Year Elizabeth Baer, teaching has always seemed like a natural fit.

There was a significant shake-up in Santa Rosa District Schools in June.

At the June 13 school board meeting, the district appointed seven people to new positions at schools throughout the district, including four principals at Holley Navarre Primary School, Avalon Middle School, East Milton Elementary School and Gulf Breeze Elementary School.

Pensacola State College is starting an Aviation Airframe Mechanics and Aviation Power Plant Mechanics (A&P Mechanics) program. To help future students enrolled in the program, Pensacola State College has accepted the donation of a plane from InDyne CEO and President Don Bishop. Pensacola State College Leadership, the Pensacola State College Foundation, and local and regional partners of the College were present at the donation ceremony, held at ST Engineering’s airframe maintenance facility at Pensacola International Airport. The ceremony was Tuesday, June 11.

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson announced the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ (FDACS) Division of Aquaculture is now accepting applications from Florida educators for aquaculture classroom systems and supplementary materials.

As a freshman, Victoria Nguyen really pushed to be in the top two of Navarre High’s Class of 2024.

She scaled back those efforts a bit after that, but still thrived academically, and as it turns out, she is the salutatorian for this year’s graduating class.

Brendan Patterson calls it quite an honor to be the valedictorian of Navarre High’s Class of 2024.

“I think this is class is really special. There are a lot of gifted minds in it,” Patterson said. “I hope I represent them well.”

Navarre NJROTC cadets Gennaro Smith, Brenner Mavity and Jesse Lee are all headed to West Point.

A fourth cadet, Ben Johnson, received an appointment to the Naval Academy but is attending Florida State instead.

A Navarre student’s artwork is heading to Washington, D.C. Noah Villarreal, a junior at Navarre High School, competed in the 2024 Congressional Art Competition and was named the first-place prize winner for Florida’s first congressional district. Villareal’s art piece was among 193 entrees from across the district, which stretches from Escambia County to Walton County. According to U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, it was the most successful year of the art competition.

Navarre High School has named their ESOL Teacher of the Year! Karen Cody, who has taught at the school on and off again since 1996, has been recognized as the 2024 ESOL Teacher of the Year. ESOL stands for English for Speakers of Other Languages. In 2023, Cody was named Teacher of the Year for Santa Rosa District Schools.