No education without representation

A student on the school board? Several Santa Rosa County students called for some form of student representation at the June 13 school board meeting. “A student advisor (or representative) is not just an advisor to the school board but a liaison to the student body,” said Riley Perantoni, a Gulf Breeze teen. Similar leadership positions are held by students in Leon, Broward, and Miami Dade counties. School board member Linda Sanborn expressed interest in creating a student advisory committee instead of a board representative.

Tiger King back in Santa Rosa County Jail

The star of Netflix’s “Tiger King,” Joseph Maldanado Passage, 61, was transferred to Santa Rosa County Jail March 27 and is on hold for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Known as “Exotic Joe,” Maldanado-Passage was convicted of charges stemming from a murder-for-hire plot concocted against Florida animal right activist Carole Baskin and for killing and selling tigers across state lines. In 2018, Maldanado-Passage was arrested in Santa Rosa County and eventually sentenced to 22 years. The sentence was reduced to 21 years in 2022.

Need for speed

Navarre High School’s Construction Academy got to test their electric race car at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola ahead of future competition against other schools. Sponsored by Florida Power and Light, the electric car program is led by Navarre High teacher James Fox. The project of building a race car that runs on electricity took two months and lots of work. Going around the track, student Jack Moffa averaged about a minute per lap, hitting speeds of 30 miles per hour. Near the end of the hour long run at the track, the car lost battery power and slowed to a halt. The kit for the car cost $7,000 and Navarre was chosen to represent Santa Rosa County in a competition in April.