John Everitt, the man who announced the Milton High School band for 28 years and helped brand it as “the Mighty Black and Gold,” died earlier this month. He was 78.

The Santa Rosa County School Board unanimously approved a $528.9 million budget Sept. 10 for the upcoming fiscal year.

Each September serves as National Suicide Prevention Month, a time to bring awareness to mental health issues and the resources that could save people’s lives.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide was responsible for 48,824 deaths in 2024, the most recent year the agency has statistics for. While this amounts to a little over 1.5 percent of the total deaths across the U.S., CDC stats show a profound increase in the suicide rate per 100,000 from 2001 to 2024.

Santa Rosa County District Schools is continuing its partnership with SmartSocial for the 2026-27 school year.

The new principal of Pea Ridge Elementary School has set a clear goal for her first year: Move the school from a “B” to an “A.”

The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office says the removal of a school resource officer from T.R. Jackson Pre-K Center had nothing to do with the opening of Soundside High School, disputing the account given by Milton’s police chief.

Benny Russell is a name many in the community may be familiar with. Football stadiums, sports fields, a park, an elementary school and a section of highway bear his name.

Pace High School opened the new school year with Santa Rosa County’s largest student population with 2,351 students enrolled for the year and school officials saying they added portables to keep up with demand.

Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Shane Forsman starts his day with coffee and a walk of the fence line.

He checks the gates. He looks for anyone who shouldn’t be there. Then the buses pull in at Bennett C. Russell Elementary School, the doors open, and for the next several minutes he is handing out high-fives and good mornings to a share of the school’s roughly 900 students.

“They trust me with their lives day in and day out, so I take that very seriously,” he said.

The Santa Rosa County School Board voted unanimously July 28 to eliminate the public committee that decided whether challenged library books stayed on school shelves, handing that decision to the superintendent.