Santa Rosa Education Foundation has announced the five semifinalists selected from 35 school nominees for Santa Rosa Teacher of the Year. Congratulations to Anthea Amos, Central School, Melody Griffin, Gulf Breeze Elementary, Karen Cody, Navarre High, Tanya Metzler, Pea Ridge Elementary, Michelle Tucker, West Navarre Intermediate.

Many schools talk about being a family of students and staff. But at Avalon Middle School, they truly are. Danita Johnson, Avalon Middle’s teacher of the year, sees herself as a member of that family. Johnson, who has taught in both Florida and Kentucky, has spent the past 30 years as both a teacher and an administrator.

Dawn Poggi’s peers picked her to be S.S. Dixon Elementary School’s Teacher of the Year but, as important and impressive as that honor might be, it doesn’t quite capture everything she does for the Patriots.

April Hobbs is right where she needs to be. The East Milton Elementary School Teacher of the Year was born and raised in Milton, an alumna of Milton High School and the University of West Florida and, for the past nine years, a teacher at East Milton Elementary.

You may notice the rather tall ceiling when you first enter the front doors at Bennett C. Russell Elementary School in Milton. This large height fits in well with the school’s motto, “Soaring to new heights in education.”

It takes a strong team to win a championship. King Middle School feels like they have that with their academic team. In its sixth year, the academic team at King Middle recently earned a bid to the national championship in Chicago, which runs from May 12 to 14 next year.

Berryhill Elementary may be the only school in Santa Rosa County that can boast a published playwright among its faculty.

Moving students into a new K-8 building next year will affect several area schools: Avalon Middle, Berryhill Elementary, Central K-12, Chumuckla Elementary, Dixon Elementary, Dixon Primary, Pea Ridge Elementary and Sims Middle.

A stubborn strand of long, black hair kept falling across Julianne Robbins’ face, but she didn’t seem to notice. “Who can tell me what this is?” she asks, holding up a tiny toy chair. Most of the first graders kneeling around her raise their hands, but not one blurts the answer.

The Santa Rosa County School Board is scheduled to discuss the new Wallace Lake K-8 School’s attendance zone at a workshop scheduled at 8 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, at 5086 Canal Street in Milton.