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.

Almost 2,000 residents voted for one of four possible names for the new K-8 school being constructed at the intersection of Wallace Lake Road and Chumuckla Highway. Wallace Lake was the overwhelming winner, with 1,301 total votes.

Randy Parazine is going over instructions on a Wednesday morning in early November on how to make a sales pitch. The lesson is for the students in his entrepreneurship class at Milton High. He’s in the environment he was always destined to be in. The classroom. He originally got away from that dream when he was younger.

Every morning before school at Central, students file into the library. Some are there for books, but most are there for a fresh brew to start off their day. Coffee has become an important part of societal norms around the globe. Coffee houses and cafes are gathering spots for the young, the old, and everyone in between. And at Central School, coffee plays an important role in bringing the school together.