George Starkie took a roundabout road to the classroom, but Avalon Middle School’s Teacher of the Year is finally right where he belongs.

West Des Moines, IA – Nov. 10, Mediacom Communications is offering $60,000 in scholarship support for high school seniors who plan to obtain further education. The scholarship program is in its 23rd consecutive year and Mediacom’s investment will award $1,000 World Class Scholarships to 60 high school seniors. 

When Regina Clapper, Wallace Lake K8’s media specialist and librarian, describes what it was like finding out she was the first teacher of the year in the new school’s history, she needs only two words.

At a time when the news media is reporting record numbers of teachers leaving education, Lauren Hinote chose to trade her career as an insurance agent for the classroom.

It’s worked out so far; earlier this year, her peers chose her as Chumuckla Elementary School’s Teacher of the Year. The first-grade teacher blames her sister, Ashley Drinkard, a third-grade teacher at S.S. Dixon Intermediate School.

Amber Murray loves what she does.

“I can’t imagine having another career,” she told the Press Gazette last week. “I live for the moments when a student has struggled with a concept for days or weeks, then it clicks, and it makes sense to them. It is so empowering knowing that you helped them learn a new concept or skill, and I get to see their self-confidence blossom.”

For the past nine years, Rachel Swartz has been a prominent figure at Hobbs Middle School in Milton.

Teaching Algebra and geometry honors courses to eighth graders as well as advanced math to seventh graders, Swartz has become a teacher loved by students and faculty alike. So much so, she was named Hobbs Middle’s choice for teacher of the year, the first time she has received the honor.

Everyone loves a good detective story. On Tuesday, Oct. 17, at Pea Ridge Elementary School’s STEAM night, students had the chance to be a part of their own. STEAM is short for science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.

The theme of this year’s STEAM night was “The Mystery of the Missing Picture,” in which students had to solve the fictional crime of who ‘stole’ principal Kimberly Crate’s picture. The goal of a STEAM night is to create a hands-on event to get students excited about learning science and math.

There is a little-known problem in Santa Rosa County’s schools. According to Santa Rosa County District Schools’ coordinator of federal programs Bobbie Lewter, the district has a poverty rate of 43.54 percent.

Oct. 2 marked National Custodian Appreciation Day. For Santa Rosa District Schools, it was an opportunity to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of school district and ABM staff who help keep our schools clean.

Milton city staff are working out details of a fentanyl awareness campaign to explain the drug’s dangers. Riley Perantoni, a Gulf Breeze High School junior, on Thursday, Sept. 21, asked the City of Milton Council to consider a resolution he drafted outlining a program to combat fentanyl-related deaths.