Education Archive

It’s fair to say that Laurel Hill School is now bursting at the seams.

With 456 students enrolled as of Nov. 14, the K-12 school that is the northern most public academic institution in Okaloosa County, has a full house.

Sharon Mitchell is a Laurel Hill lifer, literally.

A fourth grade English and Language Arts teacher at the school, Mitchell received her first taste of life as a Hobo way back in 1978 as a kindergarten student.

As the Okaloosa County School District began phasing out or transitioning some of the computer programming classes George Stakley was teaching several years ago, he had an idea on how to combine his college degree with his love for teaching.

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. 

Mary (Oglesby) Miller, Baker School Class of 2016 grew up at the school surrounded by a caring faculty.

The faculty included her father, David Oglesby, uncle Rusty Oglesby and longtime family friends and surrogate uncles John Carlisle and Andy Valmus, who were high school classmates of her father and uncle in Pensacola.

Danny Meinecke grew up in the home of people in the building trades. His father and grandfather were in the heating and air conditioning business.

He was doing duct work while still in elementary school and driving a truck doing lead work in high school. But there was a side of him that always wanted to be an educator.

The year was 1938 and war was raging in Germany. It would be another three years before Japan would bomb Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II.
It also was the year what is now known as Southside Primary School first opened its doors.

On Aug. 26, Code Ninjas, an international afterschool learning center franchise with a focus on coding, held a grand opening for their Pensacola center. The center has actually been open since March 2023.

To address the overcapacity of traditional elementary and middle schools in Crestview, the Okaloosa County School District plans to open a new K-8 school next to the Southwest Crestview Bypass in the fall of 2026.

Our high school seniors are celebrating a huge accomplishment in their life as they dip their toes into the proverbial adult end of the life pool. We are excited for you as you realize your whole life is ahead of you. You have barely begun to scratch the surface of what you can accomplish. The past twelve years have all been for this moment – mostly. Some of you will go on to use algebraic equations and some of you won’t. Whatever you decide to do with your life over the next few years, do it well! Here is some advice we couldn’t resist passing along: