Pinellas School Board unanimously approves March proclamations; honors students and names district support employee and teacher of the year

The Pinellas County School Board on Feb. 25 approved several proclamations by unanimous votes and recognized students and staff for statewide and national honors.

The board voted 6–0 to approve four proclamations: designating March 3–7, 2025 as National School Breakfast Week (item 4.1); recognizing March as Newspapers in Education Week (item 4.2); declaring March as Youth Art Month (item 4.3); and recognizing March as Music in Our Schools Month (item 4.4). Motions and seconders for each item were recorded in the meeting minutes and each proclamation passed 6–0.

Tammy Ayotte and Carrie Anne Henry of the district food and nutrition department described National School Breakfast Week activities, saying the district’s program will decorate cafeterias with a detective theme, provide promotional incentives and note that “in our district, every student eats school breakfast at no charge every single day at every single school,” Henry said. A board member noted the district served about 4,700,000 breakfasts last school year (attribution: board member comment during the meeting).

Kenya Woodard, program coordinator for the district’s journalism programs, summarized the Tampa Bay Times Newspapers in Education partnership and supplied circulation figures reported to the board: weekly distributions and digital-license counts for classroom use. Jonathan Ogle, the district’s preK–12 visual arts specialist, and Jori Spencer, preK–12 performing arts specialist, briefed the board on planned Youth Art Month and Music in Our Schools Month events, highlighting district exhibitions, awards and All County music participation.

The board then honored multiple students who won state and national awards across athletics, JROTC, arts and career-technical competitions. Highlights included Malena Mallory (Track, AAU Junior Olympics gold in shot put), Abigail Burke (bowling; recorded a perfect 300 game at state), and Tarpon Springs High School’s outdoor ensemble (Bands of America regional champion and Class 2A national honors). The board recognized dozens of students by school and invited honorees to the dais for photos.

Pinellas County Schools also recognized its 2025 Support Employee of the Year, Andrew Tremblay, head plant operator at Tarpon Springs Middle School. Michael Vigu, chief of human resources, said Tremblay has worked with the district since February 2013 as a plant operator and night foreman and currently serves as head plant operator.

The board named Mr. Dennis Zuercher as the district’s 2025 Teacher of the Year. According to human-resources remarks, Zuercher is a U.S. history teacher at Gibbs High School and has served in the district since 1992; he currently teaches U.S. History, credit recovery and AP U.S. History at Gibbs.

These recognitions and proclamations were presented as part of the meeting’s special-order agenda. The proclamations required board motion and vote and were approved 6–0; the honors and recognitions were presented without formal votes recorded.