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Gulf County School Board unanimously advertises 2025–26 millage, approves hires and awards two construction contracts
Summary
At its July 16 meeting the Gulf County School Board unanimously approved advertising the anticipated 2025–2026 millage rates, confirmed personnel hires (including two Port St. Joe High School instructors effective Aug. 1, 2025), approved program agreements and the Mental Health Allocation Plan, and awarded two construction contracts totaling $417,524.76.
The Gulf County School Board on July 16 unanimously approved advertising the anticipated 2025–2026 millage rates and took a series of personnel, program and procurement actions during its regular meeting at the district administrative office in Port St. Joe.
Chairman Brooke Wooten called the meeting to order at 8:00 a.m. and the board — Vice Chairman Ruby Knox, board members Equillar Gainer and Matt Terry — approved an amended agenda before taking up consent and action items. Superintendent Jim Jin Norton and Attorney Costin were present.
On a motion by Vice Chairman Ruby Knox, seconded by Equillar Gainer, the board voted unanimously to advertise the district's anticipated millage rates for 2025–2026. The board also approved the minutes of its July 1 meeting.
The board approved several personnel items effective Aug. 1, 2025: Neldys Crespo for the Port St. Joe High School (PSJHS) Spanish teacher position and Lee Fontaine for the PSJHS welding instructor position. The board also approved Cameron Totman (Port St. Joe) and April Bidwell (Wewa) to teach night school for adult-education students, additional summer hours for PSJHS guidance staff Jenny Clark and Amber Jones, and the advertisement for four career-and-technical-education (CTE) teacher positions — one per school — in anticipation of a TRIUMPH grant scheduled to begin Jan. 1, 2026. The board acknowledged the temporary assignment of Micah Peak to assist Karen Shiver with the TRIUMPH CTE grant startup and approved Linda Joann Pitts as a substitute school bus driver.
On program matters the board pulled the 2025–2026 Employee Handbook and the Student Handbook/Code of Conduct to allow members additional review time. The board unanimously approved the Mental Health Allocation Plan and approved an articulation agreement with Gulf Coast State College. The board also approved an independent contract with Roy Lee Carter to maintain district vegetable gardens.
In procurement matters the board awarded Bid #26-006 for Port St. Joe High School stadium bathrooms to Monolith Construction Panhandle, LLC for $267,624.76 and awarded Bid #26-005 for the PSJHS softball field house to Big Fish Construction for $149,900.00; the board waived the pay-and-performance bond requirement for the softball field-house award. Both awards were approved unanimously.
The board entered executive session at 8:37 a.m. for School Safety Specialist Jay Bidwell to deliver the quarterly safety update; the session concluded at 9:15 a.m. The transcript contains no public details from the executive-session discussion.
The board also approved Matt Terry to serve as the district's representative on the Value Adjustment Board, with Chairman Wooten as alternate, and adjourned at 9:36 a.m.
All motions recorded in the meeting minutes passed by unanimous vote of the attending board members.
