GB schools to get much-needed updates
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

An update to the Gulf Breeze High School Dolphin Field House is on the list of School Board projects planned for the coming year.

Gulf Breeze schools will be getting a lot more than a facelift, if the improvements on the Santa Rosa County School Board's approved list get done next year. The board approved a list of renovations and new construction for the 2007-2008 school year and summer months at last week's regular board meeting. Gulf Breeze tops the list with some of the most major projects planned.

Gulf Breeze Elementary is one of the first projects on the list to be started by December this year. The board approved building a new kitchen and cafeteria for the elementary school. The kitchen and cafeteria now there were built in 1955, and growth has made them very crowded and in need of updates. The kitchen there now is not a complete kitchen, but the new one will be self sustaining with plenty of room to actually cook meals. The new cafeteria /kitchen addition will be more than twice the size of the current one, according to specs approved by the board. And it will provide a stage and enough space for the entire school to attend assemblies at the same time, instead of splitting into smaller groups for assemblies stretched out all day long.

The old cafeteria will be made into four new classrooms. There will also be another six classrooms added to the school. Other renovations on the list for Gulf Breeze Elementary include repairs to the bus ramp cover and an extension of that bus cover, and a new music addition.

Gulf Breeze Middle School is on the list for some new carpeting. Gulf Breeze High is listed to get an expanded field house, replacement of rooftop heating, air conditioning and ventilation units for the weight room, gymnasium, band room, lobby, and kitchen. There will also be some older wooden doors replaced in the school.

Oriole Beach Elementary will get some new carpeting and some new cabinets.

Navarre High is another major project on the list, with the kitchen and cafeteria being expanded, a new concession and rest room expansion at the stadium, two science labs built, some new carpeting, and an addition of eight classrooms. School board member Diane Coleman said Navarre High is growing so fast this will be a much needed improvement. Altogether the board approved the construction of almost 50 new classrooms countywide.

They also approved the design phase to begin for the building of a new Jay High School, but that would come under special projects with special funding.

The capital outlay budget for this year is $25 million. The board was told that if all of the classrooms are built that are on the list that would take $15 million of the budget to complete.