NewsDon Fletcher

‘Long time coming’
Ground broken for ECHS fieldhouse renovation From left, county school board members Loumeek White, Sherry Digmon, Cindy Jackson, Coleman Wallace and Mike Edwards joined Superintendent Michele McClung for the ceremonial groundbreaking. By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer On Friday, July 28, Escambia County education officials took the first step in providing a new athletic fieldhouse for Escambia County High School (ECHS), a sweeping renovation that will turn a 50-year-old building…
BOE workshop
School system accountant ‘finds’ $5 million Goolsby By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Escambia County Board of Education members got a pleasant surprise during a two-hour workshop held just prior to the board’s July 31 meeting. Chief Schools Financial Officer (CSFO) Rochelle Richardson, who replaced retiring CSFO Julie Madden last July, said she and Deputy Director of Operations (DDO) Shaun Goolsby were working on “budgets and stuff” when she learned…
BOE approves $170K for technology, other services
By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Escambia County Board of Education members approved during their July 31 meeting the expenditure of $170,815.79 for educational technology services, professional development for teachers and other services. All but $10,937.08 of the expenditures are to be paid for with Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, federal money that was allotted to help recover from the impact of COVID-19 and which must be…
Felony arrests
No taillights, expired tag lead to drug charges Giddins McClain Tecun Tunstall Brooks Johnson By DON FLETCHERNews Staff Writer *A Mobile man, 24-year-old William Conner Amerson Giddins, was arrested July 28 by Atmore police on felony and misdemeanor drug charges after he was pulled over for operating a vehicle without taillights and an obstructed, expired tag.While speaking with Giddins and his two passengers, the officer observed “suspicious behavior” and was…
No parole for Atmore man, Brewton men
Warren Samuel McKenzie By DON FLETCHERNews Staff Writer An Atmore man and two Brewton men were among state inmates for whom parole was denied during recent hearings of the Alabama Pardons & Paroles Board.The Atmore man, David Paul Warren, was turned down during July 13 APPB hearings. Warren has served almost 7-1/2 years of a 20-year sentence he received after a 2016 conviction for an unnamed “offense against a person.”However,…