The Okaloosa Youth Leadership Council is a group of Junior and Senior students representing each High School in our District. They work with our County Commissioners, specifically Commissioner Mel Ponder, to learn leadership traits from people within our community and work together on one county project and one school district project each year. Their task is to develop projects and ways to improve Okaloosa County. This year is the second year we have had this Council in place.
Angelique Patterson, Senior at Choctawhatchee High School and Chair of the Council, presented this year’s vision to the Board on March 13th.
Proposed projects included:
Extended School Leave on College Visits
Request a total of three school leave days dedicated to official college visits. These dates should also be available to Freshmen and Sophomores. Juniors and Seniors are currently granted two school leave days for college visits.
Volunteer Resource Page on Focus
Students need help finding opportunities to serve community service hours to fulfill bright futures and school service hour requirements. They propose to have a page on FOCUS that serves as a reference to community service opportunities.
Beach Fortification Project
The Committee is requesting the opportunity to strengthen a project that is already complete. The Okaloosa Island Boat Basin Project is a multi-million dollar project to restore a waterfront amenity using recycled oyster shells to fortify an existing breakwater.
AP Environmental Students will partner with Destin Coastal Resource Management on April 29th to complete the project.
Our School Board members were excited about their proposal, and the items will be considered for future implementation.