(Orange Beach)

The teachers, students and administrations of the public schools in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach now have a new fundraising partner. Winston and Tiffany Nelson, owners of Yogurt Plus, a frozen yogurt business in Orange Beach, has partnered with the Coastal Baldwin Educational Enrichment Foundation, Inc. and committed to donate 10 percent of their proceeds on the first and last Wednesdays of each month to the Foundation.

“We are committed to this community and are impressed by the quality of life,” Winston Nelson said. “CBEE is an avenue for us to express our support for all four public schools on the island. Its mission and accomplishments are in line with our values and leverages our donation to make significant difference in the lives of all of the students in our community.”

“Partnerships with area businesses is the only way CBEE is successful,” CBEE Vice President Fred Penniger said. “We are recruiting businesses to be a part of our partnership program at a level that is beneficial to them as well as our island schools.”

“CBEE’s partnership with area businesses is vital to our success,” CBEE Foundation President Yolanda Devine Johnson said. “We are elated to have The Nelson’s in our community and appreciate their community involvement, and we encourage everyone to come out to Yogurt Plus on the first and last Wednesdays of each month to support our island schools and have a tasty treat.”

Yogurt Plus is located in the Wal-Mart shopping center at 25241 Perdido Beach Blvd. in Orange Beach. They are open until 9:30 nightly. To contact Yogurt Plus, call 974-1900 or see their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/YOGURT-PLUS.

The CBEE Foundation has awarded scholarships to graduating seniors from Gulf Shores High School and grants to teachers in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores public schools since 1999. Anyone who is interested in making a difference in our schools is welcome to become a part of CBEE. For more information on the foundation, see its website at www.cbee.la, or contact Johnson at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or 205-613-0001.

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(Gulf Shores)

Many of the area’s top business leaders turned out Feb. 3 as the Coastal Baldwin Educational Enrichment Educational Foundation honored the recipients of its annual Teachers of the Year awards at the Alabama Gulf Coast Area Chamber of Commerce’s First Friday Forum. Recipients are chosen from the four public schools in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach and are nominated by their peers.

“These teachers represent the best of the best in their respective schools,” CBEE President Yolanda Devine Johnson said. “We believe our schools are home to the best teachers anywhere, and our winners were picked by their fellow teachers – hence they are the best of the best. Congratulations to them all.”

This year’s winners include Kimberly Hollis of Orange Beach Elementary, Nicole Godbold of Gulf Shores Elementary, Debbie Kenyon of Gulf Shores Middle and Lynn Lowell on Gulf Shores High.

Hollis, a kindergarten teacher who has been at OBES since 1997, holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Montevallo. She is a member of Delta Kappa Gamma Teaching Society International, Baldwin County Advisory Committee for Kindergarten and the

UBGOOD Scholarship Board

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According to OBES Principal Jonathan Ellis, Hollis “creates learning experiences that instill a love of learning in children at a very early age. She is dedicated to creating memorable and engaging lessons for her children that never leave out the ‘fun.’ We are very fortunate to have her here at Orange Beach Elementary.”

Godbold, a fourth-grade teacher, is in her eighth year of teaching, and in her seventh at GSES. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Auburn University at Montgomery and a master’s degree from Grand Canyon University. She was selected through a rigorous process as an “enhancing Missouri’s Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies” – better known as eMINTS - instructor, which encourages the use of technology in the classroom.

“I am so honored to be a part of such an amazing and supportive community, with the most outstanding group of individuals as colleagues and friends,” Godbold said. “The teamwork that surrounds me leads to powerful results in the classroom, as well as student success.”

GSES Principal Julie Pierce said she is proud of Godbold. “She is a learner who loves to implement the best teaching practices in her own classroom. By attending tons of professional development, she works diligently and collaboratively with other teachers to help improve instruction across the entire school,” she said. “In recent months, her instruction has attracted visitors and dignitaries from eMINTS, ARI, AMSTI and even our state legislature.”

Kenyon, in her 10th year of teaching and has been at GSMS for the past nine years. She is a seventh grade civics and geography teacher at GSMS, where she is the yearbook sponsor and girls soccer coach. She is an eMINTS teacher and was also the GSMS Teacher of the Year for the 2005-2006 school year. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Athens State University and a master’s degree from the University of North Alabama.

“I was honored and humbled by my colleagues to be chosen as Teacher of the Year. I am blessed to have a career that I truly enjoy doing every day. I love working with my students,” Kenyon said. “The colleagues that I work with are amazing. Any one of them could have easily been Teacher of the Year.”

“She has done an outstanding job during her tenure here at Gulf Shores Middle School. She puts her students first and works tirelessly to meet their needs whether academic, social, or athletic,” GSMS Principal Phillip Fountain said. “She is well respected among her students, colleagues, and parents. She is such an integral part of our GSMS family it gives me great pride that she is our Teacher of the Year.”

Lowell is a biology and honors biology teacher at GSHS. She has been teaching for 17 years, the past six at GSHS. She is a Level III AMSTI teacher. She holds a bachelor’s degree from AUM and a master’s degree from the University of West Alabama. “The highest honor of my career is having been chosen by my peers as teacher of the year,” she said.

“She is an outstanding teacher and cares about her students. She offers tutoring before and after school,” GSHS Principal Dr. Ernie Rosado said. “Every time I walk in her classroom she is teaching and I learn something interesting about biology. Also, she will be teaching advance placement biology next fall- a first for GSHS.”

CBEE member Jason Holt announced the award recipients at First Friday Forum, which was sponsored by Krebs Architecture and Engineering. Holt said he wanted to thank Krebs for their support of the foundation, and said the foundation membership hopes to do more for teachers in the future. “We've been able to fund projects for several teachers of the year through the foundation,” Holt said. “We look forward to working with our teachers - including future teachers of the year - closely as we move forward in pursuit of excellence in education on the island.”

For more information on the foundation, go to their website www.cbee.la or contact President Yolanda Devine Johnson at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

(Baldwin County)

Baldwin County School Board President Angie Swiger was the featured speaker at a Sept. 19 fundraising lunch sponsored by the Coastal Baldwin Educational Enrichment Foundation, Inc. Held at Gulf Island Grill in Gulf Shores, Swiger presented a program entitled “Learning for Life.”

Swiger said the program is a broad program consisting of both countywide and local initiatives. According to Swiger, the “Learning for Life” program in local schools is part of the larger “21st Century Learning” initiative being implemented throughout the county.

“Our ‘Learning for Life’ program will allow us to implement the technology upgrades of the county’s ‘Digital Renaissance’ at a much faster rate for our schools in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach than originally slated,” she said. “The ‘Digital Renaissance’ program will place a MacBook laptop computer in the hands of each of our students from fourth through twelfth grade and an iPad in the hands of each student from kindergarten through third grade. However, through the assistance of some private donors, we will be able to increase and upgrade the technology placed in the hands of our students and teachers much more quickly than if we waited solely on funding from the school system.”

Swiger introduced Gulf Shores High School Business Technology Teacher Charlene Hoffman to those at the luncheon. Hoffman has been chosen to be the technology facilitator with teachers on the island. “Her job is to teach our teachers how the technology can be used to create a project-based and collaborative classroom as opposed to the traditional classroom where teachers are lecturers rather than facilitators of knowledge,” Swiger said.

Along with the technology initiatives, “Learning for Life” also consists of tailor-made career academies for high school students to get them on a career path in which they have both interest and abilities. Swiger introduced GSHS Social Studies Teacher Ryan Moss as the Career Academy Coordinator for the “Learning for Life” program. “Ryan’s job is important because it is his responsibility to implement the career academies we envision for our students on the island,” Swiger said. “We’ve just started this and in just a few weeks he’s done a great job of lining up 11 internships for us with local businesses. It’s his job to get the students into the business world and get the businesses into the schools.”

The CBEE Foundation is the conduit for corporate sponsors to make donations to assist in the “Learning for Life” funding. “We’re thrilled to be a part of this program and can’t wait to see it implemented,” CBEE Foundation President Yolanda Devine Johnson said.

According to Swiger, individuals may also donate through the individual schools by contacting school principals. Swiger said anyone, or any civic organization, interested in learning more about the program can contact her at 251-609-2873 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Formerly known as the Alabama Gulf Coast Area Educational Foundation, the CBEE Foundation has awarded scholarships to graduating seniors from Gulf Shores High School and grants to teachers in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores public schools for more than a decade. Anyone who is interested in making a difference in our schools is welcome to become a part of CBEE. For more information on the foundation, see its website at cbee.la, or contact Johnson at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or 205-613-0001

(Orange Beach)

Students at Orange Beach Elementary School have 60 new technology tools courtesy of Coastal Baldwin Education Enrichment, Inc. The organization, formerly known as the Alabama Gulf Coast Educational Foundation, voted to fund almost $9,000 to purchase 60 Neo2 boards, software and mobile labs at it February meeting.

“This is the culmination of a year of studying what specific needs we had in first, second and third grades, and which technology would best fit these needs,” OBES Principal Jonathan Ellis said. “Neo2 Boards were chosen to best fit the needs of our classrooms. Teachers and I attended professional development sessions and visited other classrooms in the county to understand this product more and how it would suit us.”

The Neo2 appears to be a computer keyboard with several lines of an LCD screen at the top. According to Ellis, each teacher has a wireless receiver for the boards integrated into their classroom computer, and students send their work directly to the teacher’s computer via the receiver. There is no worry about lost data either because NEO 2 saves students’ work instantly.

Photo by: Clayton Wallace

Ellis said the company that produces the Neo2 boards, Renaissance Learning, is the company that produces Accelerated Reader and other programs the school already utilizes. The Neo2 boards integrate with these programs seamlessly. At a March 10 training seminar for OBES teachers, a Renaissance representative also touted keyboarding programs, math programs and interactivity with the Promethean boards – today’s chalk boards - already in classroom use at the school. As a sign of the changing classroom, the boards also allow students to save documents online at Google Docs.

Ellis said the boards are incredibly rugged to withstand virtually any abuse students may inflict on the machine. “When I went to the first professional development seminar on the boards the first thing the presenter did was to throw the machine across the room,” he said. “We all held our breath, but it worked fine after that.”

Ellis said the boards are energy efficient and weigh only two pounds. Three AA batteries can provide up to 700 hours of use, which should be enough for a full school year for most students, and the light weight makes for easy portability from classroom to classroom.

“We were thrilled to be able to fund these boards for the students at Orange Beach Elementary,” CBEE President Mike Diehl said. “Anytime we can give some of our students here on the island an advantage in the classroom, we look at it as a prudent investment in their future.”

Ellis expressed his thanks for the machines to board members. “I want to let the foundation members know how much this means to our teachers and students,” he said. “We had two teachers that implemented the machines into their classrooms even before we had official training. Everyone is thrilled to have them.”

For more information on CBEE, go to their website www.agcaef.com or contact Diehl at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .