Norton announces candidacy for Gulf County Superintendent

Current Gulf County Schools Superintendent Jim Norton has announced his candidacy to run for the position he presently holds in this year's upcoming elections.

Norton, 45, was appointed last August by Governor Rick Scott to fill the unexpired term of Tim Wilder, who vacated the post to become Superintendent of Dothan (Ala.) City Schools.

Norton was born and raised in Gulf County and is a graduate of Port St. Joe High School. He is married to Erika Rineer Norton, who owns and operates a small business in Port St. Joe, and he is the middle son of Charles and Caroline Norton of Port St. Joe. Norton is from a pioneer Gulf County family where his father was born and raised in Wewahitchka, and his mother was a Gulf County teacher and school board member for more than 40 years.

He completed his undergraduate degree at Troy University, after which he attained a Master of Science in Education and a law degree. He served seven years as a Congressional Staffer and spent more than a decade employed in area banking and trust management, during which he gained the notable fiduciary status of "Senior Trust Officer" from the State of Florida Department of Banking. In his civic duties, Norton has served as chairman of the Gulf County Planning Development and Review Board, is past president of the Gulf County Chamber of Commerce, past president of the Port St. Joe Lions Club, a former board member of the Central Panhandle Chapter of the American Red Cross, where he was the 2001 recipient of the Clara Barton Award for Meritorious Volunteer Leadership, and has also served as a member of the board of trustees for Gulf Coast State College until his appointment as Superintendent last year.

"Already while in office, we've been able to make tremendous strides on behalf of the children and taxpayers of Gulf County," Norton said. "Construction will begin this summer on the new cafeteria/lunchroom for Port St. Joe Elementary School and the newly refurbished classroom/locker rooms for the boys and girls at Port St. Joe High School."

According to Norton, these projects will be completed in time for the start of next school year and at no cost to the local ad valorem tax base (L.C.I.), but rather from "resurrected PECO (state) funds which would have been lost to other school districts in Florida.

Norton stated that his administration will continue to be fiscally conservative in its operation of the Gulf School District with its limited resources from which to draw on from the taxpayers of Gulf County. According to Norton, an example of financial responsibility was recently demonstrated by the school district this year when the district withdrew a bid for the purchase of assembled lockers and rebid for the purchase of unassembled lockers.

"I had spoken to the warden at Gulf Correctional Institute and he indicated that the inmates would take a great sense of pride in assembling the lockers. Factory assembly would essentially double the cost. Now, because of the local support from GCI we were able to purchase twice the amount of lockers, which is enough to cover the needs for both Wewahitchka Elementary School as well as Port St. Joe Elementary School, for the cost of the original assembled purchase order. These types of savings, at $10,000 a pop can and will amount to real savings for the taxpayers of Gulf County," Norton said.

"During my time as Superintendent, I've been honored to serve the children and people of Gulf County. It is a humbling experience to be part of the system that I call home. I am committed to plying my business experience, knowledge, enthusiasm and energy to the greater good of educating Gulf County's children, all the while remaining accountable to the citizens and taxpayers who fund it. Further, this will be a collaborative effort on all of our parts to make Gulf County's schools establish themselves as leaders in 'restoring the promise of American schooling' by building a local workforce that will attract employers and their businesses to Gulf County who are looking for highly skilled STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) based employees, while preparing all high school graduates to proceed to a career of their choice," Norton said.

Norton is a Republican, and so far, no others have announced intention to seek nomination from either party for this position, according to Gulf County Supervisor of Elections Linda Griffin.

The General Election is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012.