Gulf High School Faculty

A - F | G - L | M - R | S - Z

Jeffrey Scheifla is a guidance counselor who joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2006-07 school year. He had eleven previous years of experience as a guidance counselor, at Hudson High School, Richey Elementary School, and Seven Springs Middle School. He was born in Buffalo, N. Y., and lived in Hawaii for five years. He has lived in Florida for six years. In 2006 he reported that he and his wife Jhen had a two-year-old daughter. Mr. Scheifla says he loves to cook.

Pam Scott teaches Reading. Originally from Chicago, she is a graduate of Milton College with a BA degree in Elementary Education. She is also a graduate with an M. A. in Physical Education from USF. Working in previous schools, "Coach" Scott has taught 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade combo classes, as well as physical education, and has been an Athletic Director. She has coached, at both middle and high school levels, volleyball, track, basketball, softball, tennis, and golf.

Jeffery Serletic has held numerous positions at GHS since 1989. He has served as a Substitute teacher, Administrative Assistant, Transition Assistant, Job Placement Transition Specialist and currently teaches in the Exceptional Student Education Department as an SLD teacher. Mr. Serletic also serves as a class sponsor and secretary of the School Advisory Council. He has attended Pasco-Hernando Community College, American Inter-Continental University, and University of South Florida. Moving to the area in 1976, he has attended Anclote Elementary, Gulf Junior High, and is a proud alumnus of Gulf High. Mr. Serletic resides in Holiday.

Heather Simon joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2006-07 school year. She teaches four sections of 10th grade English and on section of 9th grade English. The year before joining Gulf, she taught 8th grade English at Cypress Lake Middle School in Fort Myers. She was born in Sharon, Pa., and attended high school at West Middlesex High School in West Middlesex, Pa. She has a B. A. degree in English literature from Slippery Rock University. She and her husband John have three boys. Her husband works for Pasco County in the finance department.

Heather Smith joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2005-06 school year. She teaches in the ESE program. She graduated from St. Petersburg College in 2004 and has a bachelor's degree in Special Education. Both of her parents are teachers in Pinellas County.

Les Snyder teaches Physical Science and Physical Science Honors. He graduated from Gulf High School in 1965, and has a B. A. in Political Science from the University of Florida. He began teaching at Gulf Middle School in 1982-83, and at Gulf High School in 1984-85. He was a Staff Sergeant in the USAF Security Service (Radio Traffic Analyst). His hobbies include competitive shooting USPSA/IPSC Limited Master, Chevy Truck Sportsman's Team Challenge. He is originally from New London, Ohio.

Barbara Starkey teaches ninth grade Intensive Reading. She is in her twentieth year of teaching. All but two of those years have been at Gulf High School. She took a several year hiatus to be home with her own children. She received her B. A. and M. A. degrees from Florida State University where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Eric Starkey teaches Intensive Reading. Mr. Starkey had often been a substitute teacher at Gulf during the preceding 18 years before he became a full-time employee. He is a graduate of Florida State University and served four years in the U. S. Army. His mother also teaches at Gulf.

Elenica Stojanovski joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2005-06 school year. She teaches math. She is from Macedonia, where she taught for 15 years at a medical high school. She came to the U. S. in 1999, and taught for two years at Clearwater Central Catholic High School, at the PACE Center for Girls, and most recently at a middle school in Hillsborough County. She has a B. S. degree in mathematics and a master's degree in mathematics from U. S. F. She has two children.

Chad Stoneking joined the GHS faculty at the start of the 2007-08 school year. He teaches drafting. Mr. Stoneking was born in Parkersburg, W. Va., and attended Parkersburg South High School. He has a B. F. A. degree in Art Education from Ohio University and a B. F. A. degree in Graphic Design from Marshall University in Huntington, W. Va.

Zack Stoutimore joined the GHS faculty in January 2008. He teaches Algebra I, Probability and Statistics, and Intensive Math. Before becoming a math teacher, Mr. Stoutimore was the youth pastor of Family First Assembly in Spring Hill. He is a 1998 graduate of Chamberlain High School and has a B. S. degree from Southeastern University in Lakeland. He was born in Durango, Colorado. He lives in Oldsmar. He is a runner and was scheduled to run his first marathon in January 2008.

Jesse Stringer teaches social studies. He joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2004-2005 school year. He has an M. A. degree in Secondary Education with a minor in history from West Virginia University. He also attended Tulane and Clemson. He was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in Washington, Pa.

Kathy Trapp is the Gulf High School career specialist. She manages the Gulf High School Career Resource Center, helping students with career and educational planning. Ms. Trapp has a B. S. in Physical Education from the University of Florida and a M. A. in Guidance Counseling from the University of South Florida. She grew up in Pinellas County and began her teaching career teaching health and P. E. at Safety Harbor Middle School for five years. She then was employed for ten years as a guidance counselor at Ridgewood High School. (Ridgewood was a junior high school when she started there.) She came to Gulf at the start of the 1993-94 school year. Her husband is the Principal of Gulf Middle School.

Chris Vergnaud joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2007-2008 school year, teaching American History and World History. He holds a B. A. degree in Political Science from Florida Gulf Coast University. Mr. Vergnaud was born in New Port Richey and is a 2002 graduate of Ridgewood High School.

Vicki Voorhees is one of the teachers in charge of student discipline. She joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2004-2005 school year. She is a 1970 graduate of Gulf High School. She has substitute taught in Pasco County schools before becoming the Media Tech Assistant at Ridgewood High School. She was born in Cleveland, Tenn., and moved to Florida in 1960. She is married to Mike Voorhees, whose father was Walter Voorhees, for whom Voorhees Road was named. Walter Voorhees was a county commissioner and attended Gulf High School, where he was in the class of 1938.

Deanna Waide joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2005-06 school year as a reading teacher and test coordinator, although she previously was a substitute teacher and held other temporary positions. She graduated from St. Petersburg College. She has three children, all boys.

Tina Wallace joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2003-04 school year as a media specialist. In February 2008 she became a DCT/SSAP teacher. Although she attended Gulf High School as a student for about a year, she is a graduate of Countryside High School, where she was employed for three years. She has a Bachelor's degree in Social Science Education and a Master's degree in Library and Information Science from USF. She is married and has two children. She was born in Buffalo, N. Y. She moved to Florida at age 10 and attended Gulfside Elementary and Gulf Junior High School.

Kenneth Weightman joined the Gulf faulty at the start of the 2007-08 school year, coming here from Deer Park Elementary School. He will teach Art. About twenty years earlier he taught at Hudson High School, but more recently he worked as a graphic designer. He was born in Tampa and graduated from Gulf High School in 1980. He has a B. A. degree in Journalism from the University of Mississippi and an M. F. A. degree from Yale. He is working on a master's in Art Education at Columbia.

Brett Wiest joined the Gulf faculty in September 2000. He attended USF and PHCC, and is a graduate of Gulf High School. He previously taught at Gulf Middle School and in California. He co-teaches with Mr. Girardi, Mr. Fagan, Mr. Evans, Mrs. Dale, and Mrs. Christie.

Jim Winters joined the GHS faculty at the start of the 2007-08 school year. He is an ESE teacher. He came to Gulf from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where he taught at Rutherford County Teen Learning Center for seven years. Before that, he taught P. E. at Columbia High School. He was born in Albany, N. Y., and attended high school at La Salle Institute in Troy, N. Y. He earned a B. S. degree in Special Education from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro and a P. E. degree from Brockport State College.

Brian Wright teaches in the ESE/SLD program and is be an assistant football coach. He joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2006-07 school year. Mr. Wright holds a Rank 1 in Special Education from the University of Louisville. He was born in Louisville and attended Southern High School in Louisville. He recently taught for five years at Western High School in Louisville, and before that, at Southern High School and Kennedy Metro Middle School, both in Louisville. He has been a football coach at Western, Male, Southern, Moore, Bullitt East, and Waggener High Schools in Kentucky.

Barbara Yates is the technician in charge of the Instructional Learning System. She joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2004-2005 school year. She previously had a similar position at Bayonet Point Middle School for eleven years, and before that worked in the Pasco school district's Instructional Media Center for eleven years. She was born in Boston and grew up in St. Petersburg.

Barry Zions teaches mathematics. He started his teaching career at Gulf High School in February of 2005. Prior to that, has been a software engineer for the last 10 years. He received his Engineering degree from the University of South Florida. Mr. Zions' Floridian adventure began in 1980, when he got tired of shoveling snow, and spontaneously packed up and moved to Tampa.

Patricia Zirhut teaches in the reading department. Mrs. Zirhut earlier substitute taught at Gulf High, beginning in 1998. She was born in New Orleans, although she grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. She graduated from Terry Parker High School in Jacksonville, and has a B. S. degree in Varying Exceptionalities from Nova University. She is certified as an ESE teacher. She has two sons and one daughter, all of whom graduated from Gulf. She says that among her hobbies is raising orchids.