Brevard's Bright Spots: Five Good Things Happening Around the County
A third straight A for Brevard schools, lagoon-protection funding, new soccer space and cleaner city equipment make this week’s Bright Spots list.
Good local news is often practical rather than dramatic. It looks like cleaner stormwater, a better park, newer equipment and teachers seeing years of work reflected in school results.
Here are five Brevard bright spots worth knowing about.
Brevard Public Schools earns another A
Brevard Public Schools reported its third consecutive district grade of A. Seventeen schools improved by a full letter grade, and Croton, Port Malabar, Roy Allen and Mims elementary schools moved from C grades to A grades.
Cocoa adds protection for the Indian River Lagoon
The City of Cocoa secured state support for underground stormwater baffle boxes along Indian River Drive. The equipment is designed to catch sediment and pollutants before they flow into the lagoon.
Provost Park gets room for more play
Part of Cocoa's state funding package includes $375,000 for improvements at Provost Park, including soccer mini-pitches and landscaping. It is a modest-sounding project with an everyday payoff for families who need nearby places to play.
Melbourne replaces older, higher-emission trucks
The City of Melbourne received a $400,000 Florida Department of Environmental Protection grant to replace two older Class 8 dump trucks through the Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Mitigation Program.
Melbourne recognizes the people behind its parks
The city also thanked the 124 full- and part-time employees in its Parks, Recreation and Golf Department. Those workers support fields, pools, camps, golf facilities, public events and community programs across Melbourne.
Small improvements rarely dominate a news cycle. Together, they describe a county doing the ordinary work of getting a little better.
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Claire Szewczyk
Claire has called Florida home for a decade, but her love of the Space Coast goes back further — to the beat-up Kennedy Space Center coffee table book she found in a thrift store when she was five. She writes about the people, places, and history that make Brevard County great, and those stories are where Brightside Brevard began.
