Gulf High math teacher keeps traffic flowing on several websites

Teaching math may be his forte, but being Gulf High's webmaster is a close second for Jeff Miller.

He's pretty good at it. People are logging on, after all.

"According to the counter on the website, we average 2,500 views a day during the school year," Miller said. "But it has gone up to over 4,000 in a day."

No doubt about it, the man with an attention to detail is all about numbers and technology and keeping those who visit the site (ghs.pasco.k12.fl.us) informed about what's going on at his school.

From bowling club tryouts to upcoming picture days to information on getting your homecoming T-shirt — it's all there, along with a snapshot of a couple of cheerleaders donning their senior sombreros and another of students downing lunch in the cafeteria during the first week of school.

Go to most school events and Miller, who also serves on the school's leadership team, is recording history as it happens; shooting video at home games and various awards ceremonies that, more often than not, will land on YouTube and the school website before the kids arrive the next morning.

"He's amazing," said Gulf High principal Steve Knobl. "It's almost like CNN: As soon as it happens, it's there."

Once a week Miller meets up with Gulf's top administrator to film the "Principal's Podcast," a 90-second clip that offers club and sport updates, kudos on student and staff achievements and other current events.

It's one of the ways to reach out to students, teachers, parents and the local community, Knobl said. And it has saved some trees and some cash, because the school has been able to cut down on the printed newsletters that are mailed home to parents.

"We're doing a lot of things to try to let the community know what's going on at Gulf, and the website is the main way we're doing that right now," Knobl said, noting that the "Principal's Podcast" effort has been featured in educationworld.com. "People get to see the principal once a week. He'll (Miller) tuck in 45 seconds of football video, or the band's music will be playing in the background."

Typically the school technology specialist serves as webmaster at local schools, but Miller, who is a big fan of cutting-edge technology, was a natural choice at Gulf. Particularly since he was already maintaining an unofficial school website when he took on the role in 2000.

Now he oversees the site, getting some assistance from band director William Rutherford and unit Cmdr. Stephen Nesthus, who maintain the school band and JROTC pages, respectively. Athletic coaches contribute video and photographs, as do parents and students, Miller said.

It's just one of a handful of websites that Miller maintains.

Those searching online for information on the history of Pasco County will most likely land at fivay.org, a site that is filled with hordes of information garnered from historians and local residents dating to the days when U.S. 19 was a two-lane road.

"That started out just as western Pasco County," Miller said. "Then I expanded it to include east Pasco."

Miller first became intrigued with Pasco's history shortly after he moved from Beckley, W.Va., to get away from the cold and the snow.

In 1981, he landed a job hosting a talk show called Open Line on WGUL. Among his most memorable guests were Pauline Stevenson Ash, who wrote a book called Florida Cracker Days in West Pasco County, 1830-1982, and the late Glenn Dill, who used to pen articles for the Suncoast News.

"I enjoyed having those guests on the program, and the listeners did, too, because they called with a lot of questions and information, too," Miller said.

The two math websites Miller maintains pick up hits from all over, he says. "And I get some interesting input from math professors from around the world."

Another, on the images of mathematicians on postage stamps, garners participation from stamp collectors around the world. The page also spawned an unlikely tribute.

"There is a band in Scotland called Images of Mathematicians. They thought the name of my web page was interesting or silly or something, and they made that the name of their band," Miller said. "Someone sent me an e-mail about this several years ago. Otherwise, I would have never discovered it."