Bo Puckett has been a coach and teacher at Plant for 25 years. Throughout his time at Plant, Puckett has taught several classes, such as Personal Finance/Economics, American Government, Florida History, and World Cultural Geography; he also coaches the Plant football team. For the 2024-2025 school year, he teaches “one class all day,” which is Personal Finance/Economics.

Many of Puckett’s students are seniors, as Personal Finance/Economics is a required, seniors-only class. The curriculum teaches responsibility and money-management skills that can be utilized throughout life. Puckett shares wisdom with seniors, not just regarding budgeting but also about being content in life. “Know what you want to do when you have a good idea of what you want to major in, and if not, you need to go immerse yourself in environments that you potentially would work in,” Puckett said. “Ask yourself, can I see myself doing this 40 hours a week? Is this a job that resonates with me? That would give me purpose?”

In addition to equipping seniors with essential skills to find their passions outside of high school, Puckett finds a similar purpose in teaching and coaching. “It’s an opportunity for me to impart on them some of my life experiences,” he said. “Hopefully, they can learn from those things and learn from the mistakes that I’ve made as a young kid growing up.” 

Puckett’s “sense of purpose” from teaching and coaching is reflected in his 25 years at Plant. “I like teaching at Plant because I love the vast majority of the population of kids here who make your job managing the class very easy,” Puckett said. “The fact that so many kids at Plant do the right thing and are great kids…makes our job very easy.”

While Puckett enjoys teaching and coaching at Plant, there is one thing he would change. “I would like to bring back exam exemption incentives to encourage kids to come to class more,” he said. “I think that when we had the policy of exam exemptions, where they could exempt exams if they had five absences or less, I think that would encourage more kids to be in class.”