A lot of great things are going on in this thread -
Both Butler and Bay are great elementary schools with a boatload of parental support. Bay is quite a bit smaller than Butler, making it, in my opinion a little bit sweeter. However, Butler has many fabulous teachers and programs for their students. If your children like art, the program at Butler is beyond compare. The work my son did in 5th grade is miles better than what he's doing at Emerald Coast. But then, ECMS has not had much in the way of art. I believe that will change next year.
Emerald Coast and Seaside are two very different schools, each with a strong focus on academics. As the former PTO president at ECMS, I must say that I am partial to ECMS. It is larger than Seaside and offers a lot more choices in electives as well as a lot of different sports teams and clubs for the students. Seaside's admission is by lottery for those who don't qualify by other criteria, which include siblings, child of a teacher and child of a board member. Before ECMS opened up, the middle school was part of the high school and wasn't very good. At that time, getting into Seaside was very important to a lot of families. Now, I hear many parents and students say that they'll do the Seaside lottery, but if they don't get in and go to ECMS that is fine. I know of several students who have transferred from Seaside to ECMS because it wasn't the right fit. I strongly urge you to look at each school; they are both outstanding.
The high school is getting better each year. The current principal has been there a couple of years and the focus on academics has become much more prevalent. Next year both of my sons will be there. Because of its small size relative to most public high schools (about 600 students) it doesn't offer as many AP classes or the variety of electives as others. But, as someone pointed out in an earlier thread, there are options. Additionally, Okaloosa Walton College will build a campus almost adjacent to the high school. They say it will be open in 2 years, but I haven't seen much dirt moving.
As was mentioned in an earlier post, most students from South Walton High School go to Colleges and Universities associated with the State of Florida. One reason for that is the Bright Futures scholarship money. If your child has a 3.5 gpa, good test scores, community service and no trouble, he or she can go to a Florida school free. However, the Ivies and other prestigious, selective colleges and universities have tremendous financial aid packages. I took my son and his friend to look at colleges in New England several weeks ago and was very pleased. MIT for example does not charge tuition at all if the household income is less than $75,000 per year. Amherst says that they are more generous than that. Brown and the other ivy league schools do not offer academic or athletic based scholarships; the funding is entirely based on need. All of these institutions separate their application approval process from the financial aid process, in other words, the application is "needs blind".
An interesting thing that I learned from these schools is that they consider how the student works within the constraints of the high school. For example, South Walton only offers about 10 AP courses. A student applying to Brown, for example from South Walton who took (and did well in) 8 of the 10 courses will be favorably considered, as the student clearly took advantage of the academic opportunities presented.
Sorry to have been so long-winded on this reply, but clearly, education is important to me and my family.