Moving to South Walton, tell me about the schools

We're lucky to have many school options in Walton County. Our public schools are as good as any, safe, and I mostly hear good things, though they do have administrative issues and treat teachers like temporary employees so I hear with low pay and annual contracts. We loved montessori in South Walton. We also LOVE Seaside - and were lucky enough to get in - though I do think all the schools are just as good. It largely depends on your own philosophy and involvement as to where you may choose to place your children.

Whenever I toured the elementary schools when my child was younger, I would have a sinking feeling in my gut when they would tell me that only a few hours of PE or art or music per week were part of the curriculum due to "state law" requiring a certain number of hours for core curriculum and testing prep. Depressing but normal, I suppose. Wherever you live, it's up to YOU to educate your own kids in the areas you feel are important - outside of the classroom. This is what I've come to realize. My child would have done well in ANY of the options we have here. We chose private until middle school when we went to Seaside. And thrilled to remain in Seaside through high school even though the last two years involve transporting to Niceville. Nothings perfect. Thankful for choices.

While Bob W and I seldom agree, he is dead on with his first hand assessment.

I give credit where its due.

Thanks Bob.

Thanks to all on your feedback. We did reach out to key individuals at Swhs and it took a lot of follow up calls to get individuals to call us back to discuss our son and the school. Quite a different experience than the prompt calls from local school options back home. It left us wondering the quality of the staff, etc... Also when we talked to a friend who does not have children locally, she did not have a lot of good things to say about Swhs and recommended Niceville. However, we don't think driving him an hour each way is doable. Our son spent two full days shadowing at 2 high schools close to our current home. I think that we may have to see if Swhs would allow a similar routine of shadowing or spending some time at the school to get a sense of the environment.

Thanks to all on your feedback. We did reach out to key individuals at Swhs and it took a lot of follow up calls to get individuals to call us back to discuss our son and the school. Quite a different experience than the prompt calls from local school options back home. It left us wondering the quality of the staff, etc... Also when we talked to a friend who does not have children locally, she did not have a lot of good things to say about Swhs and recommended Niceville. However, we don't think driving him an hour each way is doable. Our son spent two full days shadowing at 2 high schools close to our current home. I think that we may have to see if Swhs would allow a similar routine of shadowing or spending some time at the school to get a sense of the environment.

The positive about SWHS is a campus of Northwest Florida State College is within walking distants if dual enrollment is an option. My son did graduate from SWHS and I had nothing but a positive experience. That being said I also feel as though they assisted him in preparing for the future.

Niceville HS is decidedly on the military part of the Panhandle where 'What do you do for a living?' can be a surprisingly loaded question. (I've know people who worked on base whose PhD dissertations were classified.) But if you're okay with a larger school experience, it offers some things you don't find elsewhere in the Panhandle, and the students who waiver into it aren't just there for the sports programs.

Unfortunately, due to the large increase in personnel at Eglin, Niceville High School is no longer offering new waivers for students who are not zoned for Niceville High School. Do not make your decision to move to South Walton based on the possibility of obtaining a waiver for Niceville. It's not going to happen. I know several families who have had to move to Niceville from South Walton just so they would be within Niceville High School zoning. To be honest, there are many benefits of living in South Walton, but there are many struggles as well. High school has been a struggle for our family. My children are bright, studious, and good kids. We have done our best to provide them with excellent education opportunities, but we've had to go the private and charter school route, and those options are limited here as well (and not perfect either).

You have to decide if the benefits of living in South Walton outweigh the challenges. In our experience, not just the education options are limited, but also extracurricular activities as well. One example is that South Walton High School has limited athletic teams available and many of the smaller sports (wrestling, rugby, lacrosse, field hockey, swimming) also are not available, or have limited availability, within the community. There are many other things that the high school and community lack that larger schools and communities expect to be readily available. College options are also limited. There are plentiful good paying summer jobs, but not a lot of opportunity for education and good paying "real" jobs for young adults--something that is important to think about if you'd like your college-age kids to have the option to live nearby. I don't mean to be negative, but as I've said, this has been, and continues to be, a real struggle for a family.

All good points, Camp Creek Kid! I suppose our schools are average and none perfect. I've always felt it was a trade off to live here in a safe place to raise your family. Our kids are quite sheltered and just about have to move away to experience life outside the little beach town for real life experience and higher education.

I do wish Walton County Schools had succeeded in establishing a hired Superintendent, a real professional to lead the way, instead of an elected/political position. But that just isn't going to happen any time soon. We will not be seeing any real advancement in Walton County education programs, I'm afraid.

In my opinion most of the issues our schools are dealing with are a result of the policies of the legistature and Governor. We have standardized test that don't work and teachers are accountable to teach the test at the expense of those students who are higher achievers. Then a teachers pay is based on the results of of those tests. Teacher tenure is taken away allowing districts to reduce their experience level by not renewing contracts and at the same time possibly reducing payroll by having a younger less experienced teacher that may not succeed because they don't have the opportunity to grow into their positions over time. The cost of education is being placed more and more at the local level but decisions on how we educate our children are stil being decided at the state level. Most of the issues we are currently facing is promises on fixing education and failures by the very changes that were suppose to fix the issues. I agree we have issues within our district but many of them could be alleviated buy weakening the duties of the Superintendent and strengthening that of the elected board. Obviously these views are mine and don't represent any group.

@Bob Wells - didn't President Obama recently do away wit a lot of standard testing? When will that affect us at the local level?

Thanks to all on your feedback. We did reach out to key individuals at Swhs and it took a lot of follow up calls to get individuals to call us back to discuss our son and the school. Quite a different experience than the prompt calls from local school options back home. It left us wondering the quality of the staff, etc... Also when we talked to a friend who does not have children locally, she did not have a lot of good things to say about Swhs and recommended Niceville. However, we don't think driving him an hour each way is doable. Our son spent two full days shadowing at 2 high schools close to our current home. I think that we may have to see if Swhs would allow a similar routine of shadowing or spending some time at the school to get a sense of the environment.

Unfortunately, I knew you said this but want you to discover it for yourselves.

You are right to have some quality questions.

I know several that have opted for the Niceville route, but as you've read that no longer exists.

The fact that it did poses more questions as to why?

Again, Bob W brings up good points about the NW FL Campus near-by...

Hope you get the answers you are looking for and during the process learn a bit about our enigmà called Walton.

@Bob Wells - didn't President Obama recently do away wit a lot of standard testing? When will that affect us at the local level?

Obama administration announces new testing guidelines - CNNPolitics.com
Based on what I just read, "The guidelines are recommendations for school districts to follow but are not binding regulations."

Bob Wells is right on the money, many of the problems in education are because the state and federal governments have taken control away from the local districts. Our district has some obvious strengths, one being facilities. I go into schools all over south Alabama and north Florida and I can say no one has better facilities than Walton County except the city of Enterprise school system in Alabama. We also have many wonderful teachers and programs. How we treat those teachers is a serious weakness and hopefully the next election will bring positive change to this problem.
I view our smaller schools as an overall strength. We may not offer all the sports programs that big schools can offer, but each child tends to be known and mentored better in a small school setting. If my child wished to play lacrosse I could see the problem but other than that, I will take a small school any day.

Obama administration announces new testing guidelines - CNNPolitics.com
Based on what I just read, "The guidelines are recommendations for school districts to follow but are not binding regulations."

I assumed it would have to go through the state first because of funding issues, otherwise local districts would drop most of them asap.

Well it also looks as if there are now three Good Ole Folks running for Superintendent...

T. Porter Hutchison (daughter of Good Ole' Gordon Porter)

Jennifer Nick (of the Nick Restaurant family and related to many Good Ole' Folks)

And my Favorite, our County Attorneys (Marc Davis), brother...

Slim Pickens here.

At least the Queen Carlene will be gone.