SANTA ROSA BEACH — Summer vacation is over for Walton County students.
The ever-growing county saw a mostly smooth first day of school Thursday, with only a few minor hiccups here and there, according to Superintendent of Schools Carlene Anderson.
Check out bus routes for Walton County schools. >>
Schools in Freeport and South Walton had a number of walk-in enrollees, and altered bus routes caused a few transportation issues. The power went out at Walton High School during lunch, but generators helped correct the issue.
“Things are looking well,” Anderson said. “ … There’s just been a promising attitude when I go into the schools.”
Students at the county’s newest school seemed to share her optimism as they became the inaugural class at Seaside Neighborhood School’s Seacoast Collegiate High School.
“It’s like a dream come true,” said Cathy Brubaker, director of program development for Seaside Neighborhood School. “This is just amazing.”
In the past, the charter school only taught middle school grades, but its board voted in January to expand it up through the high school level.
Seaside tested the waters last year by adding a ninth grade to the middle school. It added a 10th grade this year, and as the students age the school will add an 11th and 12th grade.
“It’s just the next step with the same people, which for freshmen is very good,” said ninth-grader Ben Balfanz, one of about 35 Seaside students who enrolled in the new program.
Rather than housing Seacoast students at the middle school, Seaside is leasing classrooms at Northwest Florida State College’s South Walton campus in Santa Rosa Beach.
Next year, the number of students will remain about the same because the juniors will head to NWF State’s Niceville campus to start taking college classes. The goal is to have them earn a high school diploma at the same time they earn an associate’s degree, Brubaker said.
Not all 85 students attending the new high school have history with Seaside. More than half of them, like sophomore Delaney Simpson, were selected through the school’s lottery after they applied.
She attended South Walton High School last year and was considering applying to NWF State’s Collegiate High School in Niceville when she learned about Seacoast.
“I like the first day of school,” she said of her experience thus far. “Here people care about their grades, so that makes it easier to do group projects.”
Even though there were fewer students at Seacoast than in other schools in the county, some first-day issues were universal.
“This looks confusing,” Principal Jonathan D’Avignon said as he approached a group of students trying to sort out which classroom they needed to be in.
In a matter of moments, he had consulted the paper in his hand and sent them to the right room. A beat passed before another student said she was lost. Then another.
D’Avignon took it all in stride and said he welcomed the opportunity to help out his new students.
“I’m always looking at what else I can I do for them,” he said with a smile. “And it’s just the little things.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Katie Tammen at 850-315-4440 or ktammen@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieTnwfdn.