District News

FHS students participated in International Coastal Clean-Up 2018!

Submitted by Patty Woodard

Students in Mrs. Debbie Bush and Mr. Andy Stafford's 5th grade classes at WDE are studying ordering and comparing decimal numbers to the thousandths. The students participated in a hands on decimal lesson with the Media Specialist, Mrs. Tammy Goodman. The lesson allowed students to see how decimals are utilized in libraries. Since non-fiction books are organized by decimal numbers, groups of students used the numbering system to order the numbers from least to greatest and subsequently place all of the library books in order. This was a great hands on activity for students to better understand decimals, how decimals can be used in the real world, and to become even more familiar with the school library! Submitted by Jessica Dawkins

Image 1: Sadek Ramirez Galvez

Image 2: Lucas Cotton, Lakayla Jeffereson

Please join us on Thursday, September 20, 2018 at the Carlene H. Anderson Training Center (555 Walton Rd., DeFuniak Springs, FL 32435) at 6:00 pm for our School Advisory Council, SAC District Training. All new SAC members are encouraged to attend.

The School Advisory Council (SAC) is a team of people representing various segments of the community–parents, teachers, students, administrators, support staff, business/ industry people and other interested community members. The purpose of a SAC is to assist in the preparation and evaluation of the results of the school improvement plan.

Each school in the State of Florida must have a SAC. By law, each SAC must be composed of the principal and an “appropriately balanced” number of “stakeholders.” These individuals must be representative of the ethnic, racial and economic makeup of the community served by the school. High schools and vocational technical centers must have students on the SACs. Middle and junior high schools may include students on their SAC. The majority of SAC members (over 50 percent) must not be employed by the SCHOOL DISTRICT on whose SAC they serve.

We look forward to seeing you on September 20th.

FMS 6^th grade students participated in International Coastal Clean-Up 2018 on Friday, September 14th. Students helped beautify Miramar Beach by collecting and documenting the trash littering the coastline. Submitted by Sharie Smith

Congratulations to these WHS seniors, who were recently accepted into college! We're so proud of these students and know they will continue building their legacies this year at Walton High AND in the coming years as they embark on their college & career endeavors.

Abigail Hewett - University of Alabama
Josie Barton - Troy University
Kaylee McBroom - Troy University

Submitted by Christy English

Walton High School was happy to have Brian Bonner, a firefighter at Eglin Air Force Base, speak with our career research classes today. He explained the day-to-day operations of being a firefighter and answered all of the students' questions regarding his profession. A couple of students even got the opportunity to wear his gear!

Thank you, Mr. Bonner, for taking the time out of your schedule to speak with our students about this career opportunity.

Submitted by Christy English

In honor of Grandparents Day, MHS invited our grandparents to come join them for a sweet treat. Submitted by Elizabeth Gaither!

Each week, Mr. Carnley’s ninth grade Braves read to MSE’s Little Warriors. This is a great example of schools teaming up to make epic things happen! Submitted by Krisy Spence

As part of World’s Largest Single-Day Beach Cleanup students and volunteers from across Walton County School District will join hundreds of thousands worldwide during Ocean Convervancy’s 33^rd International Coastal Cleanup. On September 15, the world’s largest annual single-day volunteer effort to remove trash from local waterways, beaches, lakes and rivers will take place. Since the first ICC 33 years ago, nearly 13 million volunteers have removed nearly 250 million pounds of trash from beaches and waterway worldwide! Come out and join our students and volunteers in their efforts, and “Suit Up to Clean Up!” You can find more information at:

https://oceanconservancy.org

https://oceanconservancy.org/.../international-coastal-clean.../

NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS] Volunteers #SuitUptoCleanup [NUMBER

OF POUNDS/KG] of Trash from [CLEANUP LOCATION] as Part of

World

’

Largest Single-Day Beach Cleanup

[YOUR ORGANIZATION] and [CITY/LOCATION] Volunteers Joined Hund

reds of Thousands

Worldwide during Ocean Conservancy

’

International Coastal Cleanup

[Location, State, Date]

–

Today

[NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS] people in [INSERT LOCATION]

participated in Ocean Conservancy

’

International Coast

Cleanup (ICC)

the world's largest

single-day volunteer effort to remove trash from local water

ways, beaches, lakes and rivers.

Since the first ICC 33 years ago, nearly 13 million volunt

eers have removed nearly 250 million

pounds of trash from beaches and waterway worldwide. The [CI

TY/LOCATION

]

cleanup comes

just [weeks/days] after [LOCATION]-area beaches closed for the su

mmer.

When you #SuitUptoCleanup, you are advancing one of the most

immediate and impactful

solutions to keeping plastics out of the ocean,

said [NAME]

[ORGANIZATION]

’

[TITLE]

which

is why we are so grateful to all the amazing volunteers who came

out. Awareness has really

grown around the issue of ocean plastic and it

’

s great to see people taking action.

In addition to removing [

] [pounds/kgs] of trash from [INSERT LOCATION]

—

including

[UNUSUAL FINDS, IF ANY], volunteers contributed to the world

’

s largest database on marine

debris by logging each trash item in Ocean Conservancy

’

Clean Swell app (available for free

download from the

App Store

Google Play

). Scientists, researchers, industry leaders and

policymakers rely on Ocean Conservancy

’

s Ocean Trash Index to inform policy and determine

solutions to the growing marine debris crisis.

Every year, millions of tons of trash

—

including an estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic

waste

—

flow into the ocean, entangling wildlife, polluting beach

es, and costing coastal

municipalities hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. Last

year for the first time all ten of the

top-ten most-collected Items were made of plastic, including c

igarette butts (which contain

plastic filters), plastic bags, plastic beverage bottles, fo

od wrappers, plastic bottle caps and

plastic straws. Plastics

—

which never fully biodegrade but rather break up into smaller

and

On the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, Walton County School District pauses to remember the events of that tragic day, as well as honor the victims and the heroism of first responders. Across the district, students took time to reflect with special Morning Show tributes, guest visits, moments of silence, and classroom activities designed to ensure that the events of this day are remembered, honored and retold.

South Walton High School held a special student assembly at which time the Seahawk band played the National Anthem, several students presented essays and speeches, and guest speakers presented thoughts and sentiments on the event. A video produced by Zach Green, TV Production student, was shared with the students as a way to help them understand the impact of 9/11.
Guest speaker, SWHS teacher John McCoy, shared the experience from the perspective of someone who was actually in downtown New York City at the time the World Trade Center was hit. He shared some of the immediate reactions of the onlookers at the horror of what was taking place, and stated that we all need to "enjoy what we have. We can't take it for granted. We have to remember that at any moment our lives can change."

Bobby Escamilla, SWHS band director shared what it was like as an 11 year old who went to school that day expecting to celebrate his birthday with cupcakes for himself and all his classmates. He said that the full impact of the tragedy didn't hit him until the following day when he saw all the news coverage beginning to come in. Mr. Escamilla challenged the students to "not forget that love unites. At that time, we were all united in love because we were Americans. Nothing else mattered".

Dr. Tibbetts, SWHS principal, shared how for several days in the aftermath of the attack, airplanes bound for America had to land in other locations around the world for security purposes, and the people of those countries took care of the Americans on those planes as they were waiting to return to the United States. "America really came together, and so did the whole world, to help us."

District Chief of the South Walton Fire District, Corey Harned, spoke about the shock of seeing the events unfold via media sources. "There were 2,997 people that lost their lives on 9/11. 412 of them were emergency responders. 412 people gave the ultimate sacrifice for people they didn't event know." Continuing, Officer Harned shared "We have to train our hearts to loved and to be loved, because if we don't, the same hate that filled the hearts of that handful of people who flew those planes into the buildings can creep into the void...if there is no love." He followed up by sharing with the students that there are so many different kinds of things they can do to share love with others as "part of the training...training your heart to love and be loved."