Hurricane Sally’s track has continued to slow and move to the east. Due to that, all Walton County schools, including extracurricular activities, will remain closed through tomorrow, Wednesday September 16th. Closures include both students and employees. Based on information from Emergency Management, tropical storm winds and heavy rain will continue to impact Walton County today and Wednesday with potential of historic levels of flooding.

Freeport High School is opening as a shelter today at 5:00 p.m. Please visit Walton County Emergency Management for more information. We will continue to monitor the weather with our local experts. Stay safe, and continue to check our district and schools’ websites and social media platforms for more information.

Weather Update 9/14/20
Due to the track change and slowing of Hurricane Sally, the closure of all Walton County schools, including extracurricular activities, will be extended through tomorrow, Tuesday, September 15th. Closures include both students and employees. Based on information from Emergency Management, tropical storm wind speed is a 70% probability for the Walton County area this afternoon into Tuesday as well as a possible threat of tornados through tonight and tomorrow. The WCSD will continue to monitor the weather with our local experts. Stay safe and continue to check our district and schools’ websites and social media platforms for more information.

We are excited to wrap up our second week of school!  The first ten days have been smooth and successful, and we want to thank everyone for being so supportive. 

This week, the Florida Department of Education with guidance from the Florida Department of Health released a Decision Tree regarding COVID-19.  The Decision Tree is a structured guide for COVID-19 related decisions.  The tree applies to all Walton County traditional students and employees.  The document includes situations regarding COVID-19 symptoms, a positive test, or if a person has close contact with a person with COVID-19 symptoms or a positive test.  The Decision Tree is what we will follow district-wide in Walton and throughout the state of Florida.  The document works in conjunction with screening questions approved by the Department of Health, which were provided at the beginning of the school year, and remain on the safety page of our district website.

We have received several questions this week regarding if parents will be notified regarding COVID-19 exposure.  The short answer is ABSOLUTELY!  When a student or employee is exposed to COVID-19, we immediately begin contact tracing with the support of our health department.  If your child meets the definition of exposure (less than 6 feet of contact for 15 minutes or longer), then you will be notified.  If you hear a rumor of a positive case but you have not been notified, that could mean that your child was not exposed or there was not a case at all.  Know that you will hear from us!  We are working hard to balance contact tracing while maintaining student and employee confidentiality and transparency.  We take these tasks seriously, handle them professionally, and will continue to do so.

We would also like to remind parents that today is the tenth day of school and the last day to make enrollment changes.  According to the Student Progression Plan, 4.0.5 states that all class changes must be made within ten school days into a new semester.  9.0 for Walton Virtual School also references the ten school days, stating once a semester has begun and the regular drop period has passed (ten days), a student may not withdraw.  Due to this, if you have chosen traditional/Innovative Learning Digital Academy and/or Walton Virtual, it is best for your student to remain in one of these two choices for the remainder of the fall semester (until December 18^th).

With two more weeks to go until progress reports, please make sure you are signed up on the FOCUS Parent Portal.  As a member of the Parent Portal, you can check your child’s grades, attendance, and more!  To register for a FOCUS Parent Portal account, select FOCUS Connection for Parents on the district website. Please reach out to your school if you need further assistance. 

As always, we would like all parents of our brick and mortar students to continue to reiterate the importance of social distancing and the wearing of masks, when social distancing is not feasible, with their children.  Students - keep up the good work!

As the weeks continue, please know we will continue to make the necessary adjustments and best decisions for our students.  We want to continue to build upon our success with transparency.  We want our re-opening to be a positive experience for our community.

Re-opening Update for Parents 8/21/20

 We are excited to wrap up our first week of school!  We want to thank everyone for being so supportive of not just the start to the 2020-2021 school year, but to all the changes that have taken place due to COVID-19.  Everyone has been so gracious and positive this week.  Students are working hard, faculty and staff have been innovative and flexible, and our parents have been awesome partners on this new journey.  We are glad to be back!

 Because we want to continue the success of our first week, we would like all parents of our brick and mortar students to continue to reiterate the importance of social distancing and the wearing of masks, when social distancing is not feasible, with their children.  We found that as the week progressed, many students started to feel comfortable and more at ease in their surroundings and that’s encouraging, but we do want to continue to remind students that social distancing and masks are best practice until the pandemic is over.  Students - keep up the good work!

 Thanks to all of our distance learning and virtual students and families as well.  Thank you for being a great team player this week as we have collaborated with technology and other new procedures.  Please remember we have a page devoted to our Innovative Learning Digital Academy, as well as Walton Virtual School, on our website. 

 As the weeks continue, please know we will continue to make the right adjustments and best decisions for our students.  We want to continue to build upon our success, and we want our re-opening to be a positive experience for our community!