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Signs of Summer: Okaloosa Schools Empty As Students Head Out on Break

Posted on: Friday, 19 May 2006, 12:10 CDT

By Zac Anderson, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach

May 19--FORT WALTON BEACH -- Wright Elementary School second-grader Aubrey Vest looked into a magic eight ball on Thursday and wondered if she'd be moving on to the third grade.

All indicators said yes, a fact that was confirmed a few moments later when Vest received her final report card from teacher Shannon DeBerry.

"I passed the second grade!" the 8-year-old shouted to no one in particular.

Such sentiments were repeated throughout Okaloosa County on Thursday as another school year came to a close. Friends discussed summer plans and signed yearbooks. Teachers said goodbye to their students and tidied up their classrooms. School lets out in Santa Rosa County today while Walton County students finish up on Wednesday. Most Okaloosa students were in a celebratory mood on Thursday. "I'm glad to just have some time to chill out," said Latonya Davis, a freshman at Choctawhatchee High School. "I'm going to Miami on vacation and then I'm going to make some money." Unlike many high school students, Davis was spared from taking final exams on the last day of school. Choctaw junior Daniel Stevenson wasn't so lucky.

Under the district's new exam policy, students must take finals in each class, and Stevenson had his math and anatomy honors finals on Thursday.

"They were quite challenging," he said. "It wasn't really something I wanted to do on the last day."

Students trickled out of Choctaw as they finished their exams. Very few remained by the time school actually let out.

The scene contained little of the stereotypical "school's out" mania, with lockers having been cleaned out earlier in the week. There were a few scattered embraces and exclamations of relief.

Friends Charlee Harrison, Sarah Genrich and Kimberly Pearce spent the last hour of school organizing scrapbooks in the media center and discussing their summer plans.

Genrich was excited to be spending the summer with family in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

"It'll be nice to do something different," she said. "It's been kind of a long year."

For others, the school year continues right through June and July with summer school.

Although most of DeBerry's students at Wright are moving on to the next grade, a few will need intensive help over the summer.

"We'll keep working to get them were they need to be," De-Berry said.

Wright Principal Johnny Woitt won't know exactly how many students will attend summer school until the fourth- and fifth- grade results from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) come out next week, but he said he expects about 200.

The school district will mail FCAT results to parents as soon as the state releases them. The results also can be accessed online Tuesday at www.fcatparentnetwork.com.

"We're hoping the scores come out well," said Woitt, who has been trying to get his school off penalties imposed by the federal No Child Left Behind law.

District officials are waiting to see the FCAT results before passing judgment on the new high school and middle school reading classes. More than 100 teachers and thousands of students participated in the classes for the first time this year.

"We're expecting good results," said Guyla Hendricks, the district's chief officer for quality assurance.

DeBerry's students were too young to take the FCAT this year, but they had many other tests and most did well.

"They had a really good year," she said. "I'm very sad to see this class go."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Northwest Florida Daily News

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