Please tell me about the high schools (Fort Walton Beach, Niceville: renting, house)

[GMonkey]

I have a 16 year old daughter, sophomore in HS and we are moving in November due to my husband's PCS to Hurlburt Field.

I've done research on the schools in the area via the FL Education website and I've scanned the report cards and such. I don't always think that standardized tests are a true measure of a school, though.

I thought that I had narrowed it down to either Niceville or Choctawhatchee HS, but the reports fluctuate so much, that it seems that Fort Walton Beach may be ok afterall, same as Navarre. We will be renting a home and the advantage of Navarre is that there seems to be much more house available for the money.

Could someone please give me some additional information about the schools and neighborhoods and areas that wouldn't be available in the school report cards.

Like: reputation, income, diversity, arts, activities, etc.

Thanks!!

[beachmouse]

The three Okaloosa high schools schools all have pretty similar demographics- all cover both affluent and poor parts of the area, so you don't end up with all the kids from the poor part of town dumped into the same 'bad' high school. The result is that you get pretty similar outcomes, though Niceville gets something of an edge in terms of academic success, probably because it's got the biggest 'geek cluster' of parents (DoD research scientists and engineers) with Choctaw probably second in terms of highly educated parent clusters.

In terms of sports, it's typically been Niceville first (their women's softball team ended up 5th in the national rankings last season) and Ft. Walton Beach second, or less often FWB first and Niceville second, and it's kind of rare to see one of the other schools break up that 1-2. Marching band is a really big deal down here, and everyone always seems to have been invited to play in the Rose Parade or Alamo Bowl or something like that.

One note- none of the south Okaloosa County high schools are at capacity right now, so if you find a house you love that's not zoned for your preferred schools, it's normally pretty easy to get a waiver for the school you want, as long as you can provide your own transportation.

Navarre is cheap by local standards because there's a distaste for having to commute from there into Destin/FWB proper. If you're only commuting as far as Hurlburt, you're not having to deal with what many see as the big disadvantage of the location, even though you'll still be spending a fair amount of time on the disliked US 98.

[GMonkey]

Thanks, Beachmouse! As ever, you are a font of information!