For some students, FWB High is worth the drive

Supporters of building a Destin High School say it would save teens the time and gas it takes to attend school in Fort Walton Beach and Niceville.

Some high school students, however, say they’re much happier at Fort Walton Beach High School than they would have been attending school in their home town.

“Going to Fort Walton Beach, you make so many more connections,” high-schooler Jennifer Bagby, a member of Destin’s Youth Council, told

The Log. “You expand your horizons because it’s so diverse. Going to high school in Destin would not prepare you half as much for the real world as Niceville or Fort Walton Beach would.”

A number of Destin adults disagree. Since Destin homeowner Charlie Saleeby began pushing for a local high school a few months ago, www.destinhs.com has gone up on the Web and a petition calling for a high school has been circulating through the community.

Okaloosa County Superintendent of Schools Alexis Tibbetts and several school-district staffers have said there are serious obstacles to building a high school in Destin, such as the acres of land required. Saleeby and other school supporters say those are technicalities.

“As far as I’m concerned, the land is not an issue,” Saleeby told the School Board at a meeting this month.

At the same meeting, FWBHS freshmen Emily Lyerly, Bobby Lyerly and Caroline Hudson said that although they live in Destin, they don’t want to go to high school here.

“We’ve all had wonderful experiences at the Destin schools,” Hudson said, “but we’ve met so many new people at Fort Walton and had so much fun — this year has probably been the best of my life. ... I look forward to going to Fort Walton Beach every day.”

“Fort Walton has given us many opportunities,” Emily Lyerly said, pointing out that all three are class officers. She said the mix of students from different communities made for more school spirit.

“Fort Walton has made my life better,” Bobby Lyerly added.

The justification for a high school that comes up most often is the commute: The time it takes, the safety risks of U.S. 98, how it complicates scheduling extracurricular activities.

“Trying to support children and their functions in the band or at sporting events,” Destin parent Gail Shackleford told the School Board, “is very challenging.”

Some parents have said that even though sports and other programs would be smaller at a smaller high school, it would be easier for students to participate.

Destin parent Sandy Sharpe told The Log her son Austin has to get up so early, he needs three alarm clocks to make sure he makes it to school. Nevertheless, Austin said he preferred FWB: “If we had a Destin High School, there would probably not be that many students, no sports activities, no extracurriculars. We’d all have the same friends, and wouldn’t meet new people.”

After the School Board meeting, one parent said that the chance to meet several hundred new people might open up new social opportunities for Destin students. Other parents have told The Log that Destin teens shouldn’t be exposed to the “culture” of some of the other teens at Fort Walton Beach.

Preston Green, another member of the Youth Council, said he’d love to attend a DHS, “mainly because with the way gas prices are going now, having to go over the island and back every day is hard. It would also take away most of the traffic that’s backed up near the school.

Every day that’s gridlock: (DHS) would relieve that and give the area relief.”