RAIDER REVIEW IN THIS EDITION Principal's Letter | Co-Presidents' Letter PTSA News | Foundation News | Homecoming Walton Activities & Athletics | PTSA Board |
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| LETTER FROM THE PRINCIPAL Dear Walton High School Community, It is with great pride that I share some outstanding accomplishments that reflect the hard work and dedication of our students, teachers, coaches, and families. The Class of 2025 has set a new standard of excellence, achieving the highest SAT average in the Cobb County School District with an impressive score of 1260. This remarkable achievement also places Walton 4th in the state of Georgia, a testament to our students’ commitment to academic rigor and our teachers’ dedication to high-quality instruction. In addition, Walton continues to excel in ensuring all students are prepared for success beyond high school. Our most recent data show a federal graduation rate of 97.9%—which includes all students enrolled for at least one day—and an extraordinary four-year graduation rate of 100%. These numbers reflect not only academic excellence but also the strength of our school community in supporting every student to reach their potential. Our success extends beyond the classroom as well. Volleyball won the 6A State Championship this week, and Softball will compete in the Elite Eight State Tournament in Columbus, Georgia this weekend. Football and Cross Country are also poised for strong performances as they look ahead to the state playoffs. It’s truly a great time to be a Walton Raider!
With Raider Pride, Stephanie Santoro |
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MESSAGE FROM THE CO-PRESIDENTS What a great semester - we’re on a roll! PTSA has held another month of valued Raider events that are traditions in our Walton Community, and have plenty of folks to thank. Bars & Letters team Sima Valvani and Michele Zerbinski once again coordinated with Walton staff to host a fun celebration for 10-12th grade students who earned an academic letter or bar for maintaining over a 4.0 GPA in the '24-'25 school year. Great work, Raiders! Clare Shueren had a blast chauffeuring our Principal Stephanie Santoro, along with Jasenda League (Teacher of the Year), and Sandra Guevara-Medina (Classified Employee of the Year) in this year’s East Cobber Parade! Big thank you to our Walton Community Outreach chair Susan Thrash for leading multiple teams of student volunteers serving our community each week. A big shout-out to Heather Quinn for organizing and providing a successful teacher PSAT day breakfast. We love to show appreciation to our teachers throughout the year. PTSA’s Senior Breakfast Committee & Walton administration planned an amazing morning of fun for our seniors as well. A special thank you to Katherine Isackson, Greer Waddell, Jeanne Flack, and Charity Muldoon for planning an awesome Senior Breakfast! We can’t let a month go by without thanking Melissa Radke and Shannon Eiser for ongoing coordination of all Walton’s Attendance, Front Office, and Copy Crew volunteers. Thanks as well to all those who serve in these roles weekly! Finally, we want to thank Stephanie Santoro and our outstanding team of Assistant Principals: Chris Jones, Julie Brown, Jamey Case, Chris Whittington, Christy Paige, and Troy Pirkle for navigating our students & school community each day. We value all you do day in & day out for our Raider community, and your commitment to Raider Pride!
Thank you for your continuing support of your Walton PTSA! Clare Schueren and Liz Neville, PTSA Co-Presidents |
SENIOR BREAKFAST & PRICE IS RIGHT The Walton PTSA hosted its annual Senior Breakfast for 600+ seniors. Our amazing seniors were treated with Chick-fil-A biscuits and Marietta Donuts! Afterwards, the seniors played a 2-hour game of Price is Right in the theater, where tons of prizes were given to our graduating class. Thanks to our amazing families who sent in items to give away as prizes. Thanks to the PTSA Breakfast team hosted by Katherine Isackson, Greer Waddell, Jeanne Flack, and Charity Muldoon and all of the wonderful parents who set up, served, and cleaned up this event in record time! Special thank you to Chick-fil-A Woodlawn Square and J'MZ for providing coupons for all of our Seniors! |
| The 2025-2026 Foundation Capital Campaign Each year, the Foundation undertakes an annual Capital Campaign to raise funds to enrich the student learning experience. Funds raised through the generosity of Walton families support teacher hires to reduce class sizes and major capital needs on campus. The Foundation extends donor perks to families to recognize these contributions. All donor families receive a Foundation magnet. The Foundation also hosts quarterly coffee chats with the principal, and our first event is coming up soon. Contribute $250 or more to the 2025-2026 Walton Foundation Campaign to receive an invitation to the Principal's Coffee Chat. Make a gift here. Also, donors at the $250 and up level help the Foundation ‘Paint the Town Blue.’ Bows will be placed on mailboxes of all families who donate at this level if the donation is made by December 1st. |
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| Meet our Walton Sponsored Teacher Ashley Nickell This year the Walton High School Foundation is pleased to support teacher Ashley Nickell, a member of the Walton English department and a Walton grad! “My name is Ashley Nickell. Having earned my college degree in marketing and management and working in the recruiting technology field, I pursued my passion for teaching earning my Masters in the Art of Teaching and a secondary Bachelor of Arts in English. I have been teaching high school English for the past 11 years, most recently teaching in South Forsyth High School. I love helping students gain more analytical skills and improving their writing techniques. I look forward to creating strong students on the 9th and 10th grade English teams. I am so excited to be a Raider (again) as my husband and I both graduated from Walton High School!” |
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WALTON HOMECOMING Walton Homecoming 2025 was a huge success! Raider spirit was at an all time high from the pep rally to the parade to the football game to the dance, fun was had by all! Congratulations to the 2025 Homecoming Court... |
Class of 2026 Taylor Brown Nicole Delgado Amber Primack Gabi Santucci Selah Shockey Layla Varghese
Class of 2028 Lydia Black McKenna Calvo Mia Rhea |
| Class of 2027 Kennedy Darden Evie Harkey Millie Hugh Paige Miller
Class of 2029 Gabriella Flammia Grayson Moehler |
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Special congratulations to Selah Shockey on being named the 2025 Walton Homecoming Queen! Photo credit: Andrew Pollack, apPhotoMarietta. CLICK HERE to view more photos of all the homecoming activities. |
HOMECOMING DANCE HOCO 2025 was a success! A big thank you to everyone who helped roll out the red carpet and make it a special night for our Raiders. |
NATIONAL MERIT COMMENDED The following students have been named Commended Students in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. Although they will not continue in the 2026 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2026 competition by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). “These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation. We hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as they continue their pursuit of academic success,” comments a spokesperson for NMSC. Please join Walton High School in congratulating these scholars: Ryan Asiello, Jackson Berger, Cooper Bowles, Grace Brinckerhoff, Bryan Cao, Abraham Chackieth, Allison Chastain, Anderson Clark, Ryan Erickson, Neil Chandler Fenix, Abhijeet Ghosh, Zak Globerman, Aditi Gopalakrishnan, Sahil Hazari, Evan Herrera, Samantha Hsu, Sion Hwang, John Jansen, Isha Kansagra, Nathan Kim, Jessica Kong, Aashritha Kudumula, Jacqueline Kwun, Audrey Latham, Ethan Lo, Arinjay Mehrotra, Katherine Meng, Aidan Mong, Chase Muehlhauser, Allison Pekkanen, David Perez, James Peterson, Shalin Pokharel, Mriganayani Rajan, Ria Rao, Eliza Saifee, Tomoki Sato, Matthew Sha, Aidan Simons, Layla Varghese, Nihal Viswanathan, Filip Vukasinovic, Hayden Weaver, Katherine White, Mason Wicks, and Ava Williams. |
WALTON ART Out of nearly 4,000 entries from across the country, the 2025 Peanut Festival Postcard Contest was extremely competitive—and Walton had two 1st place winners! Congratulations to Luca C. (Juniors) and Erin M. (Sophomores) for taking 1st place in their divisions! |
WALTON CHINESE NHS We can do great things when we work together! Walton’s Chinese National Honor Society collaborated with Walton Asian Students Alliance and Japanese Club and organized an event to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, a major holiday in Asian countries around this time of year. Students learned the cultural background and the story behind this important holiday and made mooncakes to celebrate! Thank you, Dr. Cook, Mr. Williams, and Mrs. Skeean for getting the Raiders together to do great things! |
WALTON CHORUS Walton Chorus hosted the Dickerson and Dodgen 8th grade chorus members for a special evening during the Homecoming Game. The combined choir of 450 plus singers performed the National Anthem. |
On October 14, the six Walton Choruses performed their fall concert to a sold-out crowd at Lassiter Concert Hall. This photo is all singers performing the Walton Alma Mater and Kiss Him Goodbye, a long-standing tradition of the program. |
Back row (left to right): Vidya Sivaramakrishnan, Minjun Lee, Aiden Lu, Marcus Oppenheim, Turner Sahadevan, James Lee, Sophia Huang, and Jonathan Zeng Front row (left to right): Eric Xu, Ravi Patel, Mira Saraswat, Elena Baumgartner, Claire Cheong, and Janet Hong The above Walton Orchestra students auditioned into the Georgia Music Educators Association District 12 Honor Orchestra! They will represent Walton in rehearsals and a performance on November 6th and 7th at Kennesaw Mountain High School. |
Walton's Chamber Orchestra & Philharmonia were accepted to the Kennesaw State University Orchestra Invitational. In celebration of Bachtober, they performed an all-Johann Sebastian Bach program featuring Amy Qi and Kennadi Holewinski on October 24 at the Bailey Center for the Performing Arts. |
| WALTON ATHLETICS The past month has been very good for Walton Athletics. We have seen our fall sports have success and our winter sports are getting started. Recently, Coach Amos (baseball) received an award from the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association for his 500th win. |
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Competition Cheer is continuing to do well, taking home a first-place win for Varsity and 2nd for JV at South Forsyth HS Competition! |
WALTON CROSS COUNTRY Our Cross Country teams are having a tremendous season - the Varsity Boys placed first overall at County for the first time in many years! At Wingfoot, Walton dominated the 5k races earning first place across the board in the Varsity A Boys & Girls races as well as the JV Boys & Girls races. Top performances included Mason Wicks, Finn Timmons, Max Tucker, Mallory Old, Julia Betton, Maddie Teilhet, and Harper Strong. The Cross Country team is led by Head Coach Travis Gower, Assistant Coaches Emily Navitsky & Asha Delgado, as well as Community Coaches Bill Stewart & Beth Old. The boys and girls teams are both competing for top 10 rankings in the state. |
WALTON ROBOTICS The Walton Robotics team wrapped up their 2025 Season as Finalists at GRITS (Georgia Robotics Invitational Tournament and Showcase) in Dalton, GA on October 3rd and 4th. Their custom-made robot, Watergate, had a record of 10-5 at the event. The following weekend, they were champions at SCRIW (South Carolina Robotics Invitational & Workshops) with a 9-2 record, ending with a 66-26 record for the year. Our team is excited to take on the new game and design our robot for 2026 in January. A huge thanks to our mentors, parents, and the Walton administration for their support in making our team so successful! |
WALTON SOFTBALL Walton Softball has had an exciting 30th Anniversary Season filled with so many memorable highlights! Varsity Head Coach, John Evans, earned his 100th career win early in the season in a 9-3 win vs. Pope. Senior Night celebrated the program's fab-five seniors: Shea Chatham, Claire Cipperly, Mollie Evans, Kate Rogers, and Julia Rutledge. Several former players and coaches returned to Raider Mountain for Alumni Night, celebrating three decades of Walton Softball. The Lady Raiders participated in the HOCO parade, an annual highlight for players and coaches during Homecoming Week! Varsity finished their regular season with 17-10 record, earning a spot in the postseason for the 5th straight year. They faced the number 1 seed, Harrison, in Round 1, sweeping the series 14-10, and a dramatic walk-off 7-6 win in game 2! Round 2 vs. Denmark ended in another sweep (9-4 & 11-3) with the Lady Raiders earning a trip to the Elite 8 championship series in Columbus for the first time in 20 years! Follow Walton Raiders Fastpitch on social media for updates from Columbus, October 28 - November 1! |
WALTON VOLLEYBALL Congratulations to Walton's Volleyball Team - 6A STATE CHAMPS!!
We are so proud of all your hard work and talent this season! Congrats to our Region Award winners: Region Player of the Year: Simone Searles 1st Team All-Region: Janie Myers, Addison Contestabile & Ella Cobb Senior Simone Searles was also selected to the GVCA All-State Team, along with Sophomore Janie Myers! Way to go! |
WALTON PTSA EXECUTIVE BOARD Co-Presidents: Clare Schueren and Liz Neville, waltonpresident@gmail.com
Vice President, Communications: Amy Crowell, waltonvpcommunications@gmail.com
Vice President, Programs: Heather Quinn, waltonvpprograms@gmail.com
Vice President, Volunteers: Cortney Morgan, vpvolunteerswalton@gmail.com Secretary: Kristina Cofer, waltonsecretary@gmail.com Treasurer: Payal Patel, waltontreasurer20@gmail.com Parliamentarian: Jessica Loewy, waltonparliamentarian@gmail.com Principal: Stephanie Santoro, stephanie.santoro@cobbk12.org |
PTSA Membership Become a Member today to support our Students and Staff all year long! |
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