a message from Superintendent Dr. Curtis Jones

Moore Elementary receives its flag

Today is a very special day for the Griffin-Spalding County School System!

 

As you know, our Board of Education through proclamation declared this to be "Title I Georgia Distinguished School District Day", because of your accomplishments on the Georgia High School Graduation Test and the CRCTs this past year. Every employee and student is celebrating at lunch with a piece of cake prepared by our nutrition department, delivered to schools, and paid for by PAGE.

 

We also wanted to give to every school a Distinguished Title I District flag along with the board's proclamation. We delivered them this morning. But you know, I always wonder, "Is this just me? How many people really know what we're doing?"

 

Today I got my answer! I was fortunate enough to deliver a flag and proclamation to Atkinson Elementary School. When I arrived at the school, students were waiting in the front lobby along with Mr. Aveory Allen (principal) and some staff members.

 

I said, "Wow, what are y'all doing?" and they said, "Waiting for you!" 

 

"How long have you been waiting for me?!" And, their reply was, "About a minute. Our classroom is right there, so when we saw you drive up we came out."

 

"THANK YOU!" So then I asked them if they knew why I was there.  They said they did know, that Mr. Allen had told them. So I summarized the proclamation, and we took a picture. This is where the story gets interesting...

 

I left Atkinson Elementary, and drove towards the next school. When I reached the bottom of the hill, at the Flats, I saw a student walking to school. He had his bookbag on his back.

 

And I stopped the car and put down the window and said, "Where ya going?"

 

The student said, "To school." I asked, "What happened?"

 

"I missed the bus, so I have to walk to school," he replied. I said, "It's kinda late. You want a ride?" He said, "Sure!" So he hopped into the back seat of my car.

 

I looked at him and asked, "Why would you get in a car with a stranger? He said, "Oh. My bad."

 

I asked, "Are you supposed to get into cars with strangers?" He said, "No." I then asked him, "So why'd you get into this car?"

 

He said, "Well, Mr. Allen told us about you."

 

I nervously asked, "He did? What did he tell you?"

 

"He said you are a black man who drives a Cadillac." And I just started laughing!

 

He asked, "Is that you?" I said, "Yeah, that's me!" 

 

So, when I turned the car around and started driving back to Atkinson, I asked the student his name. It was Nathaniel. I asked, "Nathaniel, do you miss the bus often?" He said, "No. I just overslept today. Did you bring the cake?"

 

"The cake?" I asked? "Yeah," he said, "Mr. Allen said you were going to bring us a cake because our district did good."

 

I told him, "You're going to get the cake at lunch today." He said, "Okay. Thank you!" and he went on into the school.

 

It was very rewarding to know that this celebration is not just something that adults are doing. The students are a part this celebration, too. Truthfully, the hard work of students and teachers have made this happen. Now, we're all a team, but where the rubber meets the road is with students and teachers. It was good to see this student know what this day was about and its significance.

 

So, thank you Aveory, for sharing with your students!

 

 

Congratulations, Distinguished Title I School District! 

 

Have a great weekend!

 

On Thursday, March 29, Griffin High School Principal Keith Simmons learned that Griffin High School is being recognized as a model school that has "embraced and implemented innovative practices and ground-breaking techniques that have contributed to rapid improvement in student achievement."

 

Named by the International Center for Leadership in Education, an organization that assists schools in implementing organizational changes that improve schools, Griffin High School is one of 20 schools nationwide named a model school.

 

Principal Keith Simmons notified the Griffin High faculty later Thursday. He said, "I wanted to share this accomplishment with you. If you recall, at last year's pre-planning I (We) stated that the goal was to be a model school...A school where others would call on us to learn about school improvement...We're headed in the right direction. While we do not do it for show, it feels good to be recognized. This is an accomplishment that we can all share and be proud of. . . . . . Congratulations GHS!!!!!"

 

The model schools are:

 

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Eastern Elementary School, Greentown, IN

Kirk Adams Elementary School, Las Vegas, NV

Redstone Elementary, Highlands Ranch, CO

South Heights Elementary School, Henderson, KY

Saint Paul Elementary, Huntsville, AR

Sunnyside Elementary, Great Falls MT

 

MIDDLE SCHOOLS

Cooper Middle Schools, Austell, GA

Jamestown Lawn School, Jamestown, RI

Pocomoke Middle School, Pocomoke City, MD

Ravenswood Middle School, Ravenswood, WV

South Middle School, Westfield, MA

White Pine Middle School, Ely, NV 

 

HIGH SCHOOLS

Atlantic Community High School, Delray Beach, FL

Brockton High School, Brockton, MA

Central Clinton High School, DeWitt, IA

Griffin High School, Griffin, GA

Jensen Beach High School, Jensen Beach, FL

Kennesaw Mountain High School, Kennesaw, GA

Maplewood Richmond Heights High School, Maplewood, MS

La Quinta High School, La Quinta, CA

 

# # # # #

 

Background: Founded in 1991, the International Center for Leadership in Education has a wealth of experience in assisting schools and districts in implementing organizational changes that translate into world-class curriculum, instruction, and assessment systems. International Center staff, keynote speakers, consultants, and trainers share their expertise in the management of change, achieving high standards, curriculum development and customized solutions for our clients.

 

The International Center's work is based on the premise that students are living in a world that is changing dramatically and the education system needs to adapt to those changes in order to prepare students for the world in which they will live and work.

 

 

a message from Elizabeth Benz, Communicator Editor

 

As editor of the gscs Communicator, I received great questions about the gscs Communicator in the School Climate Survey that over 800 employees voluntarily answered. I wanted to share the questions and their answers in case you too had wondered.

 

Q. Why is the Communicator sent out on Friday evening? 

A. The Communicator is emailed on Friday evening primarily to give employees plenty of time to read it. We could wait until the following Monday morning to send it. Analytics (from our email software program Constant Contact) tell us many employees are opening the Communicator email on the weekends. They are taking advantage of reading it when they don't have work distractions.

 

In addition, sending over 1,500 graphic-rich e-newsletters takes a lot of server power. So, sending it on Friday evening doesn't impact our network during the instructional day.

 

I have also asked that each school post a printed Communicator in a visible spot for employees who do not have an email address. My goal is to make sure that you have many opportunities to receive school system news.

 

Q. How can I get Communicator when I can't access my GSCS email?  

A. You can actually get Communicator on our Facebook page as soon as it is published on Friday evening. Not a Facebook member? No problem! Our Facebook page is public - all you have to do is go our homepage, www.spalding.k12.ga.us, and click on the Facebook icon on the bottom of the page. You'll see the Communicator link on our Facebook Timeline, along with other photos and posts.

 

I also post a link to the Communicator on our homepage on Monday morning. That way, if you are an employee without an email account, you can still have easy access to it.

 

Q. I have an email account, but I'm not receiving Communicator. Why? How do I fix that?  

A. At the start of every academic year, I upload the entire database of email addresses provided by I.T. to our software program, Constant Contact. Sometimes a name is left off a group, or the upload has a "hiccup" (for lack of a better word). Other times, we have new employees join us after the upload. I try to catch every change, but sometimes I miss them.

• If you have a gscs.org email and you are not receiving Communicator, please let me know. I can be reached at elizabeth.benz@gscs.org or at 770-229-3710 x.340.
   
• If you prefer to subscribe to it directly, just access a copy of the Communicator on our homepage or Facebook Timeline. Then you can select the "Subscribe" link.
   
• You can also use the Communicator archive page on our website to sign up. Go to our homepage, www.spalding.k12.ga.us, go to Staff Resources, and then select COMMUNCATOR. You'll see the subscription link.

Q. I know of a great activity/event/news story at my school. Can I submit something to the Communicator? 

A. By all means, YES! Please! I love publishing submitted content because this is the "Employee E-Newsletter". It's your e-newsletter - just email me!

 

Q. How is Employee of the Month done? 

A. The principal emails me their school's Employee of the Month. Each school/site has its own method of selection, and any employee can be selected as "Employee of the Month." The weekly focus rotates between Elementary, Middle, High, and Supporting (maintenance, transportation, etc.) employees.

 

Q. Do you have other questions?

A. Let me know!

 

a message from Rod Smith, Instructional Technology Director

In an effort to upgrade the GSCS Network, the network will be offline from Friday, April 20, at 4:00 p.m. until Saturday, April 21 at midnight.

 

The connectivity between all GSCS locations will be out during this period. We apologize for this inconvenience, however the upgrades are necessary. We have tried to schedule this outage to avoid disruption of instructional time.

 

Outages in network access include the following:

• Internet Access
• District Web Server (This includes school websites hosted on the local server.)
• District E-mail (Microsoft Exchange - email addresses that are "@gscs.org".)
• iPhone E-Mail  (This includes email addresses that are "@gscs.org".)
• Infinite Campus
• Network Printing
• Wireless Access
• VPN Access

Outages in the network will not affect:

• iPhone Texting
• Main district Website (externally hosted)
• School websites hosted on SchoolCenter, WordPress, and other external providers

The gscs Communicator will be emailed Wednesday evening (April 18, 2012) so that you will have time to receive and read it. As always, a link is available on the school system's homepage, www.spalding.k12.ga.us. The link on the homepage will not be affected by the outage, therefore you will still have access to the Communicator while the network is down.

 

If you have questions please don't hesitate to call.

 

Rod Smith

Director of Technology

(770) 467-4631

 

 

Carol Remirez
Nutrition Worker in the Manager in Training Program

Great team player. Willing to learn all aspects of the program. Flexibility is her middle name! Carol is a great asset to our nutrition program.
 

 Sandra Starr