GSCS   

 Congratulations to bus driver John Devlin who won the GSCS Bus Road-E-O for the fifth year! Thank you to all the drivers who participated in this fun event.

GHS 9TH GRADER WINS T-SHIRT DESIGN CONTEST

Alexis Dalton won the Griffin Styream Cleanup T-shirt design contest. Alexis's design was printed on all of the volunteer shirts. She was awarded with a t-shirt, a cash prize, and a pizza party for her class. 

4-H representative, Mrs. Robinson and Mrs. Daniels, representing the City of Griffin, presented Alexis with her prizes.

Come CELEBRATE the

 lives of those who have faced cancer, REMEMBER loved ones lost, and commit to FIGHT BACK against the disease. Funds raised through Relay For Life supports the American Cancer Society's efforts to create a world with less cancer and more birthdays.

First graders that have earned 50 points or more!

Back row: Aniyah Cameron, Derrick Crawford, Andres Nuno, Camilla Ayala, Maurice Fletcher Front Row: Janiecyah Irvin, Autumn Daniels, Justin Botello Not Pictured: Cassidy Brown and Delana Clark

Newest members of the 100 point club!

Standing: Isaac Rios, Landon Tomason, Marcus Shannon, Dakaria Shannon, Jeremiah Henley, Diego Hernandez, Tamirra Ridgeway, Angela Haney, Mariah Grier, Savannah Fenley Kneeling: Abigail Severin, Jordan Silas, Tagan Moore, Kaley Wilder, Olivia Ray Not Pictured: Jaden Hastings

 

This week I received an update from Cowan Road Middle School teacher, Donnell Cox, who is a Georgia Association Education (GAE)/National Education Association (NEA) Board member. Through GAE/NEA, Donnell has the opportunity to travel to Washington to represent educators in Georgia, particularly GSCS educators, at the Capitol.

On his recent trip he spoke with Georgia members of the House of Representatives on the following topics of interest to educators:

• HR Bill 15 - Comprehensive Immigration Reform- Immigration reform has a huge impact on students and families. This bill will require Congress to create a realistic path to citizenship for the 11 million aspiring citizens who call America home and incorporate the DREAM Act.
• HR Bill 10 - Charter School Accountability and Transparency is expected to come to the floor this week. This bill will require more charter authorizer accountability including plans to close underperforming charter schools and weighted lotteries to address under-enrollment of educationally disadvantaged students. The disadvantage of the bill is there is no mandatory disclosure or reporting on key data including funding received from private sources, no independent audit requirements and no conflict of interest guidelines.
• HR Bill 4172 - Restore the Option Grade-Span Testing - This bill would reduce the federal role in testing to the pre - No Child Left Behind status known as "grade-span testing" giving educators more time to teach and students more time to learn. This will give the state level more authority on testing as all states are different.  

I appreciate Donnell's willingness to work on behalf of education. It is important for all educators to stay tuned to legislation that will impact our community.    

ADVANCED ACCREDITATION PROGRESS REPORT COMPLETE

To earn and maintain accreditation, school systems must meet the AdvancED Standards for Quality School Systems, engage in continuous improvement and demonstrate quality assurance through internal and external review.

One critical component of the AdvancED accreditation process is the Accreditation Progress Report (APR). Every five years school systems host an external Quality Assurance Review (QAR) team to evaluate the system's adherence to all accreditation requirements. Following the review, the school system must act on the teams required actions and submit a completed Accreditation Progress Report (APR) within the five-year term to remain accredited. Each APR is reviewed by an AdvancED reader to determine if the required action has been met.

Read more...

 2013 CCRPI RESULT DETAILS 

The 2013 College & Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) was released last week showing GSCS increased from 63.7 to 67. 

The Griffin-Spalding school board received a detailed presentation on the 2013 CCRPI at its meeting on 

May 6.

Click HERE to view the presentation.

WRITING ASSESSMENT RESULTS SHOW GROWTH

The Griffin-Spalding County School System received results from the fifth and eighth grade writing assessment that is mandated as a state assessment.  Scores increased at both grade levels.

Fifth grade assessment measured three writing genres: narrative, informational and persuasive. Students are randomly assigned a prompt and students write to that prompt. They have 120 minutes to write.

ANNOUNCES 2015 PLAN YEAR ENHANCEMENTS 

ATLANTA (April 15, 2014) -- The Department of Community Health (DCH) State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP) released an invitation for proposal (IFP) to qualified companies to increase the number of vendors that administer the state's health insurance plan. SHBP also plans to expand the type of plan design options for the 2015 plan year.    

Read article...

ATLANTA PRESS CLUB TO HOST TELEVISED PRIMARY ELECTION
DEBATES

The Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young Debate Series will host the following televised debates this primary election season. 

Debates will take place before a live studio audience at Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB).  Members of the  media, students and the general public are welcome to attend. The programs will be posted on GPB.org and atlantapressclub.org. 

Sunday, May 18: 

• Georgia School Superintendent, Republican -Tapes from 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. Airs on GPB from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. 
• Georgia School Superintendent, Democrat - Airs live on GPB from 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.

To view the complete schedule of debates visit:
http://atlantapressclub.org/watch-the-loudermilk-young-debate-series/