This is an exciting time for our school district. We are nearing the end of our current strategic plan that began in 2009 and will conclude on June 30, 2015. At this point we are in the process of putting in place a new strategic plan. This process began yesterday when our Board of Education met for a day-long retreat to review the results of our current strategic plan. It was an enlightening day that gave us a chance to celebrate our many successes. During the retreat the board members heard:  

• Stacy Wilson explain the progress of our Elementary After School Program,
• Laura Beaber discuss our new district website,
• Josh Griffis explain administrative technology's increases as well as the enhancements made with FTE reporting and centralized registration,
• Ryan McLemore discuss our new budgeting process as we tie the dollars we spend to all of the items on our strategy map, showing that we put our money where our mouth is,
• Leslie Fagin from Instructional Technology talk about the Google, classroom apps and equipment trainings offered to our teachers as they prepare to become more technical,
• Bruce Ballard discuss the enhancement and continuation of construction projects since 2009,
• Laura Youmans explain some of the challenges faced in the nutrition department and enhancements that have been made,
• Donna Parks talk about student services and the many support activities focused on keeping students in school,
• Todd Harris explain the state of transportation including the newest GPS technology and how it is improving our transportation operation,
• Mack Bullard discuss strategic talent and what we are doing to provide more professional learning for paraprofessionals and new induction program for teachers and leaders,
• Edna Aikens speak about controlling our costs with workers compensation,
• Sharlene Patterson discuss CCRPI.  Diane Forbes from the DOE also came to share with the board members how CCRPI is calculated because they really wanted to understand the components of the index,
• Ashley Crawford speech about curriculum,
• Ashley McLemore discuss federal programs, especially Title 1,
• Sheila Mincey share the many improvements and enhancements made in special education. Sara Jones talked about our school improvement and how we are helping our lowest achieving schools,
• Pearla Hodo discuss Pre-K operations and ELL, and
• Jim Smith concluded with an overview of administrative support in general and what we are doing to improve.

While the day started with a called board meeting at 8 am, the board members where engaged until after 5 pm. It was a long day but a good day. Our school system as board members heard what we have accomplished and began looking at what we need to continue to focus on. Guidance from the board and from community focus groups will help form our action items. My belief is that the Georgia School Boards Association and the Georgia Leadership Institute for Student Improvement will help us finalize our new strategic plan by November 2015. It is a long process but one that will prepare us for our SACS accreditation visit as well as our move towards implementing a new governance model called IE2.

But, the most important thing that I came away with was that we will not get to an 80 percent graduation rate without help from parents and the community. We need their help with three key issues.  The first issue is student attendance; meaning students that are chronically absent (more than 6 days a year). The second issue is mobility. Our county has one of the highest mobility rates in the state. When students move and change schools throughout the year it affects their learning and lowers their chance of graduating. The third is reading levels which I know we have a lot of control over. The new CCRPI has established Lexile levels for students leaving 5th grade, 8th grade and high school. The intent is that the students must be at a certain level to continue to the next grade. We need to pay close attention to these numbers because data shows that students below appropriate levels have a 75 percent chance of not graduating.

My hope is that throughout this planning process the district and the schools will focus on improving reading and lexile levels, improving attendance and trying to reduce our county's mobility rate. Those are the big three. Please think about these key issues as you develop school improvement plans and let that them be a part of the discussion.

I appreciate the work you are doing. The month of January has turned out to be a fantastic month!

Thanks and have a great weekend!

COLDR