All new student registrations will be held at Central Office this summer.  Families are encouraged to make an appointment to see Cindy Seymour, System Registrar.  For details on registration requirements, click here. 

The Board of Education will hold its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, August 13 at 7 p.m. in the central office Board of Education meeting room.

Through funding provided by Georgia's Race to the Top initiative and in partnership with the Georgia Department of Education, new self-paced common core professional development courses are now available for English Language Arts and Mathematics.  For access to these courses, click here.

         

State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge and Gov. Nathan Deal announced recently that Georgia is withdrawing from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test development consortium.

 

The Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) will work with Georgia educators  to create  tests aligned to Georgia's current academic standards in mathematics and English language arts for elementary, middle and high school students. Georgia will seek opportunities to collaborate with other states.

Creating Georgia tests will ensure that the state maintains control over academic standards and testing. 

 

"After talking with district superintendents, administrators, teachers, parents, lawmakers and members of many communities, I believe this is the best decision for Georgia's students," Superintendent Barge said. Georgia was one of 22 states to join PARCC several years ago with the aim of developing next generation student assessments in mathematics and English language arts by 2014-15.

 

"Assessing our students' academic performance remains a critical need to ensure that young Georgians can compete on equal footing with their peers throughout the country," Gov. Deal said. "Georgia can create an equally rigorous measurement without the high costs associated with this particular test."

 

Superintendent Barge  expressed concerns over the technology requirements and the costs for PARCC's online tests. Many Georgia school districts do not have the needed equipment or bandwidth to handle administering the PARCC assessments. As GaDOE begins to build new assessments, please note that our Georgia assessments:

• will be aligned to the math and English language arts state standards;
• will be high-quality and rigorous;
• will be developed for students in grades 3 through 8 and high school;
• will be reviewed by Georgia teachers;
• will require less time to administer than the PARCC assessments;
• will be offered in both computer- and paper-based formats; and
• will include a variety of item types, such as performance-based and multiple-choice items.

"We are grateful to Georgia educators who have worked hard to help develop our standards and assessments," Superintendent Barge said. "We look forward to continuing to work with them to develop a new assessment system for our state."

MONROE MESSAGES

A Publication of Monroe County Schools

The Monroe County Schools will participate in the second annual Leading Learner Summit from July 29th through August 2nd at K. B. Sutton Elementary School.  This week of professional learning provides support to all staff members, certified and classified.  The sessions are numerous and varied and are specific to the system and schools' areas of focus, as defined through a review of data. The majority of these sessions will be led by staff members who were identified by their supervisors as knowledgeable about their topic and capable of presenting information in a way that increases the ability of the participants to learn.  Skills learned during these sessions will continue to be supported throughout the school year through each school's Learning Communities (small groups of educators who meet regularly and frequently to collaborate as they work to improve student success).  

New teachers and paraprofessionals joining Monroe County Schools will go through a three day orientation beginning on Thursday, August 1 at 8 a.m., continuing on Friday, August 2 at 8 a.m..  TIP Day 1 and 2 will be held at KBSutton Elementary in conjunction with Leading Learner Summit.  Tip Day 3 will be at the BOE Auditorium on Monday, August 5.

**All new students need to make an appointment to register with Mrs. Cindy Seymour, system registrar.  New student registrations are handled at Central Office.  To receive an enrollment packet and set up an appointment, new families are encouraged to call 478-994-2031 or stop by the Central Office at 25 Brooklyn Avenue between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Monroe County Schools, in accordance with state laws, requires visitors to report to the school's front office and register.  Additionally, volunteers who serve our schools are required to participate in state-mandated training on an annual basis.  For more information on volunteer training, click here.

 

Volunteer: 

• Working with students in the classroom
• Working on teacher projects in the parent room (or other designated area that is not in a classroom)
• Assisting in the media center
• Field trips
• Assisting PTO with projects that occur within the school day
• Chaperones

Visitor:

• Field Day
• Eating lunch with their child
• Attending a class, grade, or school program during the day
• On campus for a short period of time with no supervisory responsibilities (i.e. classroom party visitor)

Teachers, support staff, and administrators came together last week for renewal training on Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS).  Eighty-five staff members met at Mary Persons Freshman Campus last week.  PBIS is an evidence-based, data-driven framework proven to reduce disciplinary incidents, increase a school's sense of safety, and support improved academic outcomes. Georgia Department of Education PBIS Specialist Mimi Gudenrath and Monroe County Schools Behavior Specialist Jenny Rooks guided the school teams.

MONROE MESSAGES is published weekly during the school year.  It is an electronic newsletter that provides parents, community, students, staff, and others to learn more about Monroe County Schools.  

MONROE MESSAGES is distributed to over three thousand subscribers. 

For an archive of past issues of Monroe Messages, click here.