Increasing parental involvement – Parental involvement is crucial to ensuring that we provide every child an education of the highest possible quality. This year, for the first time, we are offering parents the ability to monitor their student’s daily grades, class assignments, attendance and other records through our new Parent Portal. The Parent Portal allows parents to see all pertinent class and school information about every child in their household, through a private online account. We believe this tool will allow parents to become even more involved in their child’s academic progress and daily school experience. School councils (which involve teachers, parents and business partners) are becoming an important part of our efforts in Coweta County schools, just as our PTOs are a crucial for school improvement efforts. It is a priority of our schools to increase the use of parent-teacher conferences, parent training, and curriculum familiarization programs to help parents form a closer partnership with their child’s teachers, as well.

School facilities – The school system passed a milestone in 2005, when our enrollment exceeded 20,000 students. For comparison, enrollment was 9,210 in the 1984-85 school term and 14,012 in 1996-97. Though we have experienced slower growth in the last two years, we have usually grown by 600 to 1,000 students in most years over the last decade. That is the equivalent of adding a middle school or an elementary school each year.

New students mean new teachers and new classrooms. Following the opening of several new schools and the expansion of existing schools in recent years, the school system has begun construction on the school system’s 19th elementary school this year. Brooks Elementary, on Jim Starr Road in northern Coweta County, will be open by August, 2009. The Coweta County Board of Education is also searching for land across our county to ensure that the system has adequate building sites to meet the demands of our growth for many years to come.

Those projects and others have been funded by one-cent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) for schools, approved by voters in 2002 and 2005.

Community involvement – Just as parental involvement in schools improves the quality of learning for a child, greater involvement in the school system by parents and citizens improves both the quality and accountability of the school system. Partnerships in education with the business community are very important to our schools. The Central Educational Center (CEC) is one of the best examples of school, parent, business and community partnerships. Business and industry partners make CEC work, and I want to see those relationships continue and expand throughout the school system.

Curriculum – It is the responsibility of the school system to provide a challenging curriculum for every student. At all grade levels, the Coweta School System has begun a multi-year project to implement a new curriculum based on Georgia Performance Standards. We have recently enhanced our middle school curriculum with an eye toward preparing students for the challenging material they will encounter in high school, and our new ninth-grade campuses not only expand our high school’s capacity, they are also allowing us to better acclimate new freshmen into the challenging world of high school.

The Central Educational Center – A charter school serving all three Coweta high schools, CEC provides classes not taught elsewhere in our system, and bases its academic and professional curriculum on the results of a needs-assessment survey of the local business community and an active, ongoing partnership with Coweta’s business leaders. The Performance Learning Center (PLC), located at CEC, provides high school students with an opportunity to learn and excel at their own pace using an internet-based curriculum.
The Centre for Performing and Visual Arts Situated on Lower Fayetteville Road, the Centre provides a 1,000-seat state-of-the art performance space for our students, as well as gallery space for the visual arts and rehearsal and set construction space for musical and theatrical performances. The Centre not only serves as nucleus for Coweta County’s School’s growing fine arts programs, but increasingly as a center of community life for Coweta citizens.

Personnel – An important part of meeting our curriculum goals lies in teacher recruitment and training. We not only have to attract and train new teachers to meet the needs of our growth, but we also have to focus on retaining our current faculty and expanding staff development opportunities. Each dollar spent on improving teacher qualifications nets greater gains in student learning than any other use of an educational dollar.

The Coweta County School System is committed to working as a partner with teachers, parents, businesses, and citizens to constantly improve our schools and meet the challenges I have mentioned here, and others. We invite you to join us in that partnership.