Zebulon High School to Open in August

Pike County’s first non-traditional school is slated to open in August 2016.  Zebulon High School will offer an on-line curriculum with small group and individual instructional support to 46 students selected through an application process.  The goal is to provide an opportunity for students to complete high school course work in a time frame that meets their goals. Whether the goal is to accelerate or remediate, all second-year students must dual enroll with a post- secondary institution, such as Gordon College or Southern Crescent Technical College.

Zebulon High School will occupy a self-contained portion of the new 9^th Grade Academy. It is important to note that the Alternative School Program-students placed due to discipline issues will be housed in a self-contained modular classroom separate from all school buildings, including Pre-K, 9th Grade Academy and Zebulon High School.

 

2016 School Budget Proposal

By Ken Carter, Finance Director

 

The Pike County Board of Education and administrative staff are pleased to announce that budget planning for the financial year 2015 / 2016 (FY16) is complete and ready for public comment. The budget process provides resources for the instruction of our children and associated support activities such as media, technology and professional training. The budget also develops funding necessary for student transportation to and from school while also providing for the upkeep and maintenance of buildings and grounds.

The revenue climate for Pike County Schools continues to improve for FY16. State revenues provided under the Quality Basic Education funding law increased by over $1.1 million. This marks the second straight year of restored State educational dollars after a long seven year period of reductions. We must point out, however, that State earnings under the funding law remains below a “full funding level” by almost $1 million as a hangover from the recent recession. Local funding for education through the property tax remains level for the third straight year. No additional tax dollars are called for in the FY16 budget.

Even given additional funding, balancing the expenditure budget remains a difficult task as the School District digs out from the effects of the sustained economic recession. This budget targets threes areas which suffered during the recession – financial reserves, building maintenance and employee wages.  To balance the budget during the years 2009 – 2015, the Board of Education depleted financial reserves, deferred maintenance and mandated an employee wage freeze. The FY16 budget plans for building the reserve account, a structured small project maintenance plan and for a modest wage increase of 2-3% for support, transportation and nutrition employee groups. Funding for teacher pay raises are as provided in the State teacher salary scale.

Despite our optimism surrounding the FY16 budget, major areas of concern for our financial future remain. Our transportation fleet continues to age resulting in more and costlier repairs. The planned small project maintenance program helps but many small and large maintenance projects go unfunded. Budget pressures continue in the employer cost of State mandated benefits. This is an area of concern for all governmental bodies and will remain so for years to come as health costs continue to rise. Commitment of significant financial resources will be required to address concerns in these and other areas in future budgets.

With that brief overview of the FY16 budget, we move forward as a community thankful for the resources we have to support the building and flourishing of a most precious resource – the children and families of Pike County.

 

What is the Griffin Region College & Career Academy?

             The Griffin Region College & Career Academy (GRCCA) is a partnership between the region's public school systems, institutions of higher education and regional businesses (including Pike, Spalding and Butts County Public Schools, Southern Crescent Technical College, Gordon College and the University of Georgia).  The GRCCA plans to offer a series of academic courses called pathways to meet the needs of the regional economy:

·       Mechatronics (automated equipment technician)

·       Therapeutic Services (This is a broad category that includes training in a wide variety of medical related fields including but not limited to nursing, physical therapy assistant, dental hygienist and pharmacy technician)

·       Audio-Video Technology and Film

·       Welding

·       Law Enforcement

·       Teaching as a Profession

·       Early Childhood Care and Education

·       Food Products and Processing  Systems

·       Landscape Management Systems

·       Aircraft Support and Flight Operations

Additionally, the GRCCA will offer a variety of advanced college preparation courses that are hard to staff or have limited enrollment that make the course challenging to offer.

              The GRCCA is slated to open in the Fall of 2016 adjacent to Southern Crescent Technical College.  Students will have many opportunities to gain high school and college credit, industry certification, and work-based learning experiences in their chosen field of study.  It is important to note that students electing to take courses at the GRCCA remain enrolled in Pike County High School and may continue to participate in extra-curricular activities.  The most likely scenario is for students to take a couple of courses at the GRCCA directly related to career goals and take their remaining classes at Pike County High School.  At this time, Pike County plans to offer transportation to the GRCCA.  More information will be forthcoming as the GRCCA partnership develops courses and calendars. 

Advanced Placement US History and Senate Resolution 80: What's All The Fuss About?

 

 

By Brad Weiser, Pike County High School AP US History

 

I have been a Social Studies teacher for eighteen years and seventeen of those I have taught United States History.  In those years I have taught the regular class, the gifted/honors class, as well as the Advanced Placement class for five of those seventeen years. Recently an education bill was introduced in the Georgia Senate concerning AP US History (APUSH).

First let me describe my basic goals for APUSH.  These students must learn at a depth far superior to what you and I did in our US History class.  The basic facts are necessary, but those are just preliminary to what the AP course contains.  It is about taking those facts and asking questions to get to the reasons behind why events happened.  Then students must be able to take similar situations in modern America and apply the lessons learned from earlier in our history.  In order to do this, we have to look at many aspects and points of view on the important events and issues…the good, bad, and the ugly as it were. 

One of the arguments made against the new AP curriculum by certain Georgia legislators is that it doesn’t adequately cover the founding documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  Although the names of the documents may not appear as often as proponents of Res. 80 would like, that in no way means those documents are not taught and referred to repeatedly as the class moves through the course.  No AP student would be successful in the class without a good understanding of those (and many other) documents from our history.

In no way does the College Board (the organization over all AP classes) deemphasize the founding documents.  What it does is allow instructors to use a variety of sources to help our students learn various concepts in the curriculum. The ability to pick source material is what allows Georgia teachers to use events from Georgia history to enhance student understanding.  For example, the APUSH curriculum has a unit on Civil Rights, but it does not say specifically to refer to Martin Luther King Jr. With that said there is no way I, or any other teacher in Georgia, could teach the Civil Rights Movement without our students being exposed to the teachings and actions of Dr. King.

Any other concerns about the specifics within the AP curriculum not matching with Georgia standards must be viewed in light of all Georgia students taking Georgia History in 8^th grade.  All of the specific events, people, and concepts as they pertain to Georgia are addressed in that class as well.

I have seen many things come and go in education in my career.  I have seen many instances of the Georgia General Assembly getting involved in education reform.  While I am sure many in Atlanta have good intentions, I cannot think of a specific example of anything that has come down from the state capital, be it instruction based, curriculum based, or student based, that has been a great success.  In my humble opinion there are 100 things that need to be reformed or eliminated in education, but the APUSH course is not one of them. 

 

 

Educating Students in the 21st Century: Part 5

By Mike Duncan, Superintendent

 

“If you want something you’ve never had, then you’ve got to do something you’ve never done.” 

                                                                                                            Dr. Seuss

So what?  What’s it all mean?

Preparing students for life beyond school has never been more challenging.  Based on your feedback over the past two years, we feel your support and encouragement to change the dialog around education.  Reaching consensus was easier than expected:  We need to equip students with skills to navigate a dynamic and rapid paced world.  Regardless of whether you philosophically believe the mission of schools is to produce employable workers, responsible citizens, or both, we can all agree that students who can think critically, problem solve creatively, communicate clearly, and collaborate effectively are better prepared than the students who memorized volumes of loosely connected factual information only to discard it immediately after the test.

It would be disingenuous to tell you we have this all figured out, because we don’t, but we have a plan.  We are engaged in professional learning and curriculum revision so we can deliver high quality instruction focusing on critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration.  To this end, we are in the process of refining and defining the most important knowledge and skills in the Georgia Standards for Excellence so students can engage learning deeply through inquiry.  Educating our children must be more than telling them what to think, but teaching them how to think.  Students must be given opportunities to make meaning and discover understandings in all content areas.  Being told what you should know and how you should think breeds laziness, apathy, and dependence.  It’s just not the American way, so I leave you where we began: “In times of change learners inherit the Earth: while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” (Eric Hoffer)

P.S.

I would like to thank our partners, The Center for Authentic Intellectual Work and EdLeader21, from whose ideas we have borrowed liberally and shamelessly.  Additionally, I would like to share with you sources that have framed our thinking:

·         Tony Wagner, The Global Achievement Gap

·         Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind

·         Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat

·         Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design

·         Amanda Ripley, The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way

·         Ken Kay and Valerie Greenhill, The Leader’s Guide to 21^st Century Education

·         John Hattie, Visible Learning

·         Mike Schmoker, Focus