Are you ready to change and improve?  Changing from one grade level to the next, from elementary to middle school, middle to high, transitioning to work and to college are the challenges our students face.  Improving our students’ ability to be successful at every level of change is our number one mission.  To have our schools be successful in leading our students to “master change” we must constantly strive to improve in every area.

    The 2008-2009 school year will bring change and improvement in Walker County Schools.  Some of the changes and improvements include:

• Clean and refreshed facilities
• Opening a new state of the art building for Rossville Middle School
• Highly qualified Leadership Teams and staff in every school
• New textbooks/learning resources for social studies at middle and high schools
• New technology for our High Schools and Fairyland Elementary School
• Two new Ombudsman Centers for north and south ends of our county to provide alternative paths and scheduling for middle and high school students
• Evening classes for high school begin at Ombudsman in the second semester
• Renovations underway for permanent, instead of portable classrooms at Naomi and Rock Spring Elementary Schools.
• Groundbreaking for the new Planetarium in September
• Improved athletic fields for Chattanooga Valley Middle School and LaFayette Middle School
• Activating a Parent Notification System
• Enhanced safety plans and security measures
• Purchase of ten new air-conditioned buses

Our list could go on and on but I would like for you to see for yourself. To that end I would like to urge parents and community members to plan to attend the various orientation and open house events at our schools.  Learn all about the many positive changes and improvements that our students will experience this year.  But before you go…take a moment to read again or maybe, read for the first time, the newly crafted mission and beliefs of Walker County Schools.  You will quickly see that our changes and improvement directly support and impact our collaboratively developed beliefs.  All we do and all we are is targeted to:

“Graduate ALL students ready for college, ready for work, ready for life.”

And to this end we believe:

• All students can learn
• Students achieve best when actively engaged
• Students learn best in a safe, clean and nurturing environment
• In equipping students for the future through technology enhanced learning
• student achievement is enhanced through meaningful relationships developed through school based activities and extracurriculars
• highly qualified and caring staff must be assigned to every position
• continuous professional growth is a shared responsibility
• all must communicate, solve problems and make appropriate decisions, individually and as team members
• in data informed decision-making and research based best practices
• teamwork and shared decision-making are keys to improved performance
• high expectations must be established and clearly communicated
• prompt and regular attendance by students and teachers leads to improved performance
• all stakeholders- students, teachers, parents, and community are accountable for learning
• each individual is responsible for his/her behavior
• all individuals must act responsibly and respect property, persons, and others

Elaine W. Womack, Coordinator of Publications
706-638-7953
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The Walker County Board of Education and Superintendent Melissa Mathis announce the following personnel changes for next year.  "I feel each person is exceptional in their unique qualifications for the positions they have been selected to fill, and we are confident they will build the environments for learning that will lead Walker County students to an even brighter future," said Mathis.

Walker County Schools are busy preparing students for college, work and life.  Superintendent Melissa Mathis said, "The most important work of every school district occurs inside the classroom.  To be successful everyone, from the board of education to the students and parents, must know and focus on educating our children."  That is why Mrs. Mathis and a cohort of administrative leaders began last fall working with the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI) to develop and define a mission and beliefs for the students and staff of Walker County Schools.

 

 

Those of us who have spent years in education and witnessed many efforts for improvement and reform know the trend that urges education to be more like a business.
Educators are challenged to be cost conscious, customer minded, time efficient, task oriented, and product specific.  Time management is a huge factor.  Innovation and teamwork are also touted as essential.

Teams of medical professionals apply amazing, amped-up efforts in hospitals and emergency rooms every day to save lives and give patients a second chance to live successful and significant lives.  Likewise, we see the same urgency and effort daily in administrative offices and classrooms in Walker County.

Walker County Schools' mission is to prepare students for post-secondary experiences and to be workforce ready without the need for remediation.  As teams of professional educators, we are highly trained to intervene with amped-up strategies and to use our knowledge and skills to save our students from not achieving all that they possibly can and not moving into their lives capable of actualizing their dreams.

In "waiting rooms" throughout the system we find parents and community members anxiously awaiting the diagnosis, plan of treatment, names of suggested specialists, identification of tests and expectations for results for their "patients" (students).  With complete confidence that their students will remain healthy and thrive while safely in our care, families and communities send "patients" (Walker County students) to our "treatment centers" (schools).

November 15th was National Parental Involvement Day.  For the past several months, Superintendent of Schools Melissa Mathis addressed Walker County's graduation rate with parents of elementary students.  Mathis presented the need for parental involvement and the benefits of promoting high school graduation to young children.  During the Principals' Power Hour at Naomi Elementary she explains how parents can help their students succeed.

"What you don't know can't hurt you" and "Ignorance is bliss" are old sayings we have all heard.  However, all of us who care about or have a part in the education of young people know these old sayings are absolutely not true in today's society.
 
In fact, never has the time for communication and shared knowledge been more important in our lives and the lives of our children than at this time as we address our graduation rate in a significant way in order to improve the quality of life for all of Walker County. We must all invest in communicating with each other in a meaningful way then focus on the most important goals for our young people and realistic ways to achieve them.
 
Children may make wrong choices when they don't know not to talk to strangers or that a white powder may be poison not candy. Ignorance will not protect them, but knowledge will.
 
Older students may not be aware of the changes that happen as they begin to grow and change and that risky, uninformed behavior may have life-changing consequences for their entire families. Ignorance will not protect them, but knowledge will.
 
This applies equally to parents, teachers and administrators. If we stay in our own domains—parents in the home and educators in the schools—then we will know nothing of each other. Opinions we form about each other will be based on speculation at best. When problems arise, we will each act separately, based only on what we do not know, each of us in our separate place, dealing with a problem from a perspective that may or may not bear any resemblance to what the situation actually is.
 
What you don't know can't just hurt you - it can hurt your child.
 
If we are to be successful in educating your children, our students, to graduate ready for the work force or post secondary education then we must all work together toward this end. We must get to know each other, develop mutual understanding and respect, and work together for the high achievement and well being of every child.
 
Opportunities exist at every Walker County school for you as parents and community members to know about our schools.  We welcome you and want you to know about the needs of the students, the rigor of the curriculum, strategies of the teachers, goals of the administrators, and support of the system. This focused communication creates the foundation our community can use to build better educational attainment and quality of life for Walker County citizens.
 
It is now the second quarter of the school year. Have you participated in an individual conference with a teacher or administrator? Have you attended an open house, concert or sporting event? Have you had the pleasure of participating in an author's tea, presentation of a science project, family night, parent workshop or PTO meeting? Have you visited the parent resource center or school web site? Consulted a school nurse or guidance counselor?
 
Do you know the academic or graduation coaches? What concerns and praise do school personnel have for your child? Do you help your child with homework?  Who are your child's friends? What is your child's behavior at school? Have you visited your child at school?  We welcome and encourage you to do so soon.
 
There is so much going on in our schools—what you don't know may hurt your or our very best efforts for your child. Please visit your school(s) this quarter.
 
Truly- Knowledge is Bliss!

Angie Ingram, principal of Rock Spring Elementary, has been chosen a Georgia High Performance Principal by Governor Sonny Perdue and State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox.  Georgia High Performance Principals are highly qualified, highly effective leaders who have improved student achievement in their schools and whose schools are performing well above expectations.