It takes a community to help children unfold their full potential.  Unfolding that potential is the moral imperative shared by Walker County Schools and our community. 

During this school year Walker County Schools will embrace our mission at each of our schools for 100% of our people to care.  We will care that our leaders exude an authentic leadership style based on their moral compass of what is best for students and what is right for their lives.  We will care about our students completing their education in Walker County Schools and graduating prepared for college or the workforce without the need for remediation.  We will care that each of us keeps the will to make a difference every day.

 

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Some differences you may expect to see this school year are:

A more Georgia Performance Standards infused curriculum with supports for student learning in kindergarten through twelfth grades;

Mathematics instruction enhanced through standards based curriculum, new materials and new instructional strategies;

Increased progress monitoring of all students through pre and post assessments for learning used to inform instruction; and

Upgraded technology with high-speed access and the use of labs and classrooms with SMARTboards to engage students with immediate responses to their work and thinking.

This year we also:

Welcome two new high school principals and their demonstrated leadership;

Have our very first students enrolled in Early College, a joint program with Northwestern Technical College; and

Offer new Advanced Placement opportunities at our high schools through training provided by our AP Grant Initiative awarded last spring.

And we are very excited that this year:

Rossville Middle School will have its beautiful new facility completed replacing the current fifty-year-old building;

All middle school athletic fields will be improved; 

Graduation Coaches, added to our middle schools, form a team with our high school graduation coaches that will aggressively address the graduation rate in a proactive manner; and

There will be renewed rigor in our curriculum, accountability and leadership across the board.

This is all very promising but all we have and all we do in Walker County Schools unfolds student potential only when they attend each day and engage in meaningful learning supported by a caring adult and a caring community.  Schools are hugely responsible for determining a student's future…But…schools have students only 180 days per year if they attend every day and every moment scheduled.  That is only 49% of their year of 365 days. 

Schools have students only 13 years of their life span (averaging 70 years) so this actualizes only 18% of their lives spent in K-12 educational settings.  There is more to creating a prepared and competent citizen than rests with our schools and our influence.

Please pledge to join us in demonstrating 100% caring about our students' staying in school and learning all they possibly can.  There is much to know!  Let us take care to make every moment of our students' lives be engaged in caring about learning and about living in the right way in all parts and places of our community.