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

Are you ready?  I am!

Submitted by Melissa Mathis

August 2008