The singing took place in the media center at the new Veterans High School as the board held its annual retreat.
The system’s department heads made presentations, looking at the past year and planning for the current year.
Beth McLaughlin, director of community and school affairs, said the system’s school news and announcements would be shown on channel 117 for Cox Cable customers beginning Oct. 18. Customers without a digital box can pick one for a deposit between Oct. 19 and Dec. 31, she said.
System announcements are also shown on channel 10 through ComSouth, she said, and in Perry are sometimes pre-empted by a news show from Atlanta.
Eric Payne, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, noted that the numbers of students receiving free or reduced meals is nearing 50 percent of the system’s enrollment, and pointed to Northside Middle School which had a rise in free or reduced meal students and saw its scores rise on standardized tests.
The system’s strategic improvement plan was a big factor in achieving district-wide accreditation last year, Payne added.
The comprehensive plan does “make us feel overwhelmed right now,” said Hines. “We’ll take a piece of one and work it until it’s embedded in our culture.”
“This will be a look-and-learn year for the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards,” Payne said, referring to a revamped performance standards for students.
“All standards will have to be redone and we need to align our curriculum and resources.” The standards will be adopted by the system the next academic year.
The student population is getting more diverse, Payne said, adding that 34 languages are spoken at the home. Hispanic students are the fastest-growing group, with 1,902 students, or 7 percent of the population.
Stephen Thublin, assistant superintendent for finance and business operations, said as of Friday there 26,708 students present at schools, with 26,839 total enrolled. The number of students will vary until about October, he added.
Thublin also said the system has had eight straight years with no questions or findings in annual financial audits, something only five other systems in the state can say.
Anthony Lunceford, executive director of secondary operations, Cindy Flesher, executive director of elementary operations, and Linda Horne, assistant superintendent of operations, used an “Andy Griffith Show” episode to detail how school administrators deal with parents of students with disciplinary issues and resolve conflicts.
In one of the excerpts, a young boy whose bicycle was taken away for illegally riding on the sidewalk tells Griffith he would rather have his father in jail in order to keep his bicycle. The father, who had been supporting the child’s contention, changes his mind and takes the youngster to the woodshed instead.
The point, Lunceford said, was that principals have to take in all sides of a dispute before deciding on the proper course of action.
Lunceford and Flesher also went through safety procedures at the schools, drawing on their experiences the past year dealing with school wide shutdowns.
Paula Daugherty, assistant superintendent for student services, stressed the achievements of students with disabilities, and said the system this year will implement TieNet, a Web-based special education management system.
The system will expand the Elam at Elberta Center to include eighth grade students, she said, and will continue training for special and general education teachers on co-teaching.
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