District Expects More Than 1,000 Additional Students For 2015-16 School Year

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Monday, Aug. 3 will be the first day of the 2015-16 school year for the Cherokee County School District.

The school year will consist of 180 days; the last day of classes will be Thursday, May 26. Here’s some of the highlights from the district’s First Day Facts for the upcoming school year.

• The Cherokee County School District is expecting 1,156 additional students this school year, for a projected 20-day enrollment of 41,673.
• CCSD is the largest employer in Cherokee County, with 4,486 employees, including 2,971 certified staff.
• Cherokee County’s population has grown from 214,346 residents (according to the 2010 U.S. Census) to an estimated 230,591 residents for 2014. Housing permit data indicates that 4,289 homes have been built in the same time period.
• CCSD operates 41 school campuses across the county, consisting of: 24 elementary schools, seven middle schools, six high schools, ACE Academy (grades 7-12), Ralph Bunche Head Start Center, Johnston Preschool Center and L.R. Tippens Educational Center.
• 369 school buses will transport approximately 70 percent of CCSD’s student population (25,000 students each morning and 28,000 students each afternoon); CCSD school buses will travel more than 4.5 million miles (approximately 1,450 bus routes daily) this school year. 2015-16 marks the second year the school district has added buses since reducing its fleet following the 2009-10 school year due to budgetary constraints four years ago.
• New this year: the Transportation Department will pilot a three-tiered transportation model in the Etowah Innovation Zone. This initiative will not only save time and money, but also decreases the amount of time teachers spend at bus duty, therefore increasing their time planning for instruction and learning. Hours for elementary and high school will stay the same, and middle school will start and end 15 minutes later (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.). This will eliminate second loads for middle and high school.

Budget

The 2015-16 budget reflects slight increase in economic growth, but also continued challenges due to inadequate revenue from both state Quality Basic Education formula funding and local ad valorem and other tax collections.

• In the past 14 years, CCSD has cumulatively lost over $201 million in QBE earnings withheld by the state in the form of Amended Formula Adjustments (also known as Austerity Budget Reductions).
• Local property tax collections continue to rise, reflecting the third consecutive year of modest increases in property valuations after four years of falling assessments, which resulted in a loss of $31 million in school district revenue during that time. Even as the digest begins to rise, the district will still receive just slightly more in revenue from local property taxes in 2015-16 than it did in 2006 -- but will educate approximately 6,000 additional students who have enrolled during that nine-year period.
• CCSD’s general fund/operating budget for 2015-16 is $343.5 million. Of this amount, 66.8 percent is appropriated directly to school instruction. The millage rate for maintenance and operations remains unchanged at 19.45 mills.
• Other budget highlights: hire additional teachers to reduce class size (48 additional teachers for grades 6-12); hire 35 additional teachers to address student population growth and 177 to fill vacancies created by retirement/attrition; increase beginning teacher (with bachelor’s degree) salary to $42,000 annually; hire six additional nurses to provide a nurse at each high school campus and restore school nurse hours to 6.5 hours per day (up from 6 hours per day); hire three additional technology specialists to provide hardware and software technical assistance to K-12 teachers and bring the total staffing in this regard back to pre-recession levels; restore the work calendars to 182 days for paraprofessionals, bus drivers, nurses and hearing impaired interpreters; restore the work calendar for school police officers to 247 days; add seven bus drivers to address growth, improve efficiency and reduce ride time for students; implement automated substitute teacher scheduling system for classroom teachers to utilize on a daily basis; continue to provide a one-half teacher allotment at each high school dedicated to credit recovery/helping students stay on track for graduation;o Increase daily substitute teacher pay to $75 per day; fund annual longevity step increases for eligible employees;; and use remaining funds to begin restoring significantly depleted budget reserves.

Addressing Student Population Growth

• Middle School “F” (Dean Rusk Middle School replacement) is expected to open just in time for the 2016-17 school year.

Technology

• The district’s student information system, Aspen, is adding additional instructional support components to allow a more seamless integration between instruction, assessment and data.
• District bandwidth to the Internet is being enhanced through the State DOE’s Connectionsfor Classrooms Grant. The district’s connection to the Internet will be increased from 2.166 gigabits per second (Gbps) to 8.7Gbps.
• Cherokee County students and staff will continue to receive free productivity toolsthrough Microsoft’s Office365 product.
• The District’s Family Portal website enables all parents/guardians to view daily attendance, grades and assignments specific to their students in grades 3-12. There are currently over 21,000 active Family Portal accounts, with over 13,000 accounts being accessed for the 2014-15 school year.

School Nutrition Services

• Parents will continue to be able to access their child’s lunch account online at www.mypaymentsplus.com to check balances, make deposits and review purchase history.
• Applications for free and reduced-price meals may be accessed and completed on the Cherokee County School District website. The information can be accessedhere.
• The average health inspection score for CCSD cafeterias is an “A”.
• There were 5.1 million meals served in 2014-15.
• CCSD has a full-time registered dietitian on staff for students with dietetic needs.
• There are 314 full-time school nutrition employees and 50 substitute workers.
• 2015-16 regular prices for school lunches and breakfasts will be as follows: elementary/middle/high breakfast $1.25; elementary lunch $2.10; middle/high school lunch $2.35; visitor breakfast (adult or child) $1.75; and visitor lunch (adult or child) $4.00.
• Approximately 30 percent of enrolled students qualified for free or reduced price meals in 2014-15.
• School lunch and breakfast menus are posted online by each school and on the CCSD website under Departments, School Nutrition Services.
• 62 school nutrition employees are Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) trained and First-Aid certified.
• 111 school nutrition employees are Serve Safe certified; 100 percent of CCSD school nutrition managers and 100 percent of CCSD school nutrition assistant managers are Serve Safe certified.

Curriculum/Instruction

• CCSD’s STEM and Fine Arts Academies initiative will continue to be implemented at sixelementary schools for 2015-16. Hasty and Oak Grove ES are designated as Fine Arts locations, while Ball Ground ES, Canton ES, Clark Creek ES and Holly Springs ES remain the STEM locations. Units of study have been created to now include STEM lessons at thekindergarten and first-grade level, which now provides STEM instruction at all grade levels in each of those schools. In addition, all seventh and eighth-grade science classes throughout the District will have access to the STEM unit and lesson plans developed for use in those classrooms.
• Family and Consumer Science (FACS) CTAE/ Connections classes provide additionalopportunities for STEM education by way of 16 web-based learning modules.
• Each of the district’s six high schools is working towards the STEM status application process. Five of the six high schools have received an Advanced Placement (AP) STEM grant in order to offer more course work at the Advanced Placement level.

Special Education

Cherokee County serves over 500 special needs preschool-aged, and 4,500 school-aged students with disabilities. These students have a range of disabilities, from speech and language impairment to specific learning disabilities, and from autism and intellectual and physical disabilities that each require specialized instruction.

The graduation rate expectation for this subgroup is the same as it is for regular education students: they must earn a general education diploma within four years to count as a graduate, no matter the type of special education disability. Cherokee students with disabilities are performing better than most of the other school districts in the metropolitan Atlanta area, and they exceed the 2014 state graduation rate by more than 20 percentage points.

Special Needs: 4 Year Graduation Rate – 2014

• CCSD 56.8%
• Georgia: 36.5%

The district states it continues to explore ways to help special needs students be successful. One of our most promising programs is the expansion of the pilot Competitive High School Options In Careers and Education (CHOICE) program at Cherokee High School, which provides tutoring, mentoring and other additional services to aid special needs students in earning regular education diplomas. CCSD is currently planning an expansion model to bring CHOICE to the other high schools.

CCSD’s two Transition Academies, in their second year of operation, will welcome 33 students with disabilities into the program for school year 2015-16. This is an increase of seven students from the initial beginning of the program in 2014-15. These students will participate in community-based work activities throughout the year to gain experiences and life skills for post-graduation opportunities.

Title I

Title I funding continues to support district needs in specific schools, as determined annually by the percentage of students receiving free and reduced lunch. The purpose of Title I funding is to supplement the school’s existing programs to support those students who are the most at-risk of failing to meet student academic achievement standards and to ensure that all children have an opportunity to obtain a high quality education and to achieve proficiency on high academic standards.

In 2014-15, these dollars were used for procuring supplemental staff, class size reduction teachers, remedial teachers, paraprofessionals, academic coaches and parent involvement facilitators. Additionally, Title I funds were used for instructional resources, various trainings and Title I Summer School for identified at-risk students (Grades 3-8).

For 2015-16, Title I funding will serve eight schools who have a free and reduced rate of 45 percent or greater: Canton Elementary School STEM Academy; Clark Creek Elementary School STEM Academy; Clayton Elementary School; Hasty Elementary School Fine Arts Academy; Oak Grove Elementary School Fine Arts Academy; R.M. Moore Elementary School; Teasley Middle School; and Woodstock Elementary School.

Support Programs

• The English for Speakers of Other Languages Program is provided to English Learner (EL) students who meet the testing eligibility criteria based on the W-APT screener. All ESOL teachers have the appropriate endorsement or certification. An Immersion (newcomer) Program for both middle and high school aged students who are new to the U.S., are in need of immersion in language skills and meet a specific set of criteria for entrance, has been established at ACE Academy. New this year, high schools have been allotted an ESOL teacher to assist EL students with their standards-based courses.
• The Early Intervention Program for students in grades kindergarten through grade 5 and the Remedial Education Program for students in grades 6 through 12 are designed to assist at-risk learners in the area of mathematics and literacy skills.
• Georgia Lottery-funded Pre-K classes are offered in schools in areas of the county where parents have little access to programs and only when the school facilities can accommodate the additional students. In 2014-15, two additional Pre-K classes were added to the district’s existing Georgia Lottery Pre-K programs. CCSD now has a total of nine Pre-K classes in seven locations for 2015-16 which include: Ball Ground ES STEM Academy, Canton ES STEM Academy, Hasty ES Fine Arts Academy, Oak Grove ES Fine Arts Academy, RM Moore ES, and Johnston ES.

For the 2015-16 school year, the following administrators will be fulfilling new principal assignments:

• Daniel Fuller, Arnold Mill ES (former assistant principal at Mill Creek MS)
• Dr. Lisa Turner, Avery ES (former assistant principal at Holly Springs ES)
• Kathleen Chandler, Bascomb ES (former principal at Johnston ES)
• Amy Graham, Johnston ES (former assistant principal at Teasley MS)
• Penny Valle, Oak Grove ES (former assistant principal at Etowah HS)
• Dr. Kerry Martin, Mill Creek MS (former principal at Arnold Mill ES)
• David Childress, Woodstock MS (former assistant principal at E.T. Booth MS)
• Todd Miller, Cherokee HS (former assistant principal at Sequoyah HS)
• Mark Smith, Woodstock HS (former principal at Woodstock MS)
• Kelly Strickland, L.R. Tippens Center (former assistant principal at Cherokee HS)

Online Learning

All Cherokee County students have opportunities to pursue appropriate online learning. Through online or virtual courses, high school students may work toward credit recovery, earn initial credit, participate in standardized test preparation and, in some cases, and work ahead in classes not offered during the regular school day.

Move On When Ready

On April 30, Senate Bill 132 was signed into law and became effective July 1. SB132, also known as the Move on When Ready Act, streamlined the existing dual enrollment programs (Accel, HOPE Grant for dual enrollment, and Move on When Ready) into one program with one funding source.

• Guidance from the Georgia Department of Education, Technical College System of Georgia, University System of Georgia and the Georgia Independent College Association will continue to be distributed and posted as developed, reviewed and approved for use.
• A Q & A document for the new MOWR program will be posted on the GADOE website at the Counselor’s page and the Transition Career Partnership page. This document will be updated regularly as more questions submitted from the June 2-4 counselor workshops and the results of meetings of the MOWR committee are addressed.
• Georgia Student Finance Commission has posted the new Move on When Ready Guidelines for 2015-16.
• The new MOWR Course Directory will be located on GAcollege 411.org.

Safety And Security

• Digital, closed-circuit camera systems have been installed at all Elementary, Middle and High Schools. Each of these systems can be monitored by school police personnel from any computer within the School District.
• Installation of Distress/Mass Notification systems have been installed in all schools withinthe District. This system provides alternative capabilities for identified school-based staff to use in the event of an emergency or life-threatening occurrence.
• Electronic lock/buzz-in systems have been installed at the following schools: Arnold Mill ES, Avery ES, Ball Ground ES, Carmel ES, Free Home ES, Johnston ES, Little River ES, Macedonia ES, Sixes ES, Woodstock ES, Creekland MS and Mill Creek MS. The remaining elementary and middle schools are slated for completion in the 2015-16 school year.
• Cellular devices (designed to provide continued connectivity of the intrusion and fire monitoring systems in the event phone service is lost or disrupted) have been installed in all school district facilities.
• An Emergency Operations Facilitator was recommended by the Superintendent ofSchools and approved by the School Board to manage the district’s emergency plans, radio communication infrastructure and intra-agency cooperation during emergencies and critical incidents consistent with National Incident Management System (NIMS) protocols.
• Sworn police officers are assigned to each middle school and high school within the district to enhance the School District’s Major System Priority of providing a safe and secure environment for teaching and learning. All sworn officers participated in Georgia’s Basic School Resource Officer and Crisis Intervention Training.
• The School District Police Department acquired an additional drug dog enhancing the ability to deter and detect illegal substances on school campuses.

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