Poll Gives Cherokee School District High Marks

CANTON, GA -- More than 76 percent of residents polled rank Cherokee County’s public schools as “excellent” or “good” in a new regional report, the second-highest school approval rating in metro Atlanta.

That's according to a poll released Friday by the Atlanta Regional Commission, which found 35.6 percent of respondents describe Cherokee’s schools as “excellent” and 40.6 percent as “good,” for a total that trails only Fayette County.

The Cherokee County School District released the news of the Metro Atlanta Speaks poll late Tuesday morning.

The remainder was split between “fair” (10.8 percent), “poor” (4.3 percent) and “don’t know” (8.7 percent). Residents were polled in 13 metro counties and in the city of Atlanta.

Cherokee’s overall rating also improved from the 2015 results in the annual Metro Atlanta Speaks poll, which surveys residents across metro Atlanta on qualify-of-life topics ranging from safety to transportation. The poll was conducted by the A.L. Burruss Institute of Public Service at Kennesaw State University and included a sample of 5,200 residents.

“These results affirm what we already know to be true: our students, parents, employees, volunteers, partners and School Board are working together to continuously improve teaching and learning,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian Hightower said. “We appreciate the support of our community and recognize the confidence placed in our school district, as evidenced by our growing enrollment of students, high numbers of applicants seeking to teach here, and by the repeated renewal of our one-percent Education SPLOST since 1997. We’re committed to further strengthening our schools and seeing our approval ratings rise to even higher levels."

Image via Shutterstock