Leader in Me and CCA

Education Town Hall Meeting
Learn about two exciting initiatives
April 23, 5:00PM, Sams Auditorium

Public education is the foundation of our community.

Don’t believe me? Start asking people why they moved here.

Good schools.

But what does that mean? For a while, good schools meant scoring well on the no-nonsense standardized testing of No Child Left Behind.

Fayette County is wildly successful at this. We’re the biggest school system that has had every school make AYP every year.

Awesome! We have good scores on schooldigger.com!

But, we don’t want our children to be good at a specific test. We want them to have the skills they need to be successful when they graduate.

Over the course of the last year we have made significant progress in changing our focus from these test scores to making sure our graduates have the skills they need. We gave them a catchy “7 C’s” buzzword – Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication, Collaboration, Citizenship, Civility and “Cents.”

But long before the district made this move Principal Randy Hudson and his staff at Spring HIll Elementary were having these conservations about their elementary students. Those conversations led them to Muriel Summers, Principal of A.B. Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary School, where Ms. Summers and her staff created the first leadership elementary school in the nation using Franklin Covey’s 7 Habits Program as a foundation. Now going strong at Spring Hill and with other elementary schools considering it, the Chamber’s Partners-in-Education Committee did a book study this year on The Leader in Me book and are proud to bring Principal Summers to visit Fayette County.

Also over the course of the last year various business leaders have been meeting to discuss the dreaded skills gap. Why do companies report struggling to find skilled workers? School districts and businesses have been forming College and Career Academies all over Georgia. These CCAs offer high school students real life locally relevant high-tech training to enhance their college and career prospects. A local group studying how to create a unique program for Fayette County was given seed money by the school district and has started working on the concept. The Fayette College and Career Academy has arranged for Mark Whitlock, the CEO of the CEC in Newnan, and seven of his students to share their experiences in Georgia’s model college and career academy.

These programs are the kind of educational innovation that we need in Fayette County.

We should do what’s best for kids. Not just what legislators think is best.

FULL NEWSLETTER: