Two of Coweta County’s schools will welcome a different kind of guest later this month. State School Superintendent John Barge will be in the county to visit Smokey Road Middle School and Newnan High School on Aug. 26.
School system spokesman Dean Jackson said Barge will spend several hours at Smokey Road Middle School visiting classes and then having lunch with staff and students before traveling to Newnan High School to spend a few hours visiting classrooms.
Smokey Road Principal Laurie Barron and Newnan High Principal Doug Moore plan to demonstrate some of the innovative approaches both schools are using to engage and prepare all students to be college and career ready, said Jackson.
“The Coweta County School System, Smokey Road Middle School and Newnan High School are excited to have the opportunity to show off the hard work and success of their staff and students,” Barron said.
The visit to Coweta comes after an invitation from Barron when she met Barge this summer at the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders conference, where she was a presenter.
“Probably the most important thing that Dr. Moore and I want to show Superintendent Barge is the close working partnerships that exist between my school and Newnan High School and the Central Educational Center,” Barron said. “We want him to see that we’re really working together to prepare students for college and the work force, and that we have to help students look at college and career from sixth grade on.”
At Smokey Road Middle School, Barge will be able to see the three-teacher math class model the school employs and some of their approaches with behavior interventions, both of which have contributed to continued improvement in achievement, discipline and attendance, according to Jackson.
“He will also visit some of the school’s award-winning connections programs and see some of Smokey Road’s efforts with preparing their students to be college and career ready through their students’ work with gacollege411 and their partnerships with our charter high school, the Central Educational Center, and with their feeder high school, Newnan High School,” said Jackson.
Smokey Road on last year’s Bus Trip Across Georgia was named a National Breakthrough School.
While at Newnan High School, Barge will see first-hand some of the different approaches the school has been using in reading and math programs to help drastically improve achievement for all students, resulting in English and math graduation test pass rates exceeding 90 percent for all students in 2011, said Jackson.
Barge will also visit the Vietnam War class that is helping bring the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Moving Wall to the Coweta County fairgrounds in October.
