CENTRAL

EDUCATIONAL CENTER OPENS AUGUST 10, 2000: A NEW CHALLENGE

BEGINS

As we plan

for the opening of the Central Educational Center Aug.

10, many people have commented that the journey is over.

On the

contrary, the greatest challenges are still before us as

we work to make the CEC a place where a different kind of

teaching and learning take place.

The basic

premise of the CEC is that we need to better prepare our

high school graduates to enter the work force. Business

and industry are telling us that they need employees with

specific job skills beyond the traditional high school

diploma, as well as a foundation in a positive work

ethic.

The Coweta

County School System and Carroll Technical Institute, in

a unique partnership, plan to train students in four

specific career paths and to address the work ethic need.

Already,

the CEC administration and faculty have undergone

intensive training in teaching and learning methods that

have been proven in highly sensitive areas such as

nuclear plants, the Center for Disease Control in

Atlanta, and other highly specialized arenas in which

superior technical training is critical. The focus at the

Central Educational Center will be on performance and

achievement rather than theory and other abstracts of

learning.

CEC

teachers are already planning ways to involve students in

projects that use an integrated approach to curriculum

rather than the more traditional approach of teaching

subject matter in isolation.

Business

and industry will continue to play an important role in

this process as local experts help design, deliver and

evaluate the courses at CEC.

Local

business people also serve on the CEC Board of Directors,

along with parents of students who will attend the

school. CEC students will benefit from unique job

shadowing and apprenticeship situations in which they

will learn from an expert actually on the job in the

student's chosen field.

For

students who take multiple courses at CEC, core

curriculum courses such as English and math will be

available on site. We are also in the process of

completing articulation agreements with other

post-secondary institutions so that much of what students

accomplish at CEC may transfer to other schools, even

traditional four-year colleges.

In

addition, Carroll Tech will continue its traditional

presence in Coweta by maintaining its regular course

offerings during the day and in the evenings. Adult

education classes for GED candidates will be an important

part of the CEC picture. A new component, the night high

school program, will expand opportunities for high school

students by offering evening and nighttime classes for

students who may have other commitments during the day.

All these components of CEC are part of our commitment to

provide as many opportunities as possible for Coweta

residents to continue valuable and essential training

which can be the difference in the quality of life

available to us all.

At the CEC

groundbreaking ceremony June 2, Georgia Governor Roy

Barnes called Central Educational Center a model. At this

early point, the vision and design are models, perhaps.

Truly, the real work is only starting as we endeavor to

deliver on our commitment to provide state-of-the-art

technical education to our students. The CEC will be a

true work in progress as we continually experiment,

evaluate and modify the model. We will certainly do all

we can to make sure that the CEC model works, not just

for us, but for the students who will attend, for the

families represented by those students, and for the

employers who will hire our students.

It is all

part of the larger dream to continue to make Coweta

County a place where families can work, play, learn and

train for the ever growing number of jobs with which our

area is being blessed, keeping Coweta County a place

where good schools are a great investment.