More than 22,000 pupils attend first day of classes in Coweta public schools
From Staff Reports
news@newnan.com
The Coweta County School System welcomed more than 22,000 students back to class on Monday.
“It was a very good first day,” said Schools Superintendent Steve Barker.
“Our transportation staff was already hard at work by that time,” Barker said. “I was able to touch base with our schools and administrators throughout the day, and had very good reports. Our schools had a very productive day, and we’re looking forward to an outstanding school year.”
Monday’s end-of-the-day total of just over 22,000 students was slightly higher than on the first day of the 2011-12 year. By the end of last year, the CCSS student population had grown to 22,498. Student enrollment is expected to grow through the first weeks of August as new students continue to register and as pre-kindergarten students begin their school year Aug. 16.
Many students returned to schools that were the sites of major work over the summer. A two-year renovation of Newnan High School’s 1952 campus was completed, as were the final touches on new home stands at Newnan’s Drake Stadium. White Oak Elementary School students returned to find an updated school, as well as an expanded media center.
Western and Ruth Hill elementary schools also underwent renovations this summer. The Central Educational Center has a new roof, and Smokey Road and Madras Middle School both received new flooring.
Along with new students arriving at county schools, many schools also had new teachers. Coweta County Board of Education members and school administrators welcomed 58 new teachers to the Coweta School system on July 30. The teachers — ranging from kindergarten to high school, and including English, math and science teachers, special education and media specialists, and schools counselors, among others — were treated to breakfast at the school system’s Centre for Performing and Visual Arts. Local banks sponsored the annual breakfast, which helped orient new teachers to the system before they reported officially to their schools.
Coweta Board of Education members and Superintendent Barker welcomed the new teachers. Also speaking were Assistant Superintendent Mark Guy, who gave them an overview of the school system’s history; and 2012 Coweta County Teacher of the Year Tracie Gossett, of Thomas Crossroads Elementary.
System Associate Superintendent Jerry Davis also welcomed the teachers, by relating his own history with the system. Davis and his wife came to Coweta County in 1985 from Mississippi, when he began work at Evans Middle school — then Evans Junior High.
Davis said he found the school system a great place to work, then as now. But more than that, he and his family “found a community that is also a great place to raise children, a very good place to live.”
