Superintendent's Message

As we begin the 2009-2010 school year, the Jefferson County Schools are ready to welcome our students, teachers and support staff.  Our teachers and administrators have been working hard to prepare the schools and classrooms to be inviting and challenging places for all our students to learn and succeed. 

The Jefferson County School Board's vision statement, "A unified community ensuring that EVERY CHILD will graduate from high school postsecondary ready" provides a clear direction for the success of the Jefferson County Schools.

The top priority for our school system is to continue to increase learning and achievement for all students and to close the achievement gap between the lowest achieving students and the highest achieving students so that every child will graduate postsecondary ready. A significant guiding principle held by all in the school district is "Every Child, Every Day".  This idea guides and directs all that we do in the school system.

We are working hard to prepare our students for readiness in life after high school in an ever changing society and economy. Our objective is to graduate students ready for any postsecondary option.  We want our students ready for college, ready for technical college, ready for the military, or ready for work that is challenging and skillful.  We want them ready without the need of remediation or tutoring.  As our vision states, this effort will take the entire community working together with focus and purpose to achieve this goal.

Jefferson County students are facing a whole new set of challenges with changing economics; science and technology; health and security issues; and demographics.  To meet the challenge of global competence for our students, our school system is dedicated to ensuring excellence in our instructional programs.

For the past four years, we have focused on the area of mathematics, particularly in grades 6-12 as the new Georgia Performance Standards rolled out in those grades.  Now we are broadening this focus to include grades 3-5.  The new Georgia Performance Standards in mathematics are very different for students, teachers, and parents.  Skills are no longer taught in isolation, and teachers are expected to encourage students to reason mathematically, to evaluate mathematical arguments, both formally and informally.  They are expected to use the language of mathematics to communicate ideas and information precisely and to make connections among mathematical topics and to other disciplines.

In order to meet the challenges of this new, integrated mathematics, we are offering math support classes at all six schools.  These math support teachers are not considered "remedial teachers" in the traditional sense.  Students will have support classes which offer remedial or enrichment depending on the needs of each student.  The math support classes are most often taught by a certified mathematics teacher, preferably one who has experience in differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all students.  This effort in mathematics is just an example of the commitment by the Jefferson County Board of Education to improve instruction and achievement for all students.

Even though we find ourselves in very difficult financial times, we must not lose sight of the vision of our school system.  We cannot compromise what is needed to make our students graduate postsecondary ready.  They must be prepared for a global, technological workplace.  It is critical that we keep communication open and on-going with our community in this effort. 

I want to call your attention to the school district web site at http://www.jefferson.k12.ga.us/ . On this site you will find a variety of useful information and links such as the websites for all six schools.  You can access the board meeting minutes, announcements, and the district policy manual on the web page. We genuinely hope you visit this web site frequently and that it serves as a great resource tool. We invite you to bookmark our webpage or select it as your home page. This is just another effort to help us improve communication with our parents, students, and community members.

Please join us in addressing our challenges and applauding the great work students and staff members are doing in classrooms throughout our schools.