A World Class Education:
Gwinnett's Public Schools
by: Emily Bieger
photos by: Shotz Studios
The Gwinnett County School System is gaining national attention as the world comes to our community in the form of a very diverse population. "We really have had the benefit of having what we say is world-class community and world-class education," glows Dr. Cindy Loe, Gwinnett County Associate Superintendent, Teaching and Learning.
What Dr. Loe means is that our school system is facing a huge challenge with our changing population and we are excelling in all areas, but most importantly in continuing to strive for the absolute highest student achievement for every student.
Gwinnett County processed nearly 1500 international students during the 2006- 2007 school year through the International Newcomers Center (INC), a division of Gwinnett Public Schools. Victoria Webbert, INC Program Facilitator, says their five international student advisors with expertise in school systems of the world, evaluate Middle School and High School students to determine what level they belong in. They then advise students on how many credits they still need to complete High School and what classes to register for.
Many school systems across the U.S. are bemoaning the challenges of diversity, according to Dr. Loe. Gwinnett County on the other hand, is being sited as a community that is taking the challenge and excelling to higher levels. Without diversity, “the students wouldn’t have the experiences they are having to really interact in the global community, well before they enter the global workforce of the future.” says Dr. Loe.
So how do you promote higher achievement with students who may not speak English?
“The way we have done that is to clearly communicate through a variety of measures, a very high level curriculum, Academic Knowledge & Skills (AKS), which includes Georgia’s standard curriculum and goes beyond.” And just how that’s done, according to Dr. Loe, is even as a teacher is teaching a student in the English Speakers to Other Languages (ESOL) program, they are still expected to teach the students the on-grade level content. The results? According to Dr. Loe, student achievement is at all time highs in all areas on all tasks, very unusual for a district that has become more diverse and seen an increase in the poverty level.
This is not an easy task that the school system is continuing to face, so the opportunities for students to learn English are growing. Saturday sessions along with before and after school sessions are available for students to catch up. And catch up they must, as all students are expected to achieve to Gwinnett County Public School levels. Dr. Loe emphasizes this concept, “We’re saying we’re going to expect as much of you (international students) as we would of any other student, and we’re going to provide opportunities to help you do that.” 
Funding such opportunities is a challenge, but with the help of federal grants, the school system has seen their budget greatly increase as the numbers of ESOL students grows. Dr. Loe says that the key to using federal dollars wisely is to help students reach the potential they do have, when often times it is difficult to visualize that potential based on the challenges they face.
Special Education students provide an additional challenge for the school system, and yet again, Gwinnett County is rising to that challenge. Oakland Meadow School (formerly Oakland School) is opening a newer site in August to care for the approximately 100 severely handicapped students. These students are helped toward the AKS curriculum, however, special education is individualized and some students are simply working toward accomplishing some basic life skills.
The more mainstream Special Education students are learning the AKS curriculum with the goal being a regular education diploma. Very much like the ESOL students, Special Education children are provided extra support and skills needed to overcome their handicaps, be it a learning disability or a behavioral disorder. Funding for this segment of the school population however is far from covering what the child costs the system. There are federal dollars funding these students’ needs, but it’s not enough. School Board member Louis Radloff has long been aware of these monetary shortcomings and tirelessly works at the federal level to communicate the county’s needs.
At the state level, Governor Sonny Perdue has created an Education Finance Task Force that both Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks and Dr. Loe serve on. The task force is looking to rewrite the Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula (the formula the state uses for funding education), as well as determining things like class size ratios for the state. Dr. Loe and others hope to rename QBE “Investing in Education Excellence Squared (IE2).” One proposal is funding for a foreign language program at the Elementary level.
Budgeting is a big part of what Chief Operations Officer Jim Steele does for the School System. The majority of his Maintenance and Operations budget goes toward utilities, fuel for buses and salaries. The Capital Budget is the more exciting budget as it pays for new schools and school additions. No small task for an everexpanding Gwinnett County.
In the period from 2002-2007 Steele says his department promised to have under contract, or complete, a five-year building program. So far he says they’re ahead of schedule. With the help of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) dollars and a 300 million dollar loan four years ago for land purchases, Steele believes he would not be in such a good position. “Most people don’t understand that when we’re planning to build a high school six years from now we need to be buying the land and doing the plan today. We’re already looking at the five year period 2012 to 2017.”
With a great deal of pride, Steele says they are being good stewards even though they are spending a lot of money. In fact, they are getting the job done at about 30 percent less than the metro Atlanta average school construction costs, which enables them to build more.
Finding and purchasing enough land proves to be difficult, which is why there will be more re-use projects, such as Radloff Middle School and Phoenix High School. An old Bridgestone tire warehouse on Old Norcross Road will soon be “re-used” for a new High school.
Continued growth in Gwinnett County is inevitable. So how does Steele and his crew know how many schools and additions will be required? “We try to be in constant contact with the department that does nothing but forecasting,” says Steele. Currently the county grows by 7,200 students per year. Eventually, Steele says that growth will flatten out, but projections through 2018 are still at about 3,000 new students per year.
NEW PRINCIPALS OF GCPS
Deborah Harris will fill the leadership vacancy at Bethesda Elementary. Ms. Harris has been an assistant principal at Meadowcreek High.
Paula Cobb, currently an assistant principal at Dr. M.H. Mason, Jr. Elementary, will become the new principal at Corley Elementary effective February 1.
Dr. Paul Brooksher, a principal at J.A. Dobbins Middle School in Paulding County, will be the principal at Dacula Elementary next school year.
Monica Batiste, current data administrator and former assistant principal at Hopkins Elementary, has been selected to lead J.A Alford Elementary.
Laurie Allison, principal of J.A. Alford Elementary since it opened in 2003, will open Lovin Elementary as its principal.
Kelli McCain, an assistant principal at Grayson Elementary, will lead Meadowcreek Elementary as its principal next year.
Vivian Stranahan will be at the helm when Mulberry Elementary opens. Ms. Stranahan has been the principal of Shiloh Elementary since 2001.
Dr. Dora Hill joins the school system as the principal of Norcross Elementary. Her appointment is a result of Dr. LaVern Watkin’s acceptance of a principal post in another school system.
Margaret Ackerman, current principal of Meadowcreek Elementary, has been tapped to open and lead Patrick Elementary.
Angie Pacholke, an assistant principal at Riverside Elementary, will take the helm of Rock Springs Elementary.
Betty Ann Schoeneck, currently an assistant principal at W.C. Britt Elementary, will become the new principal at Shiloh Elementary.
Kimberly Smith has been appointed as principal of Suwanee Elementary. Ms. Smith has served as an assistant principal of Level Creek Elementary since 2004.
Nancy Morrison, principal at Bethesda Elementary, will move to the leadership position at Walnut Grove Elementary.
Paula Everett-Truppi, an assistant principal at Duluth Middle, will be the principal at McConnell Middle next school year..
Calvin Watts, currently a staffing director in Human Resources, will become the principal for Trickum Middle for the 2007-08 school year.
Debra Dees, an assistant principal at Brookwood High, will lead the high school as of next school year. Jane Stegall, the school’s current principal, is retiring in June.
Kim Holland, currently an assistant principal at T. Carl Buice School, will become the school’s new principal for the 2007-08 school year.
Maryanne Grimes, an assistant principal at GIVE West, has been tapped as the new principal for the school. Her appointment is effective immediately as Principal Jim Kahrs has accepted a position with the Board of Regents.
FAST FACTS
16 Things to know about Gwinnett Schools
- Student enrollment topped 152,000 this school year.
- Biggest anticipated school cluster is Mill Creek, followed by Berkmar.
- Shiloh is the county’s smallest cluster based on enrollment.
- GCPS anticipates a student enrollment of 180,000 students by the 2011-12 school year.
- The Class of 2007 will be the GCPS’s largest ever with approximately 8,000 potential graduates.
- As of April, seniors reported more than $71 million in scholarship offers.
- Gwinnett’s 2005–06 SAT average is 1541. (The GCPS average is 23 points above the national average and 64 points above the state average).
- In 2005–06, GCPS test-takers outperformed their peers in the state and in the nation on the ACT Assessment.
- On the 2007 Georgia High School Graduation Test, Gwinnett juniors matched the highest-ever percent passing rate in Mathematics and English/Language Arts, and set an all-new record on the Social Studies and Science portions.
- In 2005–06, GCPS reached an all-time high in participation on Advanced Placement (AP) exams.
- Gwinnett County Public Schools has more than 24,000 employees. The school district holds the position of the largest employer in the county and is one of the largest employers in the state of Georgia.
- GCPS has 106 facilities in 2006-07, including 63 elementary schools, 20 middle schools, 16 high schools, and seven other educational facilities.
- In 2007, more then 400 new classrooms will come on board as a result of construction of news schools and existing school additions.
- GCPS will launch its first charter school, the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology.
- According to the FY2008 budget, the cost of educating one child in Gwinnett County is $7,705 per year. The direct costs of instruction account for 76.2% of that amount.
- In Fiscal Year 2007, the GCPS Transportation Department operated 1,661 school buses and safely transported more than 118,000 students twice a day.
10 Opportunities to Support Gwinnett Education
- Berkmar Cluster School Foundation
Web site: www.berkmar clusterfoundation.org
Contact: Diana Preston, dianapreston@bellsouth.net
- Brookwood Cluster School Foundation
Contact: Denise Widzgowski, ddwitz@aol.com
- Collins Hill Education Foundation (CHEF)
Web site: www.collinshilleducationfoundation.com
contact: Patti Stafford, collinshilleducationfoundation@gmail.net
- Dacula Academic Community Foundation
Contact: Darby Cox, daculafoundation@yahoo.com
- Grayson Cluster School Foundation (GCSF)
Web site: www.grayson-foundation.org
Contact: Diane Schatell, diane_schatell@gwinnett.k12.ga.us
- Gwinnett County Public Schools Foundation
Web site: www.gcps-foundation.org
Contact: Alexis Kirijan, alexis_kirigan@gwinnett.k12.ga.us
- Mill Creek Cluster Education Foundation
Web site: www.mccef.com
Contact: Lisa Daenen, lisa_daenen@gwinnett.k12.ga.us
- Norcross Foundation for Excellence
Contact: Jenifer Kinney, jenifer_kinney@gwinnett.k12.ga.us
- North Gwinnett Schools Foundation (NGSF)
contact: Kathleen Bradshaw, kathleen_bradshaw@gwinnett.k12.ga.us
- Peachtree Ridge Education Foundation
Contact: Lynn Brunatti 678-957-3166
Shiloh Community Foundation
Contact: Tom Marley, Tmarley@aol.com
Accent Gwinnett has used its best efforts in assembling material for this list but does not warrant that the information contained herein is complete or accurate, and does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by error or omissions herein whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident or any other cause. Advertising in Accent Gwinnett is not linked in any way to the selection of doctors in this issue or any future issues. Any information provided is not a substitute for the professional judgment of a qualified heath care provider based upon actual examination of a patient’s condition and history.
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