henrycounty.com
A HENRY COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PUBLICATION
AUGUST 2016 IN THIS ISSUE Chair’s Message....................... 2 Business Profile......................... 3 Calendar.................................. 4 SBDC....................................... 5 Chamber Briefs/Leadership Henry/ Youth Leadership Henry ............ 6 Henry Happenings.................... 7 Chamber Membership...............10 Business After Hours ................. 11 Business Boosters Luncheon........12 Ribbon Cuttings ....................13 Financial Focus........................ .14 Golf Classic .............................15
Comfortably South of Atlanta The Henry County Chamber of Commerce serves as the voice for the business community, provides quality services and programs that meet the needs of its members, improves the economic environment of the community and creates a legacy of leadership for the future.
#DidYouKnow Each month the Chamber Ambassadors make Chamber Connection Visits, where we drop in on an unsuspecting member and surprise them with a gift bag. You can have a promotional item from your business included in the bag, and you are more than welcome to join us on our visits.
YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR BUSINESS
HAMPTON • LOCUST GROVE • MCDONOUGH • STOCKBRIDGE
Henry County Schools Ready for Exceptional Year Yellow buses. Excited children. Equally excited parents. Ringing bells. All signs that another school year is upon us in Henry County. The 2016-2017 school year gets underway on the first day of August this year, and the state’s eighth largest school district expects over 42,000 students to occupy seats on the first day, each eager to learn and achieve great things. There will be another source of new students in the district this year thanks to the addition of general education Pre-K classes at three elementary schools. These are the first ever Georgia Lotteryfunded Pre-K classes in Henry County, and three schools will have one class of 22 students each.
Also new to the district this year will be approximately 100 new teaching positions. With enrollment growing and revenues increasing, the Henry County Schools budget had room to add more teachers to support students in a variety of ways including specialized subjects offered and smaller class sizes. Music and art classes in elementary schools also get a boost thanks to increased funds. In total, there will be nearly 500 teachers starting in Henry County Schools for the first time in their career. From fresh out of college to veterans, the newest teachers to the district have made their way to this portion of the Southern Crescent due to Henry County Schools’
SAVE THE DATE!
solid reputation. There are many reasons for moving here, and the list no doubt includes the knowledge that our school system receives some of the best support from the business community of anyone across the state of Georgia. Financial forecasts for the school system continue to show positive gains to help restore some of the losses experienced during the economic recession. The largest budget in the history of the school system was passed this summer for the 2016-2017 school year. Close to $362 million will go to support our operating costs and direct instruction by helping us compensate our greatest resources – our 5,000+ employees – with more competitive wages across the board.
Personalized Learning continues to catch on and roll out through the county as nearly half of our schools are engaged in the work to positively transform the way students are taught. The response has been great and more school communities are engaging in the efforts.
to take place in the next two decades among other projects.
The future is bright for Henry County and Henry County Schools thanks to the recent passage of the fifth E-SPLOST. The funds collected from this one-cent sales tax – paid by anyone who spends money in the county – will help Henry County Schools update and expand its technology footprint in a major way while also helping the system prepare for future growth that is predicted
The future is bright for Henry County Schools, and that can only mean great things for the county and its residents as a whole. The school system’s mission is to ensure success for each student, and when our students succeed, we will all succeed.
Increased student achievement continues as a positive trend for our county as just this year the graduation rate increased by six percentage points and scores on the SAT and ACT tests climbed higher than the year before.
For more information, please visit www.henry. k12.ga.us.
The 16th annual Henry County Chamber of Commerce Golf Classic will be held on Monday, September 26th at Eagle’s Brooke Golf & Country Club.