Newton schools preparing students as future job opportunities grow By TAYLOR BECK
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tbeck@covnews.com
s housing developments and new industries are welcomed into the community, Newton County Schools is ready to serve however many students may accompany them. But for now, the school system hasn’t seem any growth in enrollment. “I do anticipate in the future that we will experience growth in enrollment, given what I know about the economic development and the housing projects being constructed all over the place,” Superintendent Samantha Fuhrey said. “We stand ready to serve the kids as they come.” As the district prepares to open
the new Eastside High School facility next year, Fuhrey said further planning is underway to expand its programming. Once the current Eastside High School facility is vacated, it will become home to the Newton County Theme School the following year, Fuhrey said. But the school will shift its theme to a STEAM program, “which we’re building a continuum from K-12, because we have the STEM institute at the College and Career Academy, so you’ve got kind of a nice flow,” the superintendent said. In doing that, Fuhrey said the school system was exploring the idea of expanding its performing arts offerings. “We also have looked at the
Academy of Liberal Arts at Newton High School, trying to build the same type of continuum at the same time,” Fuhrey said. “There are some things that we have to work through. It was recently presented to Board of Education, and they had a lot of questions, so we’ve got some things that we’ve got to work on there, but it will build a K-12 continuum in the performing arts as well — performing and liberal arts that will flow from Porterdale, perhaps through the Newton High School Academy of Liberal Arts.” Fuhrey said one of the questions from the Board was, “are you planning for growth?” “The answer to the question for people is pretty hard to understand, because we’re constructing a new
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