NCSS preparing students for future job opportunities

Newton schools preparing students as future job opportunities grow

By TAYLOR BECK

tbeck@covnews.com

As 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

BULLSEYE

ACCOUNTING SERVICES INC.

“Where Accuracy Counts”

762.435.7002 | bullseyeacct@gmail.com | Monticello, Ga. Accounting | Payroll Services | Tax Preparation

Students participate in the InspiHER: Code Like a Girl program at Newton County Schools.

Special Photo | Newton County Schools

high school for Eastside, and the core facilities are built to serve 2,500 students. But the facilities itself is only built to hold 1,850 students,” she said. “So people ask the question, ‘Why? Because you’re going to get 2,500 students at EHS, so why not just build it that way?’

“The short answer is that the state will not fund you unless the people are present,” Fuhrey said. “So you have to build the school for the people who are present, and then as growth comes, you have to address it by doing what we all do not want to do, which is bring in mobile units. The state will then recognize that we have a spike in enrollment, and they will fund us to build an addition… It’s has never made sense to me either … but that’s why.”

But Fuhrey said she and district administrators were “confident” with current enrollment numbers paired with the number of seats available in all schools that “we will be in good shape, at least for the foreseeable future, dependent upon how many people move into the county with children.”

“Right now, data shows birth trends are pretty low, so we’re not expecting to see a huge increase in elementary enrollment,” she said. “The people moving are bringing middle and high school students, so our younger students — there aren’t as many of them as there once was. But I think that’s tied to the birth trends.”

Part of Fuhrey’s confidence comes through knowing the district has such strong ties with the county, including the Board of Commissioners and chairman, as well as the city of Covington, the county’s economic development officials and others.

“Four or five years ago, we won an award for our collaboration with the economic development office,” Fuhrey said. “We’re hand in glove. I meet with them regularly to talk about employment trends, business and industry, connectivity to our students so that we’re preparing them to enter into the jobs that are currently here and will be coming. So we are lock-step, which is something that’s not in place in every community, so we’re fortunate to have that partnership.”

Fuhrey said there are a plethora of programs tied directly to workforce development and preparing students for careers awaiting them now, and to come, in Newton County.

One is Be Pro Be Proud — a program simply designed to expose students to various careers and job fields.

Another is the district’s “robust” robotics program.

There’s also been a special focus placed on coding and programming — especially for female students. In addition to having media specialists trained to teach coding to students grade K-5, there is also a program for girls called InspiHER: Code Like a Girl, to garner their interest.

And finally, there’s Connect Newton, which was created in 2018 by Serra P. Hall, who is the executive director of the Newton County Industrial Development Authority. Connect Newton is a teacher externship program that gets teachers into local industries to see what is available and then bring it back to their students. The program was so successful, the state Board of Education has implemented a model of it statewide.

“I think the wave of the future is immersing kids in experiences and giving them opportunities that they might not otherwise have, and in roles and jobs that stretch them to think about advanced manufacturing, technology, the jobs that will likely be in existence in the future that require collaboration, creativity, communication — all of those things that our kids need to see in action and be able to implement as they graduate from high school,” Fuhrey said. “I think the future is bright for our children, our community, our school system. We’ve just got to stay together, keep each other informed and make sure that what we are doing benefits the whole.”

Shametria Dixon

Agent

2008 Eastview Parkway, Suite 600 Conyers, GA 30013 770-761-8035

Here to help life go right.™

Let’s talk.

Auto • Home • Life shametria.dixon.rnle@statefarm.com • www.shametriadixon.com