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The first Adopt-A-School meeting for the 2015-2016 school year was held today at 10:00am at the Magee High School Library. The meeting was well attended by business members in the community as well as school officials.
High School Principal, Pete Howell expressed his gratitude for the organization stating that he has experienced more community support from Magee than he has at any other school he has served at in his career. Mr. Howell sees many areas that are in need of improvement at Magee High and is planning to provide the Adopt-A-School group with a list at the next meeting of potential projects that businesses in the area can help with.
Greg Paes, who is the new Simpson County Superintendent, also expressed is gratitude to the organization and gave a quick report regarding the Alternative School where he is currently serving as principal. Paes stated that since the younger elementary age program had been relocated back to the elementary, their needs were not as great as they were last year. He did however, emphasize the great needs at the elementary for school supplies and support for the children in the elementary who have little to no support at home.
Dr. Lawrence of Magee Elementary spoke of his plans to help build a better Elementary from the inside out and the big plans that he had for the school. He also reiterated Coach Paes’ statements about the needs for supplies and support for the children at the elementary. The Adopt-A-School is in the process of working with Dr. Lawrence to organize a supply drive to help meet some of these needs.
Dr. Tom Duncan gave an update on behalf of the Central Office, announcing that Destination Graduation was planned for October 12 at 6:00pm at the football field. Dr. Duncan explained that since efforts like Destination Graduation have started, the dropout rate at the schools has decreased from 17% to 9%. Dr. Duncan also notified the attendees that there would be an external review team meeting during the week of February 7-10 and parts of those meetings would be open to the public. Lastly, Dr. Duncan mentioned that William Carey is offering courses that would give teachers CEU credit to help them renew their teaching licenses and that the schools were in search of donations from local individuals and businesses to help send their teachers to these classes.
Mr. Boone spoke for the Junior High about the need for volunteers to participate in a “Big Brother” mentoring program that they are trying to start at the Middle School to help influence children in a positive way. He also encouraged businesses to identify people in their company that could come and participate in career discussions with students in their career classes.
Brad VanCleave, student minister for First Baptist Church of Magee gave the group some information about the Connections mentoring program that has been organized for the High School. Participants are encouraged to spend 15 minutes per week with the student they are assigned to mentor. Members of the community can sign up to be mentors by visiting Ms. Betty at the County Office to complete a background check. Once the background check is done, Counselor, Wanda Glisson will assign the mentor a student to work with.
The meeting was wrapped up with encouraging comments from Doris Adcox of the Magee Chamber of Commerce, Donnie Caughman, Director of the Simpson County Development Foundation and Mayor Jimmy Clyde who expressed to the group his love for Magee and belief that the schools are headed in the right direction and that groups like Adopt-A-School were detrimental in helping the schools become successful.
