Leaders with Gainesville City and Hall County Schools provided updates Tuesday morning on what is new within their respective systems at the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce’s annual education update.
Gainesville High School Principal Jamie Green discussed some of the new facilities on campus and how students are thriving within them.
Green said when he arrived at GHS five years ago 200 students were in Advanced Placement courses. They now have nearly 500 students. Green said that accounts for 26% of the student body.
Green discussed dual enrollment and work-based learning programs within the high school.
“When my team started five years ago, we had 197 segments of dual enrollment in the year. We're very fortunate for some great partnerships. We've grown that in five years, we have 467 segments this semester,” Green said. “We also have over 300 students participating in a Work Based Learning program.”
Green said that about 30% of the student body is earning college credit.
The Horizons Academy which Green said is a nontraditional learning program aimed to benefit two groups of students.
“The first group is our newcomers. As you know, Gainesville City, Hall County is the landing spot for many first-generation immigrants from around the world,” Green said. “The second part of that is, is a group of students who maybe feel that they could benefit from a nontraditional preparation, more flexible schedules.”
Green described the second group of students as those who would benefit from “nontraditional preparation” and “more flexible schedules.”
Will Schofield, Hall County Schools superintendent discussed how they cater to students' strengths and use that to find what they are passionate about.
“What we try to do with our 28,000 boys and girls is give them numerous opportunities with 37 different programs of choice to say, try something fumble around, figure out if this is what's right for you,” Schofield said.
Schofield discussed many of the work-based learning opportunities Hall County school students are offered.
“In our Habitat High that built Habitat for Humanity houses, we built 22 houses soup to nuts, your advanced construction kids, everything,” Schofield said.
At the Hall County School District, agribusiness center the system offers students hands-on experience on construction sites and in the future will offer meat processing courses.
“As we speak this morning there would be a construction teacher out there working with somewhere between 16 and 15 construction students,” Schofield said. “They're building our show cattle barn right now as we speak.”
Schofield discussed Hall County students who come from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, and Southern Mexico and how the school system assists them.
“Now we've got what's called a Newcomers Academy,” Schofield said. “Let me tell you what these public schools do in this country. We take all comers. You show up at our doors, we educate you. We don't ask questions, we do what's right for you and try to move you to the next step.”
Lastly, both Green and Schofield discussed how they support students' mental health.
“We are working double time, triple time, your board of education, Mark Pettit, and the rest of your board members have invested in the emotional wellness of our kids,” Schofield said. “Because you know what, I don't care if you have an IQ of 140. If you're so depressed, that all you do is weep every night. You're not learning calculus.”
Green said that part of GHS's mental health initiatives is providing students with mental health counselors.
