By Paul B. Johnson
HIGH POINT — Guilford County Schools will launch new programs and initiatives while expanding on some ongoing ones as the new school year begins this week.
Traditional calendar schools start the 2019-20 academic year on Monday as summer break comes to an end. The county school system will welcome about 73,000 students, including about 13,770 in High Point schools.
The county school system plans to launch or enhance outreach to students and parents.
One example: a partnership with the High Point Public Library to make learning easier and more accessible.
The school system has established a “partnership with the High Point Public Library and the Greensboro Public Library that allows our students to be able to have 24-hour access to many online resources,” said Janson Silvers, school system media relations specialist.
In addition, students may borrow up to 10 items at any time from one of the libraries.
“This partnership also wants to focus on eliminating any barriers to access of our public libraries and the wonderful resources they contain,” Silvers told The High Point Enterprise.
A pair of High Point schools will become part of a new online effort to keep parents informed about their children’s bus schedule.
Allen Jay Preparatory Academy and Johnson Street Global Studies will be part of a pilot program with a digital bus app. The bus app should allow parents to check where their children’s bus is on the road and the times for picking up or dropping off students.
The school system also intends this school year to build on its campaign to promote attendance by students, an effort that was launched last fall. The school system is partnering with Attendance Works, a national nonprofit that aims to bolster school attendance.
For the 2017-18 academic year, 14.8% of Guilford students — or more than 10,000 — were chronically absent. The total represented a decrease from the previous school year of 15.7% but remains unacceptably high, according to school leaders.
Through Attendance Works, educators collect data to better understand in detail why students are missing classes.
During the new academic year, educators also intend to build on what’s called its social and emotional learning initiatives. The program refers to an effort to help adults and children understand and manage emotions, set and achieve goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
The school system has lined up first-day activities for schools on Monday. They include the Southwest Guilford High School band playing for boys and girls at Florence Elementary School in High Point and High Point Rockers mascot, Hype the rocking horse, welcoming children at Colfax Elementary School.
The school system also will continue to advance its Career Technical Education, or CTE, initiative with the new school year. The remaining three CTE academies opening are the Academy of Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering at Smith High School, the Academy of Computer and Information Science at Northeast Guilford High School and the Academy of Transportation, Distribution and Logistics at Western Guilford High School.
Link to Article: https://hpenews.com/news/10646/whats-new-for-new-school-year/
