Paulding County School District Superintendent Cliff Cole delivered the ‘state of the schools’ address as last week’s keynote speaker at the Chamber Luncheon in Dallas. Cole has served the Paulding school district since 1997 and was appointed Superintendent in 2010. To Paulding business leaders Cole stressed the importance of a team concept in which all members are important to the school system’s overall success.
School district staff strive to improve efforts to provide instruction that revolves around two key ideas, personalized learning and to engage students in real world problem-solving experiences, Cole said.
Ongoing upgrades at schools include a 38-classroom addition at Shelton Elementary, renovation at McGarity Elementary, also plans to add a wing to North Paulding High School, which is serving 2200 students, renovations are coming to East Paulding High School, and there is a plan for a new school in the Cedarcrest/North corridor as the area continues to grow, but no firm plan is yet established, he said.
Cole said budgetary highlights included maintaining zero furlough days, a cross-the- board 3 percent pay increase, renovations at the New Hope Learning center, a bus replacement program, and budget to add additional support staff.
Revenue to the district comes from local and state, with 29 percent from local taxes and the state providing 69 percent. Cole said that maintenance and operations (M/O) tax collected is improving from when the economy bottomed out in 2014 with a loss of over a third of local revenue. But 2017 M/O projections are at $62.6 million in collections, which is still $11 million less than in 2009, despite educating almost 1,000 more students than at that time, Cole said.
The Georgia School Board Association and the Georgia Leadership Institute of School Improvement are working with the Paulding School District through focus groups to help develop a plan to better direct Paulding’s efforts going forward. After the planning committee reconvene and complete the new strategic plan, it moves on to be approved by the Board of Education and would then become effective on July 1st, Cole said.
And Superintendent Cole concluded his comments to Paulding business leaders last week with a note that the community can work with the system in a variety of ways.
“It’s often said that the school system is only as strong as your businesses and the community support and I truly believe that,” Cole said. “Every bit of your support directly impacts the students in our schools, so we’re always looking for partners, and when I say partners, it’s not necessarily for the ones with our hands out that [we’re] asking for money; we would [also] like to partner with you in other ways....”
Paulding’s school district has 33 schools in the system, which is the 13th largest district in the state.