Dalton Public Schools Superintendent Scott presents state of the schools address

Published 2:00 pm Wednesday, May 26, 2021

While the past year was “a very difficult time” due to COVID-19, Dalton Public Schools didn’t allow the pandemic to knock it off its course of preparing students for college, careers and life, according to Superintendent Tim Scott.

When schools across the nation closed in mid-March 2020, “I thought we’d maybe be (out) for two or three weeks,” but instead Dalton Public Schools students didn’t return to school buildings until the start of the 2020-21 academic year, which began on the final day of August instead of the typical early August start date, Scott noted during his state of the schools speech earlier this month. Students also returned in hybrid fashion, attending in-person only some days, while learning virtually on others.

Approximately three weeks later, students who didn’t opt for full virtual learning returned to daily in-person classes, although grades 6-12 have had virtual learning days on Wednesdays throughout this year, Scott said. That provided time for students and staff — many of the staff had to teach in-person and virtually — to both catch up and plan ahead.

Even with a completely virtual final two months of the 2019-20 academic year, the school system’s 2020 graduation rate remained consistent with prior years, at 80%. In 2018, the four-year graduation rate was 79%, and it was 81% in 2019.

The 2020 graduation rate for Dalton High School was 95% (96% for five years), while the Morris Innovative High School four- and five-year graduation rates were 35% and 54%, respectively, Scott said. The school system’s five-year graduation rate was 85%.

Morris “works with students who are behind academically,” and many students came to the school with little or no English skills, but “they don’t give up on young people” at Morris, he said. The staff there “has done a great job.”

Morris Innovative High School will close at the end of this month as part of the school system’s reconfiguration of its secondary schools.

The school system is also focused on expanding opportunities for its youngest learners, including through the Dual Language Immersion program, which is “very important to us” and continues to expand annually, Scott said. “Students are able to speak both languages.”

Students not only can speak, read and write a pair of languages, they demonstrate higher levels of academic achievement and appreciation for other cultures, according to Claire Kyzer, lead teacher for Brookwood School’s German Immersion Program. “The more we study this, the more benefits we see.”

Dalton Public Schools has students from 43 countries who speak 22 native languages, Scott said: “We’re a very diverse district, and we’re very proud of that.”

Currently, 71% of Dalton Public Schools students are Hispanic, 19% are white and 5% are Black, Scott said. Nearly a quarter of students are English Language Learners, 72% qualify for free/reduced-price lunches, 7% are considered homeless and 14% are in special education.

Dalton Public Schools’ tentative budget for fiscal year 2022 includes funding for a half-dozen new special education employees as well as a handful of teachers for English Language Learners in order to meet rising demand. The fiscal year begins July 1.

Dalton Public Schools is reconfiguring upper grades for the 2021-22 academic year. Students in grades six and seven will attend the new Hammond Creek Middle School, while students in grades eight and nine will attend Dalton Junior High School, which will be on the current Dalton Middle School campus. The Dalton Academy, also on the current Dalton Middle School campus — which is being extensively remodeled for these changes — will be one of two public high schools in the city, along with Dalton High, which will also be a 10-12 grade school. All students currently in grades eight, nine, 10 and 11 have the opportunity to choose their school.

Hammond Creek is “a beautiful, state-of-the-art school,” Scott said. The Dalton Academy “will have eight career pathways” — entrepreneurship and leadership, healthcare science and sports medicine, audio/visual technology and film, law enforcement/forensic science, sports and entertainment marketing and management, teaching as a profession, early childhood education and a translation program — as well as the opportunity for an AP (Advanced Placement) “capstone diploma” that incorporates two yearlong courses, AP Seminar and AP Research.

Those courses focus on developing critical thinking, research ability, collaboration, time management and presentation skills, and at the conclusion of the project, students submit academic papers and present and defend their findings, components that contribute to their overall score. Students who earn scores of three or higher in those two courses receive the AP Seminar and Research Certificate, while those who earn scores of three or higher in those courses and on four other AP exams receive the AP Capstone Diploma.

Not only are the certificate and diploma alluring for college admissions officers, the experience is invaluable for students, according to Barbara Brayford, a longtime AP history teacher at Dalton High who is moving to the academy and helping launch this program. “It’s not just the content, but what you learn prepares you for careers and real life.”

The Dalton Academy and junior high will also feature a remodeled field, which will be “a regulation-size soccer field (and) have lines on it for lacrosse and football,” Scott said. The field will benefit all of Dalton Public Schools, as well as the community.

The field should be ready for play by February 2022, at the latest, and “it’ll probably be one of the largest fields between Atlanta and Knoxville,” Tennessee, according to Rusty Lount, director of operations for Dalton Public Schools. It’ll be “an excellent field to play on, and colleges are already (calling) to use it for soccer.”