Friday, August 3, 2001

School population to top 71,000

When the school bells ring in the Fulton County School System Aug. 13 more than 71,000 students are expected to be in their seats and ready for roll call.

More than 2,700 of these students will be new to the Fulton County School System.

They, along with returning students and their parents, will find new programs, new facilities, and new learning opportunities.

The 2001-2002 school calendar reflects an earlier starting date than in previous years. With the new schedule, fall semester ends before the winter holidays, allowing high school students to complete final exams before the long break. The school year also ends earlier, prior to Memorial Day.

To spread the word about the early start, Fulton's school social workers hit the streets beginning the first of August telling students to be in school and ready to learn from day one.

As part of Project First Day, social workers post and distribute flyers at neighborhood businesses, parks, playgrounds, apartment complexes and other gathering places.

They also visit residential areas and phone parents of chronically absent students to remind them that school begins Monday, Aug. 13, a week earlier than last year.

The school system welcomes the opening of three new elementary and two new middle schools in north Fulton. Built using proceeds from a one-cent sales tax approved by voters in 1997, the five facilities bring the number of new schools built with sales tax dollars to 12, and construction continues. Fulton will build 19 schools altogether, 17 of which are funded through the sales tax, as part of the current capital program.

In addition to new construction, the sales tax capital program includes renovations to existing facilities, such as the addition this year of 10 general-purpose classrooms and five science laboratories at Bear Creek Middle School, along with funding for equipment and technology purchases. The capital program helps to close the gap between school capacity and student enrollment and funds certain equipment and technology purchases.

Early into the 2001-2002 school year, the Board of Education will begin to plan what happens after the sales tax expires in 2002. One option could be to ask voters to continue the sales tax for another five years.

As part of the process to plan future renovation programs, needs assessments have been conducted on all Fulton facilities. This new process mirrors a 1998 study that resulted in 1,200 identified items, with more than 90 percent currently completed.

New to Fulton this year also will be two additional charter schools. Woodland Elementary in Sandy Springs becomes the first existing Fulton school to convert to charter status. The Fulton County Charter High School for Mathematics and Science, modeled after the Bronx High School of Science in New York City, is Fulton's first charter high school and is in Roswell at 2000 Holcomb Wood Parkway. Victory Elementary, Fulton's first charter school, begins its second year of operation in a new site, 1312 Knotts Ave., East Point.

Enrollment Growth

Number of Schools

Elementary 49

(includes two charter schools)

Middle 15

High 13

(includes 2 alternative schools and one charter)

TOTAL 77

Reduced class sizes in certain grades and changes in middle school programming result from the state's A+ Education Reform Act of 2000. The Fulton County School System goes beyond the mandates of the reform act by staffing classrooms at lower ratios and providing additional teaching assistants. This year, the school system decreases student-teacher ratios by two students at the kindergarten level, and by one student in grades 1-3 and 6-8.

Grade Fulton's Ratio State Requirements

Kindergarten 22:1, with full-time assistant 20:1, with no assistant; 24:1, with assistant

Grades 1-3 22:1, with part-time assistant 23:1, with no assistant; 27:1, with assistant

Grades 4-5 26:1 31:1

Grades 6-8 27:1 31:1

Grades 9-12 26:1 32:1

One of the biggest changes as the result of the legislation occurs in the middle schools. The law adds 30 minutes of instructional time to the core subjects of language arts, mathematics, science, social studies and reading/foreign language. To meet this additional time requirement, Fulton middle school students now have fewer minutes per day in Connections (formerly called Exploratories) courses; however, the length of Connections classes has expanded from six to nine weeks. This means students will have eight Connections classes yearly instead of the 12 Exploratories previously offered.

Other changes in the instructional program include:

Revised learning objectives that specify what elementary students should know in each content area and at each grade. These objectives were first presented in draft form last year with opportunity provided for parent input before being finalized.

All students receive new mathematics textbooks this year. The new texts reflect the more rigorous mathematics curriculum taught in Fulton schools.

To address the needs of a growing international population, additional ESOL resources will be provided this year, including increased ESOL instructional time and more ESOL counselors.

The eight-step instructional process, a teaching model that includes a yearlong instructional calendar, daily instructional focus, assessments to monitor progress, and enrichment or tutoring as needed expands from 25 to 34 schools. This targeted focus on achievement contributed last year to significant academic gains, school system officials say.

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