New freshmen in the Coweta County School System’s three high schools will have new homes starting this year.

Ninth grade campuses will open at East Coweta High School, Newnan High School and Northgate High School on August 6, providing a separate academic building for new ninth graders entering the high schools.

The 60,000 square foot 9th grade annexes contain classrooms, science labs, counseling and administrative offices, media reference centers, and their own cafeterias – providing new students with some insulation from the larger high schools while still allowing access to the facilities and activities of the larger campuses.

The three 9th grade campuses will be led by assistant principal Adam Herring at East Coweta High School, assistant principal Rick Surrett at Newnan High, and Bill Harrison at Northgate High.

School administrators and the building contractors are using the last weeks before school starts to complete final construction details and move in furniture and equipment for the start of school August 6. The $8 million campuses (financed by the 2007-2012 Special Purpose Local option Sales Tax) will expand the capacity of the three high schools by about 700 students each, and will better allow the high school to prepare new high school students for successful high school careers.

“The ninth grade campuses will be good for students as they make the transition to a high school setting,” said Superintendent Blake Bass. “We anticipate that they will be they will help us better prepare students for academic success and staying on track for graduation.”

Ninth grade campuses will offer all freshmen core content classes in English, math, science and social studies, and will offer some electives such as Spanish 1 and art, among other electives, all in an exclusive ninth-grade setting. Other electives and extracurricular activities – such as band, athletics, ROTC and other foreign languages and electives – will be available to freshmen in the larger campus as well.

“The students will all eat lunch together in the Ninth Grade cafeteria, too,” said Northgate’s Bill Harrison. “Overall, we should be able to build a stronger sense of community and identity among freshmen with the ninth grade campuses, and give students the academics they need while easing them into high school.”

Freshmen classes will be able to focus more efficiently on building good academic habits in the new students, such as setting personal academic goals, developing study skills, testing and learning strategies, and generally preparing students for high school life.

“We’re going to be able to give new students more support and more individual attention,” said Newnan High’s Rick Surrett. “Students won’t just be thrown to the wolves, so to speak, and they won’t have to work as hard to fit in with the older students.”

“Because we will be able to give students more academic support as freshmen, we expect that could have an impact on academic performance in later years,” said East Coweta High’s Adam Herring. “There’s such a large correlation between ninth grade retention rates and high school drop-put rates, and by improving one – by helping students do better in the first year – we hope to improve the other.”

Ninth grade students and parents can drop by the new ninth grade campuses before school starts, if they would like to meet the new assistant principals and teachers. Northgate High School will hold a freshmen orientation August 2, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.; East Coweta High will hold its orientation August 2 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.; Newnan High will hold its orientation August 3, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The orientations are informal times that students and parents can visit the campuses and familiarize themselves with the school. The assistant principals also invite parents to give them a call if they have any questions.

“Part of what we hope to do with ninth grade campuses is increase communication between the high school and parents of our freshmen students,” said East Coweta’s Herring. “Parent communication tends to drop off when students move to high school, but we still need communication and parent involvement. The ninth grade campuses will help provide that on our end.”

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