Happy Halloween!

Greetings Parents and Community Members! Another week is upon us and lots of news to share! Since last Tuesday, our school has been celebrating Red Ribbon Week with all sorts of fun activities and dress-up days. The month of October is National Bullying Prevention Month and has been packed with events that unite students against negative behaviors and promote positive choices. Theme days are a fun and exciting way to integrate Red Ribbon Week and National Bullying Prevention Month Activities with No Place for Hate. I saw students wearing red in support of “RED-Y” to live a drug-free lifestyle, Put a Cap on Drugs Day (hat day), Sock it to Drugs (crazy sock day), Your Choices are the Key to Your Dreams (pajama day), Don’t let Drugs Mix You Up (mismatched clothing day) and, of course, Drugs are Scary, I’d Rather Read a Book day (book character dress-up day). It’s always fun to see our students (but especially our awesome teachers) mix it up and join in the fun!

Also this week, the GADOE (Department of Education) released our CCRPI score for the 18/19 school year. For those who don’t know, the College and Career Ready Performance Index – CCRPI – is Georgia’s tool for annually measuring how well its schools, districts, and the state are helping students achieve their goals. It provides a comprehensive road map to help educators, families, and community members promote and improve college and career readiness for all students. The CCRPI can be used for communication and continuous improvement. This year, the state totally redesigned how they measure school success. As a result, it is important that schools don’t compare this year’s score to previous years as the indicators have changed. I am happy to say that Brandon Elementary received a score of a 96.5 out of 100. This is well above the state average and reflects the hard work and dedication of our previous administration and, of course, our fantastic teachers. Below is a brief breakdown of how schools are measured across the state and how we performed as a whole. The categories and weights are in bold with a brief explanation of what they mean.

• Content Mastery: 30% Are students achieving at the level necessary to be prepared for the next grade, college and career? We received 100/100 possible pts, a great accomplishment for our students and staff.
• Progress: 35% How much growth are students demonstrating relative to academically-similar students? We received a 94.3/100 possible pts.
• Closing Gaps: 15% Are all students and all student subgroups making improvements in achievement rates? We received a 100/100 pts. Phenomenal work from our teachers, special education staff and ESOL department.
• Readiness: 20% Are students participating in activities that prepare them for and demonstrate readiness for the next level, college, or career? This calculates student attendance as well as reading levels. We received 92.6/100 pts.

We also received a School Climate Rating of 4/5 stars. This takes into account our student, parent and faculty surveys. Please take a moment to take a survey based on this school year’s experience, which will be reflected in next year’s CCRPI. We need LOTS of participation! You can find the link here.

As always, please feel free to reach out me or a member of my admin team with any questions or concerns you may have.

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