Archway Education Steering Committee Hosts Luncheon for First Lady and State School Superintendent

The Archway Partnership and its Education Steering Committee recently hosted an education progress luncheon that featured Georgia First Lady Sandra Deal and State School Superintendent John Barge at the Whitfield County Career Academy.  With over 150 local leaders from education, business, government and the community, the event highlighted the progress being made to improve education from birth to work.

Brian Cooksey, a Shaw Industries executive who serves on the Archway Education Steering Committee, made the presentation and shared seven initiatives developed from input from the “birth to work” taskforces.  He also highlighted some of the programs that have come out of the committees’ work.  A panel of students and community leaders represented the beneficiaries of some of these programs and took questions from the audience.

The education initiatives discussed at the event include educating the community on nutrition and healthy lifestyles and their impact on learning; providing Pre-K opportunities for all Dalton-Whitfield 4-year-olds; enhancing career and college readiness among 5th - 12th graders; encouraging the Board of Regents to approve more bachelor’s degree programs and phase in an MBA program at Dalton State College in place of the Kennesaw State program; enhancing students' access to the right technology; further developing relationships and articulation agreements between high schools, Georgia Northwestern Technical College, and Dalton State College so that students can move seamlessly between the systems; and forming an on-going, community-wide education consortium so the community will have a forum where they can discuss emerging education issues.

Since November 2010, almost 200 volunteers have been involved in Archway work groups focused on improving education along the birth to work pipeline in Dalton-Whitfield.  While the work is far from done, the luncheon served as a milestone for sharing information with community stakeholders and celebrating the successes of the projects completed thus far.

To learn more about the event, please watch the following news clip:

http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/playlist/25770/3316411

The following articles provide additional coverage of the event:

http://archwaypartnership.uga.edu/news/whitfield-news/georgia-first-lady-tours-gntc%E2%80%99s-whitfield-murray-campus/

http://archwaypartnership.uga.edu/news/whitfield-news/dalton-whitfield-students-praise-archway-partnership-success/

http://archwaypartnership.uga.edu/news/whitfield-news/%E2%80%98now-there%E2%80%99s-work-to-do%E2%80%99-students-welcome-georgia%E2%80%99s-first-lady-superintendent/

http://archwaypartnership.uga.edu/news/whitfield-news/first-lady-sandra-deal-georgia-northwestern%E2%80%99s-walker-murray-campus/

http://archwaypartnership.uga.edu/news/whitfield-news/ga-first-lady-talks-education-ga-first-lady-talks-education/