Every day, the schools of the DeKalb County School District are bursting with activities that support college and career readiness. We’ll share that news in TRUST in the Schoolhouse. Below are some examples of that work. Got an idea? Please share it here.

November 15, 2018

Arabia Mountain High
On October 25, Arabia Mountain high honored 447 students for making the Principal’s List or A/B Honor Roll. The school also recognized 218 students for having perfect attendance.

Congratulations to the Arabia Mountain High debate team for placing second in the Pebblebrook debate tournament on October 20, as well as students John Radford and Taylor Jones, who took first place in varsity debate.

Cedar Grove High
Cedar Grove High recently formed the Principal’s Club, an organization catered to struggling students. The club will provide support to students and families as well as academic coaching.

Chamblee Charter High
Congratulations to the Chambee Charter High students who participated in Georgia State University’s Hispanic Scholarship Fund College Day. Students met with GSU representatives who provided guidance on how to obtain and complete scholarship applications.

Chamblee Middle
Congratulations to students Naa Adua and Mia Sanforts, who claimed first place in the Georgia National Fair for painting and mixed media, respectively.

Congratulations to Chamblee Middle’s math team—Nethan Aresh, Krishna Srivatsa, Alex Barrita, and Micah Burton—who claimed second place in the Rockdale County Mathematics Competition.

Clarkston High
Congratulations to the Clarkston High Lady Angoras Cross Country team, who are ranked third in the region. The team competed in the 2018 Cross Country State Championship November 2-3.

Columbia High
Congratulations to Columbia for receiving a $2,000 grant from the Keri Hilson Foundation. The grant, provided by DCSD and Tucker alum Hilson, will help support the school’s journalism program.

Coralwood Center
Congratulations to the Coralwood Center for being chosen to participate in Georgia State University’s filming of special education teachers in the field. Coralwood was chosen for being exemplary to both professional development and the implementation of learning experiences.

The Coralwood Center will work with opera singer Timothy Miller to create a short performance for the Alliance Theatre. Pre-k students will write lyrics to be performed by Miller at an upcoming conference.

DeKalb Alternative School
Region 6 celebrated more than 130 school bus Drivers on October 23 with a breakfast event. The students and staff of DeKalb Alternative School served Region 6 drivers from entry to departure along with DCSD School Board Chair, Dr. Michael A. Erwin. Region 6 principals also gifted drivers T-Shirts. The event also featured readings about bus drivers, door prizes, and remarks from DCSD officials.

Dunwoody Elementary
Congratulations to the Dunwoody Elementary parent and guardian community, who completed 1,671 letters to active service members in the United States military. The effort, titled “The Big Thank You Bank,” will feature these letters being delivered to troops this upcoming Thanksgiving.

E.L. Miller Elementary
E.L. Miller culminated a weeklong celebration of Red Ribbon Week with a Red Ribbon Pep Rally. All grade levels presented information on remaining drug free with poems, chants, dance, cheers, and more.

Congratulations to E.L. Miller for being one of 32 schools recognized by the Georgia Department of Education for successfully implementing positive behavioral intervention and supports.

Elizabeth Andrews High
Elizabeth Andrews High School hosted its annual career conference event October 25-30, 2018. Students had the opportunity to network with over 30 professionals in different career fields, such as medical doctor, tattoo artist, media coach, life coach, event planner, psychotherapist, and many more.

Evansdale Elementary
Congratulations to Evansdale Elementary for receiving the Label FrancEducation Seal of Excellence in French Bilingual Education by the Agency of French Education Abroad. The award is granted to foreign schools proposing French bilingual sections of extremely high quality. Just 158 schools in 35 countries around the world receive this distinction.

Henderson Middle School
Henderson Middle culminated a weeklong anti-bullying campaign on October 26 by wearing different colored T-shirts, each standing for a different aspect of anti-bullying rhetoric. Students also participated in a door decorating contest as well as the development of anti-bullying posters.

Students at Henderson Middle participated in a live video conversation with Dr. Kenny Schmitt in Abu Ghosh, Israel as part of a Direct Discovery event. Dr. Schmitt helped social studies students as they studied the Middle East region, including vocabulary, history, and current events. The event will happen again on December 14 at 1:30 p.m. at Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s office in partnership with Barrow County Schools.

Jolly Elementary
On Thursday, October 18, 2018, Jolly Elementary held its Title I Literacy Night for parents and students. The event, titled “Camp Literacy,” featured students and teachers dressed in camping attire, transforming school fixtures into camping sites, and more. The event stressed a focus on building foundational literacy skills, including “fishing” for sight words, hiking for rhyming words, archery-level vocabulary, a campfire of comprehension skills, a speech scavenger hunt, as well as a literacy skills obstacle course.

Martin Luther King, Jr. High
Martin Luther King Jr. High’s annual college fair was held on October 25 in the MLK Gymnasium. Approximately 60 colleges were represented and ready to assist the students. Prior to the fair, students were well trained on dress, tips before/after the college fair and questions to ask college representatives.

Murphey Candler Elementary
Murphey Candler celebrated National School Bus Safety Week with five events throughout the week. This included a Chick-Fil-A sponsored breakfast, creating a bus driver “survival” kit filled with goodies, recognition of individual bus drivers, letters and pictures from students, and thank you caerds with $15 Wal-Mart giftcards.

Panola Way Elementary
On October 11, Panola Way welcomed former First Lady of Georgia Sandra Deal, who read Behind the Little Red Door to students.

Pine Ridge Elementary
On Friday, October 27, Pine Ridge celebrated Literacy Day with costumes themed to favorite fictional characters. The event also included a parade through the school as well as a schoolwide assembly. The event also featured community members reading to students in classrooms as well as involvement from Stephenson High School’s JROTC cadets.

Princeton Elementary
On Thursday, October 25, 2018, Princeton Elementary hosted its 4th Annual Title-I Literacy Night. The event brought parents, students and teachers together for a fun evening of age-appropriate literacy activities that promote the importance of reading and learning. Students created at least three hands-on literacy games requiring participation from students and parents. Prior to the games being played, information was shared regarding the importance of parent involvement. At the end of the event, students received a donated book as well as a goody-bag filled with candy. An estimated 350 students and parents took part in the event.

In honor of Red Ribbon Week, students at Princeton decorated more than 200 Publix shopping bags with messages to help spread healthy living. The bags will be used at three locations in the metro Atlanta area.

Rockbridge Elementary
Magic 107.5 radio personality, Silas “Si Man” Alexander, helped kick-off Rockbridge Elementary School’s Red Ribbon Week by giving a passionate speech on why our children should say no to drugs. The event also featured performances from Stone Mountain High’s band and cheerleaders, who led a Red Ribbon parade.

Stephenson Middle
Students at Stephenson Middle showed support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month during the week of October 22 through October 26 by having a door decorating contest, a parade with supportive banners, a balloon release, as well as a Race for the Cure event.

Stone Mountain High
The Stone Mountain High School Custodial Team implemented a monthly “Clean Classroom Award” to recognize teachers who go above and beyond to maintain an environment that conducive to teaching and learning. Congratulations to ELA teacher Shavonne Brown for being named the first recipient.

Tucker High
More than 90 business and community partners joined students and teachers at Tucker Middle on October 29 as part of a Partnership Breakfast. The focus of the event was college readiness, student employability and marketing, and community service. Notable appearances included CEO Michael Thurmon, as well as Tucker mayor Frank Auman.

Vanderlyn Elementary
Vanderlyn recently hosted its 6th annual Vocabulary Parade, which featured student marches across campus and surrounding community sidewalks. Students dressed in costumes to help promote stakeholder engagement.