>>> MORGAN COUNTY
The Morgan County Charter School System heard good news at its monthly meeting Oct. 10.
MCCSS Superintendent Dr. Virgil Cole called the meeting to order. The board approved the minutes from its Monday, Sept. 12 meeting, as well as the special called meeting in August.
The meeting then quickly moved to its staff reports, which is when MCCSS Assistant Superintendent of Teaching & Learning Susan Tolbert gave the board some positive news.
She stated that the Morgan County High School graduation rate is at “an all-time high” of 95.8 percent. It is 11.7 points higher than the state of Georgia’s graduation rate at 84.1 percent.
“On Thursday, Oct. 6, Georgia’s Department of Education released high schools’ graduation rates for the Class of 2022. Morgan County High School’s graduation rate was 95.8 percent, its highest rate ever. Morgan County’s value is based on 205 graduates from a graduation class size of 214,” a press release from the Morgan County Charter School System sent to the Lake Oconee News read. “The state of Georgia calculates the four-year graduation rate as the number of graduates divided by the number of students who enter ninth grade together in a given year. In addition, the calculation compensates for students transferring to other educational opportunities. In the case of the Class of 2022, just under 280 students were part of the MCHS cohort over the four years. This score marks the fourth consecutive year that the graduation rate has exceeded 90 percent.”
Tolbert then compared the results with high schools across the state within the Northeast Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA), and those immediately surrounding the district, which showed that Morgan County High School’s graduation rate exceeded all three.
“The state average for its 486 high school programs was 84.1 percent, the RESA average of 21 high schools was 91.2 percent, the press release sent to the Lake Oconee News from the MCCSS continued, “and the surrounding 10 high schools averaged 94.5 percent.”
Tolbert said the Morgan County High School graduation rate has “increased” every year since 2018.
According to a chart in the press release, the graduation rate has continuously increased from 89.7 percent in 2018 to 91.2 percent in 2019. Also, it went up 2.3 percent from 2020 to 2021. In 2020, the graduation rate was 92 percent but crept up to 94.3 during the 2021 academic year. Now, it is at an all-time high of 95.8 percent, with the hopes of improving in the future.
Tolbert also added that “African-American students” and “economically disadvantaged students” scores have rapidly increased as well. African-American students are graduating with a rate of 98.11 percent, and economically disadvantaged students are at the 89.23 percent mark. White students at Morgan County High School are graduating at a 95.9 percent rate.
Additionally, at the meeting: Jay Homan, Nancy Willis and Brett Creel provided reports.
The MCCSS also approved several agenda items, including a 12-day trip to Italy for students in June of 2024, which was submitted by MCHS Latin teacher, LaReece Stewart. The board also approved overnight trips for the MCHS softball team (Oct. 20), MCHS wrestling team (Dec. 2-3) MCHS Civics Club (Nov. 13-15) and MCHS baseball team (April 3-5).
They also approved the purchase of yearly maintenance for the school system’s networking equipment, which was recommended by MCCSS Director of Technology Chris Baker. The approval includes the maintenance of the equipment, as well as subscriptions for the hardware licenses that are necessary. This maintenance is under state contract with Extreme Networks, purchased through the reseller PCS. The cost is $31,181.09.