At its monthly meeting on Nov. 18, the Putnam County Board of Education recognized the District Teacher of the Year and the school nutrition director and listened to a presentation of Georgia Milestone scores.
Superintendent Derick Austin recognized Kenneshia Smith as Putnam County Teacher of the Year. With this honor, Smith will represent the district at the state level, competing for the title of Georgia Teacher of the Year.
“I’m thankful and blessed to have been named Teacher of the Year,” Smith told the board.
Austin then recognized Putnam County Nutrition Director Teena Carr, who has been “applauded across the state” for her hard work. Carr was chosen to serve on the 2024-25 State Nutrition Director Advisory Council and was awarded the Beyond the Plate Award in April. Her leadership also led the nutrition department to receive the Georgia Farm to School Award.
The Georgia School Nutrition Association’s Beyond the Plate Award is awarded to an individual who works in school nutrition and has acted to address a problem facing individuals in their community. The Georgia Farm-to-School Award is presented to any districts that offer locally grown items in school meals, promote and market Farm-to-School throughout the school environment, have eligible gardens, and use Farm-to-School language in their policy and procedures.
“I can do it because of the support offered to me by my staff, our schools, the board, and our community,” said Carr.
Following recognitions, each school principal presented their Georgia Milestone scores. For elementary, an area of focus is English and Language Arts and moving students from their current score to a higher one. However, the elementary school scored “pretty good” on math milestones despite testing on new math standards.
Putnam County Middle School grew over the years, despite learning gaps created by the pandemic. The primary areas of focus for improvement are English and Language Arts. The principal noted that new math standards caused minor math scores fluctuations but remained steady overall.
However, eighth-grade science and social studies scores exceeded the state in both the developing and proficient areas. Closing her presentation, the principal also informed the board that Putnam County Middle School will receive a math achievement award for their Algebra 1 scores, a milestone taken by eighth graders taking the course for high school credit.
Concluding the milestone reports, Putnam County High School reported “good consistency and growth” in Algebra 1 but a continued struggle with the writing component of the American Literature milestone.
The school is already working on addressing writing skills and has made it a cross-subject initiative to improve. Biology milestones are still consistently growing, yet U.S. History scores were reported as “needing to grow.”
To address this, the school is working on pacing the content of U.S. History better and introducing some concepts in American Government a year earlier, where standards between the courses align.
Refer to the Board Presentation Milestones presentation attached to the online agenda to review exact scores, see a breakdown of action plans for each school to address areas of need, and understand a breakdown of the district’s graduation rate.
The board briefly discussed the district’s strategic plan and reviewed a final draft, which is attached to the online agenda.
According to Beth Bacon, who assisted in creating the plan, the team aimed for an “actionable plan” that is fluent and adaptable. Starting at the beginning of the year, each month, reports will be given on each pillar within the plan to show how the school utilizes the plan and what results it produces.