Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017
THE JACKSON HERALD
PAGE 9B
School
Drew has been educator for half a century
FAMILIAR SPOT
Donnie Drew, Commerce High School principal, will leave his position in mid-June after 34
years. He is in a familiar position, right at the entrance to the cafeteria with the gym in the
background.
Always
something
to do, longtime
educator says
By Ron Bridgeman
Commerce has been “a good
community to live in,” Donnie
Drew, principal at Commerce
High School for 34 years, said.
“It's not a perfect place. It's
not a perfect school system. It is
a good community. It is a good
school system,” he said.
Those sentiments come up
repeatedly in Drew's comments
about his departure.
He will end his tenure - maybe
- June 14. (More on that.)
It is not a “retirement” because
Drew retired in 2014, except he
has continued to work full-time
as the school principal.
The difference is he works for
half-time pay.
“I knew I’d have to be here all
day to get the job done,” he said.
That attitude of getting the job
done also comes up regularly.
“I leave here every day with
something that needs to be
done,” he said.
Drew has been an educator for
more than half a century, and
most of it has been as an admin
istrator.
That means wearing “a lot of
hats,” he said.
When he first came to Com
merce. in 1964, he coached soft-
ball and baseball. He gave up
softball, he said, when the girls
moved to fast pitch.
He said sports, such as soft-
ball, has become more special
ized, with athletes getting indi
vidual instruction from outside
people in pitching or hitting.
“I can’t argue against anything
that you think will help your kid
be a better student or a better
athlete,” he said.
That “maybe” about not being
at the school is because Drew
said he might “help out” with
athletics, depending on what
new principal Will Smith and
Supt. Joy Tolbert want him to do.
The idea has been mentioned,
but nothing is definite, he said.
“If I can help him (Smith) any
way to give him time to plan,
to do important things, I will,”
he said.
Drew mentions some parts of
the job that become irritating,
or get in the way of helping stu
dents be better.
Directions from the state or
federal governments, technolo
gy and testing are mentioned,
quietly.
Sometimes those subjects are
mixed.
Emails often come from the
state and federal governments
and sometimes they are about
testing, he said.
He said he was an assistant
principal before he came to
Commerce. The job functions
were different.
“Technology was not in exis
tence then.” he said. “Technol
ogy, I wish sometimes, was
non-existent now.”
He said he must have more
than 100 emails a day that he
must go through. Those are from
outside agencies, not from Com
merce parents or residents.
Similarly, Drew said teacher
evaluations have changed dra
matically in the past few years.
“It’s probably a better system
(now), but it is a time-consuming
job.” he said.
Drew admitted larger schools
probably can offer a broader
curriculum. Commerce High
School, he said, “could stand a
couple hundred more students”
to allow for more courses.
But online classes and pro
grams such as Move On When
Ready allow students to delve
into other subjects, if they have
the self-discipline to work at
them.
If Commerce High does “a
good job of helping kids read
and write, and they should know
that before they get to high
school, teach them work ethic
and they learn how to get along
with people, all kinds of people,”
then students will be able to go
on to additional education and
training or get a job, he said.
After this school year, “I'm
going to do the same kinds of
things I do now here,” he said.
Drew said he has “no particu
lar plans.” He may plan a “little
bit” of tennis and hunt some,
both activities he has pursued in
the past.
He plans to continue “to be
part of a community.”
Drew said he has not felt a
need to go elsewhere in his edu
cation career.
“I was content.” he said.
See
mainstreetnews. com
for breaking news
throughout the week.
JCCHS among ‘most challenging’ in U.S.
Jackson County Com
prehensive High School
has been named by The
Washington Post as one of
America’s Most Challeng
ing Schools, with a rank
ing that puts it in the top
7-percent of such schools
nationally.
The newspaper has been
publishing rankings since
1998 and only 12-percent
of high schools in the
country made the list this
year, with only 154 from
Georgia.
“We made the list last
year at 2,868,” explained
Pete Jones, JCCHS prin
cipal. “We’re ranked 1,622
in the country this time.”
The Post’s ranking listed
2,323 schools.
Under the headline,
“America’s most challeng
ing high schools: A 30-year
project that keeps grow
ing,” The Post’s education
columnist Jay Mathews
explained the list shows
“a sustained increase” in
the number of schools that
qualify through participa
tion in three testing mea
sures - Advanced Place
ment, International Bac
calaureate and Cambridge
- “even though the vast
majority of U.S. schools
still do not make the list.”
“In 1998. the first year of
what I call The Challenge
Index, only about 1 percent
of U.S. schools qualified,”
Mathews wrote. “The num
ber this year is up to about
12 percent.”
The latest rating was cel
ebrated at JCCHS.
“I realize that this is not
the ‘be-all and end-all,’ but
it was fun to see us there,
nonetheless,” Jones said
May 11. “Our students
and teachers have worked
very hard to stretch them
selves.”
April Howard, JCSS
superintendent, added her
praise last week.
“I am very pleased for
JCCHS,” she said Friday.
“Dr. Jones and his staff
have maintained a laser
focus on increased rigor
and student support.” She
noted other initiatives to
enhance the learning expe
rience are underway.
She said the Empower
College & Career Center,
will give Jackson County
students options to pursue
credits through the Uni
versity System of Georgia
or the Technical College
System of Georgia while
still in high school.
“The Washington Post
ranking is another mile
stone for JCCHS and all of
Jackson County Schools,”
Howard added, pointing out
that JCCHS will introduce
AP Capstone programs for
its high school students for
the 2017-18 school year
and is in the application
process for the Internation
al Baccalaureate Diploma
Programme.
Mathews said The Post
divides the total number of
AP, IB and Cambridge tests
given at a school each year
by the number of seniors
who graduated in May or
June, calling the formula
“The Challenge Index.”
“With a few exceptions,
public schools that achieved
a ratio of at least 1.00,
meaning they had as many
tests in 2016 as they had
graduates, were put on the
national list,” he wrote.
JCCHS’s ratio was 1.721.
See the list and its details
online at http ://bit. lyJC S S_
WaPoRank.
“The top 220 schools are
in the top 1 -percent nation
ally, the top 440 in the
top 2-percent, and so on,”
Mathews said.
The Post’s index does not
include “elite” schools nor
how well students do on the
more challenging work.
He said the index doesn’t
focus on test scores because
he found “many high
schools kept those rates
artificially high by allowing
only top students to take the
courses.”
He said research shows
that students who got a 2
of a possible 5 points on an
AP test “did significantly
better in college that similar
students who did not take
the AP.”
ADVERTISEMENT
REQUEST FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING
AND RELATED SERVICES
The Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority (JCWSA) is a public body
corporate and politic created by the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority
Act (Georgia Laws 1986, pages 5473 et seq., as amended). JCWSA owns and op
erates a water and sewerage system that primarily serves the unincorporated areas
of Jackson County, Georgia.
JCWSA is seeking the services of qualified consultants to provide Professional En
gineering, Land Surveying, Materials Testing, Construction Management, Project
Administration and related services on an ‘on-demand’ basis according to guide
lines outlined in the Request for Statement of Qualifications (SOQ). Consulting
firms with specialized disciplines in the areas of Civil Engineering, Electrical En
gineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Land Surveying,
Materials/Construction Testing, Environmental Consulting, Landscape Architects
(as related to erosion control) and Structural Engineering are all encouraged to
submit a SOQ.
Request for SOQs must be emailed directly to the Joey Leslie, Authority Engineer
atjleslie@jcwsa.com. All emails requesting the SOQ shall include the consultant's
company name, mailing address, email, office phone, cell phone, and fax number.
Contact with JCWSA regarding the SOQ is strictly limited. Specific questions
about the SOQ must be directed via email only to jleslie@jcwsa.com. Any at
tempts to send marketing materials, additional company information, phone calls,
office visits, etc. will result in a scoring penalty as described in the Request for
SOQs document.
All firms submitting qualifications must be properly licensed in the State of Geor
gia.
Statement deadline is June 15, 2017 at 4:00pm (local time), unless deadline is
extended in writing via addendum.
JCWSA reserves the right to waive any informality in the SOQs and the right to
reject any or all SOQs.
Dated this 3rd day of May, 2017.
Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority
Joey P. Leslie, PE RLS
Authority Engineer