Newspaper Page Text
December 12, 2012
PAGE 7A
MP
^Reporter
Middle Georgia
% Meets/
Scale
High Schools
% DNM
% Meets
% Exceeds
Exceeds
Score
1
Mary Persons
0.4
86
14
100
233
2
Perry
1.0
92
7
99
228
3
Veterans
2.3
88
10
98
229
4
Houston County
4.2
91
4
96
224
5
Crawford
4.6
92
4
95
220
6
State of Georgia
5.1
85
10
95
226
7
Northside
5.6
87
7
94
222
8
Jasper
6.2
85
9
94
223
9
Jones County
6.2
87
7
94
222
10
Central
7.3
89
4
93
216
11
Howard
9.3
83
7
91
223
12
Twiggs
9.5
91
0
91
216
13
Warner Robins
9.8
83
8
90
222
14
Peach
10.3
88
2
90
217
15
Rutland
12.1
85
3
88
216
16
Westside
13.7
84
3
86
214
17
Northeast
13.8
87
0
86
211
The list of the schools with top scores (rounded) in Middle Ga. shows MP at No. 1.
continued from the front
this is a Monroe County K-12 thing,"
said Finch.
He said MP has added a predictor
writing test for 10th graders to show
students and teachers weaknesses in
writing. "This allows for teachers a
full year to shore up any deficien
cies," said Finch.
Also, 11th grade teachers put stu
dents through six practice sessions
over five weeks in the fall preparing
for the test, usually given in late
September or early October.
"Teachers drill all the way down to
domain specific deficiencies for each
student in order to increase the
meets and the exceeds categories,"
said Finch.
It's working so well that only one
junior out of 226 failed to meet the
standard. MP juniors achieved a
mean writing score of 233, and four
members of the class of 2014,
Elizabeth Pierotti, Hunter Smith,
Ripken Gorman, and Zach Hogg,
had a perfect score of 350.
Mary Persons' mean score of 233
and pass rate of 99.6 percent
eclipsed Perry High (228, 99 per
cent) and Veterans High (229, 97.7
percent), the two schools Finch con
siders its academic rivals in Middle
Georgia. Last year, MP's class of
2011 had a 97 percent pass rate.
There are four other end-of-course
tests which juniors must pass to
graduate. MP rewards students who
pass all five sections with a trip to
Six Flags. Finch said teachers may
be rewarded with cake and punch at
a faculty meeting.
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C ourson
continued from the front
Lt. Ben Cook of the
Monroe County Sheriffs
Office said Courson admit
ted to investigators that
he put his Chevrolet
TrailBlazer on the bus
shop rack and had a school
system mechanic look at
the transmission. Cook
said he believes the
episode happened last
month while the mechan
ics were supposed to be
working for county taxpay
ers.
Cook said he expects to
charge Courson this week
but he’s not sure with
what exactly.
"I've got to find a law
that he's broken," said
Cook. "I'm sure there's
something somewhere. It's
not an ethical thing, that's
for sure."
District attorney Ricahrd
Milam said the likely
charge would be misde
meanor theft by taking for
converting less than
$1,500 worth of county
labor for personal use.
Cook said all of the
transportation employees
interviewed, including
Courson, were very forth
coming. Cook said school
system mechanics were
working on Courson's
transmission, and it does
n't appear that they used
county parts for the work.
Cook said there doesn't
appear to be any other
episodes of personal use of
county property.
Cook began his investi
gation last Tuesday after
the Reporter turned over
to authorities an anony
mous letter it had received
about Courson using the
bus shop for his personal
vehicle. The letter includ
ed three photos of
Courson's TrailBlazer on
the rack at the bus shop.
School Superintendent
Anthony Pack said he will
recommend sanctions for
Courson to the school
board at its regular meet
ing on Tuesday, but would
not say what his recom
mendation will be. The
school system has done its
own investigation as well.
"It's not acceptable.
Period." said Pack.
Pack said they had made
it clear to Courson and
others that they could not
use the taxpayer-funded
bus shop to work on per
sonal vehicles.
"It was a shock," said
Pack, "that we had private
vehicles in the bus shop."
Pack said they told
Courson about the investi
gation last week and told
him not to talk about the
issue with his employees
as they would be talking
to investigators.
Pack said there's a differ
ence between an employee
with a low tire on his per
sonal car who uses the
shop to put more air into
his tire, and an employee
who puts his car on the
rack, which involves man
hours and liability.
The school system's
transportation office told
the Reporter on Monday
that Courson was out but
would return on
Wednesday or Thursday.
Asked why he was out, the
employee said she could
not disclose that.
Courson makes about
$60,000 per year and has
been transportation direc
tor for about three years,
said assistant superin
tendent Jackson Daniel, to
whom Courson reports.
Courson oversees about 67
buses and drivers. He
came to Monroe County
from the Peach County
school system, and has
also worked for Atlanta
Gas Light.
Pack said he's eager to
get it resolved.
"We've been good to him
and he's done a good job,"
said Pack. "This has taken
us by surprise. It's one of
these things you don't
want to happen."
The big question for
Courson is not the misde
meanor criminal charge,
said Milam, but whether
or not he will keep his job
after using the bus shop
for his personal vehicle.
"That's pretty brazen,"
said Milam.
Citizen
continued from the front
dreds of acts of kindness
that maks Monroe County
a better place to live.
As a leader at Dayspring
Presbyterian Church she
is the one who is always
hosting families, friends
and even strangers into
her home to offer them
some of her famous dishes
and Christian fellowship.
She loves cooking and
serving others so much
that she recently pub
lished her own cookbook
and hundreds of copies
have sold here in Forsyth
and beyond. She devoted
hours on end to this proj
ect because she had deter
mined that all of the prof
its would go toward a mis
sion trip at her church,
and she also helped anoth
er church as well.
She is a native of
Alabama, but in over 30
years of living in Monroe
County she has learned to
love this community as
her own. She moved here
with her husband, a
renowned architect and
builder, and their young
son Rob. Her beloved hus
band, Bob, died in 2006,
but she has only redoubled
her commitment to their
community.... teaching
ladies' Bible studies and
sharing with the next gen
eration of young women
what she has learned and
applied from scripture
about being a wife and
mother.
She has perhaps had her
greatest influence on the
community as a founding
member of the Monroe
County Pregnancy Center.
She has devoted countless
hours to the center, coun
seling women facing crisis
pregnancies and launching
an education program to
teach Monroe County
school students some
truths about relationships,
sex, STDs, pregnancy,
abortion and true love.
The program, Choosing
the Best, has been so suc
cessful that school admin
istrators asked her to
expand the program so
that all students from
grades 7-12 participate in
the curriculum. She hus
tles day and night to line
up volunteer teachers,
raise funds to give every
Monroe County student a
copy of the curriculum,
and even spends two
weeks per year as a
teacher herself, sharing
her experiences and teach
ing the values that will be
lost if they are not passed
on to the next generation.
While the hours are long
and the "pay" is short, she
says it is worth it all when
a woman stops her at
Ingles and brags on her
son, now a star football
player at Mary Persons,
and hugs her neck as she
recalls how she counseled
her at the pregnancy cen
ter and encouraged her to
bring the child to term.
One child at a time, one
young mother at a time,
she has made a huge dif
ference in Monroe County.
As a result of her efforts
and prayers, and the sup
port of the school system,
the county's teen pregnan
cy rate and abortion rate
have dropped in recent
years.
I know her well and she
wants none of the praise....
she gives all the glory to
God!
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