• Three Teams Succeed at Regional Robotics Competition
Cherokee County School District teams succeeded at the regional First Lego League robotics competition, with three earning trophies and one advancing to super regionals. During these competitions, elementary and middle school students, working in teams, build robots using the LEGO Mindstorms system. Teams design and program their robot to solve missions on a tabletop playing field with models made with LEGO bricks. Each team also completes a research project to analyze and solve a problem. This year’s theme was developing solutions to improve the energy journey — how energy is produced, distributed, stored, and used. Trophies are given for four categories of competition: Robot Design, Core Values, Robot Performance, and Project, with an overall Grand Champion trophy for the event’s highest score. Teams advance to super regionals based on their score and can advance further to a state championship.  


• Students Selected for Elite Flight Academy
Cherokee HS Air Force JROTC Cadet Andrew Solano and Etowah HS Air Force JROTC Cadet Luke Foresman have won the competitive Air Force Chief of Staff 2023 Flight Academy Scholarship valued at $25,000. Cadet Sydney Watson of Cherokee HS was selected as 
an alternate. 

The Flight Academy is an eight-week summer program designed for Air Force JROTC cadets to earn private pilot certification. The program’s overall goal is to improve the recruitment, retention, and diversity of the Air Force and aviation industry.


• CCSD Celebrates Its First REACH Georgia Scholars
REACH Georgia is the state’s first needs-based mentorship and college scholarship program for middle and high school students. An eighth grader from each CCSD middle school has been selected as one of the District's first REACH Georgia scholars: Braxton Cox of Creekland MS, Violeta De la luz Mendoza of Dean Rusk MS, Caleb Massey of E.T. Booth MS, Patricia R. Garcia of Freedom MS, Matthew Green of Mill Creek MS, Ingrid Osorio-Carreno of Teasley MS, and Ashley Gaspar-Morales of Woodstock MS.

As part of Georgia’s Complete College initiative, REACH seeks to identify rising eighth-grade students who display academic promise and provide them with the academic, social, and financial support they need to graduate from high school as well as attend and complete college.

REACH Scholars who complete the program requirements receive up to $10,000 in scholarships. In addition to meeting eligibility requirements, students must meet expectations for academic achievement, attendance, behavior, and participation in academic coaching and mentorship meetings.  


• Sequoyah HS Teacher Wins Superintendent's Game Changer Award
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian V. Hightower presented the 2022 Game Changer Award for Instructional Excellence to Career Pathways teacher Brandon Grummer, who leads the school’s engineering drafting and design program and architectural drafting and design program.

Grummer designed a successful architecture and drafting Career Pathway program at Etowah HS, building it with experience from his first career working in the industry. He earned Etowah’s 2018 Teacher of the Year and Golden Apple honors and later joined the staff at Sequoyah HS, where he has crafted a successful program for future architects and engineers.

 

• Media Specialist Wins Superintendent’s Game Changer Award

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian V. Hightower presented the 2022 Game Changer Award for Instructional Support to Oak Grove ES STEAM Academy media specialist Denise Lewis. Dr. Hightower thanked Lewis for her contributions to student learning, especially her role in helping lead the school in its recent successful transition from a 

Fine Arts Academy to a STEAM (STEM plus the arts) Academy.

 

Lewis, a 22-year educator and past Innovation Zone Media Specialist of the Year, also was praised by Principal Penny Valle for her leadership in developing a 21st century media center and earning Common Sense national digital citizenship certification for the school.