Jones County’s leadership class for 2010 spent last Friday learning about education, including presentations and tours of some of the county’s schools.

The day began with a presentation by Dr. Michael Moye, the new president of Central Georgia Technical College. The president deferred to longtime vice president Dr. Craig Wentworth to talk about trends of enrollment.

Wentworth showed the group that enrollment increased dramatically in 2009 and that there is a growing interest in online courses. He also said the college hoped to expand classes at its satellite campuses, including Jones County.

Moye talked about a statewide program called QuickStart, which has benefits for economic development. The program helps industries that want to move into Georgia by facilitating the education of potential employees.

“Big companies around the world have heard of QuickStart,” he said. “I’ve seen this tool used to bring industries to Georgia, including Kia in West Point.”

From the Jones County/Gray Chamber of Commerce office, the leadership group filled the Professional Learning Center at the Jones County Board of Education office for a presentation by interim superintendent Dr. Mike Newton, who went over the vision and mission statements for the school system.

The three pillars that make up the vision are academic achievement, responsible behavior, and ethical character.

“Academic achievement is always first,” Newton said. “But, you have to have students and faculty behaving responsibly and showing ethical character to create an environment where students can succeed.”

Newton concluded by encouraging class members to contact their state representatives to emphasize the importance of education when it comes time for budget cuts.

The next stop on the leadership tour was the Ninth Grade Academy, where principal Clinton Burston talked about the school’s focus on keeping children in school. He also outlined efforts to get students on a career path to get them ready for 10th grade.

Burston says work remains on the school’s library, the shelves of which were not stocked when the school split from Jones County High. The school hopes to fill its shelves but offers computers with access to educational resources, and books can also be brought over from the high school for students who request them.

The students got smaller as the group went to Wells Primary School, where they were met by assistant principal Sherry Jones and instructional coach Claudia Weathers in what looked like an entrance to a medieval castle.

“The students get to pick a theme that makes this a fun environment,” Jones said. After treating the class to lunch, she, along with Weathers and school counselor Beth Mines, made a presentation about their efforts to improve the quality of education.

Weathers went over the multiple requirements for teachers to continue to learn and improve the way they teach, which has been a lot of work, but she said teachers have thus far welcomed the learning.

Jones said their efforts at WPS are very data-driven and that administrators use test results to give teachers goals for improvement.

After getting to see kindergarten education in action, the leadership class was given the opportunity to be the first group to tour Jones County’s newest facility, Turnerwoods Elementary.

Newton explained that the new school is a new concept as far as design, being built in a compact form to be energy efficient. He said construction came in $400,000 under budget.

Newton also told the group that construction of the school had nothing to do with local budget shortfalls.

“Many people don’t understand why we built a new elementary school when we’re facing budget problems, but it’s a separate pot of money,” he said. “Turnerwoods was built with funds that we earned from the state that they raise by selling bonds. The rest of the funds come from the ESPLOST, the penny sales tax, that everyone voted on in 2008.”

Turnerwoods Elementary will open in August, and Newton invited everyone to attend the grand opening.