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CTSO News 2009Superintendent Cox Names Student Advisory Council McCall Butler,SkillsUSA North Region Vice President from Troup County High School has been chosen for Superintendent Cox Student advisory Council. November 4, 2009 -- State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox named 53 students from around Georgia to her 2009-2010 Student Advisory Council. As members of the council, these students will meet three times throughout the school year to advise Superintendent Cox on how state policies are having an impact in the classroom. The Student Advisory Council will also discuss other education-related issues and will serve as the Superintendent's ambassadors in their respective schools. "The Student Advisory Council is an invaluable resource to me and the leadership of the Georgia Department of Education," Superintendent Cox said. "It gives me a tremendous insight into how state policies and procedures are working in the classroom and it allows me to communicate directly with students in schools throughout Georgia." More than 550 students from 108 districts applied to be a member of the Student Advisory Council by filling out an application and answering essay questions. Students were chosen based on the strength of their essay answers. "It was a difficult task to choose the members of the Student Advisory Council this year and I'm grateful to every student who applied," Superintendent Cox said. "I think we have a great group of students this year and I'm looking forward to our first meeting." The first meeting of the Student Advisory Council will be held November 9 at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. CTI Student places 3rd at National Skills Event for gactso.org Rickey Groover ran to be a state officer last year but did not win. Rickey did place 3rd at Skills USA Nationals in Kansas and was honored locally at the City of Roswell council meeting. Rickey is also the first CTI student at Centennial to be accepted into the National Technical Honor Society.
Lassiter's DECA on CobbCast Blog!
The Lassiter High School DECA club held a three-week Breast Cancer Awareness fund-raising campaign during the month of October, capturing the attention and generosity of the whole school. The campaign raised more than $2,000 for breast cancer research! The campaign began with St. Joseph’s Hospital’s Mammogram bus offering mammograms for teachers. From Oct. 11-17, students passed out pink ribbon-themed treats to Lassiter staff members to raise awareness and show appreciation. DECA sold custom pink t-shirts, included facts about cancer during the morning announcements and offered discounted pink spiritwear in the school store. The campaign concluded with a “Pink Out” at the home football game against Milton on Oct. 16, where everyone from the band to the cheerleaders to the football team got into the spirit of support. The Lassiter DECA sponsors are teachers Kari Palmer and Wanda Wexler. Congratulations Burke County TSA and advisor Mark Flowers. The Burke County chapter is the Featured Chapter on the National TSA website home page. Keep up the good work! To view the complete article go to www.tsaweb.org
Three generations of teachers at South Forsyth's Marketing/DECA program. Dodge County Students Are Hard At Work on GCSA and CTSO Promotions
The Dodge County GCSA Chapter encourages students to join other CTSO’s plus GCSA. A bulletin board was done by chapter members displaying different photos of the events that the different CTSO’s participate in at Dodge County High School. This bulletin board is displayed next to the Career Essentials classroom in the hallway. Justice Burch, Tonja Green, Kadeidra Simmons, and Thomas Whiggum are shown admiring the board. Riverdale High School is featured on CBS Cool Schools Video Watch the video here. Central GA EMC sponsors an FCCLA STAR Event
Philip Starke, Career & Technical Instruction Coordinator and Instructor at Locust Grove High School, is attempting to drum up community support for the new school’s career tech programs. Locust Grove High starts career programs By Johnny Jackson School officials are attempting to drum up community support for academic and career-training programs at Locust Grove High School. Locust Grove opened last month with more than 800 students, and several school-level programs to start. Among the programs are the school's newly established Career, Technical & Agricultural Education (CTAE) and Career & Technical Instruction (CTI) programs. "The CTI Program is one of the newest and probably most unfamiliar programs in the county," said Philip Starke, Locust Grove's CTI coordinator and instructor. Starke said the CTI Program, formerly known as Related Vocational Instruction, primarily serves students with disabilities in order to help provide them with job-entry skills through academic and hands-on training. "This program has been around for a number of years, however, very few people know anything about [it], or the reason it exists," he said. "Nevertheless, this worthwhile program needs to become a common term due to the population it serves and the benefits associated with its continuation." Locust Grove currently has 25 students enrolled in CTI classes, said Starke, who spent the past two years as Stockbridge High School's special education department chair before joining Locust Grove's CTAE Department. Starke said his goal is to nearly double the number of students enrolled in the class this year. He also plans to take CTI students to various leadership conferences later this fall. "I'm trying to get the community aware of what we do here," Starke said. "No program can be successful without the support of the community that houses it." Career-tech programs provide practical applications for academic learning in various program areas, said John Uesseler, CTAE coordinator for the Henry County school system. Uesseler said the school system's CTAE programs offer curricula in several areas, including agri-science, business education, drafting/engineering, early childhood education/food and nutrition, health care science technology, public safety and broadcast video. "To get the community involved into the career-tech programs is very important," said Uesseler. "You really can't have a functioning career-tech program without the community."
Gov. Sonny Perdue shakes the hand of Flowery Branch High School senior Danielle Miller, 17, a Hospitality High student and the Georgia DECA state president, Wednesday during the Governor’s Tourism Conference at Lake Lanier Islands Resort. Perdue: Lake ruling hurts others A federal ruling on Georgia’s use of Lake Lanier as a water source won’t just affect Georgians, the state’s governor said Wednesday. "There’s several, many, other states that have reservoirs for which water supply’s not a stated purpose," said Gov. Sonny Perdue. "And if Judge (Paul) Magnuson’s ruling stood, many other states are going to be in jeopardy of losing their water supply usage from federal reservoirs. That’s a congressional thing that only congressional action can take." The governor visited Lake Lanier on Wednesday as he discussed its future; he spoke at the Governor’s Tourism Conference at Lake Lanier Islands. Considering that impact, the governor said the month-old decision will require some sort of a congressional remedy, but he did say the governors of Georgia, Alabama and Florida will have to come together. Magnuson’s decision orders governors of the three states to come to an agreement on the lake’s use in three years or risk losing the lake as the source of water for most of metro Atlanta. "If the governors got together today and agreed on the reauthorization of Lake Lanier, we can’t pass a bill — that part is Congress’ part," Perdue said. "The allocation of water from Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River is the governors’ part, so it’s a division of duties." Perdue also spoke briefly about the impact of recent federal legislation on the state and its residents, calling the federal climate change bill a concern and stating that legislators should not become reliant on funds from the federal stimulus program. Federal stimulus money has been helpful for the state’s education and Medicaid programs, but Perdue said state legislators must not build budgets around the federal money. He said stimulus funding has been spread over three budget years, and should not be used to create new programs. "My concern is we cannot get used to this stimulus, because it goes away in 2011," Perdue said. "I’ve tried to sort of smooth this over the budget years, ’09, ’10 and ’11, and make sure the legislature understands one-time money is good when you really need it but you can’t get used to it." The governor said the federal climate change bill, which would require the U.S. to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and by about 80 percent by midcentury, will have a detrimental effect on Georgians, especially low-income residents. The state primarily relies on energy from coal-fired plants, which are known to emit high levels of carbon dioxide. And while Perdue said state officials are "looking forward to contributing to the renewable equation," he said he was concerned about the local effect of the national energy bill. Referring to the bill as the "cap and tax" bill, Perdue said the bill would burden the state’s poorer residents, who would be paying more for their coal-generated electricity. Perdue said the bill, if passed by the U.S. Senate, could result in a 35 to 50 percent increase in residential utility rates. "I just think that’s unacceptable," Perdue said. "... To extract money from people’s pockets for things they have to have, electricity, on a monthly basis is going to be more harm than good at this point." The state will continue to use coal while it transitions to cleaner energy, Perdue said, but state officials are working to create renewable energy with Suniva, a manufacturer of solar cells that set up shop in Gwinnett County last year, and are developing plans to use pine trees to produce cellulosic ethanol. "Coal will be a continued part of our energy for the foreseeable future and we can transition out of that with better technology, cleaner coal, but we’re taking steps to have zero carbon emissions here in the state," Perdue said
Jennifer Ross, the 2009-2010 State FCCLA President has been selected to participate in the National Japanese Exchange Program in June. Jennifer was one of only 13 chapter members from across the United States to be selected. Congratulations Jennifer and make Georgia CTSO's proud! Levon Tarver opens his new Snap On tools as he begins his career as a Certified BMW Technician at BMW of Macon. Levon graduated from BMW STEP last Friday. Levon began this journey as an AYES intern with a SkillsUSA Gold medal win at State.
During wintertime discussions with Governor Perdue’s staff regarding the efficiencies of drip irrigation, the idea arose to demonstrate the efficient irrigation and best management practices in the landscape. Governor Perdue has been a staunch supporter of the green industry during Georgia’s historic drought and has always been a proponent of water conservation. The mansion grounds proved the perfect stage to demonstrate that not only was it okay to plant again in Georgia but that sustainable landscape projects don’t have to use a lot of water. The FFA working with the GGIA recognized the potential impact of participating in such a high profile project and volunteered their labor to make the mansion project a full-blown success. Special attention was given to water efficiency and sustainability. Every aspect of the project served as a model for practices that would not only create a beautiful landscape to showcase Georgia grown products, but would do so while using minimal water resources.
“Monroe Area High School TSA Sales the Way to Nationals.”
Members of Monroe Area High School Technology Student Association waited patiently until they finally heard the sound of a car pull into the parking lot of Walker Baptist Church in Monroe, Ga. It was Friday night and the donations started pouring in for their yard sale the next day. The yard sale on May 2 was a way for MAHS TSA to raise money for their trip to national conference in Denver, Colo. “We have to use every outlet possible to earn money,” Michelle Conner, chapter vice president said, “because of the current budget issues going on in our school system.” TSA members posted flyers in their neighborhoods asking for donations of used items, but heavily relied on their own resources as well. "I donated a wide variety of items, such as auto accessories, old toys, books, clothing, an old T.V., housewares, DVD's, tapes, etc,” Nick Jones, chapter sergeant at arms said. “These really helped to widen the array of available items to sell, which in turn helped to bring in a wider variety of customers." Although the fundraiser was designed by the group of parents whose students are the members going to nationals, a lot of the preparation work was carried out by the members. This includes: pricing, making signs and working at the yard sale. “I helped set up all of the merchandise the night before,” Cody McCord, chapter vice president, said, “and spent an hour selling.” TSA also used this as a way to raise awareness about their organization by explaining to people who stopped by exactly what they do and collected donations as well. All together MAHS TSA raised $650, but to the members, it was much more than just fundraising that mattered. TSA donated all of the unsold items to a local outreach thrift store after the sale was over. “We wanted to find a way to give back to our community and show them that we care,” Coleen Conner, chapter president said. “The local area has been really supportive of us, sending in donations, so it felt like the natural thing to do.” Members of the chapter felt that their first place overall win at the TSA State Conference in March had a big impact on their motivation to get to National Conference this year. “Winning at state conference definitely made me more willing to fundraise,” Spencer Feuerstein, member, said, “because I really want to compete and achieve at Nationals.” Besides the yard sale, the chapter has also been coming up with innovative ways to raise money. They sold candy and drinks every morning and at lunch for almost two months, doughnuts on Thursdays, had a game night every other week, sold cupcakes on Fridays, sent letters out to local businesses and asked teachers to sponsor a meal for a student. The largest donation came from the academic excellence foundation at their school. “This single donation,” Michael Goltzer, advisor, said, “was the difference between us packing eight into a room, taking a bus, and eating pork and beans the entire trip.” The chapter gained more than funds to take the trip to Denver though. Many members also felt like the experience brought them closer together and bonded them as a team. “I believe that everyone has gotten closer since state conference,” Eric Beavers, member, said. “Even more so than winning, it was working on the projects together that bonded us as a team.” |
