Ballowe: State made an 'error'

GAINESVILLE - Gainesville Schools Superintendent Steven Ballowe says the state erred in placing Gainesville Middle School on its latest list of "needs improvement" schools.

The middle school was the only city school the state, in data released Monday, says failed to meet state standards this year. Last year, the Gainesville School System had four schools on the list.

"Obviously, you see where all of our schools made progress, with the exception of the middle school, which we are appealing," Dr. Ballowe said. "I just think the state made an error."

Dr. Ballowe said its also unfair that the entire district was found not to have mad Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).

"The district is designated as not making adequate progress because of one sub-category at one school," Ballowe added. "There's something that's not quite fair about that, isn't it?"

The number of schools in Gainesville and Hall County making AYP showed a significant improvement, according to the report.

In the Hall County School System this year, six schools failed to meet the standards, compared to fourteen last year.

The county schools that did not make AYP, according to the report, are: Chestatee Middle, East Hall High, East Hall Middle, Johnson High, South Hall Middle, and West Hall High. All were on the list last year.