All Hall County Schools will be back in session on Friday, and with the start of a new school year, students and staff will notice a few updates in the 2024-2025 school year.
Hall County Schools Director of Communications Stan Lewis recently shared with AccessWDUN the district looks forward to not only unveiling the brand new Sandra Dunagan Deal Elementary School, but also improvements to East Hall High School and Chicopee Woods Elementary School.
While school was not in session over the summer, the East Hall High School campus underwent an expansion project that increased the school’s carrying capacity from 1000 to 1300 students.
“The graphic arts program has been expanded and relocated,” Lewis told AccessWDUN. “The automotive classroom has been expanded, and we've done some major renovations to the stadium. We've replaced the old concession stand. There's a fabulous new three story building with brand new classrooms, new science labs, all of them state of the art.”
The expansion to EHHS also includes spaces for a new health clinic and the school's Navy JROTC program. The project was funded by the ESPLOST extension and bond referendum passed by the Hall County community.
Chicopee Woods Elementary School also will see development to its campus through a new health clinic funded through a grant in partnership with Med Link.
“Students in that area are going to be able to come get vaccines, they'll be able to get treatments for common illnesses like the common cold and flu, they can come and get sports physicals if they're participating in extracurricular activity,” Lewis said. “So it's going to be a great resource for that community.”
Lewis also highlighted the district has seen growth with the completion of its Meat Sciences Center.
“The state inspectors and state veterinarians came out and gave their stamp of approval and now we can begin processing our own meat on site from that district,” he explained. “We'll be able to supplement our protein supply for school nutrition.”
The new center aims to give students the opportunity to learn about career paths within the agribusiness industry.
“70% of the GDP in Hall County is dependent on agribusiness and 50% of the GDP at the state level,” Lewis noted. “So it's good for kids to be exposed to these types of careers. And it's good for our local economy. We're really excited about the Agribusiness Center and the Meat Science Center.”
Hall County Schools also plans to continue putting an emphasis on literacy as it moves into the 2024-2025 school year with the adoption of a new reading curriculum teachers will receive training for throughout the school year.
“This program is going to help our team members implement research based strategies, we'll be able to monitor the progress of students and help guide instruction, we'll be able to identify students who struggle given the support that they need,” Lewis said. “ And in order to do all that, our teachers are going to have to receive some intensive training and professional development–26 hours of training through online modules on the science of reading–they're going to have eight hours in person instruction, and approximately 24 hours of grade level specific training.”
Open houses for each school level will be throughout the week. High Schools, with the exception of East Hall High School, will hold open houses Monday, July 29, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. East Hall High School will hold their open house on Thursday, August 1st from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
All Hall County Middle Schools will host open houses on Tuesday, July 30, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Elementary Schools will hold their open house on Wednesday, July 31 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
