Dear MCS Parents and Supporters:
               
As this school year comes to an end, and as you look forward to the summer break that lies ahead, we will begin to prepare for the coming school year. As we prepare for tomorrow, it is important that we also look back at this past school year, and celebrate the many accomplishments of our teachers, staff and students at Marietta City Schools (MCS).
 
This past school year Marietta City Schools and Staff worked diligently to honor our mission "...to prepare each of our students through academic achievement for life success."
 
Among our most recent achievements is the recently announced news regarding MCS becoming an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School district. On April 23, 2008, the school district became only the second IB World School district in Georgia authorized to offer the IB Middle Years Program (MYP) for grades 6-10.
 
With the addition of the IB Middle Years Program to the IB Primary Years Program (PYP) offering at Sawyer Road Elementary and the long-standing IB Diploma Program (DP) at Marietta High School, we are now one of the very few school systems nationwide able to provide the full IB (K-12) continuum. 
 
For the fifth consecutive year, Unit GA-20021 at Marietta High School earned the Air Force Junior ROTC (JROTC) Distinguished Unit Award. In addition to garnering the Distinguished Unit Award, MHS Air Force JROTC instructors Senior Master Sergeant Noli Ewing and Lt. Col. James T. Wilson were once again named Outstanding Instructors of the Year for School Year 2007-2008.
 
In addition, MCS recently earned six Awards for Excellence in School Nutrition from the Georgia School Nutrition Association (GSNA) at the 2008 Annual GSNA Conference in Savannah, Georgia. Among the most important awards earned by the school district are the School District of Excellence in Child Nutrition Award-presented by the National Association of School Nutrition (NASN) to only seven school systems statewide; and the GSNA President's Award for Achievement-presented to only one school system for the best school nutrition program statewide.
 
Our students outpaced the state and national averages on a number of critical assessments: 
 
This year, 80 percent of Marietta's eighth-grade students met or exceeded standards in writing - an increase of seventeen percentage points from 2007. MCS' Special Education, Asian, Black, and White student populations also outpaced the state average on the writing test. MCS also had a higher percentage of fifth-graders meeting or exceeding standards on the 2008 Georgia Grade 5 Writing Assessment.
 
In other news, the Marietta Center for Advanced Academics (MCAA) teamed up with Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU), in an innovative partnership, to further the development of the elementary grades 3-5 magnet school's Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program.
 
Marietta High School earned a stop on the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education (GPEE) 16th Annual Bus Trip Across Georgia. GPEE's Bus Tour will stop at MHS on Oct. 29. Schools selected as stops are those with a proven record of accomplishment of academic excellence, educational innovation and sustained performance.
 
MCS prepared and submitted its Charter Systems Petition to the Georgia Department of Education. The Board of Education of the City of Marietta approved the petition on Jan. 8, 2008. We are currently one of four school systems statewide awaiting final approval of Charter Systems status by the State Board of Education.
 
Up ahead... Beginning July 5, the school district's Central Registration office will begin to take registration appointments for all new K-5 students to the district. To make an appointment, call Central Registration at (770) 423-2390.  Marietta Reads! will kick off its sixth-year anniversary with its annual reading fair on Saturday, Sept. 27 in Glover Park on Marietta Square.
 
When school begins this fall, parents and students begin to have access to online teacher classrooms, as we rollout our new School Fusion Internet platform. Construction begins at Hickory Hills Elementary to support the new Arts integration program, and more information about SPLOST III will be coming. Lastly, as of this printing, we await the results of the GHSGT and CRCT, and the state's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report. As you can see, we achieved some great things this past school year.  Now, lets pause and have a safe and enjoyable summer! 
 
Sincerely,