Time for School!

Excited children, new faces, school buses on the streets, sleepy-eyed teenagers -- yes, it is the first day of school, and Opelika City Schools are ready!  While many systems struggle with hiring teachers, we are proud to have highly qualified teachers in every classroom.  While some systems struggle with funding, we are proud to be expanding our programs.  To put it in the words of one of our new teachers -- "Opelika has it going on!"

What do you do all summer?  This question is frequently asked to administrators, and teachers are often told that they "have all summer off."  In the 10 weeks of summer, many of our teachers and administrators have:

• taught summer school, credit recovery and other summer classes
• attended up to 10 days of professional development in Advanced Placement, Project Lead the Way, Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative, Math Investigations strategies, curriculum standards, and many other topics
• attended conferences on Career Tech programs, safety in schools, Council for Leaders in Alabama Conference, Alabama MEGA Conference and special education
• ordered, received and distributed textbooks
• developed budgets for the new school year
• moved classrooms and prepared for opening day -- before their contract began :)
• attended school based grade level or department meetings for curriculum discussions and development
• tried to find a week for vacation

and most importantly

• interviewed, hired and provided orientation to new employees

Even with all that goes on in the summer, our teachers, administrators and support staff return the first day with enthusiasm.  They return with a mission to "educate every child every day."  They return with a passion -- a passion to make a difference.  

Welcome back to a system that "has it going on."