City schools focus on leadership, innovation, service

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a new column in The Mount Airy News, featuring commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

Mount Airy City Schools (MACS) prides itself on our motto Lead-Innovate-Serve. We are in the middle of creating a strategic plan for 2020-2024 and celebrating our 125th year of educating students in our community. Our district has always been a district of innovation and excellence.

We can point to areas of achievement in which we were the first in the state. Our Health Occupations Students of America chapters have garnered state and national awards including one of the few HOSA chapters in the middle school. We were one of the first school districts in the state to house a computer classroom. This effort led by Larry Davis was the first of its kind and as Mr. Davis retires this year we hope to show how MACS leads in many Career and Technical areas.

The last strategic plan saw the addition of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) which resulted in STEAM teachers at each school using hands-on inquiry-based learning with students focused on science. We also saw the addition of a Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program where our youngest learners are immersed in Spanish from native Spanish-speaking teachers. They learn in Spanish 90% of the day beginning in kindergarten and these students outperform their peers around the country in academics. In just a few years, we will have one-third of our senior class graduating fluent in Spanish.

We are also excited about the global/industry partnerships we have through our STEAM framework based on the design principle to create problem-solvers, such as NASCAR, our Richard Childress Racing internships, and our Chinese program. We have teachers come from China to teach Mandarin Chinese to our middle school and high school students because industries here in Mount Airy need employees that understand Chinese language and culture. Traveling to China and hosting students from China has been a highlight and a great learning experience for many of our students.

The arts are growing and expanding as we offer music, art, band, theater, chorus, and visual arts. We prioritize these positions because we believe the arts are key to students being well-rounded and excited about coming to school.

The new strategic plan is exploring areas to support our educators and expand our workforce development. We hope to add ways to support our students and staff with social-emotional support as well as safety. We are excited that we have already achieved one of these strategies with a new school resource officer joining our staff at our primary and intermediate schools.

Another area that seems to be opening up to us in workforce development is science aviation. There is a shortage of pilots in our state as well as people who have the skills to work on planes, run airports, and support air traffic control. Our region is needing more skilled laborers in the area of construction and engineering. These are areas that we want to provide opportunities for students. We also believe that entrepreneurship is something that every child needs to understand. If the job they want isn’t available in Surry County they can create their own job and have the skills to be outsourced to companies in other communities while staying right here in Mount Airy.

We know the future looks bright for any child that is attending MACS and we are strongly encouraged by the numbers of students that are choosing us. We are gaining close to 100 new students every school year, in addition to our kindergarten class. 88% of our students choose to go on to a two- or four-year school and we have some of the top academic scores in the state. This past year we had the following achievements:

● MACS was 1st in the state for Math 7th grade

● MACS was 9th in the state for Math 6th grade

● MACS was 8th in the state for Reading 7th grade

● MACS was 4th in the state for English II

● MACS was 5th in the state for ACT WorkKeys

● Science 3-8 improved an average of 10%

● 100% graduation rate for all Career and Technical Education (CTE) concentrators

● ACT/WorkKeys combined 72% and was 9th in the state

● Over 81% of students taking AP courses passed the exam to receive college credit. This includes an increase in students taking AP courses.

● 2019 graduating class of 147 students earned 1.5 million dollars in scholarships

● Mount Airy High School students attained 241 certificates for workforce development

We are currently in peak season for registering rising kindergarteners for the 2020-2021 school year. There are a variety of opportunities available for families to meet our staff, take a tour, and check out what learning looks like for students.

We would love for you to join us as we Lead, Innovate, Serve in 2020, our 125th year. May we make it the best ever!

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