On Tuesday and Wednesday, June 11-12, Clayton County Public Schools (CCPS) conducted its annual Leadership Retreat at the district’s S. Truett Cathy Professional Learning Center. The theme for this year’s retreat was “Deepening and Advancing Our Commitment to High Performance.”
Dr. Morcease J. Beasley, CCPS Superintendent of Schools/ CEO, opened Day One by reflecting back on the building blocks that have served as the foundation for the district’s Vision, Mission and Core Beliefs. He reminded the more than 270 district-level and school-level administrators about the meaning of high performance and stressed the need for each to continue their individual commitment to this ideal. Dr. Beasley also reminded the assembly of the 2018-19 school year, including a review of preliminary test data, and offered a look forward to 2019-20.
In addition, motivational speaker Keith L. Brown also spoke to the group. His presentation focused on deepening a commitment not only to high performance, but to one another as professionals and as people.
Throughout the two days, attendees participated in team building opportunities by playing party games such as Jeopardy, Family Feud, Minute to Win It and Scavenger Hunt. Each game featured subjects and questions that were related to the school system and the district’s vision, mission and core beliefs.
A wide variety of breakout sessions filled the majority of the two-day retreat covering such topics as using data to plan for the 2019-2020 school year, enhancing the implementation of instructional technology in the classroom and throughout a school, revising and updating the current academic coaches’ model, creating a school-wide Literary Achievement Plan and working with Special Education leaders to build a team approach to better address the needs of students with special needs.
The second day of the annual Leadership Retreat continued to focus on embedding, deepening and expanding a culture of high performance with a variety of presentations designed to build leadership capacity. Dr. Beasley, closed the retreat charging all district-level and school-level leaders to put aside egos and provide unconditional support for one another.
On behalf of Dr. Beasley, CCPS expresses its appreciation to Ms. Jessie Goree, CCPS Board of Education (BOE) Chair, Dr. Alieka Anderson, BOE Vice Chair and Board Members Mr. Mark Christmas and Mrs. Victoria Williams for attending the retreat. In addition we acknowledge Dr. Ralph Simpson, Deputy Superintendent for School Leadership and Improvement; Dr. Gloria Duncan, Director of Professional Learning; Dr. Ebony Lee, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment; Ms. Katrina Thompson, Director of Federal Programs; all retreat planning committee members and a variety of other support personnel for their hard work in planning and making the retreat such an outstanding event for district leaders.