County BOE hosts annual employee institute

“We had an 85 percent graduation rate in Coffee County,” said Superintendent Don McPherson in his state of the district address. “There are 67 county school systems in the state and we ranked fifth among those systems.”

Coffee County Schools ranked 11^th out of the state’s 132 total systems.

“Our goal for next year is to make adequate yearly progress as a system and to improve those graduation rates,” he said. “I’m not happy with 85 percent.”

Following McPherson’s address, the teachers heard from keynote speaker Dr. Brooks Coleman.

Coleman is a retired teacher who taught for 32 years in the Gwinnett County School system, the 12th largest school system in the nation.

“I’ve been a fifth-grade teacher, a principal, an assistant superintendent and a curriculum director,” Coleman said. “I retired from education in 1993 because I was fed up with the legislature.”

Following his career in education, Coleman was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, which he has served on for two decades.

“I’ve been a state representative for 20 years,” he said. “I’ve chaired the state of Georgia’s House Education Committee for seven years and I’m currently overseeing Georgia’s education finance reform.” 

Coleman is also an accomplished motivational speaker and has spoken in all 48 of the coastal United States.

Coleman’s speech to the county’s educators was titled “Sheroes and Heroes.”

The speech encouraged teachers to learn to embrace technology, maintain a positive attitude, believe in their work, follow the golden rule and never to give up.

“These are the five things that teachers need for the 21st Century, which is going to be the best century America has ever experienced,” Coleman said. “We need to bring back heroes and sheroes and the values that make America great.”

McPherson described Coleman’s speech as entertaining, funny and very motivating.

“The institute sets the right tone for our entire school year,” McPherson said. ““It challenges us to do the very best we can for the children of Coffee County and Dr. Coleman’s speech reminds us that we need to be the heroes and sheroes for our students.”