by Jerri Goodman

There was much to celebrate, but there is still much to be done at Metter Middle School, reported Principal Robbie Dollar.
"We're excited about the upcoming year," he said. "We've been preparing throughout the course of the summer.
"We'll pretty much operate under the same schedule, the same course offerings that we have in the past, with a few alterations."
One change that students and parents need to be aware of, Dollar said, is related to the school's disciplinary procedures.
"We've altered the discipline policy so that the policy will be the same throughout the grade levels," he explained.
Dollar also reminded parents that Metter Middle School offers opportunities for assorted extra-curricular participation.
"We offer a wide array of activities that range from more academically oriented, like Math team, to extracurricular activities that are school related, such as football, cheerleading, girls' softball, basketball, tennis and baseball.
"There are going to be more opportunities to be more affiliated with the school in the sense of these extra-curricular type activities."
Dollar said that the school administration and staff have also been working to enhance the 6th-grade educational program, as that grade posted the lowest CRCT results in MMS.
"Those teachers have been spending a significant amount of their summer in trying to get prepared for this group of students," Dollar said. "Our teachers have been involved in assessments for learning, co-teaching and more."While there were some gains made on the CRCT, Dollar said the MMS personnel will focus to show even greater results in 2009-2010.
"For me, the emphasis is on improving scores of the students on the CRCT, in particular the sixth grade and the subgroup ‘students with disabilities.' There are two areas of emphasis for me personally."We want to close the gap that exists in how our students are performing in comparison with the state in all areas -- unless we're ahead of the state," he clarified. "Then, we want to increase the gap."

Courtesy of Metter Advertiser