Better Together

We are pleased to announce the three finalists for 2025-26 CCSD Teacher of the Year: Stephanie Lewis of Cedar Shoals High School, Timothy Pritchett of Barnett Shoals Elementary School, and Adrienne White of Barrow Elementary School!

The finalists were chosen from a field of 22 school-level teachers of the year whose applications were evaluated and scored by a district committee in partnership with the Foundation for Excellence in Public Education in Clarke County (FFE). The winner, along with the district Support Professional of the Year, will be announced on Oct. 23 at the district’s Teacher/Support Professional of the Year awards banquet and will receive the FFE’s annual Mae M. Whatley Teacher of the Year and Janis J. Stephens Support Professional of the Year awards. The winning teacher will then go on to compete at the state level.

Read more here and check out a photo gallery from the surprise announcements at each finalist’s school here!

CCSD invites all families, students, staff, and community members to leave a message of support for one or more of our finalists by completing this form! You can also find the form embedded directly or below. Several of the responses will be showcased in the lead-up to the Oct. 23 awards banquet. You may complete this form multiple times if you want to leave a message of support for more than one finalist.

Congratulations to Felicia Barrett, behavior interventionist and After-school Program coordinator at Timothy Road Elementary School, on being named CCSD's October Employee of the Month!

Ms. Barrett was nominated by a parent who praised her not only for always having the children's best interests at heart and going above and beyond to support them, but also for the life-saving measures she took recently at the school when a student began choking on their food in the cafeteria.

Ms. Barrett was surprised at school with the award by Interim Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Scott and was recognized at the monthly Board of Education meeting on Thursday, Oct. 9!

As a reminder, anyone in the community may nominate any full-time CCSD employee with at least one full year of service for this award. Go to bit.ly/CCEmployeeAward to get started! You can also submit your nomination directly in the embedded form below!

At its Thursday, Oct. 9 meeting, the Clarke County Board of Education approved the appointment of John Gilbreath as Assistant Superintendent of Operations. This leadership position oversees the district’s work in the areas of student transportation, school nutrition, maintenance, custodial, and ground services, facility planning and construction, building safety and energy conservation, technology infrastructure services, and facility use and rental services.

Mr. Gilbreath, who has served in the position on an interim basis since August, has been with CCSD for 14 years and has been Director of Facilities Planning and Construction and the district’s E-SPLOST program since 2014.

The board also approved the hires of Damon Allen as Director of Custodial Services and Randall Priest as Sustainability Coordinator for the district.

Read more here.

Cedar Shoals High School senior girls' soccer star Zulma Valdivieso-Gutierrez, who led the entire state (all classifications) in scoring last season with 58 goals, was the featured student-athlete on the Georgia Player Spotlight segment during the Georgia Public Broadcasting high school football game of the week last Friday, Oct. 3! Check out the full video spotlight of this Thriving CCSD Student below!

The inaugural season of the CCSD Elementary School Volleyball League through the Athens Youth Development Initiative is drawing to a close, as regular-season play wrapped up this week and the postseason tournament will be held next week.

All four first-round matches will be played Tuesday, Oct. 14, starting at 4:30 p.m., followed by the semifinals on Wednesday, Oct. 15, starting at 5 p.m., and the championship match on Thursday, Oct. 16, at 6 p.m.

Follow the YDI’s Facebook page and the CCSD Facebook page for bracket updates. Good luck to all teams!

It's time for a new season of the CCSD Elementary School Basketball League through the Athens Youth Development Initiative!

Games will start Monday, Oct. 20, and will be held Monday through Thursday of each week at 4 and 5 p.m. at either the District Office gymnasium, 595 Prince Ave., Athens, or the Whitehead Road Elementary gymnasium, 555 Quailwood Dr., Athens. The regular season will conclude on Thursday, Dec. 11, and be followed by the postseason tournament the following week.

See the full schedule in the photo below and follow the Youth Development Initiative Facebook page for the latest updates!

The CCSD Office of Early Learning will be offering free Child Find screenings for all children in Athens-Clarke County ages 2 years, 6 months to 6 years old this school year on the following dates:

• Oct. 15
• Nov. 12
• Jan. 14
• Feb. 18
• March 18.

Parents/guardians may request to have their child screened at any time, and physicians, therapists, local preschool or daycare providers, or other agencies can also make a referral with parental/guardian permission.

See more information in the attached flyer (available in English and Spanish) below. To schedule an appointment or speak to someone for more information, contact Cynthia Stephens from the Office of Early Learning at 706-357-5239. Or if you have a child from infancy to 2.5 years old who has developmental delays, please contact Babies Can't Wait at 706-369-6101.

CCSD, in partnership with Voices for Georgia's Children, will hold the second annual "Free Your Feels" Youth Mental Health Summit for students ages 12-18 on Saturday, Oct. 25, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Athens Community Career Academy, 440-1 Dearing Ext., Athens.

This *FREE* event will include peer-to-peer interaction opportunities to students, information about mental health resources available to them in their school and in the community, food, yoga, and more fun activities.

Please register at this link or by scanning the code in the flyer above.

CCSD's Family Advisory Board has several openings and invites interested parents and guardians to join. The board is made up of representatives from every elementary, middle, and high school in CCSD. Its purpose is to advise the administration on issues related to the overall success of the district.

Schools that currently don't have a representative include Barnett Shoals, Bettye H. Holston, Fowler Drive, Gaines, and J.J. Harris elementary schools, Coile Middle, and Classic City High. Schools that could use one more representative include Barrow, Cleveland Road, Howard B. Stroud, Johnnie Lay Burks, and Whit Davis elementary schools, Burney-Harris-Lyons, Clarke, and Hilsman middle schools, and Cedar Shoals and Clarke Central high schools.

The board meets quarterly, and its next scheduled meeting is Wednesday, Nov. 19. Those interested in serving should email ccsd.parentab@gmail.com.

The monthly Parent Institute newsletter, available in English and Spanish with early childhood, elementary, middle, and high school versions, is intended to:

• help families effectively support their children's education at home
• provide practical, proven information families can act on right away
• offer guidance on a comprehensive array of school success topics
• reinforce the importance of the school-home partnership.

Click the buttons below to access each version!

The Clarke County Board of Education welcomes community feedback. Here are ways you can share your voice:

• Contact BOE Members: Click here to view a list of the BOE members and their contact information.
• Find Your Board Member: Use Athens-Clarke County's online voter information tool at www.accgov.com/voterinfo to enter your address and find your BOE member and your other elected representatives.
• Attend a Meeting: The board's next scheduled meeting is Thursday, November 13, with the work session beginning at 5 p.m., followed by the regular meeting at 7 p.m. All meetings are held in the Vernon Payne Meeting Hall at the CCSD administrative offices building, located at 595 Prince Ave. in Athens. The public is invited to attend meetings in person. Meetings are also streamed live and are available for on-demand viewing on the CCSD YouTube channel. Click here for the board meeting schedule.
• Agendas: Click here to access board meeting agendas.
• Board Briefs: Click to read the "Board Briefs" overview from meetings.
  
• Public Comments: Click here for information on how to sign up to speak at a BOE meeting.
• Review Policies for Review: View and comment on district policies pending public review.

Celebrate International Archaeology Day at the Georgia Museum during the museum's monthly Family Day on Saturday, Oct. 11! The free event will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at the museum, 90 Carlton St. Participate in a mini-archaeological dig and make your own fantastical clay beast inspired by the museum's Chinese mingqi collection. For more information, go to georgiamuseum.org.

The Women's Council of Realtors of Athens will host a Fall Festival on Sunday, Oct. 19, from 4-7 p.m. at Titan Realty, 400 Hawthorne Lane, Athens. This free event will include a trunk-or-treat, line dancing with broker Shawna Huff of Huff Realty, vendors, face-painting, and other fun and family-friendly activities. Those in attendance are encouraged to either wear a costume or wear pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The University of Georgia volleyball team will have its 10K Day promotional match against Alabama at Stegeman Coliseum on Friday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. Admission is free! The first 1,000 fans through the doors will receive a free 10K Day T-shirt. There will also be a Kids' Zone with a photo booth, face-painting, balloon artist, and more! For more information, go to georgiadogs.com.

Registration is open for the Athens YMCA's winter youth programs, which run November through mid-February, and special holiday camps.

Winter youth programming options will include:

• basketball (grades K-10)
• basketball cheerleading (grades K-5)
• swim lessons (ages 6-12)
• ballet and tap dancing (ages 5-7)
• indoor soccer (grades 2-9)
• Y-Quest (grades K-8).

Holiday activity camps will also be held Nov. 24-25 and Dec. 22-23 and 29-30.

For more information, click here and see the attached flyers below!

Anyone in the community may sign up for email and/or text notifications from the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government in a wide variety of categories with more than 100 different options. Visit accgov.com/notifyme and select the list you'd like to sign up for.