Represent Your City Wiggins-Lucedale

                    Superintendent is Eager for the start up of       2013-2014 school year

      It is a new and exciting time for the Stone County School District and Superintendent Gwen Miller is eager for the 2013-14 school year to get under way.
Students return to class next Friday and Miller is eager for the full implementation of Common Core State Standards along with new positions created to help teachers with implementing the curriculum.
While this is the first formal year of Common Core, the district has been implementing it for some time.
"We already started the process in our lower grades," she said. "We began implementing the standards in the classroom two years ago."
The two new positions will be filled by former Stone Middle School assistant principal Laura Butler and David Graves, formerly of Hattiesburg High School.
"We have two subject-area supervisors who will work with teachers on curriculum and instruction at the secondary level," Miller said. "Structural support was already in place at the elementary level."
Butler will provide supervision in the language arts and social studies while Graves will work with mathematics and science.
Miller is also excited about a new robotics program which will meet the state's Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics requirements while also providing students to compete against their peers at different competitions throughout the school year.
She said the school district has also been constantly updating its technology to help meet 21st Century demands.
The school district will also now offer an Allied Health II class to complement the Allied Health I course which has been in place for several years.
Miller was proud of senior Sherry Jones, who finished in the top 10 at the HOSA National Convention with her extemporaneous writing.
Another change, this one non-academic, came about when the Mississippi High School Activities Association redistricted and placed Stone High back in a coast division.
Gone are the two-hour bus trips to Jackson and Pearl for football games and the long trip to Wayne County in all sports.
Now, all district opponents will be located in the six coastal counties.
"We are so excited about the opportunity to be closer to home and competing with the surrounding school districts," Miller said. "I believe it is not only economically, but competitively, advantageous to our district."