DALTON, Ga. — Thursday’s Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce breakfast spotlighting K-12 education in the community lacked the traditional speeches of superintendents or administrators prattling off test scores or focusing on Georgia Milestones Assessments. For the most part, they stayed seated and enjoyed their biscuits and orange juice while others stood in the spotlight.

Instead, the program allowed local students involved in some of the area’s more innovative programs to tell their stories and their successes. Chamber Executive Board Member Chuck Dobbins said it was one of the better programs the chamber has held in its Good Morning Dalton program.

“If you don’t feel better about our local educational programs, you must have been sleeping,” Dobbins said to a round of applause as he closed out the program.

The program was even expanded beyond its K-12 focus as student teachers in the education program at Dalton State College were included in the presentations, which featured students and programs in Whitfield County Schools, Dalton Public Schools and Christian Heritage School. 

Among the presenters in the program were Christian Heritage students Morgan Branham and Megan Higgins. Higgins talked about international humanitarian programs the school has conducted that had raised more than $70,000 in three years. Students have taken work-study trips to Swaziland and Jamaica and will be working on a footbridge over a river in Haiti.

Branham’s presentation was on the Prefect Program at CHS which has done away with a traditional student council and instead has student leaders who have real power in the direction of the school, discussions of the school’s future and implementation of new policies.

Dalton High School freshman Santos Moreno Jr. spoke to the chamber representatives about the Realizing Educational Achievement Can Happen (REACH) program of Dalton Public Schools. Santos was selected as an eighth-grader for the needs-based mentoring and scholarship program. Students who are selected for the program are awarded a $10,000 scholarship upon successful completion of the program and graduation from high school. Last year, four students were selected for the inaugural class of REACH students. 

Brookwood Elementary School teacher Claire Kyser and first-grader Lauren Daniel gave a presentation on the school’s German language immersion program. In its second year, the program has 85 students in kindergarten and first grade who spend half their day learning in English and the other half learning in German. 

Dalton State student teachers Rebecca Winkler and Stephen Spence went over the Power Lunches program. Those in the education program at the college have worked over the summer with students in conjunction with the Whitfield County summer lunch programs to teach literacy lessons to help prepare students for the new school year. 

Also, Joshua Dunagan and Jared Hardin spoke about the Advanced Manufacturing and Business Management Academy at the Northwest Georgia College Career Academy. The internship programs allow students to work from 20 to 29 hours a week during their final two years of high school and provides coaching, mentoring and training from the host companies. Dunagan and Hardin both are interns at Shaw Industries. 

 “Clearly this was focused on the students and their stories,” Dobbins said. “We wanted to hear directly from the students on the different types of programs available for students which a lot of business leaders might not even be aware of in many cases. They did a good job of demonstrating the excellent opportunities for students throughout the area to be part of something bigger than just reading, writing and arithmetic.”

Whitfield County Schools superintendent Judy Gilreath said “They got to see and hear from the students themselves and see what they are doing and the good things that the systems here are doing for our students and our community.”