Whitfield County Schools Superintendent Mike Ewton said he’s heard the same question many times: “What do you do in the summer?”
“A lot of people might assume that we don’t have much going on when it’s one of the busiest times for us outside of the classroom,” Ewton said. “They wouldn’t have a way of knowing what all goes on in a school system unless they had something to do with it. It’s up to us to tell the story.”
On Wednesday, June 19, Ewton and other school system officials intend to do just that during a ribbon cutting and grand opening ceremony for the system’s new district office at 3264 Cleveland Highway.
The event, which begins at 3 p.m. and is open to the public, will give attendees the opportunity to learn in-depth about the school system and the new office locations in the old North Whitfield Middle School.
“During the renovation process to the old North Whitfield, we’ve had a lot of public interest from people wanting to come in and see it,” Ewton said. “We’ve had everyone ranging from former students to former teachers to just people curious in the community wanting to know what’s going on and what it looks like inside.”
Ewton said school officials will provide insights on the building while recognizing key people involved in the renovation.
“We’ll talk about the building, the concept behind it and the reason for merging most of our buildings together,” Ewton said. “Then throughout that afternoon there will be office tours where we’ll get to talk about the different functions of all of our departments.”
The office tours, which are scheduled for 3:30 to 6 p.m., will be conducted by staff members in each department, Ewton said.
“There will be some tours that are guided and some that are self-guided,” he said. “People can walk along and somebody from each department may be standing and saying ‘Hey, come take a look in my office.’ And then that’s the opportunity for people to ask questions.”
The district office opened to the public on May 13 after personnel from the system’s old central office at 1306 S. Thornton Ave. made the move.
Staff from the Student Services Center at 201 E. Tyler St., including enrollment services, moved into the new district office Monday.
Ewton said one of the reasons for the newer, larger district office includes having administrative staff members “all under one roof,” which he called a “big benefit.”
“(Monday), we were able to finish most of the moving,” he said, meaning the Student Services Center would “no longer (be) operational” to the public.
“The warehouse will continue to be, however,” he said. “A small number of employees will stay there to do some technology work. But mostly it will be used for warehouse and logistical work.”
Also remaining separate from the district office is the system’s Operations Center at 1030 Hill Road.
“We’ll still have our bus mechanics and all of the maintenance personnel there, because that’s where the buses are along with the bus garage and all of our backhoes, dump trucks and other equipment,” Ewton said. “We don’t have a place up here for all of that.”
Ewton said the ribbon cutting and office tours will give members of the public the opportunity to be more informed.
“It’s just a good time to ask people to come on up and take a look around,” he said. “The dual purpose is for people to learn more about the school system, because there are a lot of different departments that are really kind of niche areas that the general public may not ever see, whether it’s federal programs, ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), or whatever it may be.”