State superintendent presents honors at Lakeview Primary

Mar. 16—Each school has a principal. Each school district has a superintendent. The entire state of Georgia and all of its districts and schools has one principal/superintendent type.

Students at Lakeview Primary School gathered in the media center Thursday and learned

that lesson as their local superintendent, Dr. Noris Price, introduced that one superintendent for all those districts.

Richard Woods, the Georgia Superintendent of Schools, was in Milledgeville to present state honors that only go to a chosen few.

He recognized Gina Whitaker, Price's administrative assistant, as the 2023 Georgia RISE (Recognizing Inspiring School Employees) Award winner, and also a group of Lakeview Primary teachers and students who put together a standout submission in the Georgia Department of Education's "Cooking Up Academics" video contest.

Price asked the students if they remember what a superintendent does, and one replied, "The boss of all the schools!"

"Couldn't have said it better myself," she responded.

"(I) make sure you have everything you need and your teachers have everything they need," said Price.

She went on to introduce Woods as the one who does that for Baldwin County's schools plus hundreds of more throughout the state.

"We have about 2,300 schools," said Woods to the students directly. "We have about 1.7 million (students) who go to the schools. You are a part of that group.

"We will be celebrating our students, but also we get to celebrate one of our adults."

Woods talked about the Georgia RISE Award as one that recognizes those who work behind the scenes and play important roles in the operation of a school. He said this includes school resource officers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, front office staff and the central office. The Georgia RISE Award is presented by the governor in conjunction with the Department of Education.

"We probably have almost 400,000 people who work in our school systems," said Woods. "We only give this to two people. This is a pretty big deal. This is going to someone you may or may not know. This goes to Gina Whitaker."

Woods congratulated Whitaker while also giving her a Departmental Challenge Coin showing the theme "All In."

"I do things like helping with the board meetings we have every month," said Whitaker. "I help with the convocation we have every year, the Back to School Bash that you attend. Remember where you get all the supplies, and we get to have lunch together? This weekend we are going to have the Distinguished Alumni gala. I help the superintendent with that. I also support our departments and principals. When I do that job for all those individuals, it also helps you in your classrooms. It's one team and one mission."

The "Math Gobbler Turkey Wrap" video, the other reason for Superintendent Woods' visit, received first place at the state level and included students, parents and faculty Lakeview Primary.

Dawn Scott, family engagement specialist for the middle region of the DOE, said Georgia celebrates Family Engagement Month in November, and last year they decided to do something different, a video contest. They decided to look at food-based learning and family engagement, and Scott thanked Shonya Mapp, Baldwin's family engagement coordinator, for putting Lakeview Primary's entry together.

"We wanted to get students from all the grade levels (at LVP)," said STEM teacher Brittany Nichols. "Moms and aunts came to help.

"The students really loved being hands-on and getting the chance to experience cooking. We wanted to make a video that was something we could send out to parents ... something they could easily do at home. It involves no stove, no oven, but just ingredients they probably had around the house. It was right around Thanksgiving, so that's why we picked turkey. It was something they could do with leftovers.

"With the learning and the cooking of this turkey wrap, there was so much math they had to do, fractions, they counted and they added. They had to follow directions. Our everyday experiences at home ... we wanted to showcase it doesn't have to be a huge production, it's just what you are doing."

The students who were in the video were dressed in full chef's gear, hat and apron, and part of their award from Woods was another special "Cooking Up Academics" apron.

"Getting our parents involved is extremely important," said Woods. "I cannot say enough about the more parent involvement we have, the better we will perform in schools. I love the concept. It is a total package of what we're doing."