Weakley County Students go Back to School
School starts back county-wide for students on Wednesday, August 7. Registration for schools was held on Friday, August 2 and schools across the county were packed with new and incoming students and their parents.
With the new school year now underway, Weakley County Schools will once again provide free breakfast and lunch for all students in the system. This stems from the district qualifying to participate in the Community Eligibility Program (CEP), which is a universal meal plan under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). This program allows eligible districts and schools to provide free meals to students with no charge regardless of status.
This comes as no surprise after Weakley County scored 6th in the state for the overall state of its children, according to the KIDS Count report released this month by the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth. The organization ranked each county in Tennessee based on data relative to four factors - economic well-being, family and community, health and education.
The county’s strongest area was Education where the county ranked 6th place overall. Weakley’s strongest indicator is the 3rd to 8th grade reading proficiency where the county ranked 6th, moving up from 9th and 3rd to 8th grade math proficiency where the county ranked 10th moving up from 12th.
According to a Facebook post by Weakley County Schools, Dresden Elementary first grade students started out the school year last fall with 35% of students reading in the categories of average, above average, or well above average on the Aimsweb Universal Screener. In December, first grade teachers and students came together with a united goal to increase that percentage to 70% by May 2024. The group tracked their growth on a fluency rocket in the hall each week so that students could see their progress. The Aimsweb screener scores for May were recently released, and the percentage has soared to 72%! Out of this world! The teachers had a banner made in celebration of exceeding their goal in this phenomenal achievement. Congratulations and job well done to all of the DES first grade students and teachers Britne Mansfield, Anna Eaton, Michelle Williams, Kaitlin Kemp, Melissa Sides, and Instructional Coach Honey Teague.
Out of 145 districts across Tennessee, the Weakley County School district ranked 11th highest in 3rd Grade scores, 18th highest in 4th Grade scores and 12th highest in 5th Grade scores.
These results are based on the 2023-24 TCAP/EOC achievement data.
The school district has also ranked 8th in Tennessee for the highest percentage of graduating seniors scoring 21 or higher on the ACT exam, according to the TN Commission on Children and Youth recently released county profile.
New educators to the Weakley County Schools District this year include Aalia Bivens, DHS, Alissa Bennett, Districtwide, Amber Tate, MPS, Andrea Webb, MES, Annalise Williams, MPS, Colby Eddlemon, MPS, Dallas Gurley, MPS, Jeremy Lannom, DMS, Jenny Lehmkuhl, GS, Jake Sisk, MMS, Griff Strode, DHS, Fatima Plascencia, WHS, Dean Davidson, DHS, Danielle Kersten, DES, Kaitlyn Marrs, GHS, Ryan Austin, DMS, Kristen Bell, WHS, Stacey Rubenacker, MES, Kyle Coleman, WHS, Victoria Owen, MES, Madeline Gray, DES, Wendy Puckett, MPS, Will Crawford, WHS, Madison Mitchell, Districtwide, Rianna Farnetti, Districtwide, and Ruth Oelrich, Districtwide.
Wednesday, May 21 will be the last day for students.
