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Bowdon High School was founded in 1854, along with a primary school for the children of the town of Bowdon and surrounding areas. Presently Bowdon High School sits on the site of Bowdon College, the first co-ed college in Georgia which opened in 1857. After several closings and reopenings, Bowdon College closed its doors permanently in 1936. At that time the property was deeded to Carroll County Schools and became the home of Bowdon High School. More information about our school can be found on page 13 of the Profile.
When the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) came to Bowdon High School in October of 2000, they noted that facilities and technological needs at the school were lacking. The report states, “To fully implement the school improvement plan, computers and software (or other relevant technology) should be added, upgraded, and updated as funds allow.”
Many improvements have taken place at Bowdon High School since that time. A major four million dollar renovation project enhanced the school drastically adding new front office space, improving the kitchen and enlarging the cafeteria, adding a greenhouse and a new football stadium, and completely rebuilding our media center. The external improvements allowed for new plumbing, heating, cooling and wiring throughout the school complex. The school is now completely wired with fiber optic cabling which networks all computers and televisions to the telecenter housed in our media center.
In November of 2004 Bowdon High School began preparations for the upcoming re-accreditation process. Carroll County Schools contracted with Rebecca Reeves to guide all schools in the district through the procedure using state approved formats. After attending training sessions, the School Improvement Team started working to compile the necessary information.
The School Improvement Team completed the documentation after a thorough evaluation of its data, programs, and instructional techniques. The team consulted with faculty members and gathered information from all school stakeholders in formulating the new document, which is comprised of three parts: Profile, School Improvement Plan, and Summary of Standards.
The Profile document is packed with statistical data covering all aspects of the educational program at Bowdon High School. Some of the information includes student body makeup, retention rate, free and reduced lunch data, test score results, and pass rates subject by subject for the past two years.
The School Improvement Plan details our plan for raising the rate of achievement in our school. We have four plans that focus on each of the four core subject areas of language arts, mathematics, science and social studies and a fifth plan that addresses the graduation rate and attendance.
The final part, Summary of Standards, is a synopsis of how Bowdon High School meets each of these criteria. Understandably, it is virtually impossible to cover every aspect of our school in any document. The School Improvement Team diligently collaborated with faculty and auxiliary support staff to come to a consensus on how Bowdon High School meets each of the standards required by SACS.
The faculty and staff of Bowdon High School are looking forward to moving into the future under the framework of this new document. The guidelines set forth reflect the core values of the school in preparing students to excel in a global world. |