There were several special recognitions at the Coffee County Board of Education’s March 23rd School Board Meeting. Recognitions included three teams from Coffee High and several schools for their recent achievements.
Under the direction of Coffee High School teacher Rodney Ragsdale, two groups have recently advanced to national and world competitions. The VEX robotics team, Team 1253, advanced to the World Championships in Louisville, Kentucky on April 18-22, 2017. This is the second time CHS robots have made it to the World Championships; the last time was 2012. There are 540 robots competing in this year’s tournament, nineteen of which are from Georgia. The members of the team include Diego Escobar, Xavion Woodberry, Gina Ornelas (Seniors); Alana Atkinson (Junior); Netra Gandhi, Edvin Najarro, Cheyanne Stone (Sophomores); Samina Patel, Ashni Patel, Leana Atkinson, and Paulina Escobar (Freshmen).
The other group recognized entered a TSA biomedical technology project and won first in the state. The group advances to the national competition at Orlando in June. The project of Samina Patel, Ashni Patel, Leana Atkinson and Alana Atkinson detailed the ethical issues involved in vaccines, the efficacy of vaccines on making society safer and many of the other myriad of issues involved in managing infectious diseases. Samina and Leana won Nationals last year as middle schoolers on a different topic and the four hope to do it again.
Sponsors of both TSA and VEX include: Southwire Douglas Plant, Brooks Auto/NAPA, Eagle Lake Bone Pickers, Lott Properties, PCC Airfoils, LLC, Elixer Doors, Elixer Extrusions, Harper Construction Co, S. Ga Dentistry, Williams Institutional Foods, Charles E. Lewis Construction, Douglas National Bank, Sunbelt Greenhouses, The Kevin and Christy Ingram Family.
George Washington Carver Freshman Campus students Ashni Patel and Samina Patel are FBLA members who competed at the state FBLA Conference in Emerging Business Issues. Their placement at the state conference has qualified them to compete at the National FBLA Conference in Anaheim, California. Ms. Brandy Barlow is their adviser.
The Georgia Department of Education recently released its 2016-2017list of Title I Reward Districts and Reward Schools. Westside Elementary was recognized for being named a Highest Performing School and Broxton-Mary Hayes, Nicholls, and West Green Elementary schools were recognized for being named High Progress Schools.
Also recognized was Coffee High School for being named an AP 2017 AP Honors School in the categories of AP Stem Schools, AP STEM Achievement Schools, and AP Humanities Schools.