August 6, 2012

Dear Dobbs Family,

I hope you have enjoyed a wonderful summer break and are looking forward to starting an exciting new school year at J. W. Dobbs. We are certainly ready for your return and look forward to having our students back in school.

The new school year will bring us several new changes and some of these are:

o   We are no longer part of SRT 2; we will now be part of the South Atlanta High School cluster, with our students matriculating to Long Middle School after their fifth grade year.

o   Coaches will be assigned to grade levels and will be content neutral. Their focus will be on support, modeling, assessment, and RTI. Each coach will handle grade level SST meetings with the goal of smaller caseloads enabling students to be better served by the process.

o   The Common Core Curriculum will drive instruction in Reading, ELA and Math. This transition will be supported by the district, which will provide comprehensive lesson plans for the first units of instruction in all content areas.

o   We are no longer a Needs Improvement School thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Dobbs Staff.

o   Remember we are a Uniform School. Students should wear navy(blue) or khaki(brown) pants or skirts and white or navy(blue) tops.

As a school and district we have witnessed several changes and endured the “perfect storm”. Looking at the initial testing data from 2012 we have experienced an increase in student achievement, but we still have much work to do, especially in the areas of math and science. We will continue to build upon our achievements from last year as we look forward to making J.W. Dobbs the premiere Atlanta Elementary School, where ALL students succeed and failure is not an option.

Welcome to an exciting new school Year.

Pete Settelmayer, Principal

“That is true in life. One sees what one permits his eyes to see. If he looks down it's the mud and if he looks up, it's the stars. I have always tried to look up.” J.W. Dobbs