Superintendent Reaches Out to the Community

In a different type of approach to community outreach, new Leyton School Superintendent Chris Geary held meetings in Gurley and Dalton last week.

Geary’s “Superintendent Scoop” meetings, which he plans to hold three times a year, seek to open more of a line of communication between community members and the superintendent. By making himself available this way, Geary said he hopes to understand the community’s needs better.

“I want to be available to the community,” Geary said at the first of last week’s meetings, held in Gurley. “I want to talk about you and talk about everything that’s important to you.”

It didn’t take long for those attending to give their opinions about the possibility that Leyton Junior High students might be moved to the high school building in Dalton. Those students currently walk the halls at Leyton’s Gurley site, and parents share their concerns over the possible move.

The idea was floated in the last Leyton School newsletter.

“We are fortunate in Leyton to have two excellent facilities,” Geary told those in attendance. “I would like to see us grow our school and hopefully some day we may need that room.”

Geary admitted that growing the school is ambitious, “because we can’t expand our district boundaries. We would have to do it by continuing to improve and drawing people here.”

Those attending also gave Geary their views on cell phones in the classroom, the building of a new track, and volunteerism from parents and the community, among other subjects.

Nearly two dozen residents took advantage of the chance to meet in the informal session, which Geary felt was a success.

“We got a lot of good input here tonight,” he said in closing.

Geary plans to continue to hold the meetings, one each semester during the school year, and once during the summer.