Looking for the perfect weekend plans? Come out and support the local arts scene at the Cedar Valley Arts Festival at historic Peek Park in Cedartown! We are thrilled to announce that our very own Polk School District students will have their incredible artwork on display throughout the weekend.
Take a stroll through the festival and make sure to stop by the tennis courts to see the creativity, hard work, and talent of our student artists from participating schools across the district.
📅 Festival Hours:
Saturday, April 25, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday, April 26, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
📍 Location:
Historic Peek Park, Cedartown, Georgia
Whether you’re there for the professional exhibits, the festival food, family fun, or to cheer on our student creators, it’s going to be a fantastic weekend in our community. We can't wait to see you there!
#psdproud #CedarValleyArtsFestival #SupportTheArts
Earlier this morning, Cedartown High School received a bomb threat. Law enforcement responded immediately and conducted a thorough search of the campus. The school has been cleared by police, and students have safely returned to class.
The safety of our students and staff remains our top priority, and we appreciate the quick response of law enforcement as well as the patience and cooperation of our students, staff, and families.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
Congratulations to our 2026 Classified Employees of the Year:
✨ Cedartown High School – Dana Johnson
✨ Rockmart High School – Nan Suppes
✨ Polk County College & Career Academy – Jennifer Racine
✨ Cedartown Middle School – Vicki West
✨ Rockmart Middle School – Connie Fields
✨ Cherokee Elementary School – Joyce Hall
✨ Eastside Elementary School – Shelby Tanner
✨ Northside Elementary School – Gabriela Garcia
✨ Van Wert Elementary School – Ashlei Pace
✨ Westside Elementary School – Henzlee Ayers
✨ Youngs Grove Elementary School – Tanner Arnold
Thank you for your outstanding contributions and for the vital role you play in supporting student success every day. We are grateful for each of you and proud to celebrate your achievements!
We would like to thank James W. Buckley & Associates, Inc. for sponsoring our luncheon and gifts.
#PSDProud #ExcellenceInEducation #EmployeeoftheYear
Families play a powerful role in helping children become strong readers! Building early literacy skills doesn’t have to be complicated—simple, everyday activities can make a big difference.
Here is a short journal article describing ways that families promote early literacy: https://files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/4056/Psd/c0e6c207-f8b4-4098-89b6-625bdfe84ae3/Seven-Research-Based-Ways-That-Families-Promote-Early-Literacy.pdf?disposition=inline
💙 Strong readers start with strong support at home. Thank you, PSD families, for partnering with us to build a lifelong love of reading!
Congratulations, Caroline! We can’t wait to see how you use this grant to continue making a positive impact and better serve your students.
#PolkRetiredEducatorsAssociation #PSDProud
In addition, we recognized the CHS International Debate Team for their incredible accomplishment of becoming Parliamentary Debate World Congress Champions earlier this year in Japan. 🌏🎤
Congratulations to these amazing students and their coaches on their outstanding achievements. We are proud of the way you represent our schools and community! 👏
PCCCA – Cedartown
• Zaylan Voils – 1st Place, First Aid/CPR
Advisors: Callie Truett and Cassandra Jiles
• Edwin Jacinto-Escobar – 1st Place, Barbering
Advisors: Jill Parker and Leeanne Porterfield
PCCCA – Rockmart
• Amiyah Simmons – 1st Place, Intro to Personal Care Testing
Advisor: Anna Williams
• Jacey Dover – 1st Place, Nursing Assistant
Advisor: Kristin Pizano
Congratulations to these talented students and their dedicated advisors for representing Polk County with excellence. We are proud of your hard work and accomplishments! 🎉
#skillsusa #psdproud #PCCCA
Our board members serve countless hours to make thoughtful decisions that support our students, staff, and community. Their leadership, dedication, and commitment to our students help shape the future of our schools every day.
Please join us in thanking our School Board members for their service and for their continued support of quality education. 👏📚
Left to right: Drew Williams, Dr. Rita Carter, Jeff Hawkins, Bernard Morgan, Vickie Mayes, Britt Madden, Dr. Judi Renshaw.
Don't forget to set your clocks forward 1 hour tonight!
What an incredible year for Rockmart Wrestling! Our team has competed with heart, grit, and determination—and the results speak for themselves:
🏆 2026 AA Dual State Champions - 5th Consecutive Title
🏆 6AA Dual Area Champions
🏆 6AA Area Traditional Champions
💪 15 Individual State Qualifiers
And a HUGE congratulations to our 2026 State Champion at 113 lbs weight class — Eli Bowman! 🥇👑
Eli’s hard work, discipline, and relentless drive led him to the top of the podium, earning the ultimate title of State Champion. This is an outstanding accomplishment and a moment of pride for our entire school and community!
We are incredibly proud of every wrestler who stepped on the mat this season. Your dedication represents the very best of Rockmart High School! ❤️🖤
#PSDProud #RockmartWrestling #StateChampions
We are proud to celebrate the incredible achievement of the Cedartown High School International Debate Team for earning the title of Parliamentary Debate World Congress Champions!
Congratulations to Anna Vainrib, Armando Penaloza, Ande Kate Roper, and Coach Jennifer Cupp on this outstanding accomplishment. The team went an impressive 6–0, competing against teams from Mongolia, three schools in Japan (Kobe, Aichi, and Tokai), as well as Hungary and New Zealand.
Not only did they demonstrate exceptional skill and preparation, but they also represented our community and our country with grace, integrity, and pride.
We commend these students and their coach for their dedication, hard work, and commitment to excellence. We are incredibly proud of this remarkable achievement! 🎉👏
#PSDProud
On Friday, January 30, 2026, Polk School District proudly hosted a Champions Lunch to recognize our fall sports State Champions. Students were treated to a special luncheon at Cherokee Country Club as we celebrated their outstanding achievements.
We were excited to honor:
📣 Cedartown High School Gameday Cheer — 4A State Champions
🐄 Easton Cole (Rockmart High School) — 1st Place in Showmanship at the Georgia State Fair in Perry, GA
Congratulations to these incredible students for representing our district with excellence, dedication, and pride. We are so proud of you! 👏
Polk School District is excited to announce our Pre-K/Kindergarten registration dates for the 2026-2027 school year!
✶Monday, February 23, 2026
✶Monday, March 2, 2026
✶Monday, March 9, 2026
Please be sure to carefully review the requirements listed on the attached flyer.
✶Students will not be able to register without a legal parent/guardian present*
✶Legal parent/guardian MUST have a valid photo ID**
✶You must provide a valid proof of residency
✶All current pre-k students MUST register for kindergarten
***Students MUST register at their zoned elementary school***
Please contact the school for which you are zoned if you have any questions.
📅 June 3–10, 2027
Ready for the trip of a lifetime?! ✈️
This is your chance to explore Costa Rica and experience ADVENTURE like never before!
⚡ Imagine this:
🌿 Exploring lush rainforests
🚣 Kayaking on Lake Arenal
🧗 Zip lining through the jungle canopy
🐊 A real Jungle Crocodile Safari
🌉 Walking across hanging bridges
♨️ Observing natural hot springs
And much, much more!
📣 Interest Meetings (DON’T MISS THESE!):
📍 CHS – January 22nd @ 6:00 PM
OR
📍 RHS – February 5th @ 6:00 PM
Grab your friends, bring your family, and come hear all about it!
🌎 This is more than a trip — it’s an experience you’ll never forget.
There is an interest sign up sheet in the RHS Commons Area.
👉 PURA VIDA!
Polk School District families are invited to a free community resource event hosted by Victory Baptist Church to help families replenish essentials for the second semester!
This event is open to all Polk County families and will offer:
✔️ School supplies
✔️ Hygiene products
✔️ Clothing
✔️ Food pantry items
✔️ Free haircuts
✔️ Backpacks
📅 Date: January 31, 2026
⏰ Time: 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
📍 Hosted by: Victory Baptist Church
🎉 Cost: FREE
We are grateful to our community partners for supporting our students and families as we head into the second half of the school year. 💙
We hope to see you there!
Congratulations to our 2025-2026 Polk School District Spelling Bee winner, Jaxon Landrum! Jaxon is an eighth-grade student at Cedartown Middle School and will advance to compete in the Regional Spelling Bee on February 28 at Georgia Highlands College.
We are extremely proud of all our District Spelling Bee competitors. Two students from each of the district’s six elementary schools and two middle schools competed, reflecting impressive preparation and academic achievement.
We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to our Spelling Bee Coordinator, Dr. Melanie Hyde; Caller, Holly Amerman; and Judges—Debbie Ross, Tim Rowell, and Maria Garland. Your time, commitment, and support made this event possible, and we are truly grateful for all you do for our students.
A special thank you to our Spelling Bee sponsor, the Polk County Rotary Club. We are grateful for your continued support of our students and schools!
2025-2026 School Representatives:
Cedartown Middle School:
Winner - Jaxon Landrum - District Winner
Alternate - Zachary Quiahua
Rockmart Middle School:
Winner - Jacob Mendez
Alternate - Jesalie Bush
Cherokee Elementary School:
Winner - Gatlin Hooper
Alternate - Jett Addison
Eastside Elementary School:
Winner - Elijah Belcher
Alternate - Savannah Rutledge
Northside Elementary School:
Winner - Jeremiah Sisson
Alternate - Gael Pineda Ortiz
Van Wert Elementary School:
Winner - Anna Shepard - District Runner-Up
Alternate - James Odom
Westside Elementary School:
Winner - Daven Maddux
Alternate - Boone Burgess
Youngs Grove Elementary School:
Winner - Makalyn Grimes
Alternate - Andres Navarrete Celis
Today, Northwest Georgia RESA Executive Director Brian Otott and Let’s Read, Georgia! Literacy Coach LeAnne Jones presented Polk School District schools with trophies and books in recognition of their outstanding performance in the Let’s Read, Georgia! literacy campaign this fall.
Polk School District finished 1st overall among participating districts, with several schools earning top honors among schools:
🥇 1st Place : Van Wert Elementary – 16,672 books read
🥈 2nd Place: Northside Elementary – 10,049 books read
🥉 3rd Place: Youngs Grove Elementary – 4,500 books read
The Ready, Set, Read! Campaign, held September 1 – October 10, 2025, is a statewide literacy initiative designed to inspire children, families, and educators to read together and celebrate the joy of reading across Georgia. The campaign highlighted the collective commitment of Georgia’s Regional Education Service Agencies to advance literacy through meaningful engagement with school communities.
During the campaign:
📖 More than 60,000 books were logged statewide
🏫 Participation included 167 districts and 548 schools
📚 Over 17,000 unique book titles were read
👨👩👧 Parents logged more than 24,000 read-alouds
Participation was seen across every region of the state, with Let’s Read, Georgia Literacy Coaches, districts, and school communities rising to the top of the leaderboard. Polk School District is proud to be part of this incredible statewide effort to promote literacy and a love of reading.
Be sure to keep an eye out for another Let’s Read, Georgia campaign coming this February—and get ready to read, log, and compete for the top prizes once again! 📚🏆
#letsreadgeorgia #readsetread #nwgaresa #psdproud
At Tuesday’s regular session board meeting, Mrs. Dale Tuck, CEO of the Polk School District Educational Foundation, and Mr. Mark Lumpkin, Superintendent, proudly presented a $5,000 donation to Ms. Patty Rogers and Ms. Joy Hindman with Ferst Readers.
This generous donation will help support children in our community with the gift of literacy every month from birth to age five. To learn more about Ferst Readers or to register a child, please visit their website at ferstreaders.org.❤️
A big thank you to our dedicated educators whose participation in the Casual for a Cause initiative made this contribution possible! 👏
#PSDStrong #CommunitySupport #FerstReaders #CasualForACause #LiteracyMatters
PRESS RELEASE: Polk School District is pleased to announce the results of the 2025 College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI) scores for all schools.
CCRPI was initially conceived by the Georgia Department of Education in 2012 to provide stakeholders with a more comprehensive view of achievement and growth in public schools across the state. It also sought to raise the level of College and Career readiness for Georgia students to be more comparable to other states. While CCRPI has changed nearly every year since its inception, and as such, a comparison between any two years should be considered carefully, it does allow for the direction of progress to be considered.
CCRPI is comprised of four categories: Content Mastery, Progress, Closing Gaps, and Readiness. An additional category, Graduation Rate, is measured at the high school level.
The first category, Content Mastery, considers how students perform on Georgia Milestones Assessments. Calculations for these areas are complex, with weighted averages of student scores considered for each of the four (4) levels of achievement on Georgia Milestones—Beginning (0 pts.), Developing (0.5 pts.), Proficient (1 pt..), and Distinguished (1.5 pts.).
For the Content Mastery area, Polk School District is proud to celebrate the following highlights:
● There was an increase in Content Mastery scores for eight (8) out of our ten (10) schools.
● Five of the six elementary schools and both middle schools experienced more growth than the Georgia state average (0.8 points of growth in elementary schools, 1.6 points of growth in middle schools).
● Youngs Grove Elementary increased nearly 10 points in Content Mastery from 2024 to 2025!
● Cherokee, Northside, Van Wert, and Youngs Grove Elementary Schools, as well as Cedartown High School, all achieved their highest content mastery scores ever!
The second category of CCRPI, Progress, measures students' individual growth by comparing their previous year’s Georgia Milestones test scores with those of students across the state who also scored similarly, and then analyzing how they performed against this group the following year. By measuring individual students' growth, Progress scores give districts a more accurate measure of the direction of students' learning than comparing Content Mastery scores alone. Additionally, a small percentage of the score considers the progress of language learning students from one year to the next toward English language proficiency.
For the Progress area, Polk School District is proud to celebrate the following highlights:
● Five of our elementary schools, both middle schools, and both high schools scored above 80 on this metric, indicating that the vast majority of students made greater progress compared to their peers.
● Cherokee and Van Wert Elementary schools achieved their highest progress scores ever, surpassing the state average, which declined for elementary schools between 2024 and 2025.
The third category of CCRPI, Closing Gaps, considers the yearly progress of subgroups of students, including those who are economically disadvantaged, as well as White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Multi-Racial groups, English-Language Learners, and Students with Disabilities. This measure is designed to help ensure that all groups within a school are growing and to identify any groups that may require additional support.
For the Closing Gaps area, Polk School District is proud to celebrate the following highlights:
● Cherokee and Youngs Grove elementary schools received a perfect 100 score in the Closing Gaps area, demonstrating growth in nearly every subgroup and subject, and far exceeding the Georgia State elementary school average score of 75.
● Northside Elementary also exceeded the State elementary school closing gaps score.
The fourth category of CCRPI, Readiness, considers the elements of school accountability that have been shown to impact students' future success. The measure includes reading comprehension, as measured by Lexile scores, school attendance, and success in fine arts, CTAE, foreign language, and Computer Science courses. At the high school level, this area also measures essential indicators of post-graduate success, such as high school completion of college-level courses (Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment), SAT, ACT, and ASVAB (military-readiness) scores, and earning an industry credential in a CTAE pathway.
For the Readiness area, Polk School District is proud to celebrate the following highlights:
● Northside, Van Wert, Westside, and Youngs Grove Elementary Schools, as well as Rockmart and Cedartown Middle Schools, all achieved their highest Readiness scores ever.
As previously announced, both Cedartown High School and Rockmart High School exceeded the State of Georgia Graduation Rate, and Polk School District achieved its highest graduation rate, the final element of CCRPI for high schools.
More information about CCRPI can be found on the Georgia Department of Education website
