History

Willis Road Elementary opened in the fall of 2002. Located in the eastern part of the county, Willis Road Elementary serves 715 students in grades prekindergarten through fifth grade. Our students' racial ethnicities include 75% white, 11.7% Hispanic 7.8% black, and 5% other. Forty percent of our students are identified as economically disadvantaged and more than 22% of our students are identified as gifted. Willis Road’s faculty and staff consists of fifty two certified teachers, fifteen classified paraprofessionals, one nurse one secretary, two clerks, one counselor, two assistant principals, and a principal dedicated to the education and individual success of each student.

Willis Road Elementary is in the heart of Sharpsburg, Georgia and has a close relationship with its community. Since WRES opened, it has focused on bringing both exceptional educational opportunities to students and building a close bond with those in our local community. Receiving a 5 Star Climate Rating from the Georgia Department of Education in 2014, Willis Road strives to promote a positive environment both inside and outside of the school. Over the fourteen years of operation, our students and teachers have been recognized for academic and civic success. Our test scores consistently demonstrate excellence in teaching and learning. WRES is also a six-year Grand Champion for the school system in support of the Council on Aging’s Meals on Wheels program.

Willis Road Elementary School's unique opportunities include serving a diverse population of families that have made the eastern area of Coweta home. Willis Road currently houses the English Language Learner program and self-contained Special Education classrooms for our area of the school district. With the inclusion of these programs, Willis Road has added faculty, staff, and students that bring a positive opportunity to all of the Wolfpack.

Present & Future

The vision of Willis Road Elementary School is to ensure the success of each child. We believe, as a learning community, we must continuously improve through a shared commitment to long-term, in-depth professional learning for all teachers and leaders, which thus ensures that all students receive high quality instruction in a supportive learning environment.

We believe, as leaders of learners, we must see students as volunteers in their learning and as a result, are committed to engaging our students in authentic learning experiences through a variety of educational opportunities in order to make learning relevant and meaningful.

We believe the Coweta County School System, in partnership with both family and community must continually focus on providing challenging, applicable, and satisfying work for students by building partnerships between school, home and the community; this allows all stakeholders to be actively engaged in the educational process and instills a common spirit of collaboration.

We believe we are responsible for the success of each student and are committed to developing lifelong learners who graduate college and career ready.

The positive behavioral instructional support system, now a model for both Coweta County and Georgia, embodies the purpose of maintaining high expectations for all students. Known to all of our stakeholders as being a WOLF, this positive behavior system allows students to be continually acknowledged for working hard, owning their behavior, listening and learning, and focusing on respect.

Through this program, Willis Road has tracked a significant decrease in negative behaviors and an increase in positive behaviors. The Willis Road Character Education Program extends the positive behavior system by focusing on weekly character traits that are reinforced through our Channel 6 News team.

Over the past three years, Willis Road has experienced an increase in diversity. The school’s diversity includes more economically disadvantaged families, English as a Second or other language families, transient populations, and special education students. Willis Road also encompasses one of the largest geographic districts within the Coweta County School System, which also presents challenges to the school. Willis Road is meeting these challenges by providing opportunities like ELLNight and Georgia Milestones Training for Families. Building positive relationships is key to the successful climate and positive culture of our school.

With increase in diversity, Willis Road has established many opportunities for students to participate in the school.

Our school achieved Silver STEM Recognition in 2014 with fifty percent of our faculty and staff completing STEM teaching requirements. In 2015, WRES reached the Gold STEM Recognition with 100% of our faculty and staff meeting STEM teaching requirements. Willis Road provides advanced academic opportunities for all students through school-wide STEM days. Willis Road had 5 school-wide days dedicated to STEM education during the 2014-2015 school year and participated in Georgia STEM Day 2014 and 2015. Our school’s Academic Bowl team consistently achieves high ranking in regional competition. All students in grades 3-5 have the option of participating in our school running club-Wolves on the Run. Each semester, students and teachers train to run a 5K race, while promoting positive social, emotional, and physical well-being. The WRES PTO continually works to provide engaging school and community activities such as our annual Back-to-School Movie Night, the holiday tradition of the Wolfpack Holiday Gathering, Pancakes with Santa, Nacho Ordinary School Fine Arts Night, and Spring Fling.

Over the past three years, the world has experienced a technological expansion. Acquisition of technology for students and classroom use has been a challenge. WRES, in working with our PTO, has worked to address a lack of technology. With completion in 2015 of a five year plan, the majority of classrooms are equipped with a Promethean Board and projector. The start of the 2015-2016 school year began a school-wide focus on student technology utilization. Each teacher in CCSS received a Chromebook for their classroom. Willis Road began a pilot program with Google Play for Education that included 30 Nexus tablets. A new Google Chrome lab was installed with 30 student computers. The next goal for improvement in technology is to provide a Chromebook cart for each grade level/ department at WRES. This goal is set to be accomplished during the 2015-2016 school year.

Willis Road has high teacher retention which contributes to a stable and consistent school culture. The culture of Willis Road is warm and welcoming in both positive climate and appealing facilities. Our CCRPI ranking has continually increased, and allowed the school to focus on continuous improvement. This improvement includes academic achievement and a strong emphasis on student success. Closing the achievement gap for our sub-groups is one of our goals over the next three years. Willis Road is attaining this goal through diversity training, providing advanced academic opportunities for all students, providing job-embedded professional learning for our teachers, and promoting building positive relationships through student advocacy.

School Information

Grades: Prek-5

Enrollment: 715

School Colors: Green, Navy Blue, White

Mascot: Wolfpack

Mascot's Name: Wolfgang

School Motto: "It takes a pack to raise a wolf."

Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Accreditation: Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Georgia Accrediting Commission

Mission: CCSS- Coweta Committed to Student Success

Vision: We ensure the success of each student.

Overall Goal: Coweta County School System will provide high-level, engaging work for all learners and

leaders to meet the needs of all stakeholders.

WRES Goal: The goal of Willis Road Elementary School is to achieve educational success at all levels.