There’s a lot going on in the Polk School District over the past few years. From big SPLOST projects adding facilities to Cedartown and Rockmart High Schools and across the district, to new programs that are making a difference in the life of youth.

On this past Tuesday, January 5, Superintendent Laurie Atkins and Superintendent-in-waiting Katie Thomas were both invited to come talk to members of the Polk County Rotary Club for their first meeting of 2021.

Atkins and Thomas provided a presentation and conversation about the district’s response to COVID-19 and numbers of cases found within students and staff (177 by their figures combined) along with expansion of facilities through the use of Special Purpose, Local Option Sales Tax funds that were approved in recent years, plus programs like Graduate Polk and what’s happening with the graduation rate, which is above 90% at Rockmart and increasing into the mid-80% range at Cedartown High School.

Check out the episode in the audio above to enjoy the full presentation provided to the Rotary Club in this second episode of 2021, and feel free to leave a comment below if you want to have more podcast episodes like this available.

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Thanks to the Polk County Rotary Club, Superintendent Laurie Atkins and Assistant Superintendent and PCCCA CEO Katie Thomas for providing the opportunity to share this episode with all.

A brief note not included in today’s audio: the service I’ve been using for Talking Points on Polk.Today has run out of space for new episodes, so I’ll soon be switching to some other system that will make it easier to get Talking Points on Polk.Today episodes, along with the archives. For now, if you’re trying to access the first and second episodes of the podcast posted last year, you’ll need to e-mail me at kevin@polk.today to get it.

Here’s a link to the previous episode with Cedartown City Manager Edward Guzman.