Education

Editor’s note: This is the first of a weekly series highlighting students at each of the schools in Carroll County. The schools will choose a student they would like to recognize, and The News-Democrat will publish their answers to a list of questions and their photo. The schools will appear in the following order: Winn Elementary, Cartmell Elementary, Carroll County Middle School, Carroll County High School and Christian Academy during months with five weeks.

What is your favorite thing about school?

Math and reading group 

State education and public health officials have joined forces to encourage school districts to implement policies that would prohibit the use of tobacco anywhere on school-owned property 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

A letter from Education Commissioner Terry Holliday and Public Health Commissioner William D. Hacker, M.D., sent to superintendents statewide, encourages districts to pass the policy as “the right thing to do for the health of your schools and communities.”

Students on the first day of school in the Carroll County School District were greeted by staff members wearing white T-shirts with a question written on back:  “R U Ready?”

While the shirts suggested a curiosity about whether students are prepared for the 2011-12 school year, they are actually designed with a larger question in mind: Will students who graduate from Carroll County High School, this year and in the future, be prepared for college, a career, and citizenship?