Lee County Schools Care
By Elizabeth Dougherty
When looking for the right home to
buy, there is no question that families with
children care about the schools their kids
will be attending. Lee County schools are
some of the best in the nation. According
to www.auburnschools.org, the offi cial
website for Auburn City Schools, more than
70% of Auburn’s teachers and administrators
hold advanced degrees. They also boast
an overall pupil – teacher ratio of 23-1. In
addition, Opelika City Schools have received
many state and national awards over the
past several years, including a Milken Family
Foundation winner among its teachers and
an award from the American Association of
School Administrators.
The City of Opelika has spent $4
million to update technology at its
schools, and according to the city website,
www.opelika.org, they now have 2,200
computers operating system-wide. Auburn
boasts a computer–student ratio of 3–1 in
grades K-12. Teachers enter attendance,
grades and lesson plans electronically. It’s
obvious Lee County has roared into the 21st
century.
In addition to new technology, Lee
County has made some sweeping changes
to their school lunches over the past few
years, all for the better. Recently, our paper
reported that several Lee County administrators
traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend
a fi ve-day national conference with the
most up-to-date information and trends in
nutrition and lunch programs in schools.
Some recent items served in Opelika schools
include healthy items like chicken stir fry,
BBQ chicken legs and vegetable beef soup.
Back in November 2006, a new kitchen was
installed at Auburn Early Education Center,
where each morning, Nancy, the kitchen
manager, fi res up the Combi ovens and
begins preparing lunch for nearly 500 each
day.
Since I have a preschooler of my own,
I personally sampled a lunch there one day,
and I was impressed. The entrée of spaghetti
with meat sauce was made from scratch. The
salad had plenty of fresh vegetables, including
broccoli. Green beans and pineapple
chunks rounded out the meal. It was probably
the healthiest meal I ate that day, and I
guess that’s the point. The school lunch program
is designed to ensure kids eat at least
one nutritionally complete meal per day.
Extracurricular activities sometimes
tend to be overlooked in school budgets, but
not so in Lee County. In Auburn, the music
program includes both band and choral
departments. Opelika High School’s drama
program students regularly perform at the
Opelika Center for the Performing Arts. Athletic
programs in both Auburn and Opelika
are highly competitive and too numerous to
list.
So if you are a parent concerned about
education, like I am, rest assured that Lee
County teachers and administrators are just
as driven to provide your children with the
best education, technology and creative arts
available. And the food’s not bad either.
Elizabeth Dougherty, a resident of Auburn,
is a former Real Estate Broker and
Mortage Broker. She can be reached at
EADougherty1@aol.com
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