The Golden Isles College and Career Academy has seen its enrollment numbers return to their pre-pandemic levels.
GICCA officials recently reported to the Glynn County Board of Education that the school ended the fall semester with 524 students enrolled. Enrollment numbers in 2020-2021 fell in part because many students were learning virtually for all or part of the school year.
“I think a lot of that decrease last year was students going over to distance learning, but with those numbers now being down we have a lot more students back in the classroom,” said Joseph Depenhart, principal at GICCA.
Depenhart has also worked with the Lori Peacock, CEO of the Career Academy and CTAE director for the school district, to increase dual enrollment opportunities for students.
“Many of the GICCA courses that we offer actually already have been aligned with the TCSG courses through Georgia Department of Education,” Depenhart said. “So those courses can be offered as dual enrollment courses as long as our instructor meets the technical college’s credentialing requirements.”
GICCA also hit a new record in December for its end of pathway assessments, or EOPAs.The school had a 73.5% EOPA pass rate for the fall semester, with a total of 78 students passing. In prior years, the school’s pass rate has lingered around 72%, Depenhart said.
“Theres’ several things that we’ve been doing over the last two to three school years that we think have helped bring these rates up because three years ago back in 18-19 we were sitting at about 65.4%,” he said.
Four teachers achieved 100% pass rates — Amy Stalvey in forestry, De’Andre Alston in agriculture leadership, Haley Meredith in culinary arts and Roy McDowell in advanced automotive services.
GICCA’s overall pass rate fell to 86% last semester, though.
“While that’s still a fairly high (rate of) students passing all of their courses, it’s a little lower than where we want it to be,” Depenhart said. “I think a lot of what that is is this fall we had a lot more introductory students than we did advanced students.”