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The Troup County School System celebrated the new location of the Troup County Career Center on Wednesday afternoon. The career center, sometimes called TC3, recently opened its new location on Fort Drive to start the new location to start the new year.

The school offers students a dedicated location for credit recovery so that they can get back on track for graduation and additional work-based learning options.

“Troup County Schools are dedicated to a place for every kid. However, by the time a student reaches high school, we recognize that traditional classroom delivery does not work very well for some students,” said TC3 Principal Jeff Little.

Little said sometimes traumatic events or other social issues create a series of negative outcomes that are difficult to break free from for students which can lead them to become disenfranchised from their education. TC3 helps those students who might otherwise fall through the cracks.

The Troup County Career Center was started four years ago, just a few months into the COVID-19 epidemic. Before the school’s creation, each high school had a credit recovery lab to aid students when they fell behind and became credit deficient. 

“They were sent to computer labs for the entire day in the same environment that represented failure to them,” Little said.

In the summer of 2020, TCSS entered into an agreement with West Georgia Technical College to use an unoccupied space to assist the students in greatest need with credit recovery. 

The instructional delivery was performance-based, meaning students could complete as many high school courses as they could by showing mastery of the required standards and test out of any standards they had mastered. After completion of all their required courses, attendance rules would be waived and a student could move on toward graduation.

TC3’s second mission, besides graduation, added employability skills to the curriculum and worked with students to have a plan after graduation and a better understanding of the adult world and how to be successful in it.

“That year, we had 69 students complete school with a diploma. This was a 60% graduation rate for a group of kids that otherwise would have been unable to graduate, and might have been a 0% graduation rate. We recognized that we were on to something,”  Little said.

Meanwhile, the improved partnership with WGT allowed for dual enrollment with an opportunity called Option B, where students could complete fewer high school courses and replace them with critically needed certifications, a technical diploma or an associate’s degree.

“Today, some 44 kids from TC3 attend West Georgia Tech, working on a technical career path like welding, automotive and nursing in the accelerated career diploma program. They’re doing this while simultaneously completing their high school diploma,” Little said.

“We’re [now] able to move into our own space. This beautiful facility will serve around 150 students at a time. We’re able to concentrate our resources in one space. Where every kid has support in every required academic subject area throughout the day,” Little said.

TC3 Teacher of the Year Francee Mitchell, who teaches math at the school, was also on hand to celebrate the new location. The 40-year-veteran teacher said she feels blessed to be a part of TC3.

“I had already been working with the afterschool program on the small level when we originally started credit recovery back in 2007-2008. So this is my passion. I love it,” Mitchell said. When I get out in the community and people want to know about it, I love talking about it … I see kids, they always come up and they’re like, I’m so glad that y’all had this program. I’m in cosmetology now, I’ve got a job working in automotive at Kia. It’s just exciting and amazing.”

Student Desmond Poole also offered words about how TC3 helped him.

“Here at TC3, I was able to recover the previous year, from the slack of my attendance,” Poole said. “If it wasn’t for the Career Center, I would be taking my courses again.”

“Students here at TC3, it’s like having an advantage in high school, because everything you do depends on you,” Poole added.