Last week, THINC College and Career Academy provided an update for both the City of LaGrange and the Troup County Board of Commissioners.

THINC College and Career Academy is a charter program and part of the Troup County School System that focuses on technical skills and soft skills. Both Troup County and the City of LaGrange financially support THINC, so officials were interested to hear how the funding is being used.

“We are very focused on high demand, high skill, high job growth in Troup County and in this region,” said Dr. Kathy Carlisle, the chief executive officer of THINC. “We have added game design, so we have mechatronics —which is advanced manufacturing — engineering, health care, marketing, business, energy and game design. Those are our pathways and our focus.”

The program served 640 students in Spring 2018. Of that number, 429 students studied on campus, 81 took part in work-based learning and 130 were dual enrolled with West Georgia Technical College.

Carlisle reported that THINC has a 97 percent attendance rate, 2 percent disciplinary referral rate and an average GPA of 3.0 throughout the program.

THINC will begin accepting homeschool and private school students, as well as students from other counties starting during the 2018-2019 school year. Out of county students will have to pay a small fee and state funds follow those students. Out of county students will only be placed in open spots after registration is completed for Troup County students, according to Carlisle.