Former Chestatee High School Principal John Barge returned to his old stomping grounds Friday.

Barge, now state school superintendent, and Georgia First Lady Sandra Deal, were in Hall County Friday afternoon touring Lanier Charter Career Academy and the Interactive Neighborhood for Kids.

"When John was principal here at Chestatee, he said ‘Why aren't we jumping on these federal career clusters?'" Lanier Charter Principal Cindy Blakley said. "We looked at that and said, ‘That's what we're trying to do to prepare kids.' I'm delighted that you put that bug in our ear."

With the new College and Career Ready Performance Index in the hands of the federal government, Barge said the rest of the state is now catching up to Hall County's career classes.

The index is Georgia's proposed alternative to the No Child Left Behind and Adequate Yearly Progress requirements.

"There's lots of great growth and exciting things happening," Barge said of Hall schools. "Lanier Charter Career Academy is doing such an
outstanding job. It's one of the premier institutions."

During the tour, Blakley showed Barge and Deal the school's main attractions — Bistro at The Oaks, Corner Café, Get Gifted and some of the meeting rooms.

Barge told Blakley that while he was principal at Chestatee, he wanted his marketing classes to look into Internet marketing as well as a gift shop.

Deal and Barge also visited INK, an interactive children's museum that invites children to role-play different careers, including
veterinarian, cosmetologist and courtroom judge.

"The folks at INK approached me a while back with what they're doing and it sounded very exciting," Barge said. "It worked out that we were able to coordinate a lot of activities for the visit."

The two also visited Gardens on Green outside the Hall County Schools Central Office and learned about two state grants with local effects, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program and Parents Educating Parents and Professionals. Katie Jo Ballard, executive director of the Governor's Office for Children and Families, was on hand to answer questions and direct discussion.

Barbara Hicks, executive director of Teen Pregnancy Prevention, said the program is a gateway for middle schoolers and ninth-graders to be placed in other abstinence programs in higher grades. The program is at Flowery Branch, Chestatee and North Hall high schools.

"We know it's the relationship and character building that will prevent a teen pregnancy," Hicks said.

She said 90 percent of girls who went through the program graduate.

The second program, PEPP, looks at students at risk of not graduating from high school and gets them access to tutoring and mentoring resources.

"Our mentoring program has been around for a while, but it's only been middle school and down," said Juvenile Court Judge Cliff Joliff. "The children in the grant right now might receive tutoring through (Ava White Tutorials), maybe a mentor through CenterPoint and family educational advocacy."

The grants pay for teachers and others in the community to get teacher training to teach kids to read, said Ava White, owner of Ava White Tutorials in Gainesville.

Deal challenged those involved with the grants to take a look at helping foster children in the school system especially.

"Fourteen percent of our foster children are not graduating. If there's any way we can work on that, we'd like to," she said. "That's a terrible statistic. I would like everybody to keep that on our radar."