The Council Corner

“This is the day you begin.

To find the places inside.

Your laughter and your lunches, your books, your travel,

and your stories.” – Jacqueline Woodson, The Day You Begin

Happy August! Happy new school year to our educators and families!

The beginning of the school year is my favorite time of year. I love to see the bright and smiling faces of the kids, excited for a new year of learning. This school year is full of potential, and I’m looking forward to celebrating all of the amazing work happening across our state.

Here are a few important Council notes:

Executive Committee: The Executive Committee meeting for this Friday, August 8, 2025 has been canceled due to conflicts for several committee members.

The next Executive Committee meeting will be held on Friday, August 22nd. During that meeting, a vote will take place on the proposal from Deal Center to support the work of the Literacy Coach Coordinating Committee.

Other Important Upcoming Dates:

September 9th – Council Literacy Planning Session, Atlanta. An agenda will be shared soon.

September 22nd – Georgia Reads Day. Council members are invited to join us at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta or to watch the broadcast stream on GPB.

Please reach out if you have any questions. Have a wonderful week. Thank you for reading!

The summer is in full swing for the Georgia Council on Literacy.

It was wonderful to see so many of you at the GAEL conference this week. I always appreciate the opportunity for our school leaders to learn, share, and celebrate the meaningful work they do every day.

We look forward to seeing you all at our full Georgia Council on Literacy meeting on Tuesday, July 22nd at Dalton State College at 9:00 a.m. You can view the agenda HERE.

This meeting is an important one. We will be sharing several updates from agencies on literacy progress, as well as information about our new Georgia Literacy Coach Coordinating Committee.

In addition, our working group members and leaders have put a lot of time and effort into preparing quality recommendations. This meeting will be your opportunity to hear and provide feedback on our work.

As a side note, Georgia Reads Day preparation is well underway. Please mark your calendar for Monday, September 22, 2025 at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.

Malcolm Mitchell with be joining us again, along with a group of elementary school students, for our second annual celebration. Please begin encouraging your community to plan an engaging day of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The event will be available via livestream on the GPB website for our students, schools, and communities across Georgia.

We can’t wait to see you in Dalton this Tuesday. Thank you for reading!

“Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.” —Jenny Han

We hope your July is off to a magical start! Summer has been a busy time for literacy. Here are a few recent updates:

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee met on Friday, June 27, 2025, to vote on several important items. The Executive Committee approved the “Rules and Procedures” document and the Council FY 26 budget. The new Georgia Literacy Coach Coordinating Committee was also approved.

Documents from the meeting are shared HERE.

The minutes and video are also posted HERE.

Recent Events

June was packed with literacy events across the state.

It was wonderful to see so many Council members at the Lit Link conference. Kudos to our Council member, Amy Denty, on an amazing event.  Thank you to GaDOE and the Rollins Center for providing engaging literacy learning opportunities for our educators from across Georgia. There was even a presentation on early writing from our very own, Dr. Gary Bingham!

Thank you also to our partners at the Georgia Municipal Association for highlighting literacy as an issue for our local leaders across the state. Our Georgia Speaker of the House, Jon Burns, joined the panel entitled Why Literacy alongside local mayors engaged in literacy initiatives. The Mayor’s Reading Club also encourages local mayors to read aloud and lead literacy in their communities.

Upcoming Events

We look forward to seeing you on July 22nd in Dalton for our full Council meeting! Please see the agenda HERE.

Don’t forget to send your RSVP to Bryttney Bailey.

Thank you for reading!

Executive Committee Updates

The agendas for our bi-weekly Executive Committee updates will be posted on the Georgia Reads website.

Topics covered last week included the new Georgia Literacy Coach Coordinating Committee, the Council budget, and the Executive Committee Rules and Procedures document.

Please feel free to reach out to Sarah Richards or Chairman Johnson if you have any questions. Voting on this topics will take place on Friday, June 27th.

Have a wonderful week!

I hope your June is off to a wonderful start! Thank you for taking the time to visit our new Council blog.

Here are a few Council updates:

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee of the Georgia Council on Literacy met on Friday, May 30th. The minutes from the meeting can be found HERE. Our next Executive Committee meeting will be held on Friday, June 13th. The agenda will be posted on the Georgia Reads website. Please reach out to Sarah Richards if you have any questions.

Welcome, Ian Caraway!

We would like to extend a warm welcome to the new Interim Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, Ian Caraway. Prior to joining the GOSA, Ian served as Director of Policy in the Office of Governor Brian Kemp. We are so glad to have Ian’s experience and expertise to help support the work of the Council.

Save the Date

Please save the date for July 22nd. Our full Council meeting will be held in Dalton, Georgia. Your attendance at this meeting is vital, as we will be finalizing our working group recommendations and sharing progress on our state literacy plan and goals. The full agenda will be released soon. We look forward to seeing you in Dalton!

Thank you for reading!

Welcome to the Blog!

Thank you for visiting the new blog for the Georgia Council on Literacy! This will be our hub for news, information, dates, documents, and more.

Here are a few updates for this week:

Please check out our calendar for our July Council meeting and upcoming Executive Committee meetings. Council documents will also be shared in our Teams Working Group folders. If you have any trouble accessing the Teams folders, please reach out to Sarah Richards.

Agendas and minutes for Executive Committee will now be posted on the Georgia Reads site. We will also link to them here in the Executive Committee folder. Council members are welcome to listen to Executive Committee biweekly meetings on Fridays at 8:30 a.m. The next meeting is scheduled for May 30.

Best wishes to Joy Hawkins as she departs from GOSA. We are grateful to Joy for all of her hard work on literacy and education for Georgia. We wish her continued success in her new endeavors.

Please check back on the blog soon. We will be posting biweekly updates. Thank you for reading!