Baconton Community Charter School Leader Lynn Pinson is the recipient of this year’s Shoot for the Moon (Charter School Leader of the Year) Award. The award was sponsored by Office Depot, a new GCSA partner.
Pinson has worked as an administrator at the school for the past 15 years and is one of the pioneers of the charter movement here in Georgia. In fact the idea for Baconton Community Charter School (BCCS) started at Pinson’s dinner table: a school that would strengthen education and lead to sustainable economic development in the impoverished, rural community where BCCS is located.
“The words of playwright George Bernard Shaw apply to Lynn Pinson’s leadership, said Baconton Assistant Principal Mary Sullivan. ‘Life is a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” With Lynn as the torchbearer, the Baconton Blaze has shone a bright and lasting light into our rural community, welcoming families of all walks to experience the greatness that is Baconton Community Charter School. Lynn Pinson is a stellar choice for GCSA’s 2017 Leader of the Year.
Under her leadership, enrollment has grown from fewer than 150 students to more than 800 today. The number of staff members have also increased significantly and facilities have expanded from one building with seven classrooms to a half dozen temporary portable units to fourteen permanent buildings with forty-eight classrooms, and an athletic complex of five baseball fields, a football practice field, and a weight room. 55 percent of the school’s employees have served for more than ten years and 30 percent of graduates in the Class of 2016 attended all fourteen years of their schooling at the charter school. The school’s College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores are consistently strong, reflecting both high student achievement and growth. The school was also among the Georgia schools that “Beat the Odds,” or performed better than statistically expected on the CCRPI in 2013, 2015 and 2016.
