GOODBYE SUMMER: Colquitt County School District prepares for the upcoming school term

Published 4:13 pm Sunday, July 16, 2023

MOULTRIE – Continuing to master academic rigor, school safety and customer service are the top three main goals of the Colquitt County School District’s upcoming academic year, school officials said last week.

The CCSD’s first day of classes for the 2023-2024 academic year will be Wednesday, Aug. 2.

The Observer spoke with Superintendent Ben Wiggins Wednesday afternoon on what parents, students and local stakeholders can see for the 2023-2024 school term.

Wiggins said the top goals were first implemented in the previous school term and will remain the district’s objectives until they’ve mastered them.

Academic rigor

Last year, the district implemented a new reading curriculum that pinpoints what students are efficient in and what they need to improve on. Principals and teachers collaborated to select the new curriculum and will continue on its second year plan, which will emphasize writing.

“In the ’21-22 school year, our principals and teachers went through a year-long process to select the reading curriculum. It was a very successful year, our teachers did an outstanding job. There’s a lot of work, pressure and stress for ELA [English Language Arts] teachers to be learning a new reading curriculum, receiving training on that curriculum, and teaching it to the students,” Wiggins explained. “Our teachers did a fantastic job of selecting a very rigorous reading curriculum, and so we knew that there would be some struggles.”

The district’s math departments will also adopt a new curriculum this year. The department is currently considering two options.

“They began that work last school year. They will spend this fall semester digging deeper into those two math curriculums to see what the teachers feel like is the best option for our students. They’re purposefully looking for rigorous math curriculum because it takes rigor courses to get the grade scores up,” he said.

The new curriculum considerations coincide with the Georgia Department of Education establishing new math standards. The new standards will be implemented into the classrooms this fall.

A new Advanced Placement Pre-Calculus course will be available to eligible Colquitt County High School students this year. Colquitt County High School was previously named an Advanced Placement (AP) Honor School for 2023, by the State Superintendent Richard Woods. The recognition was based on the results of the 2022 AP courses and exams. The district awaits its most recent scores.

School Safety

The CCSD Board of Education approved Sean Edgar as the new director of school safety at the board’s regular board meeting on Aug. 22, 2022. He is a retired GBI agent and has more than 30 years of experience in law enforcement, according to a past press release.

Edgar serves as the liaison between the school district and local law enforcement. He also speaks and completes walkthroughs with the individual school administrators identifying their thoughts or concerns on their campus safety. Local law enforcement agencies also continue to be present at all scheduled campus lockdown drills.

“This past year, we’ve continued to add fencing around our schools. We’ve tried to be strategic to make sure that our campuses are tight. We’ve actually looked at fencing on the exterior of our campuses as well. For example, this school year, Odom [Elementary School] received fencing on the very back of its campus that it never had before. [Colquitt] EMC partnered with us and paid the majority of the costs for that fence,” he said.

Cox Elementary School also received additional fencing and a code-required automatic gate for its parking lot. The district is focusing on schools that are located within neighborhoods to alleviate the potential for any situations to occur.

The schools’ crisis alert system called Centegix has also been updated to its newest version.

Wiggins explained, “That allows every employee to have a badge. [In] the opportunity, if needed, for a medical emergency, or, heaven forbid for a crisis situation, they all have access to that button that they can push that will immediately notify law enforcement. They’ll know who pushed the button, and they have the map and they’ll know exactly where that person is.”

The Kloud 12 security cameras will remain in every classroom. The cameras were approved in the board’s Aug. 23, 2021, meeting. “Local law enforcement also has access to the camera if the event ever presented itself that they needed access to those cameras,” Wiggins said.

Norman Park Elementary and Sunset Elementary School received safety installations last year like a secure glass wall to separate the office staff from visitors and parents as they come into the building and 3M safety or security films installed at the schools.

Clear bags at all home CCHS Packer football games are still required, and K-8 students must be accompanied by a parent/guardian to enter the Mack Tharpe Stadium. Students in grades 9-12 may enter without a parent/guardian with a valid Colquitt County High School or C.A. Gray Junior High student ID.

Customer Service

“The reason [customer service] is a focus and a priority for us is that we understand that parents and guardians have choices when it comes to their child’s education. We want to make sure that we’re providing the best possible customer service we can so those parents and guardians feel confident that we’re the best option for their child,” Wiggins said.

The district also acknowledges the need for quality customer service for the business community and stakeholders.

Wiggins said they’ve tried to improve this by installing visitor parking spots near the front of all schools and at the district central office.

He also mentioned the school’s strategic plan. CCSD Administrators presented updates on the plan at the June 2023 board meeting.

Renovations across the district

The capital outlay projects including updates to the HVAC system, new flooring and paint installations have begun at the following elementary schools: Cox, Funston, Odom, Okapilco, R.B. Wright, and Stringfellow.

“Some things in athletics that fans will see at the beginning of this fall, at football games, for instance, is a brand new video scoreboard that’s coming and our students will actually be running. Our students will be making advertisements and shooting footage during the game. They will be running that video scoreboard, and I think that is going to add a huge fan engagement

component to Friday nights,” Wiggins said.

Packer fans will continue to see the flashing lights and hear the sound system that was installed last year, but new end zone bleachers will soon be installed. The district plans to fix drainage issues and redo the softball field at the end of its season.

The next steps in the district ESPLOST projects will be to begin the bonds sale. Once those bonds are selected,Wiggins said, the district will go through the bidding process and he hopes people will start to see early work this fall.

Those projects include:

• The construction of a new agricultural plant and canning plant facility across the road from Colquitt County High School. The ag facility will house animals for students who participate in livestock shows. The facility will allow an opportunity for students who might have previously been unable to participate in the shows due to living limitations.

• All ninth-graders are expected to start classes at Colquitt County High School in the Fall of 2025 following the construction of 16 classrooms for them there.

• The demolition of two buildings, built in 1962, at Willie J. Williams Middle School and to build a new wing of 16 classrooms. The school district will also create a 201-space parking lot between the new wing and the Arts Center. This will help with parent drop off/pick up and reduce the traffic backed up on city roads around the school, the school system previously said. “As parents are dropping off students this year at Williams, they’ll see a lot of construction. Fans coming to the football games will see a lot of construction,” Wiggins said.

• The demolition of eight buildings at C.A. Gray Junior High, including six from 1959 and two from 1982, to decrease the school’s capacity from 1,400 to 700 — which should help decrease traffic congestion in the neighborhood during drop-off and pickup times. The work will began after all 9th graders transition to CCHS.

Thursday, July 27

• 10th Grade | Colquitt County High 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Monday, July 31

• Pre-K-5th Grade 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.

• 6th & 7th Grade | Williams Middle | 3:10 p.m. – 6 p.m.

• 8th & 9th Grade | Gray Junior High 3 p.m. – 6 p.m.

• 11th & 12th Grade | Colquitt County High | 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

• Achievement Center | 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.

• GEAR Gifted Center | 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.

• HORIZON @Vereen 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.