City schools expected to be on state performance lists

VALDOSTA — Valdosta City Schools expects to have a school or two on the Georgia Department of Education lists for school performance. 

Shelia Garcia-Wilder, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, notified the board of education Tuesday evening the list would be out in a couple of weeks and she expects for some city schools to be listed.

“We foresee probably having some schools identified, but we have an active plan in place,” Garcia-Wilder said.

The schools could be on the Comprehensive Support and Improvement or Targeted Support and Improvement, list, which means it would fall in the lowest 5 percent of Georgia schools.

On Sept. 12, the teaching and learning committee met to discuss possible ways to improve school performance, which Garcia-Wilder brought up during the board meeting.

Kelly Wilson, Superward West board member, said she believes opening a pre-k center in the city schools system would help with performance.

“So many of our students come to us with a deficit in vocabulary,” Wilson said. “If we get a pre-k center, that would be phenomenal.”

The public pre-k system, Bright From the Start, isn’t doing enough, she said.

Garcia-Wilder said she is optimistic the L4GA grant, given to city schools to improve literacy rates, will also help the school system’s overall performance.

“The literacy grant is going to focus so much on those children ages 3 and 4,” Wilson said. “I know we’re on the right track — it’s just going to take a little patience on our part.”

Kevin Barker of SC Barker Construction Company said the Valdosta Middle School STEM building project is a couple of weeks behind due to weather delays.

“July and August, as you all know, were fun times to get stuff done with rain delays,” Barker said. “We had 34 rain days.”

The original completion date for the STEM building was set for the summer before the 2019-20 school year.

As part of Attendance Awareness Month, Assistant School Superintendent Scarlet Brown announced the three schools with the highest attendance percentages: Valdosta Early College Academy, Sallas Mahone Elementary School and S.L. Mason Elementary School.

Each school had above a 97 percent daily average attendance rating. Brown said this is something city schools will recognize each month, which will go along with a banner the school can hang in the front of its building.

The next board of education meeting will be held at the central office at 7 p.m., Oct. 9. 

Katelyn Umholtz is a reporter with the Valdosta Daily Times. She can be contacted at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256.

Note: This story has been adjusted to show the correct date of the next board of education meeting.