Education Edition - 1736 Magazine, Fall 2019

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OUR VIEW RAISE W.S. Hornsby Elementary School students walk silently with their fingers pressed to their lips at their school in east Augusta. [MICHAEL HOLAHAN/ THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE] the BAR 6 | 1736magazine.com 1117_T_06_AM____.indd 6 10/15/2019 1:21:34 PM
LET’S MAKE EVERY RICHMOND COUNTY SCHOOL A “GOOD SCHOOL” By DAMON CLINE Augusta’s urban core is booming. Public and private investment is pouring into the central business district. The historic neighborhoods of Olde Town, Harrisburg and Laney-Walker/Bethlehem are slowly being revitalized block by block. Young professionals are moving into downtown apartments and homes to be close to jobs in the city’s medical and technology corridors. All the components for a thriving urban center are falling into place except one – the city’s school system. It needs a little help. The Richmond County School System has some of the metro area’s highest performing schools, as well as some of its worst. Viewed from the 30,000-foot level – when the entire district is taken as a whole – the performance metrics are sub par. This is not to say parents living in, or planning to move to, Richmond County can’t find high-quality education for their children, because they can. They just have to work a little harder to get it. By diligently navigating the district’s school-choice program, parents can send their children to the district’s best elementary, middle and high schools. Parents of particularly studious children can see that they enter the county’s nationally-recognized magnet school programs. In other words, a student can have a great public education experience in Augusta regardless of where they live. We’d just like to see the district improve to the point where parents – particularly those living in the urban core – won’t have to work so hard to find great schools for their children. We hope to one day see all of the Richmond County School System, but especially those in the inner city, elevated to the level befitting a strong and vibrant downtown. This magazine would not be true to its mission to push the city’s needle toward progress if it candy-coated obvious deficiencies in the city’s public-education system, deficiencies that can easily be verified by a look at the district’s performance metrics. Our criticism should not be taken as an indictment of any individual teacher, staff member, administrator or board member. The problems Richmond County faces are too large, too numerous and too lengthy to be any one person’s “fault.” The challenges many of the district’s schools face are indicative of many urban education systems: a large population of low-income students, disciplinary problems, aging facilities and a beleaguered faculty that must cope with a litany of classroom issues not involving curriculum or teaching. A wall shows the handprints of W.S. Hornsby Elementary School students, who were asked to help decorate the school to make it feel less institutional. [MICHAEL HOLAHAN/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE] 1736magazine.com | 7 1117_T_06_AM____.indd 7 10/15/2019 1:21:41 PM
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Harlem City Manager C. Brett Cook s
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A mural paying homage to the comedi
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You throw 50,000 people around Harl
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An artist rendering depicting a wes
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The historic train depot at 6th and
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MACK continued from 21 Mack had res
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OTHER VOICES WORK STUDY Business, e
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Over the past few years, the Distri
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DOWNTOWN PARKING ‘SMART’ PARKIN
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SALES TAX-FUNDED STREET PROJECTS PR
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BURNS continued from 19 “This sch
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SPIVEY continued from 23 Although S
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BRIEFINGBy DAMON CLINE HITS & MISSE
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GRADING DOWNTOWN 6.5 5.5 6.5 2.0 By
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Education Edition - 1736 Magazine, Fall 2019

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