As Robbie Hooker enters his first full year as superintendent of the Clarke County School District, he’s already switched to a new reading curriculum, added an AP class in African-American Studies, tamped down on testing and more. Here’s a rundown of changes for the new school year:
Students at Cedar Shoals High School can now earn Advanced Placement credit in African-American Studies—the same course attacked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. It’s an interdisciplinary course, taught by Montu Miller, that includes art, political science, history, literature and other subjects. Clarke County is the only school district in Georgia to offer the pilot course, and one of 60 districts across the country. “We were excited about offering it,” said Hooker, who took over for the retired Xernona Thomas in November. “They picked us, and said they would help us implement it.”
Workers are demolishing parts of Clarke Middle School and constructing a new building on land near the public library that had been used as a soccer field. Students are being housed in large portable buildings, though the lunchroom, front office and library are all intact. The 2021 estimated cost was $33 million. Post-pandemic, the BOE approved a contract for $55.8 million with Grahl Construction in December. The new Clarke Middle will be able to accommodate 1,000–1,200 students and will have a new gym.
During the pandemic, the number of bus drivers fell in the Clarke County School District and in school systems across the country. A pay increase, to $23.73 an hour for beginning drivers, coupled with aggressive recruiting, has bumped the number of drivers in the Clarke County School District to 114 as of Aug. 3, with 26 on-call drivers who are either training or filling in when needed. However, that’s still short of the 125 drivers which administrators are hoping to have for staffing away games and field trips.
The number of students enrolled in district schools as of July 24 was 13,843, about 1,000 fewer than the pre-pandemic number of 14,870, but up from the 2021 total of 12,170. More students equals more funding from the state. Registration will continue through the middle of August, and officials expect enrollment to rise.
Students in kindergarten through third grade will be using the Fundations reading program, which involves a minimum of 45 minutes of phonics every day. And every elementary school grade, K-5, will be using the Wit & Wisdom curriculum, which is based on “the science of reading,” said Jennifer Scott, CCSD chief of academics and student support. The Fundations program costs $297,226, and Wit & Wisdom costs $455,933. “In doing this, we are going to reset our reading instruction,” Hooker said. “We’re not the only district struggling.”
Some 800 K-8 teachers in CCSD came voluntarily during the summer to learn how to use the materials, and professional learning will continue during the school year. Over the past several years, Clarke County has used more than a dozen different reading curriculums and programs, leading to concerns among teachers that the district was looking for “the next shiny thing” without giving anything a chance to work.
The Georgia legislature has mandated that all kindergarten children be screened for dyslexia, so Clarke County schools are doing just that, and the district wants parents to notify it if their child is dyslexic. However, the state hasn’t allocated money to school districts specifically to help those children with dyslexia to learn to read.
The use of daily iReady tests is going to be more flexible this year, according to Hooker. Parents, teachers and students have complained for years that iReady takes away from instructional time, with little to show for it.
CCSD is continuing to help students recover from trauma experienced during the pandemic. Each middle school has a mental health specialist, and social workers are each responsible for two schools. Behavior specialists from the district office were moved into individual schools.
Rutland Academy—a school off Oglethorpe Avenue in the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support that served students with severe emotional and behavioral disorders—has closed. The students came to the Athens facility from 13 different school systems. Now they’ve returned to their home districts. In Clarke County, three students who were at Rutland are attending Coile Middle School, while nine high school students are at Cedar Shoals. They will be receiving psychological counseling and behavioral support, as well as an academic curriculum, officials said.
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