SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — It all started with an anonymous letter in which a group of people claiming to be SCCPSS administrators wrote a list of complaints about the district's leadership.
News 3 looked into these issues and found there wasn't much information about some of the complaints.
But what we discovered was an even bigger problem. However, this is not a problem of infighting among staff, but a problem of students.
SCCPSS student Corbin Green explained, “When you have so many schools, it’s hard to make sure everyone gets the exact same education.”
A common measure of a school's success is how many third graders are reading at their grade level.
When you look at all of the dozens of schools in Chatham County for that age group, there are clear differences. Schools with the lowest percentage of children at grade level enrolled only 35% of children at or above proficiency, while schools with the highest percentage of children at grade level enrolled 87% of children at or above proficiency. I am enrolled.
The Georgia Department of Education provides these statistics for the 2022-2023 school year.
So where are these schools and why are there differences?
Brandi Olenik, one of the parents at SCCPSS, told News 3: It's there, but my bigger question becomes, where does it get distributed when teachers, families, and students are almost universally dissatisfied? ”
Schools with 75% or more of students at their grade level are marked green. Almost all of these are schools participating in the district's choice program. Above 50% and up to 75% are marked in yellow.
The following are marked in red:
Students and parents say it comes down to resource allocation.
“STEM and Bartlett offer more advanced classes than other schools, so it's good to have options,” Green said. “But regular schools don't have standards, so we need to focus on that and reconsider.”
The district says it knows it's an issue and is working on it.
“It's a big district. It's a big ship. It's a small rudder. It takes time to turn around, but we know we're heading in the right direction,” said SCCPSS Director David Bringman. “Literacy has been called our North Star. We're going there.”
The bottom line for parents is: listen to what your children need.
