Richmond County schools work to fight learning obstacles
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Richmond County schools have more manpower to identify and help students facing learning barriers like homelessness.
The school district now has one MTSS facilitator in each school, which is double the number from last year.
MTSS stands for multi-tiered system of s, which is a way for students to receive special services.
The increase in personnel comes a year after our I-TEAM uncovered homeless students struggling to get to the classroom and exposed nearly 3,000 students missing from school.
FROM THE I-TEAM:
- What’s the impact of homeless kids not getting equal access to education?
- The invisible children vanish from the classroom- again
- Lost on the faultline: The invisible children
The increase was a topic at Tuesday’s meeting of the Richmond County Board of Education.
Also discussed was a more than 6% jump in the graduation rate, the district’s first increase since COVID closed schools.
The district reported last week that A.R. Johnson Health Science and Engineering Magnet School, John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School, and Richmond County Technical Career Magnet School continue to maintain a 100% graduation rate.
The graduation rate for the Academy of Richmond County was 85.6%, also above the state’s rate of 84.1%.
Glenn Hills Comprehensive High School saw the most significant improvement with a 10.7% increase compared to 2022.
Nearly all Richmond County high schools maintained or saw an increase in their Class of 2023 rate.
Also at the meeting, it was revealed that interest on school bonds has decreased.
The Richmond County Board of Education’s issuer rating has been upgraded to Aa3 from A1 by Moody’s Investors Service. The rating impacts the board’s recent issuance of $86.8 million in general obligation sales tax bonds.
Moody’s indicated the credit strengths as the improved reserves and liquidity, diverse economic base from the institutional presence of Fort Gordon, and rapid amortization of debt. Some of the factors that led to the upgrade include significant, sustained growth in property wealth metrics and resident incomes, continued, material improvement in reserves and liquidity, and the moderation of long-term liabilities.
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