The Richmond County Board of Education approved “rightsizing” plans that will shift attendance in several Richmond County schools.
Wheeless Road Elementary students that formerly fed into Murphey Middle School will now shift to Richmond Hill K-8 School. Hains Elementary students will also feed into Richmond Hill K-8 School. These shifts will bring Murphey Middle School down from 129% capacity to 101%, per the outline of the changes presented at the school board.
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In the same vein, Diamond Lakes students will be fed into Willis Foreman Elementary as opposed to Hephzibah High School. The reasoning behind that shift is to ease potential overcrowding with more developments cropping up in the Diamond Lakes area, per the outline.
The rightsizing process is one that has been discussed since 2008, and the meaning for these change is overcrowding in certain schools, yes, but also meant to streamline resource allocation and transportation, according to the district.
“It’s a way of having more equity in student resources,” said Lynthia Ross, chief public relations officer for the Richmond County School System. “It’s meant to better achieve balance in class size and resources available.”
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In addition to the changes above, plans were laid out for C.T. Walker to shift from a K-8 school to a K-5 school. If the plans are approved, which will be voted on at a future school board meeting, middle-grade students currently at C.T. Walker would be given the option to transfer over to A.R. Johnson, Richmond County Technical Career, or Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School.
The academic requirement to test into those schools would be waived for the incoming students. However, Davidson requires fine arts testing, and that would still be held for any potential transfer students.
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In a virtual public input meeting on March 31, Assistant Superintendent LaMonica Hillman reassured a local parent that the waiving of the academic requirement to enter one of the three schools will only be for the school year the proposed changes are enacted. All students applying for future school years will be required to complete all the usual testing requirements.
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com.
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