It was a beautiful day in Savannah this past Friday! Andrew Cosey reminded all members of some upcoming April events such as the District Conference and RCSE social at Ardsley Station on Friday, April 17. Once all Happy dollars were collected, Cheri Dean introduced our speaker, Denise Grabowski, who is the District 1 Representative for the Savannah Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS).
Denise began her presentation by thanking everyone for voting for ESPLOST and talking about the mission statement for SCCPSS. The Board has three responsibilities: 1. set policy, 2. adopt a budget, and 3. hire and fire the superintendent. Their strategic plan always includes students, stakeholders, employees, and stewardship. She gave information on the number of schools in the district as well as explained the different types of public schools (neighborhood, choice schools, and charter schools).
SCCPSS is the 10th largest district in Georgia. Due to their size, there are many different opportunities for the students. She talked about a few different programs and highlighted the Acorn Academy which is a program for three year olds. The earlier a child starts school, the better their literacy will be. Since literacy is the number one priority for the Board, they have rolled out a new literacy strategy where they have already seen an increase of 13% in literacy rates. If you would like to learn more about the SCCPSS, please visit https://www.sccpss.com/