School Board Recognizes REACH Scholars

The Jasper County School Board honored five REACH scholars at its meeting Tuesday evening. REACH scholars are eighth graders who have been chosen through strict selection criteria to receive a $10,000 college scholarship.

REACH stands for Realizing Educational Achievement Can Happen. It is a key program of Governor Nathan Deal’s complete college Georgia initiative and is modeled after other successful scholarship programs. REACH begins in middle school with school staff nominating eighth grade students who have demonstrated academic promise, attend school every day, adhere to school rules and meet the state qualifiers. These students then completed a detailed application that included personal references and required parental signature and support. A district selection committee had the task of selecting the five scholars.

Each scholar will have a designated school academic coach who will monitor the scholar’s progress and needs, assist them in developing educational/career plans, and provide additional academic and social support when needed. Parents play an integral role in their student’s education and REACH ensures that parents are deeply involved through regular collaboration, activities, meetings, and program events. The REACH scholars are also given the opportunity to give back to their community and attend leadership seminars.

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Upon successful completion of the program and graduation from high school, students are awarded a financial scholarship to be used towards educational costs at a HOPE-eligible public or private post-secondary institution in Georgia. The scholarship is received over the four years they are enrolled. All scholarships are financed by private funds and donations.

Students receiving the honor include Daisy Hernandez, Samuel Nunez, Jaylen Peete, Kennadi Sands, and Marley Sands. The students and their parents had to sign contracts that they would adhere to the REACH standards which include maintaining at least a 2.5 cumulative grade point average, participate in all schedule REACH Georgia related activities, follow their school’s code of conduct, remain drug and crime free, meet with their mentor every two weeks, meet with their academic coach at least once a month, and persist in your education in order to graduate from high school and meet all of the state requirements for a high school diploma.

Community members are also called upon to support this program and these students. In future years, money will have to be raised locally to offset some of the cost of the scholarship program. For each $10,000 scholarship, some $3,500 will have to be raised locally.

The school board also accepted a gift from Janelle Wild of her father’s letter jacket. Jessie Calhoun “Buck” Clay played for the purple Hurricanes from 1940 to 1943, and the team won the state championship in 1940 and 1941. The jacket is in a shadow box, and Dr. Mike Newton, school superintendence, said he had the perfect place for it and thanked Mrs. Wild for the donation.

The board also recognized Alina and Mari Jablonski, even though they weren’t there, for placing first and second in the state cross country meet.

During the regular business meeting, Dr. Newton told the board that the middle school account had been hacked, and fraud had been committed. It is not an internal issue, he said, and they are still investigating how the criminals came to use that account number. Some 28 checks using the middle school account were written, totaling $28,605. He said two individuals have been arrested, and there are 46 suspects linked to the case. He gave kudos to the Locust Grove Police Department and Jasper County Sheriff’s Department for their work on the case. The money has been pledged back by the bank, he said.

Dr. Newton updated the board on his attendance at the Jasper County Commission meeting when Andrew Gray with the Joint Development Authority talked about how much money Shire would be putting into the county coffers over the next 50 years. The school and county have not yet discussed how the funds will be split. The county has no property in the development, unlike the other three counties. Those all will divide revenues along millage rate lines. Jasper County Commission and Schools have not discussed how revenues will be split. Dr. Newton said he though the children deserve their fair share of the revenues, and suggested that investing in children is very important.

They heard from Felicia Holman that lunch prices need to go up five cents at each school. The board voted to approve that increase. They also discussed how many students get free and reduced lunches, and the meal participation at the schools. Washington Park has the best meal participation in breakfast which is free for all students.

The board heard extensively from Pam Edge and several of her teachers at the Primary School about the promotion and retention process. They went into detail about what students have to know to be promoted to the next grade, and the process of letting parents know when their student is struggling. They said with the new guidelines in place, they are not seeing parents surprised that their child needs to be retained. They also are working with specific learning difficulties for each student to meet each need so the students can be promoted.

After hearing from the Primary School, the board heard a similar report from Dr. Shawne Holder and her teachers at Washington Park School. Both groups praised the MAPs (Measure of Academic Progress) testing for helping them see where the needs are and address those needs.

The board heard from Dr. Rene Findlay about the graduation rate, and how the state figures the rate. Students are tracked from when they enter the ninth grade, and are considered part of the class even if they only attend school here a short time. In tracking those who left the system, there are a large number unaccounted for, which counts as a dropout.

Also, those who leave to get a GED are considered dropouts, even if they do it immediately.

The board discussed ways to raise the graduation rate, commenting that what the early education teachers had addressed was much of the problem. If they don’t get it in the early grades, they truly struggle in the later grades.