Does Wilmington Island have its own high school? (Savannah: buy, school district)

[coffewithwhiskey]

Originally Posted by dpink123

Please know that the Islands will have a new public high school opening in the Fall of 2010. You may find the website at islands.sccpss.com. It will serve all of the students in the Wilmington, Talahi, Tybee, and Whitemarsh Island areas. The school will be an excellent public school option for families and you may contact me, Danielle Pinkerton, Principal of Islands High School at danielle.pinkerton@sccpss.com. Students are leaving all of the schools mentioned above to come to this new public school anticipated to serve 600 students in grades 9 -12 and will have Advanced Placement coursework and more. We hope to hear from you.

Nice marketing, but nobody on the islands will be pulling their kid out of private school to put them in a Chatham County public school. The teachers in Chatham are the ones who couldn't get a job in Effingham or Bryan, for the most part.

[Padgett2]

Parents that can afford the tution to a private school can usally afford to send their children to college. Sad to say, that is not always the possibility with public schools. A lot of well prepared students come from families that just cannot afford it.

[bellhead]

Originally Posted by coffewithwhiskey

Nice marketing, but nobody on the islands will be pulling their kid out of private school to put them in a Chatham County public school. The teachers in Chatham are the ones who couldn't get a job in Effingham or Bryan, for the most part.

Except Savannah Arts Academy....Half of the kids in my daughters 9th grade class are coming from private schools.

[Padgett2]

And guess what!! I have a grandchild that lives on the Islands that has been to one of the private schools most of her school years. She is going to Islands High next year because they offer a program that is unavailable in the private school.

For most students, what they get from an education reflects a lot on what the parents expect. The parent should be able to add to and enrich any school program.....private or public. If the parent is always telling the child that the school is terrible, it's a good chance that the student will not get anything out of his/her classes. If Mommy and Daddy said it was bad, why should they be suprised at a report card that's all Ds?

[coffewithwhiskey]

Originally Posted by Padgett2

And guess what!! I have a grandchild that lives on the Islands that has been to one of the private schools most of her school years. She is going to Islands High next year because they offer a program that is unavailable in the private school.

For most students, what they get from an education reflects a lot on what the parents expect. The parent should be able to add to and enrich any school program.....private or public. If the parent is always telling the child that the school is terrible, it's a good chance that the student will not get anything out of his/her classes. If Mommy and Daddy said it was bad, why should they be suprised at a report card that's all Ds?

I don't disagree with you. But Chatham County schools have a big attrition problem. The best end up going to Effingham or Bryan where the students, overall, are more motivated and have more parental involvement. So the teachers you end up with (again, for the most part) are the ones who couldn't get into a smaller, better school district. I'm not saying they are worse teachers- I'm just stating the obvious.

The anecdote about your grandchild getting pulled out of a private school to be placed into the public school system is nice; I hope it works for her. But most of the parents in Chatham who can afford to do so send their child to private school (for good reason) or try to get into the Arts Academy. Chatham is still the worst school district in the state. I don't use profanity often, but as the old saying goes: Being king of **** Mountain is still a ****ty position.

[tigafan]

Not all parents that send their kids to private school can afford it. For some, it is very difficult to afford, but you choose what you spend your money on in life.

[julierob29]

I can't believe how "down" some posters are about public schools in GA. My daughter has attended school in Iowa (some of best public schools in nation) and then we moved to Phoenix, and we were told that those schools are horrible and she'd fall behind and she was challenged by those schools. Its the teachers that make the difference. If you have a teacher that doesn't want to be there, then you're going to have students that perform poorly. Also, as parents we have to work with out children to make sure that we are helping and working together with the teachers and supplementing their education. You just can't expect the teacher to do all the work...as a parent you have to help just as much. You make sure they read more than what's on YouTube and make sure that they take educational field trips on summer vacation other than just to the water park. If you're excited about learning - then they will be too. We turned a trip to the aquarium into "what I want to be when I grow up". Now she wants to be a marine biologist. Talk about an excellent vacation. Also, there is a summer reading list for all students with projects due right after school starts. Iowa doesnt' have that. Arizona doesn't have that. Georgia does. I am excited my child's brain won't "rot" during the summer.

[AuburnAL]

^Wow. It would be awful to have homework over the summer. If you're worried about your kid's brain "rotting" over the summer why not make them go get some books from the library on your own instead of being greatful the school finally does it for you?

I'm going to have to disagree with your opinion of teachers. While good ones can help ultimately for most kids its up to the parenting as to how much they learn. Some kids will have sorry parents but work hard to learn on their own initiative, but most won't. If the parent expects the kid to work hard and conveys from a young age that education is important the kid will probably work hard in school, and if not they probably won't. For that matter short of calculus and foreign languages there's nothing taught in the average school that a normal parent couldn't teach to their child in the event that the teacher is just plain awful.

[mepple]

Wilmington Island will have a HS beginning w/the 10/11 school yr. It will be located in the building that Coastal Middle currently occupies. CM will move across the road. Wilmington Island will have their own HS basically w/only room for those that apply for the Science Program that will be offered at the HS. One of the local TV stations today interviewed a local private school - they stated they anticipate a drop in enrollment due to the HS opening here on Wilmington Isl. Wil Isl HS will be basically one of its kind due to the population located here on the island & the area that it encompasses for the school population. For more information regarding the new HS visit Savannah Chatham Public Schools - don't think you will not be disappointed.

[coffewithwhiskey]

Originally Posted by mepple

Wilmington Island will have a HS beginning w/the 10/11 school yr. It will be located in the building that Coastal Middle currently occupies. CM will move across the road. Wilmington Island will have their own HS basically w/only room for those that apply for the Science Program that will be offered at the HS. One of the local TV stations today interviewed a local private school - they stated they anticipate a drop in enrollment due to the HS opening here on Wilmington Isl. Wil Isl HS will be basically one of its kind due to the population located here on the island & the area that it encompasses for the school population. For more information regarding the new HS visit Savannah Chatham Public Schools - don't think you will not be disappointed.

What the heck is up with the blatant marketing and boosterism? It's so in-your-face that it's absurd. Nobody is going to take their kid out of private school to put them into the worst school district in the state.