School enrollment up in Columbia County, down in Richmond and Aiken (Butler: 2015, neighborhood)

[Airforceguy]

While I'm not surprised by the increase in Columbia and the decrease in Richmond, I hope that this acts as a wake up call for officials in Richmond to really come up with a plan to improve schools like the Glenn Hills cluster, Butler and Joesey. Also in addition to building a new K-8 school off of Jimmy Dyess, the school district needs to build a new high school as well in the area to support all of the growth happening in SW Augusta.

According to Columbia County Super*intendent Sandra Carraway, the system had 26,679 students during the first week of school, up 766 from a year ago.
“We anticipated an increase of about 520 students, but we weren’t expecting this many new enrollees,” Carraway said. “We’ve had tremendous growth this past decade, and I believe we’ll continue to grow in the coming years.”
Carraway admits that predicting the number of new students is an imperfect science, especially with the number of evolving industries around the Augusta area.
In early August, Parkway Ele*men*tary – a first-year school on William Few Parkway – opened for 520 students. The school was built to help prevent overcrowding at Greenbrier Ele*mentary. According to the district’s zoning plans, Parkway accepted pupils along Wil*liam Few Parkway from Columbia Road north to Knob Hill Farm Road, including the Knob Hill subdivision and Jessica Creek.

In Richmond County, the number of students decreased by 417 for the first two weeks of school – dropping from 31,230 last year to 30,813. According to school board member Venus Cain, she believes negative comments from outsiders about Au*gusta are a factor.
“People say hurtful things, and that makes an impact,” Cain said. “What’s most disturbing is these people don’t know all the great things happening within our school system. Our teachers are working so hard every day. We have great magnet schools and many other schools that are doing well. But instead of talking about them, people tend to focus on the ones that aren’t performing as well.”

School enrollment up in Columbia County, down in Richmond and Aiken | The Augusta Chronicle

[therealpattman]

Originally Posted by Airforceguy

While I'm not surprised by the increase in Columbia and the decrease in Richmond, I hope that this acts as a wake up call for officials in Richmond to really come up with a plan to improve schools like the Glenn Hills cluster, Butler and Joesey. Also in addition to building a new K-8 school off of Jimmy Dyess, the school district needs to build a new high school as well in the area to support all of the growth happening in SW Augusta.




School enrollment up in Columbia County, down in Richmond and Aiken | The Augusta Chronicle

I've always been a proponent of tearing down Josey and turning it into a large regional park. Laney, Josey and ARC literally are one mile away from each other while as you pointed out kids that live in the Belair and Buckhead neighborhood have to travel all the way to ARC. A new high school in that area would allow the district to redraw the zoning maps and hopefully make life easier for its students and parents.

[nortonguy]

Originally Posted by Airforceguy

While I'm not surprised by the increase in Columbia and the decrease in Richmond, I hope that this acts as a wake up call for officials in Richmond to really come up with a plan to improve schools like the Glenn Hills cluster, Butler and Joesey. Also in addition to building a new K-8 school off of Jimmy Dyess, the school district needs to build a new high school as well in the area to support all of the growth happening in SW Augusta.

School enrollment up in Columbia County, down in Richmond and Aiken | The Augusta Chronicle

What makes you say that? Richmond had 2,900 new students the first week last year and Columbia had 598. It sounds like your feeding into the stereotype board Venus Cain is talking about. That somehow suburban schools are better than schools in the central county. I'm only asking, because you didn't mention the decrease in Aiken County.
School enrollment climbs in Richmond, Columbia counties | The Augusta Chronicle

They are moving forward with the K-8 school, because they have the figures to show the nearby middle schools are overcrowded. They can't just build a new high school without the state. The comments about Josey, Butler, and Glenn Hills are spot on, but it's easier said than done based on demographics.

[Airforceguy]

Originally Posted by nortonguy

What makes you say that? Richmond had 2,900 new students the first week last year and Columbia had 598. It sounds like your feeding into the stereotype board Venus Cain is talking about. That somehow suburban schools are better than schools in the central county. I'm only asking, because you didn't mention the decrease in Aiken County.
School enrollment climbs in Richmond, Columbia counties | The Augusta Chronicle

They are moving forward with the K-8 school, because they have the figures to show the nearby middle schools are overcrowded. They can't just build a new high school without the state. The comments about Josey, Butler, and Glenn Hills are spot on, but it's easier said than done based on demographics.

I don't believe that I'm feeding into the stereotypes about Richmond County schools. Overall the schools in Columbia are better than Richmond, but that doesn't Richmond doesn't have great schools. I think the system needs to do a better job of selling itself to the public and highlight schools like Westside, Laney and Cross Creek that are doing well in addition to the magnet schools. I still think that Augusta will show positive growth for the 2020 census, but if the city really wants to grow in the coming decade it has to improve its school system.