By Jeff Whitten,
Special to the Herald
GUYTON – Georgia State School Superintendent Richard Woods honored nine Effingham County schools in person May 16 at South Effingham Middle School, awarding what he referred to as the academic version of state championship banners in literacy and math.
“These are not easy to get,” Woods told principals. “If it was easy I would just mail them to you. But because this does mean something, you should be very proud.”
Only 324 of the state’s 2,311 schools earned the recognition this year, and only 49 were high schools.
Effingham County schools that were awarded banners included Blandford Elementary, Ebenezer Middle School, Effingham County High School, Effingham County Middle School, Guyton Elementary, Sand Hill Elementary, South Effingham High School, South Effingham Middle and Springfield Elementary.
Criteria for the banners, which include holes at the bottom to add as many as seven ribbons, is based on students’ performance on selected end-of-course tests. And the program is designed not so much to measure one group of students, but instead the growth in the percentage of students doing well on the tests from year to year.
Guyton Elementary was the only Effingham County school to win a banner last year, which is when the state Department of Education began recognizing literacy leader schools on a limited scale, Woods said, because of the importance reading plays in life. Ebenezer Middle and Sand Hill Elementary were among the schools to be awarded banners in both literacy and math Friday. The math banner was added this year, and ribbons for social studies and science are going to be added next year.
Woods is also promoting a John Hancock ribbon – “Because our students need to own their signatures,” he said -- to stress the importance of being able to write in cursive.
For Tiffany Parker, Guyton Elementary principal, winning in literacy for the second year, “feels like it is evidence of the dedication and determination of the staff and students,” she said. “We’ve tracked hard to focus on and really celebrate and encourage growth in our school with our teachers, staff, and students.”
Blandford was among the schools earning a banner for the first time, and Principal LaToya Jones said it felt like her school had won a state championship in math – one in which the entire school played a part in winning.
“Our boys and girls come in day in and day out, and they work hard,” she said. “Our teachers work hard to teach our kids the standards and make sure they are learning, and that we continue to build great boys and girls in our building.”
South Effingham High School won for its improvement in math scores. Dr. Torian White, SEHS principal, said the banner “Celebrates the hard work teachers put in at the classroom level, because you don’t get those results without teachers going to work each and every day, building relationships with those students, finding out what those students’ strengths are and meeting the students where they’re at. It’s a testament to those teachers, and it’s great to be celebrating it.
Effingham High School also won a banner in math. Principal Greg Manior, an Effingham County native who played football for the Rebels before going on to star at North Carolina State and play with the Washington Redskins until his career was abruptly ended by injury, has been a teacher, administrator and coach for decades.
Manior noted that while he never won a state championship on the gridiron, the math banner was important and felt like a state championship – but it didn’t happen overnight and took the input of everyone from teachers and students and their families to the entire school staff.
“This is a big deal for us, our math department is huge on student achievement and took the initiative a couple of years ago to just say ‘we’re going to achieve’ and make sure these kids are learning at a high level,” Manior said. “Give it up to our staff, our kids, and our parents for trusting in them and trusting in us to make sure we get to the highest level possible.”
The state school superintendent’s analogy of state championship banners resonated with Effingham County School Superintendent Dr. Yancey Ford, also a former coach. He said in sports the drive is to always do better, and that’s the same motivation for educators – who meet weekly during the school year to look for ways to better teach students.
“In education you’re always self-reflecting, always reviewing, looking at the things you know very well and being humble and knowing what you can do better,” Ford said, noting the most important message for him as a superintendent following Woods’ visit was that he’s got the right staff in place.
Effingham County School Board Chairperson Vickie Decker said the banner shows the school system is “doing great things and moving in the right direction. There’s always room for continued growth and improvement and we’re going to continue in that direction. But I’m very proud of our schools.”
Also attending Friday’s ceremony was Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, an Effingham native, and his wife Dayle, a retired teacher who got her career started in Effingham County. He touted his ties to Effingham and the school district’s history of providing quality education while also noting half the state’s budget goes to education.
“It’s not about how much money you spend, because a lot of systems spend a lot more money than we do here, with not near the results that y’all are getting,” he said.
