State of Education Informs Citizens

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The Greater Vidalia Chamber held their last event of 2024 on Thursday, December 5, as administrators from local school systems and the Southeastern Early College and Career Academy (SECCA) spoke to the community about the current state of education.

Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Ronda Hightower, Robert Toombs Christian Academy Head of School Scott Tuck, Toombs County Schools Superintendent Barry Waller, Vidalia City Schools Superintendent Sandy Reid, and SECCA Chief Executive Officer John Sharpe all addressed the event’s audience in an interactive forum, where each leader was given time to share information about each district and their perspectives on various aspects of education. Vidalia Heritage Academy Head of School Jeff McCormick had also planned to join the panel, but was unable to attend because of an illness within his family.

The leaders began by introducing their school system, as they highlighted their district’s unique characteristics, mission state- continued from page

ment, and focuses.

Robert Toombs Christian Academy Head of School Scott Tuck introduced his institution, as he explained that the small private school was created in 1970 and served students from K-3 to 12th grade.

This is Tuck’s first year leading the school, but he emphasized that he has been involved with the institution for several years. “I’ve been associated with Robert Toombs [Christian Academy] for quite a while – back in the 1990’s for a short extent, then since my daughter started attending there in 2004, I’ve been with the school and served in a number of capacities as a teacher, on the school board, and other things. I was very involved with things,” he said. “I do have a love for the school, it’s something that has been a part of my life for several years.”

He continued, “Our mission is to provide quality educational experience for students in a Christcentered environment. That is a huge part of what we do: trying to make sure we keep that focus where it needs to be.” Tuck said that the school focuses on growing students spiritually, intellectually, and socially.

“We are a much smaller school than the others and that provides us unique opportunities and challenges. The smaller feel allows our students to feel like one family throughout the entire school, where kids know each other, and you’ll see high school students interacting with kindergarteners on a regular basis. They get to do that all throughout the day, and it really gives the kids a sense of unity,” Tuck added.

He explained that the school offers several levels of academics to meet the needs of every student as well as a variety of extracurricular activities and athletics.

When asked what was a big victory for his school this year, Tuck commented on the feeling of fulfillment which seeing students succeed had brought him. “We can speak of wins for the school as a whole in athletic wins or literary wins; but, to me, our biggest wins are in students who have come to us that were not getting the opportunity somewhere else and things just weren’t working other places for them, and they get to us and into a smaller environment and thrive. When you see that child that has struggled and struggled and struggled and they break through, that’s the best feeling,” he said.

The biggest challenge which he said the school is facing is finances, as inflation and rising costs have complicated the school’s budget.

Tuck also spoke on the challenges presented by Hurricane Helene this year. “Helene presented one of the most significant challenges that we have seen in our lifetimes. But the way that it did bring out the community all around was incredible. It was a unique challenge, but there were some great things that really came from that,” he concluded.

Toombs County Schools Superintendent Barry Waller shared that the district had around 3,000 students and over 400 employees, making it one of the largest employers in the county.

“Our vision is excellence for all, and when we talk about that every day, we talk about all being all – our students, our staff, and our community. Our goal is to form partnerships in our community and work alongside [people] to provide those opportunities for our students to be successful,” he remarked. “We want to believe in every child every day. Make no mistake – our goal every single day is to be about kids and figure out what we can do to make our kids successful.”

Waller continued, “We are blessed to be able to send kids to the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Emory University, and places like that, but we are also focusing on what kind of opportunities we can get by working with our community to help make kids not only college-ready, but workforce-ready and to help them be successful.”

He highlighted the district’s innovative programs, such as the Heavy Equipment Operations pathway, which the district was the first school in Georgia to offer to students. “We worked with our local industry, McLendon Enterprises, who saw a need and approached us with that need. There was no such program, so we had to go to the Department of Education and get the program created. This past week, we hosted the first ever state championships and had 25 other districts represented right here at Toombs County High School,” he said. “Being able to provide those opportunities for our students and helping them to be job-ready is incredible. Our brick masons, our electricians, folks like that are a dying breed, and we have to prepare students to step out and take that over.”

Waller discussed the challenges the school faced, citing early literacy as a primary focus of the district. “We have taken an old school bus and refurbished it, and it is now a library on wheels that we are partnering with the city of Lyons to go to local daycares to promote early literacy and expose kids to reading before school so that when they get to us, they already have that foundation built. It all starts with reading – if you can read, you can be successful. If you have trouble reading, the deck continued from page

is stacked against you,” he emphasized.

Vidalia City Schools Superintendent Sandy Reid began by telling the audience that her district was one of the last city school systems left in the state, and it served around 2,300 students and employed 350 staff members. “They are around 350 of the best people that you will ever meet, and that in itself is something that makes Vidalia City Schools unique: the quality of people that we have in our buildings, how they love children, and the skills they have to teach students,” She remarked.

Reid continued, “We eat, sleep, and breathe these mission, vision, and commitment statements. We do heavily talk about what we are doing. The vision points out not where we are, but where we ultimately want to be – what is it we are working every day for? Every day, we are setting the pace and equipping our students to be productive citizens. We want to give our students every advantage. We want to be out front – it does feel good when you’re out front and your state recognizes you for things – but the main purpose of setting the pace is that our students and the students that leave Vidalia City Schools have an advantage in life. The cards are not stacked against them, it actually is the other way around.”

She commented on the district’s goals, saying, “Although we want good test scores, we want great programs, we want amazing athletics, arts, and academics, the ultimate goal is to ensure that when every student walks across that stage, they have the skill set that they need to be successful beyond graduation. That’s what we work towards. And sometimes, that doesn’t line up with what the regulating parties may seem to think it should look like; sometimes, it doesn’t line up with factors that someone in Atlanta seems to think we should be doing. Sometimes, we have to make decisions that are best for the community of Vidalia, and I think we are doing a lot of innovative things to make sure that is happening across the board.”

The superintendent said that when the Board or school administration were making decisions, they filtered it through a series of questions: “Is it a vision? Is it the product that our community, our stakeholders – our parents, our staff members, our students, and our Board – decided were priorities for us to get to the path we want to be on?”

“Our mission is to invest in relationships, ignite learning, inspire excellence, [and] impact community. Those are the things that are the core of what we do every day,” she stressed. “We are all about relationships – that’s with students, with our staff, with the community – that’s what’s important to us and that’s what we use to encourage kids to learn. If we value those relationships and pour into those relationships, students will learn. When we inspire excellence, they perform not only in the classroom, but in all areas of life. That is what we’re looking for.”

She continued, “What makes Vidalia City special and what makes it unique? A few things come to mind: a tight knit community, community partnership, small-town advantage and a big world impact – which is shown through consistently being recognized at the state and national levels in academics, arts, and athletics. That includes multiple state championships, military appointments, and college placements. If you focus on academics, arts, and athletics, then all of our students will reach the goal of being employed, enlisted, or enrolled in college.”

When asked what she felt like had been a victory for the school, “There have been so many wins – I think that if you’re in this line of work, every single day, you can find a win. So, trying to figure out which ones are the most important is hard because it depends on what lens you are looking through. Obviously, a big win for us came from the weather challenges we had this year, with Hurricane Helene specifically. Those were challenges, but it was definitely a win to watch our school community come together and to watch our community as a whole.”