By Andy Diffenderfer
Correspondent
A federal school improvement grant is helping Ridgeland High School provide more support staff, update technology to improve student achievement, help teachers and get parents more involved.
The grant, first-year school improvement coach Brent Webb said, is for $1.47 million the first year, $1.2 million the second and $1 million for the third. More than a dozen new staff, both full and part time, will further the mission of raising graduation rates, he said.
The transformational model has "given us resources to do the things and have the support we wouldn't have had before," said Ridgeland principal Robert Smith, who is in his fourth year at the school.
Grant-funded personnel now on board at Ridgeland include a coach to train teachers in new technology and provide maintenance and support; a parent and community outreach coordinator to further a team-building, trust-building effort among parents, teachers and students; and a dropout prevention coach.
While those positions are full time, 11 student coaches, who are certified teachers and/or graduate students, will work part time with students one-on-one and in small groups to address specific weaknesses in preparation for the Georgia High School Graduation Test.
The coaches "will help identify students in need, giving teachers an extra layer of support," said academic coach Christy Evans. She noted that, through the grant, the school will be able to provide extended-day opportunities for students of all academic levels, as well as credit recovery and college readiness options.
Webb said the grant also should help Ridgeland "become a technology-oriented center of learning," with Promethean boards, similar to SmartBoards, in most classrooms, as well as document cameras and LCD projectors. The school also is looking at adding mobile computer and iPad labs for departments to share, along with other technology peripherals.
"The whole idea of this grant is to transform Ridgeland in every way possible from technology to the way we involve parents and use data," said Webb, who previously worked in Hamilton County Schools as a language arts teacher, literacy coach and school-based testing coordinator.
While Evans said the additional technology will be an asset to teachers, she also emphasized the need to increase meaningful parental involvement to support the school's improvement efforts.
"Every staff member has been very supportive," Webb said, discussing the grant initiatives. "If you don't have the buy-in of the staff, the programs will never be successful."
Both Smith and Webb said they noticed encouraging signs at a schoolwide assembly on the first day of school, with students focused on a message of improvement and achievement.
"It was like night and day from my first assembly here," Smith said. "I feel like our culture has changed drastically in the last four years."
Andy Diffenderfer is based in LaFayette, Ga. Contact him at andydiff97@comcast.net.