The Savannah chapter of the NAACP hosted an education forum Sunday afternoon where Chatham County school superintendent Denise Watts detailed the district’s priorities for the upcoming school year and answered questions from community members.
Dozens of community members as well as other local leaders in education showed up to the forum at Tremont Temple Baptist Church and raised concerns about student attendance, parent involvement, discipline, and literacy ahead of the first day of school next week.
This year brings improvements to the 10th largest school system in the state: Watts, who is serving her second year as superintendent, reported that all 36,000 students will now have free breakfast and lunch, school personnel have received raises, teachers were given $500 stipends to purchase school supplies, and more vacancies for school staff and bus drivers have been filled. However, there are still long-term issues affecting the district that Watts plans on addressing this year.
Focus on attendance
Superintendent Watts said the school system’s main area of focus will be on chronic absenteeism. Last year, an average of 40 percent of high school students missed more than 10 percent of the school year according to the district. That number spikes amongst economically disadvantaged, Black, and Hispanic students. Chronic absenteeism has been on the rise across the nation since the COVID pandemic, but Watts said it’s been particularly difficult for the district to recover…