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The Sumter County School Board met on November 12. The Board recognized the Sumter County Middle School football team for winning the deep South Conference.

Director of Human Resources Helen Ricketts brought information about teacher recruitment efforts. “A big initiative is growing our own, and with the help of the Georgia Department of Ed and the rural education initiative, Sumter County is one of only five districts in the State who has been chosen to participate in a Georgia Registered teacher apprentice program.”

She also talked about a pre-apprenticeship program for work-based learning students. “So there will be a component with our Career College Ignite.”

Dr. Adrienne Davis gave attendance data. Average daily attendance for August during the 2022-23 school year was 92.85%, for the 2023-24 year, it was 93.82%, and for the 2024-25 year, 94.79%.

Average daily attendance for September for the 2022-2023 school year was 92.86%, for the 2023-24 year, it 93.15%, and for 2024-25, it was 94.61%.

Average daily attendance for the month of October for the 2022-23 school year was 92.23%, for 2023-24, 93.33%, and for 2024-25, 94.80%.

Davis also brought information on the Caring Adult program. “We want to make sure each and every one of our students, they’re connected to a caring adult. Someone that they can go to to discuss any issues that they may be having.”

She listed the number of students connected to a caring adult in each school: Sumter County Primary, 743, Sumter Elementary, 535, Sumter County Intermediate, 715, Sumter County Middle, 541, and Sumter County Highschool, 973.

Dr. April Smith gave discipline data for all five schools. Office discipline referrals for August during the prior year were 405. For August this year there were 243. Last September saw 589, this September had 209. October of last year had 553, this October had 260. Knighton stated the numbers included bus referrals.

Knighton also gave work-based learning data from last year. 64 students participated, working 28,201 hours and earning $287,124.89 in wages, with 49 business and industry partners in the community.

Knighton gave the work-based learning information for this year so far. Students worked over 4,801 hours, and earned $48,035.19 in wages, working for 52 business and industry partners. Spring applications for work-based learning are open until November 15.

Phillip Harper Jr., new Director in Operations for Sumter County Schools provided updates. “We had an old work order system, which has gone down inexplicably, we can’t use it for some reason, but that’s not a problem, because two weeks ago I implemented a new work order system.” He stated that the new one was faster. Harper stated he was also creating an inventory management system. “We want our inventory of everything across the entire district, whether it’s a chair, a table, an HVAC, we want to know what we have.”

He also stated he was creating a safety training program on OSHA standards. Harper was formerly the executive director of the International Window Cleaning Association, and he spoke of its emphasis on safety. “IWCA, which is its acronym, is one of the only organizations in the Country that is an OSHA ambassador.”

Harper also gave the response time for the various schools during drills. Sumter County Primary School’s response time for a fire during the August drill was 4:02, Sumter County Elementary’s was 2:24, Sumter County Intermediate’s was 5:00, Sumter County Middle School’s was 3:14, and Sumter County High School’s was 1:48.

Drills during September included fire and intruders. Sumter County Primary School was 3:26 for a fire, Sumter County Elementary School was 2:53 for a fire, and 18:28 for an intruder, Sumter County Intermediate School was 3:00 for a fire, Sumter County Middle School was 15:13 for an intruder, and Sumter County Highschool was 2:24 for a fire and 0:30 for an intruder.

During the month of October fire drills were conducted. Sumter County Primary School took 3:54, Sumter County Elementary School took 2:07, Sumter County Intermediate School took 4:00, Sumter County Middle School did not report a time due to an alarm box not working, and Sumter County Highschool took 2:20.

Severe weather drills were conducted during the month of November. Sumter County Primary School took 15:57, Sumter County Elementary School took 6:45, Sumter County Intermediate School took 4:00, and Sumter County Middle School took 14:36.

Harper stated a few could use a little improvement. “Some of them are pretty good though. One of the ones that I don’t think is quite accurate, the high school intruder alert says its 30 seconds, that’s what they reported. I need to ask questions about that. That seems, unlikely.”

For more news discussed during the November 12 work session, see School Board hears information on bonds from Bill Camp.