Columbia County school leaders adopt 10-year plan

EVANS, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Late Tuesday afternoon, Columbia County School District leaders adopted a 10-year plan for the district.

The plan focuses on improvements and renovations to schools.

It used to be a five-year plan, but leaders expanded it so they can get more input from parents and resources to create the vision.

A year and a half ago, the district asked questions to the parents, students, and other members of the community in order to figure out what they were looking to see done with schools.

Over the past eight months, the district took that information to draft the plan.

Each school district in Georgia have five-year plans, but with the growth of over 4,000 students in the past 10 years, Columbia County school leaders wanted more time.

“Let’s expand this a little longer so we can talk with the community about what the needs are, and what’s reasonable about actually making these things happen. And it really is reasonable to do this and about 10 years,” Columbia County Superintendent Dr. Steve Flynt said a few days ago.

The county’s growth is starting to slow down, which makes the county want to make adjustments.

“And at this point in time, even though we’re continuing to grow, we’re seeing a little bit of a lull in the speed of that growth. And so, now’s the time when we really need to look at revamping some of these older facilities,” said Flynt.

The three oldest facilities in the district, Evans, Lakeside, and Harlem High Schools will look to get additions and renovations.

These high schools are also exceeding their instructional capacity with Lakeside High School having over 400 more students than the capacity.

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