Richmond County schools look ahead to the new school year

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Columbia County students and Richmond County elementary students are back in the classroom Thursday.

We got a chance to check in with school leaders on what the new year will look like.

Richmond County schools are having their back-to-school open house for all parents and guardians to see inside the school for the first time since 2020.

“The atmosphere is amazing,” said Clarice Maloney, parent.

Richmond County students and staff filled the halls excited for a new school year.

Principle of W.S. Hornsby Elementary Gregory Shields said: “We’re looking forward to great things. Most importantly, we’re looking forward to having our students coming in and achieving excellence in academics.”

While students have been away, faculty and staff have been hard at work to make this year feel as normal as possible.

“Our theme for this year is achieving excellence together, and our keyword for that is innovation,” said Shields.

He says innovation starts with classrooms having technology as well as all students having their own devices. But aside from learning, their top focus has been safety from COVID to active shooter training.

“This year we have all of our staff have been trained and gone through training, required training for active shooter training. We are practicing safe measures with students and staff to ensure safety is all around,” he said.

As for COVID safety they are still following CDC protocols but there will also be smaller class sizes as well.

Maloney said: “The communication is amazing and I’m a new mom. My daughter is in the first grade so any questions that I have I just call, and they have been taking care of us.”

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