Columbia County kids welcomed back to class with a smile
HARLEM, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Class is back in session for the Columbia County School District, one of three in the CSRA that started their academic year Thursday.
School also started for McDuffie County kids.
All the schools were busy, but we saw it firsthand at North Harlem Elementary School.
Principal Marlo Leatherwood welcomed back students with a bright smile along with her teaching staff.
“Everybody’s excited,” Leatherwood says. “You know, getting some get school supplies together, getting new outfits or fits as students call them, getting their shoes and different things ready for school. Then it’s a little bit nervous because my little girl she’s been here, but started back again.”
Safety is important in Columbia County.
This will be the second year the district has its own police department.
BUS TRACKER:
- Parents in Columbia County can track their kids’ bus routes. The school district has an app ready called Edu Log Parent Portal Lite. You can check on your child as they ride the bus and get notifications when they’re getting close to home. For more information on how this works, visit https://www.ccboe.net/.
Police Chief Gary Owens says he’s determined to continue building on what he started last year.
He says the district is adding more secure doors to limit access to common areas from visitors.
The district is also adding another set of eyes with parking lot attendants for all of the high schools separate from the school resource officers, SRO.
“We felt that having that extra set of eyes and ears to just kind of help us mitigate the parking lot and allows the SRO to be more engaged in the schools with other duties that they do,” Owens said.
The district says it will have resource officers in every school and two in every high school.
Leatherwood said: “Parents can rest assured that when they drop their students off at Columbia County schools, these are safe schools. “Feel secure in knowing that when your students enter our doors, they are coming in here, and they will not come back the way that they came. They will come engaged, enriched, and inspired.”
Bus route numbers are simpler. They’re smaller digits to help students what route is theirs.
Ferm Moyer is a bus manager for the county. He said, “It doesn’t matter if it’s a spare bus or the regular bus for that route. It has that route number on it.”
Elementary students have tags so bus drivers know each student is on the right bus.
“Safety is number one. Our most important job is to transport students safely to and from,” Moyer says. “Please be patient at startup with our drivers so everyone can get acclimated to the routes.”
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