Civil Municipal - Feb 2024

Just as it “takes a village” to raise its children, it takes strong partnerships to support a local school district. The school district works closely with its valued partners including, SRJ Architects for the gymnasium renovation, GN Excavation and Trucking, for preparing the field, and the MOTZ Group for laying the artificial turf; MEJA Construction for remodeling the Middle/ High School gym; Presence Learning for providing the district with its OPTP (Orthopedic Physical Therapy Products) and its school psychologist; the Oconee RESA (Regional Education Service Agency), which helps local school systems meet their educational needs through sharing services across school systems lines; Accelerated Learning for providing STEMscopes, its comprehensive suite of STEM curriculum and professional development solutions; and, of course, the Georgia Department of Education. “We can call them whenever we need them,” says Harper. Other partnerships include those that assist students directly. “The Morehouse School of Medicine helps our students who are studying biology,” Harper shares. “They can do labs provided by the Medical School. In a couple of weeks, we will be journeying to Georgia Tech for another possible partnership in computer science. And we have other partnerships coming up – one with Oconee Fall Line Technical College. I’ll be meeting with them to explore more expanded opportunities for our students.” SMALL CAN BE BEAUTIFUL While Harper and her allies are confronting the challenges of being a small and relatively poorer school district, they all agree that smallness does offer some advantages. “We don’t have all the resources, but an advantage is that we know our community; we’re products of this community and the school district,” she shares. “A lot of problems that larger districts may have by not knowing their students, or their parents, or many of the community members, we don’t have. So, that is an advantage for us.” “We are a small rural community,” Mathis concedes. 185 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 5, ISSUE 02 HANCOCK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, GA