PERRY — About 60 people gathered at the Houston County Board of Education’s Ragin Center on Monday night to discuss the future of public education in Georgia.
The meeting drew educators, parents, students and other community leaders from 22 counties, including Houston, Bibb, Jones, Monroe, Peach and Twiggs.
The meeting was the first of eight Vision for Public Education in Georgia forums, a joint effort by the Georgia School Boards Association and the Georgia School Superintendents Association to build community engagement on the future of public education.
The discussions were put together by a group of 16 superintendents and 15 local school board members from 25 districts representing 25 percent of Georgia’s public school students.
“One of the values that come from a meeting of this sort is to use this as a template for community conversations between school districts and the people they serve,” said Bill Barr, facilitator for the Vision Project.
The participants were divided into several groups and were asked to think about the state of Georgia’s schools in five years, what changes can be made in that time, how they can be made, positive elements in place and elements that could be improved.
Jones County board chairman Ted Stone felt that schools need to evolve their instruction to remain effective and relevant to students from kindergarten through high school.
“We have to change the way we’re teaching our children,” Stone said. “This program is the best thing I’ve seen to change our direction to one day stop teaching the tests and start teaching children.”
The Rev. Jerry Walls, pastor of Southside Baptist Church in Warner Robins, said he was interested in the discussion, both as a pastor and a grandfather of three elementary school-age children.
“We have great teachers now, but we want to make sure we have great quality teachers in the future,” he said.
Rhonda Mincey, who runs the nonprofit organization Made 2B More, which mentors girls, said schools need to supplement their instruction with more outreach programs for students.
“The other participants help us all collectively think of a better way to have the school system,” she said.
Northside High School senior Adriana Dee said educators need to use technology as a way to enhance instruction in the classroom, as well as provide job shadowing and other experiences to link academic lessons to the professional world.
“In talking about education and seeing people so passionate about it, they’re trying to make a change to do the best for students, parents and teachers,” Dee said of the forum.