Study To Expand Benton Blvd. In Port Wentworth

Savannah-Chatham school district and community leaders are discussing a charter high school to be built in the western part of Chatham County.

The school board will vote on the West Chatham Preparatory Academy at their school board meeting next Wednesday.

As 3 On Your Side education reporter, Randi Hempel shows us, one builder is donating the land upon which the bricks and mortar will lay, but they still need a street for students to travel down so they can get there.

Neighbors pack Port Wentworth's city council meeting in support of home builder, Fred Williams, who donated 5 acres of land (worth $75,000-80,000 each) for the West Chatham Preparatory Academy to be built on.

"At first, I sat in on some of the meetings with Pooler and I realized how valuable the charter school was. It has some of the highest academic ratings that you could ask for. So after I listened to that and I saw that they were faltering and couldn't get any land. I thought it would be a great thing for Port Wentworth," explains home builder and land donor, Fred Williams.

He's paving the way to a better education, but they need a road to get there. It would be an extension of Benton Boulevard to Meinhard Road off of Highway 30. So, Williams and all of these people asked the city to do a feasibility study on the project.

"For him to come out and donate land, that's just, in this day in time, you just don't see that. That just does not happen all the time and you have to appreciate the thoughtfulness that he's doing that. As far as the road, that road has been needed forever," explains Mayor Glenn Jones of Port Wentworth.

Mayor Glenn Jones says it would ease traffic congestion on Highway 21 and be more convenient. That's one of the things parents like Tina Shuman want.

"It just creates an opportunity for our children to have a better learning education and it would be convenient because we're so far out," explains Tina Shuman, mother of a 12 and a 2-year old.

A committee will meet next Thursday evening at 6 to discuss the road project.

Again, the school board is supposed to decide on the charter high school at their meeting next Wednesday.