First Day Chatham County Public Schools

The school year started with one of the district’s biggest cheerleaders.  This is Superintendent Dr. Thomas Lockamy’s visit to Southwest Middle school.  He congratulated students on last year’s test scores and gave them a pep talk.  “To be on honor roll because every one of them can be on honor roll.  I’m expecting that to happen.  I’m encouraging them.  I’m supporting them by saying just tell us what we need to do to help you,“ says Dr. Lockamy.
Lockamy says the district expects to build on academic achievement.  “I think we’re gonna have 90% of our schools meeting adequate yearly progress when the final count comes in this month.  A lot of excitement.  So this year we’re gonna take those successes and move them even higher.“
The motto at Southwest Middle School…If you want to hang with the eagles you have to learn how to fly. Simply put…failure is not an option.
“We have after school programs for the students.  We have after school tutorials.  We even have Saturday programs for students who need that extra step.  We even have the same opportunities for those students on the high end to learn for SAT Prep,“ says Lockamy, And it’s a safe learning environment.  “We’ve added additional cameras this year.  We’ve added additional gates for students to walk through random inspections that we do.“  There are about 35,000 students in the Savannah-Chatham Public Schools.  Officials say day one went smoothly with the exception of a few late buses.