School dropout rate continues to fall | Local News

MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Colquitt County School Board continues to report declining dropout rates for at least four consecutive years.

The BoE released the county’s 2021-22 school year dropout rates at its Jan. 31 meeting. The report presents the total dropout rate of all ninth through 12th graders who dropped out of school since the 2017-2018 school year.

While the start of the 2022 school year is still underway, the school publishes statistics by semester. As of fall 2021, a total of 23 students have dropped out. Of these 23 students, seven 10th, 11th and 12th graders dropped out as well as two ninth graders.

The dropout rate has declined steadily since 2017-18, according to the report. This school year reported 123 dropouts for the year. That number fell to 93 in 2018-19, then to 59 in 2019-20, and last year in the 2020-2021 school year, 36 students were reported to have dropped out.

The statistics don’t include “No-Shows,” which are students who have continued absences with “a removed status of ‘unknown,'” according to the report.

The council also heard from Altman + Barrett Architects, who had previously been contracted by the council to inspect schools and other buildings in the county. They recommended that the Colquitt County School System consider rebuilding 2 schools as well as renovating Willie J. Williams. More information regarding these inspections can be found here.

During the working session, Director of Communications, Angela Hobby, presented on current projects that her office is undertaking. Currently, they are working to get each school “its own unique (website) instead of the district site pages,” according to his presentation.

In the actions taken by the council, current President Robby Pitts of District Four and Mary Beth Watson of District Three were re-elected as council chair and vice-chair, respectively. The council also voted not to redraw BoE district lines.

The board also approved four field visits. GEAR students will travel to Mission San Luis in Tallahassee on February 16 and the Challenger Learning Center in Tallahassee on February 17. The seventh-grade STEM team from Willie J. Williams Middle School will travel to the Challenger Learning Center on February 15. And Willie J. Williams’ science team will compete in the Science Olympiad competition in Statesboro, Georgia on February 19.

The next regular BoE meeting will take place on February 28.