The majority of rural school districts around Georgia are shrinking, and the Baldwin County School District is no exception.
Thirty years ago, for example, there were 6,391 students in the district, which included 3,098 in grades kindergarten through fifth grade. Fast forward to this school year, and it’s 4,324 total students and 1,885 K-5 students, according to the Georgia Department of Education’s FTE “head counts.” In other words, there were 48 percent more students in the Baldwin County School District 30 years ago than there are today.
Declining enrollment in rural districts has led to conversations about school consolidation across the state. The Wilkinson County School Board, for example, recently voted to consolidate its primary and elementary school, and now the Baldwin County School Board is pondering the same. In Baldwin County, keep in mind that the schools for third, fourth and fifth graders are referred to as “academies,” while the K–2 schools are “primaries.”
Administrators on Tuesday held a Midway Schools Townhall event at Midway Hills Academy on US 441 South. Assistant Superintendent Rodney Tyson led the presentation, which included a slide on enrollment figures. At last count, Midway Hill Academy had an enrollment of 458 students in a school designed for a maximum of 950, while Midway Hills Primary (the old Blandy Hills) had 397 students in a school designed for a maximum of 1,000.
Tyson said that “no decisions have been made,” although the momentum certainly seems to be on the side of consolidation. Tyson, along with Superintendent Kristina Brooks, assured those in attendance that class sizes would remain roughly the same under the consolidation plan.
Brooks pointed out the logistical challenges for parents who currently have children at both schools, touting that consolidation would cut down on transportation issues and encourage more participation in extracurricular activities.
The superintendent added that similar conversations will begin with parents and stakeholders at Lakeside Primary and Lakeside Academy in the coming months.
Consolidation would equal rezoning. Students who currently live north of Ga. 22 and west of US 441 currently are zoned for Midway. The consolidated plan would place these students in Lakeside Primary and Lakeside Academy.
Part two of the plan would be to transform Midway Hills Primary into the new Baldwin Success Academy, reserved for certain students in grades 6–12. The students at Baldwin County Success Academy, according to a slide during the presentation, would be a combination of “alternative school students, GNETS students, select eighth grade students and 5th-year seniors” at Baldwin High.
“The smaller learning environments (at the proposed Baldwin Success Academy), we feel, will help them be more successful,” Tyson said.