Members of the Clarke County School District community, including parents, teachers, administrators and security personnel, sit in E.B. Mell Auditorium during the “Community Conversations on School Safety” panel at CCHS on Sept. 6. Parents and community members were invited in advance to attend, but according to CCSD Board of Education District 3 Representative Linda Davis, the turnout remained low. “Actually, it was very difficult to see that we had so few parents, but I was grateful for the ones that we do have,” Davis said. “More than anything, the fact that we are recording these, and people love to watch a recording, I felt like we’ve probably reached maybe three or 4,000 people because that’s about how many people I see that logged into our recorded messages.” Photo by Aza Khan
On Oct. 3 and 4, the Clarke County School District will hold the third and fourth “Community Conversations on School Safety” events with the hope of increasing in-person community engagement.
The Clarke County School District is hosting the second round of its “Community Conversations on School Safety” panels at Cedar Shoals High School on Oct. 3 and at Clarke Central High School on Oct. 4 from 6-7 p.m. at both locations.
The meetings, which align with the CCSD’s 2024-2029 Strategic Plan, serve as an open public forum for CCSD students, parents and community members to bring their concerns about school safety to the attention of CCSD Superintendent Dr. Robbie P. Hooker and other Board of Education members.
“(Dr. Hooker) is a very hands-on person and (was) a very successful principal here, so he feels really confident that the way to reach people is to reach people, and to give them a voice and to hear what they have to say, and I think that is so critical,” CCSD BOE District 3 Representative Linda Davis said.
“I don’t think we have to separate the children from the parents,” Davis said. “I think it’s important that we learn some things together, so I do believe that a student-led movement around the things that are important to the students will bring tremendous results.”
— Linda Davis,
CCSD BOE District 3 Representative
Jacob Page, a sophomore, is interested in attending the Community Conversations event because of the impact he hopes it will have on the CCHS community.
“The meeting is a good opportunity for me, as a student, to voice my opinions on things going on around the school, and to bring up ideas that could potentially improve the school climate,” Page said.
However, despite the desire for community impact, the turnout from parents was extremely low, according to Career, Technical and Agricultural Education department teacher Jaclyn Brown.
“My only disappointment was the parent involvement. There were not a lot of parents that were there and I think the whole reason for having the meeting was to give parents an opportunity to come and ask questions and speak and hear their voice about what’s going on in our community,” Brown said.
Despite the lack of in-person parental engagement in the first round of the discussions, Davis remains optimistic and hopes that students will be at the forefront of bringing issues to the table in the upcoming meetings.
“I don’t think we have to separate the children from the parents,” Davis said. “I think it’s important that we learn some things together, so I do believe that a student-led movement around the things that are important to the students will bring tremendous results.”
