More Bibb County schools are underperforming, leading to scrutiny of the superintendent
The Georgia Board of Education has concerns about the Bibb County School District’s poor academic performance, but approved another one-year strategic plan for the district to waive certain laws and guidelines in an effort to get the district back on track.
The one-year contract recommendation is due to a significant increase of federally identified low-performing schools in Macon, which had a 30% increase of its schools added to the latest Comprehensive Support and Improvement school list, Deputy Superintendent Tiffany Taylor said at the board’s Wednesday meeting.
“That’s a huge increase for Bibb County,” Mike Royal, state school board member, said disapprovingly.
Eight out of 33 Bibb County schools were federally identified as schools needing improvement, according to the state education department’s 2023 list announced in January. It’s a jump from the 2022 list of five Macon schools. That number is now 11, Bibb County School District Superintendent Dan Sims shared at the Wednesday board meeting. The schools on the list are identified as a state’s lowest-performing 5% of Title I schools. The poor performance indicates they are in need of additional support to improve student success.
Royal, concerned, asked Sims if he knew the total percentage of Bibb County schools that are now on the “failing list.”
Sims said although the Bibb County Board of Education thoroughly discussed the federally identified failing schools in January, he did not readily have the numbers available from memory.
“You don’t know that number off the top of your head?” Royal asked. “I would think that’d be a key performance indicator, but that’s a whole other issue.”
After a brief back and forth moment, Sims said he did not want to “take a shot in the dark” and share inaccurate information because he was not called to speak on the specific issue.
“In fairness, I don’t want you to feel ambushed on here,” Royal said. “But I mean I just will say I find it concerning that you don’t know that information as superintendent off the top of the head. I’m just being 1000% honest.”
The contract renewal will allow the district to continue to operate as a strategic waiver school system, which allows school systems to receive increased flexibility in the form of waivers of certain state laws and guidelines in exchange for student achievement. That includes waivers that could allow school systems to adjust class sizes or hire teachers working toward obtaining required certifications.
Royal also asked Sims if he knew what waivers the district was asking for in the one-year contract, which Sims said he would have to pull up and refer to the actual application for accuracy.
“Traditionally, waivers are granted for increased performance in making a contract to do better,” Royal said. “I’m just being honest. Obviously Bibb County has been going backwards as far as these metrics go, and I was just wondering what are they promising to do to even get the one-year waiver.
“This system is supposed to be about waivers of rules in exchange for academic progress and performance,” Royal continued. “I was just wondering what that was, and the superintendent doesn’t know off the top of his head what that is.”
Toward the end of the discussion on the agenda item, Sims said there are now 11 schools on the federal list.
The following eight schools in Bibb County are considered low-performing: Appling Middle School, Bernd Elementary School, Bruce Elementary School, Hartley Elementary School, Ingram/Pye Elementary School, Rosa Taylor Elementary School, Union Elementary and Williams Elementary School.
The state education department aims to place full-time literacy coaches in the listed schools for the 2024-2025 school year to increase Bibb County’s reading scores, according to the department’s communications director Meghan Frick.
The one-year contract will begin on July 1. The board will have until June 30, 2025, to evaluate where the district lies, the board members determined.