South Alabamian

Supt. Savage hopes to improve McIntosh H.S.





By Randy ReeseSA Reporter

As McIntosh High School enters its third year in the public school choice program, Washington County Superintendent Tim Savage hopes the exodus has ended and better days are ahead.

As a federal Title 1 school with a high percentage of its students receiving free or discounted lunches, the high school has been forced to allow students to transfer to one of the other high schools in the county because of low test scores and a slower than expected rate of improvement on those scores.

All of these changes are part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and Savage admits there is little or no wiggle room. “We have to do what the state and federal officials tell us to do,” he said. “Bottom line is that all of us are working hard to improve this school to the point that none of this will be needed very much longer.”

Savage said the school’s enrollment dwindled down to about 300 students by the end of the just completed school year. State records show that 63 students asked for and received transfers during the 2003-04 school year. No state data is available for 2004-05 year at this time.

“We had two full bus loads of students travelling to Leroy every day and two buses about half full going to Washington County High School each day,” the superintendent said. “Students can again ask to be reassigned this year to another high school from McIntosh, but it’s my guess that most of the students have already moved that want to move.”

Savage said that Leroy was nearing its capacity of 850 students while Washington County could still accept a few more. Students could also transfer to Fruitdale High School if they choose to, he said.

“We still have some room at other schools if any student still wants to transfer,” Savage said. “If we did get closer to the capacity at the other schools, we would give priority to lower scoring students, because that is what federal guidelines say we have to do.

“But, at the same time, we are doing everything we possibly can to alleviate the problems at McIntosh. We want to get to the point where all students in Washington County can expect to get a quality education no matter what school they attend.”

According to information released by the Alabama State Department of Education, McIntosh is one of only 17 high schools in the state that has been designated for improvement under the Title 1 program.

The only other school in Washington and Clarke counties to fall under the plan is Coffeeville High School. Counting all schools, 83 have now been identified as underachieving schools by the state for the upcoming school year.

Savage took over the reigns of the district in January and he says the system has made marked improvements at McIntosh High School since then. “Right now we have two state department consultants on hand working with us and a very qualified retired teacher also helping out,” Savage said. “We are doing everything we possibly can to make sure the school improves.

“The last thing we want to see happen is for the school to close down because of all of this.”

Savage said the Title 1 program does have plans in place to come in and replace the entire staff of the school if improvement is not made eventually. “They did that at a school in Mobile County and it seemed to work down there,” Savage said. “But, in a rural county, we do not have places to transfer teachers if that happens.

“What do we do with the tenured teachers then? Also, we would have a much tougher transportation situation.”

Speaking of transportation, Savage said some of the McIntosh students who have already opted to transfer have to catch the bus well before sunrise and sometimes do not get home till after sunset.

“That’s too long of a bus ride for students to have to make,” Savage said. “The extra bus routes have also put a lot of pressure on our budget. We can use up to 10 percent of our Title 1 funds for the transportation but that doesn’t even pay for half of the costs. That also causes us to have to cut funds to other programs and that’s never a good idea”

Savage says he hopes the improvement plan eventually pulls the school out of its nosedive. “We have a lot of great teachers and students at McIntosh High School,” Savage said. “I think we will be able to make things right if all of us can pull together.

“The children and people of that area of the county deserve a local school that is equal in all ways to the other schools. That’s what we are striving for.”




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