TIMMONSVILLE, SC (WBTW) – In March, the State Board of Education declared a state of emergency for both Brockington Elementary School and Johnson Middle School.
That’s because the two Florence School District Four Schools failed to meet the state’s academic expectations.
Since then the state and school board have worked to fix the problem.
“I’m able to sleep well at night. Aww man, I had a lot of trouble sleeping at night,” said Butch Hodges, school board chairman.
Hodges will be the first to admit during the short time span things have changed.
“Before we had…if there was a function nobody would turn out unless it was a football game,” Hodges mentioned.
The school board parted ways with then superintendent Dr. Andre Boyd in March and named Dr. Zona Jefferson, longtime educator from Sumter, as interim superintendent.
“When I came in my thought was how do I want the school to look like,” she stated.
Jefferson says the district is in constant contact with the state along with the help of an onsite transformation coach.
“They bring in expertise that we don’t have readily available here for us, for example, our special services,” Jefferson said.
Next month a plan will be unveiled outlining the necessary steps the district will take to get back on solid ground.
“We want each child to contribute to improving the school. We want them smart, we want them to be leaders and we want them to be good citizens,” explained Jefferson.
The school district plans to unveil that plan at a meeting on June 14th.
Both Hodges and Jefferson say parent involvement has also increased over the past couple of months.
