Local & State Headlines

Dougherty sees enrollment drop

• The majority of Dougherty County School System principals reported a peaceful start to the school year.

Holly McCarthy

ALBANY — Dougherty County School System principals reported a fairly typical start to the school year overall, with the exception of some first-week problems at Lake Park Elementary, Westover High and Dougherty High.

Enrollment for all schools was reported at 16,420 students — a slight drop from last year’s number.

Westover High experienced the highest increase, with 118 more students than last year.

According to R.D. Harter, public information director for DCSS, more than half of those new students entered the freshman class.

“Three of our high schools did not make AYP, and because of the school choice resulting from that, Westover received more students from Albany, Dougherty and Monroe,” he said.

Harter said Westover administrators will be adjusting class schedules next week to accommodate the increase and avoid crowded classrooms.

Dougherty High had issues as well, with student schedules not printing out due to what school officials said were software problems.

“Anytime you go from a technological system to a manual system where counselors are filling in what classes each student needs, it’s going to cause a slowdown,” Harter said. “But I think getting them to class within four days was pretty good.”

At Lake Park Elementary, parents and neighbors complained about a messy transportation scenario.

Renovations that began this month rendered the front drive and entrance unusable. Parents picking up and dropping off their children competed with buses in alleys around the school, which created backups in the streets.

Principal Catherine Whitfield said the school has since rerouted traffic through the campus to alleviate crowding on city streets, and crushed gravel was set down Friday to make the temporary driveway easier to navigate in the rain.

“It’s been a matter of working the kinks out,” Whitfield said. “Lake Park has no option but to use the alleys. We’re doing the best we can to be respectful of our neighbors’ needs, and we hope everybody will bear with us.”

The majority of parents were patient and cooperative, she said.

The renovations are expected to take up to two years to complete. The front entrance was the first phase undertaken, so it will be finished first, according to Whitfield.

Whitfield said policies about tardiness and late pickups were waived the first eight days of school because of the traffic situation, but that next week school would begin at 8 a.m. like normal.

Whitfield also encouraged parents to consider sending their children to school on a bus if they can, since new bus schedules have decreased ride times.

In some cases, she said, kids were spending less time riding the bus than parents were sitting in line at school.

Harter said the school system is pleased with the way the year started, despite the first-week glitches.

“Considering the issues we had with increased enrollment, the schedules not printing, the traffic problems ... principals are telling me it’s the smoothest start they remember, and I’m pretty excited about that,” he said.