Lauren Cain

The Effingham County School District's strategic plan is guided by the vision of "Honoring Tradition. Shaping the Future." and the mission to "Make every moment count because every student matters." The plan is structured around four strategic goal areas: "Culture for Learning," focusing on well-being and meaningful relationships; "Engagement in Learning," emphasizing student-centered, data-driven practices, autonomy, equitable experiences, and digital literacy; "Growth in Learning," aimed at improving academic rigor, broadening opportunities, and strengthening professional development; and "Leadership for Learning," which addresses aligning resource allocation, ensuring a high-quality workforce, engaging the community in decision-making, and enhancing instructional quality.

The strategic plan, titled 'Engage 2025', outlines the organization's vision to engage learners for future success and its mission to make every moment count for every student. It is guided by core beliefs emphasizing student engagement, high expectations, shared responsibility, holistic child support, a caring staff, safe learning environments, and mutual respect.

The Effingham County Board of Education announced its intention to increase the 2025 property taxes by 25.85 percent over the rollback millage rate. The revised budget requires a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate, and Georgia law requires three public hearings to allow public input on the increase.

The Effingham County School District Strategic Plan - ENGAGE 2025, focuses on promoting effective leadership, supporting organizational effectiveness, and engaging families and the community as active partners. It fosters creativity, innovation, and collaborative problem-solving, while providing engaging, student-centered learning experiences to prepare learners for the future. The plan aims to increase collective capacity through professional learning, improve organizational operations, maximize the use of fiscal resources, expand and improve learner-centered supports, and recruit, maintain, and develop a high-quality workforce.

The 2024-2025 School Improvement Plan for SES focuses on enhancing reading and math proficiency, as well as supporting student growth through targeted interventions. Key goals include increasing the percentage of students scoring proficient or distinguished in ELA and Math, decreasing the percentage of students with disabilities and English Language Learners scoring minimally proficient, and improving the percentage of students reading at or above grade level. The plan also aims to reduce the number of K-3 students flagged for possible signs of reading difficulties or Dyslexia. These goals will be achieved through small group instruction, systematic phonics instruction, writing implementation, math fact fluency practice and the utilization of data to inform instruction and interventions.