State superintendent presents leader banners to 20 Savannah‑Chatham schools

State Superintendent Richard Woods presented leader banners to 20 Savannah‑Chatham County public schools recognizing exceptional achievement or growth in reading and math, district officials said.

The awards were distributed during a banner day in education intended to highlight schools that have shown measurable gains. Ken Slatz, a representative of the Savannah‑Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS), said the district has made literacy a central focus and intends to replicate the strategies that produced the gains so more schools can receive recognition next year.

"The growth in literacy has been a main focus, a North Star here at SCCPSS and beyond," Ken Slatz, SCCPSS representative, said. Officials also cited what they described in the meeting as "44 points of growth"; the source and metric for that figure were not further specified in the remarks.

Slatz said the banners give parents and communities a visible way to see school progress and credited principals for supporting students' progress. "It is a visible way in which...we can look at and say, okay, the work is being done," he said, and added that the district aims to make literacy active in classrooms "every day, every minute."

State-level recognition of schools that improve reading and math scores is intended to encourage replication of successful practices, officials said. The district did not provide a detailed breakdown of which schools received banners, the exact criteria used by the state to award the banners, or the dollar amounts (if any) tied to the recognitions during the remarks.

For SCCPSS, "I'm Ken Slatz," the representative concluded.