2001: A Learning Odyssey, Savannah, GA 2001
Partners:
Savannah Morning News
WSOK-AM
The paper brought together 60 citizens in August 2000 as the first step in its project on Savannah’s failing public schools. The 39,000-student district was among the worst in the nation. It had gone through three superintendents in five years, the school board was fighting with the governor over school reform, and six schools were about to be taken over by the state. Yet, the meeting was the first effort to involve citizens in developing strategies for school improvement.
Over the next year, the group would more than double in size and its ideas and actions – boiled down to four basic principals to guide school reform – became the basis for Vision 2010, a project exploring what was needed to make Savannah-Chatham County schools the best in the country within the decade.
Some 35 stories, more than half written by citizens, appeared in a special section in August 2001. The project has now grown beyond a newspaper series. A dozen volunteers are working to help the county’s lowest-performing middle school turn around. Other volunteers are working to bring new programs such as a high tech high school to the district. Most significantly, 30 educators, non-profit leaders and business people have formed the Chatham Excellence in Education Foundation to raise the money needed to carry on the work of Vision 2010.
The project won the 2002 Batten Award. The newspaper’s owner contributed $10,000 – an amount equal to the prize money – to the Excellence in Education Foundation, to help it meet its $3 million goal.
Contact:
Dan Suwyn
Managing Editor
Savannah Morning News
PO Box 1088, 11 W. Bay St.
Savannah, GA 31402-1088
Phone: (912) 652-0322
Email: dsuwyn@savannahnow.com
Rexanna Lester
Executive Editor
Savannah Morning News
PO Box 1088, 11 W. Bay St.
Savannah, GA 31402-1088
Phone: (912) 652-0300
Email: rexanna@savannahnow.com