LOWNDES COUNTY, Ga. (WALB) - Lowndes County Schools (LCS) are preparing to welcome back more students after recent growth in the district. While some safety upgrades aren’t required until 2026, the district is already making those adjustments to keep everyone safe.

LCS made upgrades to the Centegix alert system, added two more school resource officers, bringing the total to 19 across the campuses, and mapped campuses to help speed up emergency response.

Superintendent Sandra Wilcher said, “Last year we put a lot of revenue, resources, and time to make sure we enhanced all our safety across the district, from increasing cameras, we added more this summer. And all of last year, we identified any blind spots and made sure we added and improved the cameras we were using to give us better coverage to see things.”

Wilcher says that since she stepped into the role as superintendent, she and the school board have had one goal: to enhance school safety.

“If there is a measure that we can put in place to not only communicate but to truly make sure that our staff and students are our top priority in terms of their safety, we’re going to take those measures. We explore a variety of different ideas all the time, and if it’s something that truly enhances the safety of our students, we’re definitely going to invest our time and resources into that,” Wilcher said.

Similar to other South Georgia schools, LCS is implementing device-free polices for K-12. But with more students, the policy will eliminate distractions while still allowing communication through the online platform “Rooms.”

“Rooms” is a communication platform within the student information system that allows students and parents immediate opportunities to communicate with teachers.

“What we would ask is just as always that they would just follow by communicating with their parent, getting to the office. We always want students and their parents to have communication with one another,” Wilcher said.

With the recent growth in the district, there is also construction underway to accommodate more students. In addition, upgrades to athletic facilities to attract more people to South Georgia.

Wilcher added, “Last year, the school board approved for us to add a wing of 12 classrooms at Dewar Elementary School, and that opens next week, so we are really excited about that. We also added a gym at Dewar, so it will be a few more months before that is ready, but that’s also to handle growth. And Lake Park Elementary School is currently underway, and should open up by next summer.”

Parents and students are counting down the last days as they return to school on Monday, Aug. 4, and school officials say they’re ready to welcome students back.

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