BRANTLEY COUNTY, Ga. — For the first time in nearly two weeks, the playground at Nahunta Primary School served its purpose.
Students were allowed to return to Brantley County Public Schools on Monday.
“It’s a blessing,” said Brooke Ammons, Brantley County Mom. “You truly don’t realize how blessed you are until your small little community goes through something like this.”
Ammons has three kids enrolled in the Brantley County School district: a kindergartener, a second grader, and a fourth grader.
She says her fourth grader was on her first day of state testing on Monday, when the fire started.
“Those were put on pause. They were excited about that,” said Ammons. “But we haven’t really heard yet if they’re going to, when they’re going to do those.”
For the past week, Action News Jax has been reaching out to the Brantley County school district about whether standardized state testing will resume and whether the school year will have to be extended due to the number of school days missed.
According to the Georgia Secretary of State’s website, students are required to complete 180 days of school in a school year.
It’s unclear how many days students at Brantley County schools have completed.
GA R&R - GAC - Rule 160-5-1-.02. School Day and School Year for Students and Employees
As for Ammons, she said she’s worried the fires might impact her daughter’s standardized test scores.
“Just because, it was an eye opener for me as an adult, but like for my kids its almost traumatic,” said Ammons.
Ammons says the teachers in the Brantley County school district are awesome and that she is not worried about the rest of the school year for her kids.
Action News Jax is still waiting to hear back from the Brantley County School District about what the rest of the school year will look like for students.
We also reached out to the Governor’s office to see if they have the ability to do anything about the number of days missed or state testing. They said the State Department of Education has the ability to provide a waiver to school districts in these types of situations. It’s unclear what exactly the waiver would cover or if the school district is using one.
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