Many parents place a high value on their children’s education, often going to great lengths to ensure their children receive the best instruction available. Some contemplate the benefits of homeschooling, for others the question is public versus private school. And with the support and encouragement of magnet and charter programs by the Muscogee County School District (MCSD), even within the public school system, more and more options have become available here in the Chattahoochee Valley.

by Calista Sprague

Magnet schools began cropping up across the country in the 1960s and ‘70s, offering special curricula in an effort to retain high achievers who were being lost to private schools, and to promote racial and ethnic diversity by attracting students from outside residential zoning.

Hannan Elementary School’s magnet for gifted and talented students reaches far beyond its residential zone, offering a specialized curriculum for Columbus’ brightest, while continuing to serve children in the surrounding neighborhood.“Our magnet program is a school within a school,” explained Beth Adams, assistant principal and magnet coordinator for Hannan. “We have children coming from all over Muscogee County to our magnet program, but with our residential program we serve children who live in this area.”

Adams goes on to explain that the development of a magnet program often creates more than ethnic and racial diversity, bringing children of different socioeconomic backgrounds together as well. “That’s why some parents send their children here rather than to a private school,” she said. “They think their children need to see the real world, that everyone is not just alike. To me it’s very satisfying.”

Two of Nimita Patel’s children attended the Britt David Computers Unlimited Magnet Academy, and her youngest will begin first grade there in the fall. Unlike other magnets in the district, Britt David Elementary and Columbus High School do not serve a residential zone, but diversity is cultivated nonetheless. “We celebrated Diversity Day on May 1 of this year,” Patel recalled. “We decided to ask all the teachers to find out the background of each student so we could order flags for each of the countries represented in our school.We had to order 58 flags.”

Magnets usually offer an accelerated program in one or more areas of study, allowing students to focus on particular areas of strength. MCSD offers five elementary magnet academies, three at the middle school level and seven in the high schools. Areas of focus include computer science, gifted and talented, communications, liberal arts and engineering, among others. Across the river in Phenix City, Lakewood Elementary offers a science magnet academy as well.

“They just learn so much more,” Patel said of her children’s magnet experience.“The vocabulary is amazing. Like when my kindergarten daughter had just started at Britt David, she said, ‘Mommy, look, the trees are becoming dormant.’ And it’s not just the curriculum. It’s the teachers. They use big words and the students pick up on it.”

Due to the challenging curricula, most magnets require applicants to pass entrance exams prior to enrollment, but a few, such as those labeled charter schools, accept students by lottery instead. Angie Sheehan serves as the International Baccalaureate Program Coordinator at Clubview Elementary School. “Since we are a charter school, we cannot have an entrance test,” she explained. “We must have selection by lottery.”

Like Hannan Elementary, Clubview serves children in its residential zone and the remaining slots are filled by children who apply to the IB program. But unlike most magnets, all students, whether residentially zoned or IB applicants, participate fully in the IB program. “IB is a framework for teaching the whole child,” Sheehan described.“It’s about academics, but it also addresses social and emotional aspects. It’s about being a lifelong learner, being involved in the community, both locally and globally. It’s about being open-minded, empathetic and principled.”

Richards Middle and Hardaway High schools also offer the IB program, but like most magnet schools, provide a traditional curriculum for students within the residential zone, reserving the IB curriculum only for applicants who meet entrance requirements. The IB program is currently the only special curriculum in the district available throughout all grades, K-12.

Nimita Patel sees a need for increased continuity in magnet programs. “When my son was in fourth or fifth grade, they lobbied hard to try to get the district to build a complete magnet middle, because we have a complete magnet elementary and high school, but we do not have a complete magnet middle.”

As children graduate from the elementary magnet programs, some parents choose from the middle school magnets at Arnold, East Columbus or Richards Middle schools, but others opt instead for traditional schools closer to home, like the Patels who have sent their children to Blackmon Middle School.

Patel says that Britt David Elementary parents often struggle with where to send their children next. “I think that every parent who has a child in the fifth grade at Britt David is up against the wall to make a decision about where to go because their zone schools do not offer the higher academics and the challenges that their children will need going fromthismagnet school. For the children it’s like falling in a pothole. Then when they start ninth grade at Columbus High, it’s hard for them to get back in that routine.”

The original model of a magnet program within a neighborhood school does come with added benefits, however. Magnet programs give residential students access to resources and activities they would not necessarily find in a traditional school. At Hannan, for example, the magnet’s technology program benefits the whole school. “We have a wonderful technology program, and all of the kids participate—residential and magnet,” Adams said. The level of activities may differ a little from one group to another, but they all do podcasts, movie making and claymation.”

Adams also uses magnet funds to hire a mathematician in residence to visit for a week each year. “He works with 20 kids a day, randomly chosen from magnet and residential students, and our teachers observe. I pay for it out of magnet funds because it benefits our magnet program, but why should residential teachers and students miss out on it when they can all benefit?”

In an effort to expand magnet programs, MCSD allocates funds specifically for magnet use. But most magnets utilize state and federal funds as well, drawing from sources including the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP), Title I, Voluntary Public School Choice, Advanced Placement and Smaller Learning Community grants.

Because seats in magnet programs are limited, administrators recommend applying early. Patel submitted her son’s kindergarten application when he was only 3 years old. “A good friend of mine whose son was already at Britt David encouraged me to go ahead and put Jibar’s name on the list. I trusted her advice, and my kids loved it.”

Both Sheehan and Adams encourage applying at any age, however, since the number of openings in each grade differs year to year. “A family called today who had three children coming here,” Adams said. “They’re moving, so that opens up spaces in three grades I can fill with students from the waiting list.”

For more information on programs available in the area, visit the MCSD website at mcsdga.com or the Phenix City Public Schools at pcboe.net.

Magnet Academies Grades K-5
Britt David Elementary | 5801 Armour Road | 706.748.2617
Focus: Use of technological resources to enhance and reinforce academic studies
Dimon Elementary | 480 Dogwood Drive | 706.683.8772
Focus: Learning system designed to build upon children’s natural curiosity for science and mathematics
Downtown Elementary | 1400 First Avenue | 706.748.2702
Focus: Program based on the Core Knowledge Sequence, emphasizing a strong structure and high standards of discipline
Hannan Elementary | 1338 Talbotton Road | 706.748.2744
Focus: Program for gifted, resourceful, enthusiastic and talented students, including foreign language, enhanced reading and language arts and extended fine arts instruction
Lakewood Elementary | 3010 Silverlake Drive, P.C. | 334.732.1173
Focus: Accellerated academic program emphasizing science
St.Marys Elementary | 4408 St.Marys Road | 706.683.8841
Focus: Program of creative exploration utilizing video and communications technology
Charter Schools Grades K-5
Clubview Elementary | 2836 Edgewood Road | 706.565.3017
Focus: International Baccalaureate Program with advanced study in all core academic areas
Magnet Academies Grades 6-8
Arnold Middle | 2011 51st Street | 706.748.2436
Focus: An accelerated academic program emphasizing math, science and technology
East Columbus Middle | 6100 Georgetown Drive | 706.565.3026
Focus: A rigorous program for the gifted and talented with an emphasis on community service
Richards Middle | 2892 Edgewood Road | 706.569.3697
Focus: International Baccalaureate Program with advanced study in all core academic areas

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