One-on-one with Colleton County School District Superintendent Jessica Williams

COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – Monday, it’s back to school for nearly 5,000 students in Colleton County. New initiatives, intensified literacy focus, safety, and giving parents a voice are priorities.

Colleton County School District Superintendent Jessica Williams will open schools as the leader of CCSD after serving as interim superintendent last year. She is from Colleton County and has worked for the district for 38 years, as a teacher, principal, and in district leadership roles. “Our motto is it’s all about the kids, the time is now. This is such an honor for me to serve my community because I’m vested in the community,” says Williams.

CCSD has around 4,600 students in nine schools. This year, in addition to a new user-friendly website, the district has an amplified focus on reading and literacy. Williams says, “I’m going to challenge all of our students to read a certain number of books and follow a certain criteria that we’re putting in place, and we’re going to incentivize our kids and just encourage them to read and love reading.” 

The district will also welcome new programs. “We do have some new programs we’re rolling out this year that I am very excited about. We have barbering and nail tech that we are going to roll out at our Thunderbolt Career and Technology Center, and we also have a new STEM lab that we are rolling out at our middle school,” Williams added.

Colleton County School District has 400 teachers and 850 employees. All staff received a retention bonus for all returning staff. Williams says, “All of our teachers did receive an increase.  Our starting pay last year was $42,000, and this year it is $47,000. All of our teachers received a pay increase, and all of our staff received a step increase.”

Williams says the district is still working to fill 30 teacher vacancies. “We do have a partnership with Kelly Services. We contract with them for our substitutes, and we also have a virtual platform that we contract with as well to help us that has certified teachers. We are filling those gaps. We feel really good about August 5th, when students come back.” The district also has seven bus driver vacancies, but Williams says every route will be covered on the first day of school with staggered start times and multiple routes.

Williams says school safety remains a priority. School Resource Officers are in all schools, all district locations have metal detectors, and some have weapons detectors. “We instituted some new equipment near the end of the year last year. We installed some weapons detection systems in our schools to make sure students are safe,” Williams says.

The district has an electronic device policy in place. Williams says, “Our policy simply states, electronic devices can be used at the beginning of the school day and at the end. Electronic devices are not to be used during the school day. I know the state is looking at rolling out a new policy. They have not finalized that yet, but when they do finalize that, we will certainly get in line with state requirements.”

Superintendent Williams says they are working to give parents a voice. “We are going to start a parent forum this year. We want our parents to have voice in some of the initiatives and things we’re doing in our schools for our students. I want to hear their voices. What can we do to make our school district better? To teachers, students, parents, everyone in Colleton County. It’s going to be a great year 2024-2025 school year, and we want everyone to come together unified for the success of our students.”

In partnership with community and business partners, Colleton County School District will have its Back to School Bash at Colleton County High School on Saturday, August 3rd, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., complete with school supplies, giveaways, food, games, and music. All are welcome to attend.