THOMASVILLE, Ga. (WALB) - An elementary school in Thomasville that was once struggling is back on track, according to the principal.
Staff at Harper Elementary School tell us they're confident improvements will continue, since bringing in a new principal.
The end of this school year will mark two years for Principal Melvin Hugans at Harper Elementary. He says he's implemented many different things to help children succeed in the classroom and he's seeing positive results.
This year a uniform system was put in place to help with behavior and attention issues in the classroom as well as helping the school win a technology grant for a new testing system.
Each student has several different polos to wear to school everyday.
Hugans says this really has made a difference.
"We call it student antagonizing. And students don't antagonize each other because the shirts have equaled the playing field, they tend to act as a team because the shirt act as unity," said Hugans.
The school recently got a reading grant that will help make a big push towards promoting early literacy and each student will receive a fire tablet.
Back in 2016 when Hugans first took the job, Harper like many other schools in the state were battling with expectations of strong CCRPI scores and that was an area that they needed to grow in.
With dedicated teachers and students who are eager to learn, Hugans believes Harper elementary is in much better shape and students are able to be successful in the classroom.
"I think one of the biggest changes has been the attitude or morale or spirit of our students," said Hugans. "We are working harder to work together instead of against each other."
The work is never done. Hugans says there are so many things he still wants to incorporate into the classrooms.
You can see some of those ideas next school year.
