By NANCY KARRICK
Special to Atmore News
The Atmore Lions Club met on March 19, in the Mayson Auditorium at Atmore Community Hospital. President Lion Joyce Petty presided and led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and gave the blessing. Teressa Silcox and Cindy Coon were introduced as visitors, along with the speaker for the day, Dr. Michele Collier.
Dr. Collier, who is the Escambia County Superintendent of Education, is an Escambia County native and a W.S. Neal graduate. Her presentation was one of the best and most timely and certainly resonated with all members present. Dr. Collier spoke about the Superintendent’s Reading Challenge which is promoting literacy from birth. Over 17,000 e-books are available for students and parents to access and share with children, including babies. In this program, all students in each grade level are reading the same book at the same time and incentives are given for the class with the most students who completed reading the book.
Attendance is a major problem in all of the schools, with at least 30 percent of the school population absent from school every day. Dr. Collier said the county’s rules state that a child will be retained when they have 18 or more absences in a year, yet that has not been enforced since Covid. She announced that Covid was over and so was chronic absenteeism. The rules will be enforced again.
Five areas were noted as Strategic Focus Areas: Targeted support for struggling schools; Reduce chronic absenteeism; Enhance academic achievement; Improve college and career readiness; and Maintain and build upon current strengths. Challenges faced include attendance issues of tardies, skipping, and truancy and behavior issues such as vaping, bus behaviors, fighting, and in-class misbehavior. All of these can be controlled with support and adherence to county guidelines by parents and students. Collier mentioned that we want all students to learn and be successful, but that they have to be in school for teachers to do their part.
Escambia County and Atmore are lucky to have a superintendent who truly cares about our children and wants the best education possible for them. We have a bad problem, but it is a fixable problem which starts with parents in the home supporting the county rules and children who adhere to those rules. Teachers will have full classrooms, and learning can take place for all of our students. Thank you, Dr. Collier, for the educational update, and for caring enough about our children to “get tough.”
Sign-up sheets were available for members to help with the golf tournament March 27, 2025, at the Atmore Country Club. Kudos to Joyce Petty and Atmore Flower Shop for being selected the Chamber’s Business of the Month.