From the Rome News-Tribune, July 6, 2021
Arrowhead Environmental Education Center
status in limbo
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| Viva with Fiona and Terrell with Lucky |
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| Fiona and Lucky, the Gopher Tortoises |
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| Terrell holds Lucky, so-named because he survived the gunshot wound evident in his shell. |
After a longtime partnership agreement with the county school system was ended, the regional Department of Natural Resources is working to find funding for the Arrowhead Environmental Education Center.
The facility opened in 1994 as a partnership between the DNR and Floyd County Schools. This year the school system decided to reassign its director, Vivian Davis, to a classroom position for the 2021-2022 term.
Located on the grounds of the DNR Region One complex in Floyd Springs, the center has operated for the past 28 years with the director’s post funded by the county schools.
The center functions in two ways: hosting field trips from the schools on one hand, then taking animals from the center out into the schools at the request of teachers.
Floyd County Board of Education Chairman Tony Daniel said the decision was based on a recommendation from Superintendent Glenn White.
Tony Daniel
“He’s been doing a great job of finding ways to conserve taxpayer money,” Daniel said of the superintendent. “We felt like that position would be better used in the classroom.”
The Floyd County school system continues to face a financial dilemma stemming from declining enrollment and has been consolidating schools for several years. Signs went up just this week promoting an absolute auction sale of the former McHenry Primary School property on July 29.
“This has been a good relationship for 28 years but our focus is on the classroom,” White said.
Region One Game Management Supervisor Brent Womack said Tuesday they want to keep the facility open even without the partnership.
Daniel said the community has other resources, such as the Rome-Floyd County ECO Center in Ridge Ferry Park, where students can go to learn about nature.
Brent Womack
The partnership was set up for the school system to fund the director position, including benefits, and DNR grants taking care of the building and grounds as well as transportation.
The local chapter of Trout Unlimited has contributed close to $100,000 to the center through grants over the past 20 years.
“Getting children interested in any natural science coincides with our mission,” said Robert Bold, president of the Coosa Valley TU Chapter.
The DNR nongame program has also contributed a $26,000 grant, which helps fund a part-time position at the center.
Terrell Shaw is a retired Floyd County teacher who has served as a part-time storyteller and naturalist at the center. He said he will still be available for programming on a limited basis.
“Learning in the context of the real world around us sticks, and there’s good research for that,” Shaw said. “When you have kids getting out into the real world around them and they are observing, they are measuring ... They want to write about what they’ve done, they want to research about what they’ve seen. That’s learning that sticks.”
An example of that approach to education occurred with Armuchee Elementary School’s green tree frog project.
“That was born out of Arrowhead and Armuchee Elementary working together,” Shaw said.
The kids were out at Arrowhead learning that Georgia had a state bird, a state reptile and so forth. A child asked what the state amphibian was and they discovered there wasn’t one.
The students worked to get support from then state senator Preston Smith and, after three years of work, Gov. Sonny Perdue signed legislation creating the green tree frog as the state amphibian in 2005.
“They researched amphibians. Then they had to research how a bill becomes state law,” Shaw said. “Those kids learned so much from that.”
During the COVID-19 shutdown of schools, the center provided some digital learning programs to students all over the county. The center was able to reach more than 4,700 students during the fiscal year that ended June 30.
“The main thing I want everybody to understand is that DNR is committed to maintaining the environmental educational opportunities here,” Womack said.
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