VALDOSTA — State officials have allocated funds to help a city school improve its college readiness score.

J.L. Lomax Elementary School was on the state’s low performance schools list released last month.

The Comprehensive Support and Improvement Schools list was released by the Georgia Department of Education Nov. 2 to highlight Title I schools that fell in the lowest performing 5 percent, according to a three-year average of College and Career Ready Performance Index scores.

Lomax received a score of 44.8, the lowest in the city school district. The threshold of the lowest performing 5 percent was 53.

Lomax will receive $150,000 in state support and funding to improve the score, said Dr. Todd Cason, Valdosta City Schools superintendent.

“Those funds will be sent to the district office, and in turn, the district office will allocate those funds to the school that was on the list and help the school determine necessary and appropriate ways to use those funds,” Cason said.

Lomax Principal Dr. Laconya McCrae said she is excited by the funding but added she doesn’t want to be on the list long.

The CCRPI score is broken down in four areas: content mastery, progress, closing gaps and readiness.

Lomax scored a 0 in closing gaps. The state average was an 85.

“That is really what landed us at 44.8,” McCrae said.

Closing gaps refers to improving the level of achievement in student subgroups, such as black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities.

McCrae said the school has hired a full-time ESOL teacher to improve the closing gaps.

It will also help if there is improvement in progress, which Lomax scored a 56.1, the second-highest score of the school’s CCRPI areas.

“We need to see improvement in progress,” McCrae said. “It’s normally our saving grace, but we have to increase the number of children showing growth in English and math.”

Cason said he isn’t sure when the funding will be given to the district or what the stipulations might include, but he has an idea the money will probably be used for professional learning opportunities for current employees.

It’s also an opportunity for the district to receive more support from school improvement departments at the DOE, he said.

He has some hopes of what the district would want to do with the money.

“The first thing we have to do is identify individual student deficiencies,” he said. “What we’re going to be doing is ensuring we provide the necessary interventions for kids, and using those funds will allow us to purchase more interventions and hire staff members that can come in and really target the support students need.”

Katelyn Umholtz is a reporter with the Valdosta Daily Times. She can be contacted at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256.