Richmond County Board of Education

But of all its schools, its magnet programs garner the most recognition.

A.R. Johnson Health Science and Engineering Magnet High School will add seventh and eighth grades in the 2009-10 school year. A.R. Johnson, which won the blue ribbon award in 2003, currently has grades 9-12.

C.T. Walker Traditional Magnet School houses kindergarten through eighth grade and was named a Georgia School of Excellence in 2003.

John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School is for pupils in sixth through 12th grades. Davidson was named a 2004 Blue Ribbon School and continues to be ranked the state's top high school by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

Davidson again had the highest SAT scores of any school in Georgia this year, a distinction it earns frequently. It was also named a 2008 School of Excellence.

Richmond County's magnets also include the International Baccalaureate Programme at the Academy of Richmond County. The IB program allows students to study a rigorous curriculum recognized the world over at one of the oldest schools in the nation.

Richmond County's nonmagnet schools have also gained national attention.

Freedom Park Elementary School, located at Fort Gordon, was named as one of the national No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon schools in Georgia in 2007.

In 2007, Superintendent Dana Bedden was selected after a national search to replace Dr. Charles Larke, who retired after more than a decade in the position.

Dr. Bedden is working to implement a "blueprint for success," adding to what he sees as an already successful school system.

Richmond County is in the third phase of an extensive construction program that will renovate existing schools and add new schools, including a vocational magnet school.

The county's schools no longer require pupils to wear uniforms, but the system maintains a strict dress code.

For more information, see the Richmond County Board of Education Web site: www.rcboe.org.