Two years ago, Levi Smalley needed to make a change.
“I was failing in school and getting ready to drop out. My mama didn’t want me to,” said Smalley who recently received his high school diploma through a partnership between the Richmond County School District and Textron Specialized Vehicles.
Started in 2017, the Reaching Potential Through Manufacturing (RPM) program saw its 400th graduate in May; another 11 students will receive diplomas in July from this year-round program.
RPM students share stories similar to Smalley’s when they apply to join it. They weren’t performing well in a traditional high school environment and may be in danger of dropping out or failing in school. Some may be at risk of homelessness or have other factors that could prohibit them from finishing school.
Modeled after 12 For Life, a partnership between Southwire Company LLC and the Carroll County (Georgia) School System, RPM provides students daily with four hours of classroom instruction plus a four-hour work shift. Six teachers and a principal as well as eight Textron employees staff RPM which is housed in a building with both classrooms and a manufacturing floor on Highway 56.
The student work isn’t a simulation.
“They receive real-life experience building parts,” said Willie Powell, Textron senior operations manager. “There are 20 stations, and they build anywhere from 80 to 90 different parts.”
These parts will be used in E-Z-GO golf cars that are manufactured at the Augusta plant. A handful of students have also been trained in welding.
“Every golf cart around the world since 2017 has fingerprints (of) students,” Powell said.
From its inception, about 40% of students have transitioned from the program to a job with Textron; however, in recent years, that percentage has increased to about 75 to 80%, Powell said.
While receiving job skills, they are also catching up in school and earning their diplomas.
The new environment offers them a fresh start, said Kierstin Johnson, RPM principal.
“The things that concerned them at their home school no one is concerned about here,” she said. “We constantly talk about graduation. We are graduation focused.”
Because of the lower student-teacher ratio, every teacher knows every student by name.
“It’s very important to them and very motivating,” she said.
Johnson said she’s met some people who’ve criticized the program as a way for Textron to find cheap labor, but she has seen Textron and its employees go beyond for the students. They have a secret Santa for the students and their children if they have children. They provide holiday meals. While the students attend the graduation ceremony with the school they are zoned for, there’s also a separate graduation ceremony at RPM, where each student receives a laptop.
Area non-profits provide additional resources. The Golden Harvest Food Bank, Christ Community Health and RISE Augusta have all worked with RPM students.
“It’s really more than just an average business partnership,” she said.
And for students like Smalley, it’s made a world of difference. Not only did he graduate receiving the Jason Alford Award for exceptional academics and work performance, but he will be starting a job at Textron in July.
Powell said he saw a lot of growth in Smalley.
“Levi is a testimony of coming into the program broken to becoming a very productive young man,” Powell said.
Smalley said he is glad he went through RPM.
“It taught me how to work hard,” he said. “I learned to manage time, manage money. It taught me responsibility. It’s a great experience.”
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards and is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
