Charles Thomas Walker Traditional Magnet School

Charles Thomas Walker Traditional Magnet School is a public examination school located in Downtown Augusta, Georgia that attracts students from grades kindergarten through eighth from all parts of the Richmond County Board of Education School district. The school is one of the 3 magnet schools in the Richmond County School District, the other 2 being A.R. Johnson Health Science and Engineering Magnet High and John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School.

    The school traces its roots back to 1934, where it housed grades one through seven to relieve overcrowding and population shifts for both black and white students in Richmond County. The building was constructed with federal assistance and opened with an enrollment of 1500, 500 more the building specifications. As the school of Richmond County were integrated in the 1970's, the enrollment of the school changed. It decreased to a little over 500 students. Court-ordered busing was instituted to ensure racial balances in student population and to remedy fluctuating enrollment patterns. In 1980, the C. T. Walker school became a magnet school and housed grades kindergarten through five. It attracted black and white student from all parts of Richmond County and maintain a racial balance of 50/50. The magnet school concept brought changes in structural organization, teachin strategies, philosophy of teaching and learning, and expectations in both academics and discipline. During the first year as a magnet school, C. T. Walker housed 400 students who were admitted to the basis of a lottery that was conducted by community leaders and school officials for kindergarten through five.

   Beginning with the 1981 school year, the sixth grade added to the school structure, followed by the seventh grade in 1982, and the eighth grade in 1983. In 1999, the C. T. Walker Magnet School celebrated its twentieth anniversary as a magnet school.