Al Williams’ usual first Saturday get-together will have a new place and a new focus for August’s meeting.

The longtime state representative is having his meeting Saturday morning at 8 a.m. at the Liberty County Performing Arts Center, and he will focus on efforts to improve literacy in the state and in the county. “Literacy is the key to our moving forward,” he said. “You can’t believe in development and not believe in literacy.”

State legislators passed HB 1193 and Gov. Brian Kemp signed the measure into law in May. The act puts literacy coaches in all public schools for students in kindergarten through third grade. Valarie Lawson, the Liberty County School System executive director for teaching and learning, told school board members at a workshop that all the literacy coaches have been hired and are being trained or retrained on HB 1193’s requirements.

HB 1193 also calls for the creation of a statewide literacy task force and for the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement to develop a state literacy plan.

Across the state, fewer than 40% of third graders are reading at or above their grade level. In Alabama, that number approaches 90% and in Mississippi, it’s over 80%. That led state officials to visit those two states to see what was transpiring there, and that resulted in HB 1193.

“I have heard every excuse as to why our students are not performing,” Williams said. “That’s why we made it state law. There is no reason why we should be behind in Mississippi and Alabama in reading scores. They did it. We can do it.”