School Board Meeting 9/8 Report
All school board members were present for the morning work session
1. Alison Bartlett brought up paying for field trips again. She would like to see parents who don't pay for field trips have to personally talk to the Principal. The other board members did not like the idea and it was decided that they would seek input from the PTA.
2. The remaining money from installing artificial turf was discussed. Each high school was given $800,000 for the turf. The cost of installing the turf varied depending on the prior condition of the field. This lead to the "richer" schools costing less to install the turf. Kell high school was the lowest $550,000 and Osborne high school was the highest at $697,000. Board member Bartlett wanted all the excess money put into one pot and then given out equally to each school. David Banks disagreed and wanted each school to get whatever was left over from their $800,000.
3. The September board meeting was moved for the week we are off to next week on the 16th.
4. The search for a new superintendent was discussed. The board reviewed the proposal from the Georgia State School Board Association to conduct the search. Lynda Crowder-Eagle said that they had already done some of the steps and so it was not going to need all 17 steps. They asked that an itemized list of steps be brought back to the board. Holly Cash brought up that the law firm, Brock & Clay, had done the search in the past, why didn't they just have them do it. John Abraham up that that could be construed wrong to the public and Crowder-Eagle agreed. They will await the list from GSBA. The survey should be up and running right after the meeting. I was asked by Crowder-Eagle to facilitate teachers/parents finding out about the survey at my school visits and at my sons' schools. Jay Dillon and I agreed that I would link to it on our website and our blog. I will also tweet about the survey. Crowder-Eagle will notify the principals of my area schools that I will talk with them about facilitating the parents/staff taking the surveys. An application to be on the focus group will also be on the website. We will actively encourage members to apply to be in the focus groups.
5. The district's Strategic Plan was discussed at length. Data was given to each board member regarding the numbers. I was also given a copy. While the district did not meet it's overall target, there were bright spots. More students are enrolled in advanced content classes and AP classes. The number of students taking the ACT had risen. While all the data on graduation rates is not in, improvement had been seen. There was a significant growth in the number of students who passed the EOCT in math. How the targets are set was discussed. They are set based on the trends over the last several years. It was mentioned that Area Asst. Superintendents and Principals are evaluated on how their areas/schools did on the strategic plan. I am trying to get a copy of the evaluation form to check this. The new special education law regarding special education students on GAA getting diplomas will help raise the graduation rate. Holly Cash brought up that if a student does not graduate in 4 years they are considered a drop out but some take 5 years to graduate. She would like to see data on how many students take 5 years to finish. The board asked Dr. Jones to make the report more concise and shorter before the next meeting.
6. The board discussed the spending of the $20 million in Federal Education Jobs bill. Bartlett warned that the state might lower their funding amount due to the federal money. They also discussed Sanderson's recommendation to give the step raise and pay for 2 furlough days. He stated that he wanted to put money in every educators pocket right away and that the furlough pay did that. He also said he wanted to restore the step raise to get the teacher pay back to where it should be. He wants to carry forward the remaining balance to be able to adjust the budget for coming gaps passed down by the state. He is worried that we have not seen the end of budget cuts to education.
7. The new Human Growth & and Development curriculum was mentioned. It will go out for public comment.
8. The board approved the application from Sedalia Park to remain a charter school for the next 5 years.
9. Splost 3 money was awarded to renovate Pine Mountain Middle School. This will be on the next meetings' consent agenda. The contract for the renovation came in 50% under what was budgeted. 13 million was budgeted and the bid was for 6 million.
10. The board discussed the Splost 3 adjustments. They had KSU recalculate the money coming in to Splost and it was projected to be 26% less than what was originally thought. That was 800 million down to 586 million. In response, the allotments were cut 20% across the board. Flexibility is written into the Splost plan and it will be tracked and calculated. Due to the major construction savings at this time, the board discussed taking out a TAN - a tax anticipation note (a loan against future splost income). This would allow them to accelerate, or move up, the construction plans that they now have staggered over the next couple years. This means they would take out a loan for $62 million dollars that they project coming in from Splost, and use that money to do all the construction projects now. The cost of the TAN is around $200,000 dollars and the potential savings is around $15 million dollars. It was pointed out that this wold allow for savings, but would also put cobb people to work and generate jobs and stimulate cobb's economy. The projects that would be accelerated are listed on line. I will link to them on the blog.
11. The construction costs for Wheeler and Clarksdale were discussed. both have been fully funded out of the Splost 3 undesignated classroom fund. There was $14 million in the fund, $9 1/2 million went to Wheeler and $4 1/2 went to Clarksdale. The increase in the cost of Clarksdale was caused by the State decreasing the amount it would pay to help re-build Clarksdale. These projects took all the money that was in the undesignated classroom fund.
12. The personnel appointments and the board agenda for the next meeting were approved and the meeting adjourned.
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