Superintendent Scarlett M. Copeland is extremely proud to announce that the Appling County Board of Education has regained its status as a Board of Standards! This recognition is awarded by the Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA) once boards of education achieve the required criteria. Appling County Board of Education had previously lost this status due to being placed on Probation by SACS – AdvanED during earlier administrative leaders.
In order to regain this status, certain criteria must be met. Superintendent Copeland formed a committee composed of Minnie Barnes (Board Chair), Randy Sellers (Board Member), Peggy Miles (Committee Chair), Danita Hayes (Community Member), Scarlett M. Copeland, and Richard Riddle (Central Office Member) to address this issue. The purpose of forming this committee was to review the eight Board Standards and determine if Appling County Board of Education was meeting these standards. The eight standards that were required to be reviewed were: the system vision/philosophy/goals; Systematic Improvement; Organizational Structure; Boards Operations in the area of Policy Development; Board Operations in the area of Board Meetings; Board Operations in the area of Personnel; Board Operations in the area of Financial Management; and Board/Staff/Community Relations.
Meetings were conducted with the Standards Committee in order to review the checklist of standards for all eight areas. Board Indicators were listed for each standard and evidence had to be provided for each indicator presented for the committees review. The committee had to determine if each board indicator was “Satisfactory”, “Needed Improvement”, or “Did not Know”. The formal rating of the Standards Committee was that the Appling County Board of Education had met all eight standards and the Indicators contained in each of these. At this point, the Standards Committee recommended that Appling County Board of Education have their Board of Standards Status Re-instated.
This recommendation was required to be sent into the Georgia School Boards Association for further review of compliance. Once GSBA examined the standards and evidence contained within each, they also made their formal recommendation that Appling County Board of Education regain their “Board of Standards” status.
Superintendent Scarlett M. Copeland commended the Standards Committee in Appling County for their hard work and dedication in order to complete this important process. She is also proud that GSBA concurred with the recommendation as well. The Appling County Board of Education was officially recognized at the GSBA Winter Conference as a “Board of Standards” for the state of Georgia.