By Jamie Gardner
During the adoption of the agenda at a work session meeting of the Appling County Board of Education, held on May 14, District 4 Board Member Randy Crawford made a request to add an item to the agenda under action items. Crawford requested to title the item as Fourth District renovations with possible changes related to the school. Superintendent Scarlett Copeland also recommended that resignations and waivers be moved to action items. She also asked to move the closed-door session before action items. The board approved the changes to the agenda.
Board decides to revisit Fourth District Elementary renovations
Near the end of the meeting, the item concerning Fourth District was discussed at length. Crawford stated that the board voted on November 14, 2011 to move forward with Plan B, which included demolishing part of the facility’s classrooms and renovating the remaining facilities at a cost of approximately $1,000,000.00. He stated that after talking with stakeholders and some of the board members, his suggestion would be to not demolish any of the rooms, re-roof the entire facility, leave the windows as they are, keep the kitchen open and staffed properly and use the extra classrooms as storage or for future growth.
It was reported that most of the changes could be performed for approximately the same cost as originally approved and projected on November 14. After more discussion a motion was made and approved, on a split vote, to appoint a committee consisting of Fourth District’s PTO President, Crawford, Lead Teacher/Administrator Greg Williams, COO Winton Herrin, Superintendent Copeland to meet with Lentile Construction and the system’s architect to discuss the options available for the school facility. Board member M.C. Barlow abstained from voting.
Other business
On a split vote board members approved the five-year Local Facilities Plan for the system. As part of the facilities plan process the Georgia Department of Education appoints a survey team to visit the school system and review the plan. On April 25 the survey team visited Appling County Schools and recommended that the Georgia Board of Education approve Appling County’s facilities plan. However, the team did recognize that one school in the system did not meet criteria in the area of Student Distribution which states, “The proposed distribution provides for instructional facilities which meet the minimum size as defined by O.C.G.A. 20-2-260. (If no, identify and list the instructional facilities below.)” The school identified as not meeting the criteria was Fourth District Elementary and the team commented, “The team urges the BOE to continue studying the feasibility of operating 4th District Elementary as a separate facility. We note that 4th District earns no capital outlay entitlement and has higher operational cost per FTE than the other elementary schools.” Board members voting in favor of approving the Local Facilities Plan were Scottie Ammons, M.C. Barlow and Minnie Barnes. Opposed to the motion to approve the plan were Crawford and Randy Sellers. Crawford commented that he has a problem with the state coming in and telling the local system which schools to keep open and not keep open.
On another split vote, the board approved a recommendation from Copeland to request waivers from the state for the Alternative School, class size requirements and personnel requirements. Board member Ammons opposed the motion.
The board unanimously approved personnel recommendations including resignations from Sarah Todd, Jessika Stone, Susan Avret and Haley Black. The board also approved to open positions for a data clerk at Appling Primary School, a paraprofessional at Appling Primary School, a secretary for the Pre-K facility, an English position at Appling High School, a paraprofessional at Altamaha Elementary, a language arts position at Appling Middle School, a bus driver position for route 06-60B, instructional support specialist positions at all schools and a school improvement specialist/system testing/personnel coordinator to work at the central office. Copeland stated that the new positions would be at no local cost to the system and funding would come through state and federal funds.
Information items
Energy Education representative Lance Kennedy gave an update to board members concerning energy consumption for the school system. Kennedy reported that since Appling County Schools contracted with Energy Education the system is starting to see the benefits of the partnership. Kennedy showed that the school system used 7,944,462 kilowatts of electricity in 2010. In 2011 the system used a total of 6,868,936 kilowatts for a total of 1,075,526 less kilowatts since partnering with Energy Education. Board member Sellers questioned if there had been a cost analysis performed comparing the cost of what the system is paying Energy Education to the savings to determine if the savings offset the expense of the partnership. Kennedy stated that no such comparison had been performed at this point.
A review of the fifth and eighth grade writing scores for the system were reviewed. Under the 5th Grade Writing Assessment Proficiency Rates for the Spring 2012, for the percentage of students meeting or exceeding, Appling County Elementary School scored 63 percent, Altamaha Elementary School scored 87 percent, Fourth District Elementary scored 60 percent to give the system an average of 68 percent. The state average is 81 percent. For the 8th Grade, Appling County Middle School students meeting or exceeding was 75 percent, while the state average is 82 percent.
Superintendent Copeland reviewed and shared the written Southern Association of Colleges and Schools report with regard to the system having its accreditation fully restored.
The Public Participation Policy for board meetings was presented and reviewed by board members. No changes were made to the policy.
It was reported that most of the changes could be performed for approximately the same cost as originally approved and projected on November 14. After more discussion a motion was made and approved, on a split vote, to appoint a committee consisting of Fourth District’s PTO President, Crawford, Lead Teacher/Administrator Greg Williams, COO Winton Herrin, Superintendent Copeland to meet with Lentile Construction and the system’s architect to discuss the options available for the school facility. Board member M.C. Barlow abstained from voting.
Other business
On a split vote board members approved the five-year Local Facilities Plan for the system. As part of the facilities plan process the Georgia Department of Education appoints a survey team to visit the school system and review the plan. On April 25 the survey team visited Appling County Schools and recommended that the Georgia Board of Education approve Appling County’s facilities plan. However, the team did recognize that one school in the system did not meet criteria in the area of Student Distribution which states, “The proposed distribution provides for instructional facilities which meet the minimum size as defined by O.C.G.A. 20-2-260. (If no, identify and list the instructional facilities below.)” The school identified as not meeting the criteria was Fourth District Elementary and the team commented, “The team urges the BOE to continue studying the feasibility of operating 4th District Elementary as a separate facility. We note that 4th District earns no capital outlay entitlement and has higher operational cost per FTE than the other elementary schools.” Board members voting in favor of approving the Local Facilities Plan were Scottie Ammons, M.C. Barlow and Minnie Barnes. Opposed to the motion to approve the plan were Crawford and Randy Sellers. Crawford commented that he has a problem with the state coming in and telling the local system which schools to keep open and not keep open.
On another split vote, the board approved a recommendation from Copeland to request waivers from the state for the Alternative School, class size requirements and personnel requirements. Board member Ammons opposed the motion.
The board unanimously approved personnel recommendations including resignations from Sarah Todd, Jessika Stone, Susan Avret and Haley Black. The board also approved to open positions for a data clerk at Appling Primary School, a paraprofessional at Appling Primary School, a secretary for the Pre-K facility, an English position at Appling High School, a paraprofessional at Altamaha Elementary, a language arts position at Appling Middle School, a bus driver position for route 06-60B, instructional support specialist positions at all schools and a school improvement specialist/system testing/personnel coordinator to work at the central office. Copeland stated that the new positions would be at no local cost to the system and funding would come through state and federal funds.
Information items
Energy Education representative Lance Kennedy gave an update to board members concerning energy consumption for the school system. Kennedy reported that since Appling County Schools contracted with Energy Education the system is starting to see the benefits of the partnership. Kennedy showed that the school system used 7,944,462 kilowatts of electricity in 2010. In 2011 the system used a total of 6,868,936 kilowatts for a total of 1,075,526 less kilowatts since partnering with Energy Education. Board member Sellers questioned if there had been a cost analysis performed comparing the cost of what the system is paying Energy Education to the savings to determine if the savings offset the expense of the partnership. Kennedy stated that no such comparison had been performed at this point.
A review of the fifth and eighth grade writing scores for the system were reviewed. Under the 5th Grade Writing Assessment Proficiency Rates for the Spring 2012, for the percentage of students meeting or exceeding, Appling County Elementary School scored 63 percent, Altamaha Elementary School scored 87 percent, Fourth District Elementary scored 60 percent to give the system an average of 68 percent. The state average is 81 percent. For the 8th Grade, Appling County Middle School students meeting or exceeding was 75 percent, while the state average is 82 percent.
Superintendent Copeland reviewed and shared the written Southern Association of Colleges and Schools report with regard to the system having its accreditation fully restored.
The Public Participation Policy for board meetings was presented and reviewed by board members. No changes were made to the policy.
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