About StarNews. (Carrollton, GA) 20??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 2024)
Page 10 January 14, 2024 StarNews www.starnewsgaonline.com County school board voted to accept new district line adjustments, any students affected may remain in their current school if desired but must provide their own transportation story by Janice Daniel The Carroll County Board of Education met on Monday, December 11, 2023, at 12:00 noon for a monthly regualar meeting. Board Member Bart Cater was absent. Board Member Kerry Miller was present by phone. All others were present in person at the meet ing. The meeting was pushed forward from 5:30 p.m. to 12:00 p.m. to allow those who wanted to see the State Championship football game at Bowdon to be able to attend. Under Business Items, Superintendent Scott Cowart reported that he had met with the prin cipals and all affected by the proposed District Line Adjustments, and said they were not sur prised, but after many questions, accepted that it is the right thing to do. He said the adjust ments need to be approved quickly due to all clusters’ connection to the budget process in allocation of teachers, et cetera. He also advised that any student who wishes to stay in their current school will be allowed to do so, but must provide their own transportation. He also said a lot of time was spent with the trans portation department to get them in line with the changes. In a roll-call vote, the Board accepted the District Line Adjustments unanimously. Delene Wolfe gave the Linancial Report as follows: General Lund Revenues $41.4 million General Lund Expendi $ 14.4 million General Lund Balance $45.9 million $4.3 million in encumbrances She reported that the SPLOST5 expendi tures were $250,900 with a balance of $1.9 million for upcoming projects. Wolfe also reported that the school system had a clean audit report with no findings of error. The Board Meeting Calendar for 2024 was approved unanimously, as well as the 2023 Master Plans for every site owned by the school system. Cowart will now work on get ting plans updated on the system’swebsite. Cowart reported that Open Bids were in for a 4-classroom addition and connection of the science hall with the music hall at Villa Rica High School, and also 2 new classrooms on the CCA, which will free up the 2 classrooms they are now using, and give the Villa Rica High School even more space. As part of the Bid on this project, the VRHS cafeteria and media center will be renovated. J&R Construction won the bid at a construc tion cost of $6,890,000 with fees and contin gencies bringing the total to $7,369,000, which is actually about $300,000 less than had been anticipated. Mr. Cowart said this project will start in January if approved, which it was unanimously approved in a roll-call vote. In his discussion about the bid for Phase II of the Operations Center, Cowart said they’re using a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) Construction Management Process due to the project being broken into several different pieces. Lirst was purchase of the property, sec ond was the work on the drive and road. Now the bid is coming before the board for renova tion of two metal buildings that were on the property when it was purchased. The larger of the two will be the bus garages and space for maintenance and repair on the buses, and the smaller one will be office space and a training center for the transportation people. Cowart said the site utility work had to come in on this phase, and it greatly increased the anticipated cost, actually by double. He said the City is requiring a larger water line than had been anticipated, and the site utilities has to include the anticipated School Nutrition Center as well as the Alternate School, which are slated to be put at the Operations Center at County school board hears presentation on “Pocket Talks” translation device to aid students with language barriers story by Janice Daniel The Carroll County Board of Education met for a monthly work session Tuesday, November 14, 2023, at 5:30 p.m. All were pre sent, Board member Kerry Miller by phone. Linancial Report showed Year-to-Date Revenues of $28,669,765, or 16% of Budget, and Expenditures of $39,573,529, or 22% of Budget, resulting in a new Lund Balance of $18,896,563; $4,627,334 in encumbrances. Probate Judge Edie Haney was present for the swearing in of Interim District 4 School Board Member Lawana Knight. Heather Dukes gave an explanation of the grants the School District received from the U. S. Department of Education: - Title I, which goes toward the academic achievement of students who are economically and educationally disadvantaged. All elemen tary and middle schools in the Carroll County District are Title I Schools - Title II, which is used to increase academic achievement of students by improving the effectiveness of teachers, principals, and other school leaders - Title III provides a supplement for English learners and their teachers and families, beyond the local obligation - ESSER-American Rescue Plan is provided to support areas where the academic and non- academic components of school districts had learning loss impact due to COVID-19. - McKinney Ventro Education for homeless children and youth, to address the problems homeless children and youth face in enrolling, attending and succeeding in school. Jenny Edwards, principal of Bowdon Elementary School, was there to let the board know about the success of Parent Night, an event where non-English-speaking parents and children met with teachers and other school workers to try and establish better communica tion for this group. Edwards said there were over 200 people in attendance for the special night of involving parents with teachers and methods that are available. They introduced Pocket Talks, a translation device that is able to translate over 70 languages simply by speaking into it in English and the device will immedi ately translate what was said into the language chosen. April Price and Cindy Wilson were also recognized for working with the children and parents facing language barriers. Terry Jones said the Phase II bid for renovat ing the buildings at the Operations Center should be ready by the December meeting. He also asked that the field trip requests and fond raising requests be placed on consent agenda. Jones also advised the board that the Temple High visitor side bleachers have a value greater than $10,000, and he has to get the board’s per mission to take them out due to the new water main that has to be installed there. He said the new bleachers will be raised up higher than the old ones were, and that the old ones would cost about as much to disassemble, remove and reassemble as new ones, so he doubts anyone could use them. He asked this item to be put on the consent agenda. Jones also reviewed a new Transportation Communication System Request to replace the CB radio-type system in the buses currently. He reported that AT&T’s First Net Service will See COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD page 23 a later time. J&R Construction also won this bid at a cost of $6,373,000, and with architect and other fees and contingencies, the total is $6,800,000. Wolfe then presented Budget Amendment #1 to the Board, advising them of the updates to revenue and expenditures. She said the most significant amount, $4,000,000, was due to bringing outstanding purchase orders into the correct fiscal period, and the new additions to the Operations Center accounted for $2,700,000. She said the storage building for the District Office, the purchase of mobile pods and the cost of moving them, with cost coming out of SPLOST funds, was $262,400. In answer to a question by Board Member Bernice Brooks, Cowart advised that the cap of what the School District could spend from SPLOST was $102 million. In a roll-call vote the Board approved this Budget Amendment. After going into Executive Session, the board came back to regular session and voted to approve the personnel actions presented by Superintendent Cowart. Board Member Brooks gave a report on the last Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA) conference which she attended, and said the subjects were: Legal Workshop, Removing Books, Student Discipline, Parents Rights , and AI (Artificial Intelligence). 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