Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2010
THE JACKSON HERALD
PAGE 3A
JCCHS gym, chorus projects may move forward sooner
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
LOWER construction costs
may lead to Jackson County
Comprehensive High School
getting two new buildings
sooner than initially antici
pated.
Superintendent Shannon
Adams said Thursday that
two companies used by the
school system for construc
tion projects are recommend
ing a soon-rather-than-later
approach for JCCHS.
“They’re telling us that we
need to look very seriously
at going ahead and starting
this construction at Jackson
County Comprehensive High
School as soon as we can,”
he said. “That construction
costs are at rock bottom right
now.”
JCCHS is slated to get a
new, second gymnasium, and
a drama/chorus building at
the Winder Highway school.
When the Jackson County
Board of Education unveiled
its plans for JCCHS in
February 2009, the estimated
price tag was $9.1 million.
That price was for an estimat
ed $130 per square foot.
The latest estimate lowers
construction costs to $110 per
square foot, but the school
system now says it’ll need
to do more grading and site
work for the project.
The new price tag is an esti
mated $9.9 million.
District officials had ini
tially said the school system
would wait to start the project
until it had collected the total
construction amount in sales
tax revenue.
The school system now
has about $7.3 million in its
Special Purpose Local Option
Sales Tax (SPLOST) account
earmarked for construction
projects, Adams said. The
district doesn’t qualify for
state funding for the JCCHS
project.
School system leaders
will meet with officials from
Southern A&E — an archi
tecture and engineering firm
— and Bowen & Watson
— a general contractor — on
Friday, Aug. 13, to discuss the
JCCHS plans.
The proposal for JCCHS
calls for a two-story gym that
would be located on the slope
leading to the school’s foot
ball field. The facility would
be located in the school’s
student parking lot, near an
existing ticket booth.
The new 5,900 square-foot
drama/chorus building would
be built across from the exist
ing auditorium. An additional
1,000 square feet of storage
would also be added to the
auditorium.
After announcing its con
struction plans for JCCHS in
2009, the district also reno
vated the school’s existing
gym.
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business, the
Jackson County Board of
Education:
•met in a closed-door
meeting for 35 minutes on
Thursday to discuss person
nel. The board took no action
when the meeting was opened
to the public.
•learned that the school
system’s Tax Anticipation
Note (TAN) closed on July 30
for $11.5 million. The school
system has the funds avail
able in a bank account, but
has not tapped into the short
term loan, as of Thursday.
•approved spending up to
$6,800 of SPLOST revenue
to repave a section of the bus
loop at West Jackson Middle
School. Don Clerici, capital
projects manager for Jackson
County, recently contacted
school system officials about
including the paving project
in a county-funded project in
the area. The school system’s
tab for the repaving, which
was included in a bid pack
age, is $6,800.
•set the dates for its board
tour of schools for Thursday,
Sept. 16 and Thursday, Sept.
23.
•approved a job description
for the Advanced Placement/
honors and system online
coordinator. The position
was previously held by Patsy
Wallace, who retired, and is
now held by David Peek, for
mer director of instructional
technology. Peek’s former
position was included in a
layoff plan approved by the
board in April. The position
includes a combination of
other positions included in
the Reduction in Force (RIF)
plan and Peek’s former posi
tion.
•approved a corrected copy
of the 2010-2011 certified sal
ary schedule. The copy previ
ously adopted by the board
included 190 days — not 182
days — of the school year for
teachers, and had an incorrect
amount for the local salary
supplement scale.
•approved a revised pro
motion and retention policy,
which takes into account that
first and second grade students
in Georgia will not be given
the Criterion-Referenced
Competency Test (CRCT), as
part of budget cuts. The revi
sions also include how middle
school students are promoted,
based on the district’s stan-
dards-based report card.
•tabled a revision to a pol
icy about homeless students
for one month. The district
has had a policy about home
less students, but it is adopt
ing a statewide policy.
•heard a request from a
parent to keep her daugh
ter attending East Jackson
schools, after she and her
daughter had moved to the
Jefferson City School System.
The student’s father lives in
the Jackson County School
System, but she lives with
her mother the majority of
the time, according to the
mother. The board notified
the parent on Friday it denied
her request.
•heard a request from a
man in Maysville to send his
grandson, whom he has cus
tody, to Maysville Elementary
School. The man lives in
Banks County, about two
tenths a mile from the Jackson
County line. He said if he sent
his grandson to Banks County
Primary School, it would be a
44-mile roundtrip drive. The
board said it would later noti
fy the man of its decision.
Water authority to look at lower cost PVC pipes
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
WITH NO NEW sales
tax revenue on the hori
zon and virtually no cus
tomer growth, the Jackson
County Water and Sewerage
Authority is searching for
cheap ways to add custom
ers.
So, when it meets
Thursday night at 6:30,
the authority will consider
a new policy allowing it
to run PVC water lines as
small as two inches into
un-served neighborhoods
where residents have asked
for water.
Since its inception, the
authority has used only
ductile iron pipe and has
required all developers tying
into the system to do the
same. The proposed policy
will allow the authority to
use high-grade PVC, but
developers must still use the
more costly ductile iron.
“Bottom line is, we don’t
have any growth right now,”
explained manager Eric
Klerk.
Water sales are the
authority’s chief source
of revenue for operations
and debt retirement. With
all of its current SPLOST
revenue committed and no
money to come in from the
subsequent SPLOST (if it
is approved by voters in
November), the authority is
struggling to gain customers
to grow water sales.
But early solicitations to
a couple of neighborhoods
that have in the past sought
water are not encouraging.
Klerk said the authority
sent letters to a neighbor
hood in the area of Ramblers
Inn in Arcade, and got just
one positive response out of
40 households.
At another neighborhood
in the Pond Fork area, the
inquiry received 12 positive
responses and three or four
negative, but the authority
needs to have at least half
of the houses signed up to
make running new lines fea
sible.
Authority engineer Fred
Alke conceded that the
authority was “very sur
prised” at the low accep
tance rate of the proposal.
Alke suggested that recent
rainy weather has filled local
wells that just two years ago
were running dry.
“These are people who
came hat in hand two years
ago,” he said. “Now their
wells are full.”
Chairman Randall Pugh
speculated that the $1,540
tap fee continues to deter
would-be customers.
Diameter for diameter, the
PVC pipes cost about half the
price of ductile iron, but the
real savings comes in labor.
The authority has always
contracted out its pipe work,
but staff would install any
new lines approved under
the new policy.
One aspect of the new
policy is that it does not
guarantee fire protection to
water customers. The sur
vey letter asked residents if
they wanted water even if it
did not come with fire pro
tection. The authority can
not serve fire hydrants with
lines less than six inches, so
customers on smaller lines
would have a stable source
of drinking water, but no
added benefit of fire protec
tion.
Pugh took the position
that the new policy is worth
trying.
“We don’t have anything
to lose and we have every
thing to gain,” he comment
ed.
Also on the agenda for
Thursday night are action to
write off $26,000 in uncol
lectible debt that is over a
year old, the ratification of
$6,500 already spent to gain
access to a pump station in
Traditions of Braselton and
approval of a $25,554 bid
to replace a scum skimmer
and slide gate at the author
ity’s Middle Oconee Water
Reclamation Facility.
Chamber’s education committee seeks donated school supplies
THE EDUCATION Committee of
the Jackson County Area Chamber of
Commerce is collecting school sup
plies through Sept. 1.
The donated supplies will be given
to students in all three school systems
in Jackson County. Eight drop-off
locations are available.
The most needed supplies include
copy paper, hand sanitizer, tissues,
book bags and notebook paper.
Other suggested supplies include
construction paper, glue sticks, sani
tizer spray, pencils, colored pencils,
dry erase markers, masking tape,
Scotch tape, staples, staplers, crayons,
file folders, red pens, highlighters,
erasers, jump/flash drives, Band-Aids,
notebooks, scissors and head phones.
Drop-off locations include
First Commerce Bank, Randstad,
Funopolis, Jackson County Farm
Bureau, Gwinnett Federal Credit
Union, Jackson EMC, Hometown
Community Bank and the Jackson
County Area Chamber of Commerce
office.
For more information, contact Linda
Foster at the chamber at 706-367-0300
or linda@jacksoncountyga.com.
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1902 Washington St. • Jefferson, GA
Additional teachers
needed for classes
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
THE JACKSON County
Board of Education approved
the hiring of additional teach
ers on Monday to accommo
date packed classrooms for
the new school year.
After looking at district
wide enrollment numbers for
the 2010-2011 school year,
the county school system
needs to fill three kindergar
ten and three third grade posi
tions, according to personnel
director Sarah Greene. The
district grew by at least 117
students from last year to this
school year.
Greene asked the board on
Monday to approve filling
the teaching positions now,
instead of waiting another
month for the board’s next
meeting.
“We’re really in a position
where we’ve got to do what’s
best for those children,”
Greene said. “And we need to
move as quickly as we can.”
She explained that it’s espe
cially important for kindergar
ten students to start working
with their year-long teacher as
soon as possible to ease their
transition into education.
Of the six positions among
kindergarten and third grade
teachers, two will likely come
from transferring existing
teachers to those slots, Greene
said. An additional three to
four positions will be those
that the district held off on
filling until it learned enroll
ment numbers.
Budget wise, only one of
the teaching positions will be
considered a newly-created
slot to fill.
“We’ve done everything
we could to cut it close and
we feel like this is as close
as we can cut it,” Greene
said.
The other newly-hired
personnel changes approved
by the board on Monday are
replacements. Green said.
The board also approved a
list of 159 substitute teach
ers for the 2010-2011 school
year, which includes those
substitutes who have pre
viously been hired by the
school system.
NEW HIRES
Kim Fisher, food ser
vice assistant, JCCHS; Lisa
Halski, eighth grade teacher,
KBMS; Michelle Kitchens,
special education teacher,
GSES; Robert Johnson, bus
driver, BES; Ryan Maddox,
chorus teacher, JCCHS:
Dawn McElreath, food
service assistant, JCCHS;
Lauren Milford, second
grade teacher, EJES; and
Shannon Shelton, English
teacher, JCCHS.
TERMINATIONS/
RESIGNATIONS
Eric Cleveland, JROTC,
JCCHS; Pat Meeks, bus driv
er, WJIS; and Mary Tatum,
paraprofessional, MES.
TRANSFERS
Whitney Fincher, parapro
fessional, GSES, to special
education paraprofessional,
MES; Patricia Page, special
education paraprofessional,
WJPS, to pre-k paraprofes
sional, GSES; and Courtney
Reed, special education
teacher, MES, to special
education paraprofessional,
MES.
DOT to discuss four-year
plan for projects Aug. 17
THE GEORGIA Department
of Transportation will hold an
open house to discuss a four-
year plan for several Northeast
Georgia counties.
The meeting will be held on
Tuesday, Aug. 17, from 5-7
p.m., at the Jackson County Fire
Training Center, located at 64
Fowler Drive, Jefferson.
At the meeting, 13 non-met
ropolitan counties — including
Jackson and Banks — will be
discussed.
The State Transportation
Improvement Program (STIP)
will be discussed at the meet
ing.
The STIP is a four-year plan
for rural counties detailing
federally funded projects that
includes interstate and state route
improvements, bridge projects,
maintenance projects, bicycle
and pedestrian projects, trans
portation enhancement activities
and public transit projects.
The STIP under review will
cover fiscal years 2011, 2012,
2013 and 2014.
The open house style meet
ing includes a review of DOT’s
upcoming federally funded
projects. DOT engineers will
be on hand to answer questions.
Everyone is invited to attend.
CASA classes begin Aug. 17
VOLUNTEERS FOR the Court Appointed Special Advocate
(CASA) program are needed.
Classes begin in Jackson County on Tuesday, August 17, at 6
p.m. and continues each Tuesday through the end of September.
After completing training, volunteers will be assigned to a child
in foster care who needs someone to be their voice in Juvenile
Court. CASA volunteers will gather information and form a
relationship with your assigned child, visiting them monthly. The
normal time commitment is five to 10 hours per month.
For more information and to sign up for classes, contact Annette
at 706-387-6375.
In Loving Memory of
Woody
Daniel A. Wood
August 11, 2008
Always on our mind and deep in our hearts you
will be. Forever the love of our lives. "We miss
you Woody."
Love,
Janet, Ricky, Michelle, Skyler & Taylor Wood