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AWARDS
• First Place, Best Editorial Page
• First Place, Best News Photograph
• First Place, Best Serious Column
• Second Place, Best Sports Section
• Second Place, Best Headlines
• Second Place, Overall General Excellence
• Third Place, Best Community Service
• Third Place, Best Layout and Design
• Third Place, Best Humor Column
These local businesses salute the Reporter. We’re proud of our newspaper!
9 N. Lee Street
Forsyth, GA
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Congratulations to the Monroe County Reporter in
receiving numerous awards from the Georgia Press
Association, and for the award of Best Paper
(2nd Place) in the state for its size!
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FIRED
Continued from Front
until a county manager replace
ment can be hired. In the mean
time, Tapley said citizens who
need the help of a county manager
are asked to call the county’s main
office, and they will be directed to
a county commissioner who can
assist them.
Tapley, who has served as chair
man for nearly a year-and-a-half,
said of Buice’s demotion, “This is
the toughest decision I’ve had to
make since I’ve been here,”
Tapley also said the county
intends to contract out the vacant
county manager and finance
director positions with private
companies in the interim.
During Monday’s meet
ing, commissioners expressed
displeasure with Buice for failing
to provide adequate oversight of
Wooley given that the county paid
out more than $150,000 in penal
ties for underpaying payroll taxes
for fiscal year 2016. Buice said the
most recent errors, which were
believed to have occurred in 2017
and 2018, could result in $57,000
in penalties. Buice and Wooley
blamed the 2016 errors on the
county’s new financial software.
Tapley said a software glitch did
not cause the latest underpay
ments.
District 1 commissioner Larry
Evans was particularly troubled
by the matter, saying he gave strict
instructions to Buice and Wooley
after investigating last year’s IRS
mishap for the two to produce
paper printouts of payroll tax pay
ments, which are paid electroni
cally, going forward. When Evans
asked Buice if she had viewed any
paper printouts since last August
when Evans publicly recom
mended it, she said she had not
until three weeks ago when she
asked Wooley to provide them
and Wooley failed to do so.
Buice then blamed the short
age of personnel in the finance
department, which for more than
a year has been Wooley alone,
as a major cause of the contin
ued mistakes. Buice said she has
been telling commissioners for
more than a year that the county
needed a new finance officer with
Wooley sliding back into an as
sistant role (Wooley has served as
the interim finance officer since
December 2012).
“Ashley was not sufficient as
finance director, and I’ve been try
ing to tell this board that for a very
long time,” Buice said.
Commissioners interviewed
three candidates for finance direc
tor in March and later offered one
of them the job, but the candidate
turned the county down. Com
missioners have subsequently
re-advertised the position. Despite
this, Evans blamed Buice for the
personnel shortage, noting that it
was Buice’s decision in 2017 not
to replace former finance assistant
Brandi McPipkin, who was shift
ed to the purchasing department,
with another finance assistant.
With commissioners’ approval,
Buice instead re-assigned recre
ation assistant Suzanne Schultek
to the administrative office, saying
there were other needs than
finance at the time.
“I don’t make those changes.
This board makes those changes,”
Buice said in an agitated tone. “I
made a recommendation, and this
board accepted it.”
Buice said she expected that
Wooley could handle paying the
payroll taxes and admitted she
was lax in her approach to finan
cial matters.
“That’s my failure was trusting.”
However, Evans said Buice’s
assignment of blame to Wooley
wasn’t sufficient for him.
Evans said, “You don’t take any
body’s word about no money’’
At one point Buice urged com
missioners to move forward, not
ing that Forsyth-based accounting
firm Hopkins & Associates would
be assisting with the finance
department in Wooley’s absence.
However, she also noted the need
for two employees in finance
looking ahead.
Buice said, “We can spend a lot
of time going over what hap
pened, hut time is of the essence
to move forward into getting this
straight.”
Some commissioners weren’t
in the mood to gloss over the
mistakes. Evans said he’s urged
Buice to cross-train employees,
which hasn’t occurred, and said
errors with county finances were
a bigger problem than any other
type of miscue.
Evans said, “The most impor
tant component of the function of
this office and this county is the
money. We can’t function without
money’’
District 3 commissioner George
Emami also took umbrage with
Buice’s complaints, saying Buice
didn’t make clear to commission
ers the severity of the county’s
financial situation.
Emami said to Buice: “If we had
known that we were in danger
of this happening again, in two
seconds I would have voted to
hire you some support staff or
something.”
District 2 commissioner Eddie
Rowland appeared to side with
Evans and Emami, reading aloud
a statement in last year’s county
audit in which auditing firm
Mauldin & Jenkins instructed
the administrative office to take
corrective action in implementing
controls to ensure the timely pay
ment of payroll taxes.
In contrast, District 3 commis
sioner John Ambrose was more
sympathetic to Buice and Wool
ey’s plight.
Ambrose said, “We all knew we
were short. Ashley was set up in a
position to fail. And I take blame
in the fact that we (commission
ers) didn’t get some help in there.”
Page 5C
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Congratulations to the Monroe County
Reporter on all your of awards from the
Georgia Press Association, and for being
honored with the award for Best Paper
(2nd Place) in the state for its size.
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478-420-0023 office
george@thebrokery.net
18+ Years Industry Experience
Congratulations to the
Monroe County Reporter
on all your GA Press Association
awards and for the award
of Best Paper (2nd Place)
in the state for its size!
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Owners:
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1501 Bass Rd
Suite A
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Not just in Monroe County but
tops in the state of Georgia!
SCORES
Continued from Front
scores. Weighted scores, which
are used by the state to evaluate
school systems, assign differ
ent values for how well students
do on the test. Tests that show
exceptional achievement get a
higher value than those that just
show proficiency. That is, the
school system gets a higher
weighted score if more students
show knowledge at level IV
than at level II even though
students who achieve at least
level II do not re-test.
In the weighted scores, Mon
roe County 9th graders jumped
37.2 points in literature/
composition from last year,
from 74.4 to 85.5. In American
literature, the gain was 28.2
points, from 65.7 to 76.7. For
algebra, Mary Persons students
improved their test 15.8 points,
from 63.6 to 70.6. In geometry,
there is a 31.3 point gain, from
71.6 to 78.2. Biology tests jumped
up 26.4 points in their weighted
score, from 67.2 to 80.6 points.
U.S. History gained 2.7 points,
from 72.7 to 75.4, and economics
gained 32.6 points, rising from
66.7 to 86.0.
The biggest gain was in physi
cal science, with a 55.8 point
increase, from 68.5 to 112.0, but
Superintendent Dr. Mike Hick
man explained that the physical
science score is not a good com
parison because in 2017-18 only
the advanced students in 8th
grade took the End of the Course
physical science test because of
the schedule offering the course
being rearranged. Generally
physical science is now sched
uled for most students in 11th
grade instead of 9th grade. Next
year, it will again be only ad
vanced students taking the test,
but the following year scores will
again reflect the general student
population.
Monroe County’s weighted
scores for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade
have added 62.5 points since
2014-15. Weighted scores for
Middle School students have
added 56 points, and weight
scores for high school courses
grew by a whopping 230 points.
Georgia implemented the Mile
stones test for the 2014-15 school
year; so the system now has four
years of scores to compare, even
considering the first year as a
time to
learn
about
and
adjust to
the new
test. The
tests are
admin
istered
to 3rd,
4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade
students in English Language
Arts and Math and to 5th and
8th grade students in science and
social studies. High school stu
dents take End of Course tests in
9th grade literature/composition,
American literature, algebra, ge
ometry, physical science, biology,
U.S. history and economics.
“We are very pleased. Our kids
have done a great job,” said Hick
man. “The instructional folks
started meeting together two
or three years ago [about how
to best prepare students for the
Milestones tests] and those meet
ings are paying off?’
He said that the scores released
by the state may change some
because results from students
who re-tested have not all been
included. The state will probably
release final scores in about mid-
July. Monroe County will then be
able to compare its scores with
those of other school systems in
the state.
“The kids are the real heroes,”
said Hickman. “They’re the ones
who have to take the tests.”
The kids are the real heroes.
They’re the ones who have to take the tests.’
- Superintendent Dr. Mike Hickman