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THE MADISON COUNTY (GAf JOURNAL. THURSDAY. JULY 16, 2009 — PAGE 3A
BOE declares certain elementary
school grades closed for transfers
By Ben Munro
ben@mainstreetnews.com
Certain grades at Madison
County's five elementary
schools are now closed for
student transfers due to space
constraints.
The move was made in
preparation for changes man
dated by House Bill 251,
which allows parents much
more freedom to transfer their
children to any school within
a district.
The list is as follows: Colbert
Elementary, second and fifth
grade; Comer Elementary,
kindergarten and first grade;
Danielsville Elementary, kin
dergarten and fifth grade; and
Ila Elementary, second grade.
No transfers to Hull-Sanford
Elementary will be allowed in
any grade due to the growth in
that area.
“In a nutshell, these are all
grades, classes that a handful
of students could knock us over
in class size,” Madison County
Schools Superintendent Mitch
McGhee said.
The school board already
made the decision earlier this
year to close Hull-Sanford to
transfer requests due to high
growth.
Transfer rules were much
stricter prior to the bill's pas
sage.
Generally, students attended
schools in their zone. Any
geographical exceptions to
this — called variances — are
considered by the Madison
County school board at
monthly meetings.
House Bill 251 removed
those constraints statewide.
Local school systems, how
ever, can still deny a transfer
if classes in a certain grade
are too full.
Because of that, the Madison
County BOE approved
the list of grades at schools
that couldn’t accommodate
growth.
The system has provided a
notice of the new transfer rules
on its website. According to
the website, the district will
accept transfer requests until
July 31.
Policy decisions will come
later, including how to handle
transfer requests for families
moving into Madison County
after the transfer deadline or
what action to take if space
becomes available in a grade
during the school year.
Once transfer requests are
approved, they’re valid for as
long as a student is enrolled at
that school.
BOC takes input on personnel policy proposals
By Zach Mitcham
zach@mainstreetnews.com
Madison County com
missioners plan to make all
county jobs “at will” posi
tions, meaning the old appeal
provisions in the county's
personnel policies concern
ing termination and disci
pline will be removed.
Those changes have yet to
be approved.
But last week, the BOC
asked employees for input
on their proposed personnel
policy amendments. Only
one person. Magistrate Judge
Harry Rice, addressed the
BOC on the “at will pro
posal.” He suggested that
the commissioners consider
leaving appeal procedures in
place for all current employ
ees, while designating all new
hires as “at will” workers.
That way, people who were
hired with the expectation of
appeal protection wouldn’t
be stripped of the due process
measures. Rice said the pro
posal would help the morale
of county employees.
Currently, employees in
offices headed by constitu
tionally-elected officials —
such as the sheriff’s depart
ment, tax commissioner’s
office, clerk of court, probate
judge and magistrate judge
— are already “at will” work
ers, since the elected officials
can dismiss employees with
out any chance for employee
appeals.
Meanwhile, other county
employees, who work for
department heads rather than
elected officials, have “due
process” rights of appeal.
If they are fired, they can
enter into an appeal process
for reconsideration of their
termination. Commissioners
have noted that the appeal
process has proven expensive
and has never actually led to
the reversal of a firing.
Commissioners also said
the new arrangement would
put every employee in the
county under the same per
sonnel policy.
Whether or not an appeal
procedure is in place,
Madison County employees
will always be able to sue
their employers if they feel
they've been wrongly fired.
VACATION TIME
While the appeal pro
cess was a focus Thursday,
the board also heard from
employees concerned about
proposed changes to county
vacation policies.
County employees have
been allowed to accrue
many hours of unused vaca
tion time in recent years.
Commissioners note that
large chunks of unused vaca
tion are essentially county
debt, at least as far as audi
tors are concerned, because
employees could cash in on
the hundreds of hours of
unused leave at any time,
while potentially leaving
departments understaffed.
So, the BOC is consider
ing setting a 280-hour cap
on accrued vacation time.
But commissioners are also
considering giving employ
ees who have more than the
maximum allowed hours
an opportunity to put their
excess hours toward retire
ment.
High school tennis courts, track closing for a week in Aug.
By Ben Munro
ben@mainstreetnews.com
The much-used Madison
County High School ten
nis courts and track will be
out of commission for one
week in August when both
will be resurfaced.
Madison County Schools
Superintendent Mitch
McGhee said both require
maintenance now to avoid
pricier improvements in
the future.
“If we don’t resurface our
track, and we don’t resur
face our tennis courts, it’s
going to cost us a whole
lot more money in the long
run,” McGhee said.
The project will be
funded through SPLOST
money.
Since both venues receive
heavy community use, the
school system will place
signs on locations inform
ing the public of the clo
sures.
The tentative date for the
project is Aug. 10-17.
The school system has
also started other projects
using SPLOST dollars. The
system can only apply this
money toward construction
projects, McGhee noted.
“We cannot just roll that
into the general budget
and pay for salaries,” he
explained.
That money will be
applied toward a laundry
list of needs: completion
of renovations to the old
middle school, automated
HVAC controls at the new
middle school, maintenance
of HVAC units at Comer
Elementary and addressing
leaks at Colbert Elementary
School.
McGhee reiterated that
this money must be used
for specific purposes.
“Again, what some people
might not understand is that
you’re resurfacing a track,
but you claim that you have
to make all these other
cuts,” McGhee said. “We
have to spend this money
on facilities and building
projects. We can’t spend it
on the other things.”
‘Bear in mind’
Bears not common in
county, but sometimes spotted
By Margie Richards
margie@mainstreetnews.com
A Colbert woman and her kids reported seeing a bear
crossing Colbert-Danielsville Road near the high school a
couple of weeks ago.
And while bears are not common in Madison County, it
is also not uncommon to spot them at certain times of the
year, according to Department of Natural Resources officer
Shane Sartor.
“It's fairly common in the spring to spot them as they move
through the area,” Sartor said, noting that it is a little later
than normal to be seeing them now.
Sartor said he’s received about six to eight calls about bear
sightings this year, mostly in the spring, which is common
for this area. And while he can’t say for certain, he thinks
there's a good chance that there might be a few year-round
residents here now.
Most of the time, he noted, they are not a problem, and
should someone see one, they should just stay out of the way
and leave it alone.
“Unless someone gets between a sow and her cub, or
comers one in some way, they’re not going to bother you -
they’re going to try to get away from you,” Sartor said.
But there are a few common sense precautions: don't feed
them, don’t approach them for any reason and keep food
items and trash picked up and stored safely.
If residents have a problem with a nuisance bear that just
won’t go away, call the Gainesville Game Management
office at 770-535-5700 for assistance.
It is against the law to shoot a bear in Madison County.
Sartor said some counties in Georgia do have a bear hunting
season that coincides with deer season, but Madison County
is not one of them.
Sexual harassment suit filed
against local restaurant
A federal sexual harassment lawsuit has been filed against
the owners of the Pizza and Sub Express, Inc., located at
8727 Hwy. 29 South near the red light in Hull.
According to the documents filed by the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission on behalf of a female employee
who worked at the pizzeria beginning in October 2007, the
Commission alleges that the Pizzeria subjected the employ
ee to a “sexually hostile work environment” by the general
manager and that the owners, failed to take prompt effective
remedial action to end the harassment.
The suit seeks back pay and other unspecified compensa
tion for the employee, a permanent injunction to order the
business to cease from “engaging in sexual harassment
against employees, as well as engaging in any other employ
ment practice which discriminates on the basis of sex,” and
to “institute and carry out policies, practices and programs
which provide equal employment opportunities for all
employees and which eradicate the effects of its past and
present unlawful employment practices.”
Pat Graham, attorney for Pizza and Sub Express, had not
returned a Journal call as of press time.
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