School Board Hears Plans for Improvement

The Jasper County School Board approved a number of new hires, two transfers, a resignation, a retirement, and a termination at their regular meeting Tuesday night.

They hired Elizabeth L. Cain, Pre-K teacher and Angie Williamson, food assistant for the Jasper County Primary School; Lianna Nix, fifth grade teacher at Washington Park Elementary; H. Scott Cooper, eighth grade teacher at Jasper County Middle School; Herbert Stokes, head basketball coach for boys, Jasper County High School. Also, Luke Jackson was hired as maintenance helper for the central office.

The board accepted the resignation of Penny Jorgenson, personnel; a retirement from Kathy C. Allgood, paraprofessional; and a termination of Thomas Anglin, custodian. Brandon Kirby and Gary Jenkins were both approved for transfer between departments in the system.

The board was presented a plaque by Jeff Couch, of Parrish Construction, recognizing Jasper County Schools as being energy efficient schools. They qualified above the 90.1 standards. The plaque was presented to the board and will be displayed at the middle or high school.
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Superintendent Mike Newton gave his report and noted that the numbers for the month line up with budget numbers and that he was looking forward to some state revenues coming in. Mr. Arena also noted that JOBS funds should be coming in this month.

Peyton Proctor was in attendance and presented the Career, Technical and Agriculture Education (CTAE) program to the board for recognition and as a refresher course of sorts. He opened by saying that a number of people are glad that the Ag program was reinstated and there was much interest in the program. He said that the kids are getting involved and there are big plans for that program through the rest of this year resulting in growth of the program in the coming years.

He noted that all students have to choose a pathway once in high school whether their post graduation plans include the workplace or college. The purpose of CTAE is to promote career awareness, career exploration, and career inquiry.

The program at the high school consists of five career areas and seven pathways in each of these areas. In simple terms, a freshman has to choose what pathway interests him/her and must take three classes within that pathway in order to graduate with a pass in this area. Pathways are similar to seals in previous years.
The board expressed interest that it would like to see more of what the students in the program are doing, whether it be a newsletter or a presentation to the board. The board approved the CTAE budget for the 2010-2011 school year.

In other action the board was presented with an update of the upgrades going on at the Middle School. The school is undergoing restroom upgrades, upgrades with the structure and with making the campus more user friendly with signage and curb appeal. The progress is going well according to Dr. Newton, and he also noted that the money for this project comes from the fund for capital improvements. These funds cannot be transferred to other areas so they are being put to good use with the Middle School since the building will be used for a few more years.

Also, a final budget was approved by the board. The budget has been reviewed and advertised so a formal approval was the last step.
A general fund raiser approval was approved with District 1 School Board member Bobby Norris asking about the blanketed approval. He said that he was not very comfortable approving fund raisers for the next nine months, citing that if something goes wrong with one, the following ones have already been approved. Mr. Newton said that these were all of the fund raisers to date that have come across his desk, and that further amendments or new fund raisers will come before the board as he gets them or already approved ones need an amendment.

A FBLA overnight field trip was approved.

The board looked over a list of automobiles that have been labeled as surplus be approved as such. There were a number of buses on the list as well as a Honda Accord, a Ford Taurus, and a Dodge Caravan. The purpose of approving these as surplus is so that the school may sell or donate these to other government agencies.

The board then went into closed session and took no action afterwards.