School Board Hears from High School

Members of the Jasper County School Board heard from faculty at Jasper County High School (JCHS) and representatives from the Boys and Girls Club during their business meeting Tuesday.

Robyn Mullis, JCHS principal addressed board members beginning with the high school’s mission statement which includes “delivering effective instruction and remediation within a safe environment, so that students have the best conditions for learning the essential knowledge and skills as measured by national, state, and local standards.” She noted that the school was also on a mission to have well-rounded students that will be contributing citizens.

Mrs. Mullis began with the strengths of the school stating that the faculty was the “absolute” biggest strength at JCHS. She noted that the staff knew all of the students, parents and “business.” She was proud to have staff that is devoted to students and focuses on relationships with the students. She was happy with the additional assistant principal and other new staffing positions filled.

A noteworthy strength of JCHS was that the school’s pass percentage of the Georgia High School Writing Test was 96 percent. This is higher than the area average of 91 percent and the state average of 89 percent.

She mentioned strengths that included the Jasper County Mentor Program, which recently added high school students as teen mentors. She boasted on the variety of both in school and extracurricular activities that were offered to JCHS students.

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Just some of those activities include fine arts, physical education, technology, sports, band, ag, etc. “The more we offer, the more we play into students diversity, and it’s a great thing,” said Mrs. Mullis.

Mrs. Mullis talked about the new gifted internships as well as CANEtimes which allows enrichment to all students—gifted, those struggling, and everyone in between. She touched on the professional learning for teachers and how they see new focuses as strengths.

Kelly Anderson, JCHS Counselor, spoke on keeping students engaged and having intervention during the school day. She said that a fluid program would enrich those excelling and aid those needing extra help.

Some of the weaknesses at JCHS included class times being too short for labs. Weaknesses with students include those failing to see relevance in what is being taught and students failing to take responsibility for themselves, being accountable for assignments missing and using time wisely. Mrs. Mullis said that time is always a weakness, as there is never enough.

Some opportunities for JCHS include flexible scheduling, expanding advanced placement (AP) class offerings, internships, and networking through CTAE (Career, Technical and Agricultural Education) conferences, and district competitions.

Another opportunity is the vertical teaming with Jasper County Middle School so that students are prepared for high school before they leave middle school. “I’ve gotten the opportunity to work with Mrs. Dianna Blizzard and those at JCMS and it’s very beneficial,” said Mrs. Mullis.

Some threats included new, and ever changing assessments from the state, teachers consistency with students, family imbalance, and what to do with those students who disrupt class continuously.

Buddy Cain, JCHS Assistant Principal spoke about CTAE which is promoting pathways. JCHS is promoting those that are pathway completers, completing three consecutive classes in one area, and are now being rewarded with a seal.

He said that 118 students had become pathway completers and that was a great number for JCHS. He said that 37 had completed in the engineering pathway and 13 in early childhood education. He told the board that the new ag barn now housed pigs, and that there was a $50,000 grant given to JCHS and that there was a new Biotech Lab being put into the school.

Harris Warbington spoke to the board about the benefit of Boys and Girls Club and that Jasper would be next on the list to have one. Mr. Warbington stated that the key to success was collaboration. He stated that community, club and the school system was what it took to make the children involved successful.

He stated that the club was over 150 years old and a majority of the students it catered to were either at or below poverty level. He said that the club was designed to change classrooms, and to aid students academically.

Karen Robertson, with Boys and Girls club informed the board that opportunities would be made possible by the 21st Century Community Learning Grant. She said that Jasper was in line for funding because of not being funded previously and competitive with youth development. This was simply informative and no action was taken by the board.

The board approved two easements for new sidewalks, one on West View Street near Thomas Persons Hall and the other on College Street around Rose Bowl Field.

The board voted to put policy BCBI on the table for 30 days to be reviewed. The policy is on public participation during board meetings. It can be found on the school’s eboard website.

Board members heard from Daniel Kelly, Technology Director on a grant that was awarded for just over $80,000. He stated that it would be used to improve infrastructure, allowing for upgrades for the network and firewall. He said that with the money from the federal department erate program and the grant he could increase the bandwidth at the schools and allow for a better connection and faster speeds.