School Board Reviews FY16 Budget; Hires Early
Members of the Jasper County School Board have been ahead of their usual timeline as far as recruitment of new teachers for the 2015-2016 school year making several new strides to enlist qualified teachers early and to not lose them to other districts.
In the early stages of budget discussions, Superintendent Dr. Mike Newton suggested that to obtain quality educators, the earlier the positions were approved and advertised, the better. In addition to an earlier timeline, the board also voted earlier in the year to implement a Minority Recruitment Team in order to get a more diverse faculty.
Gary Jenkins, Personnel Director for Jasper County schools spoke to board members during the business meeting Tuesday and stated that the team consisted of principals, curriculum directors, teachers and faculty. He said that they were given the talk to “increase exposure of Jasper County Schools and our community, and to locate minority candidates for open positions.”
Initially the group contacted 37 historically black colleges in and around Georgia. For these contacts, they received 11 replies. He also stated that the team attended eight events and took nine recruiters. They reached over 175 students, of which 140 had signed in and taken information about Jasper County. Three of those reached were hired on the spot.
Mr. Jenkins said that recruiting last year was 20-25 percent minority and that major strides had been taken this year to “promote Jasper County as well as its schools.”
Nanette Manning, Director of Head Start and Pre-K told the board, “This was a great opportunity and it was exciting.” She explained that the kids were excited and that she was excited to promote a career in education in Jasper County. She explained that there were seasoned teachers here and that the kids were well behaved and the community was close. She explained that there was a support system here from the superintendent and central office and below.
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Dr. Newton said, “Thank you to all of you professionals. This is great. Those of you here have an interest in bettering our schools through the people that we bring in. Thank you for your time, and I am excited to see this thing improving and that this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
After a short executive session, the board voted to approve the following new hires: Shamika Qualls, third grade teacher at Washington Park Elementary (WP); Charlie Frazier, Principal of Jasper County Middle School (JCMS), Casey Wright, sixth grade teacher at JCMS; Scotti Cummings, science teacher; Veronica Bouhana, PEC teacher; and Bobbi Sauls, fine arts/social studies teacher at Jasper County High School (JCHS), and Cora Whidby, counselor for Jasper County Virtual Academy (part-time).
Resignations approved by the board include Brittany Wood, School Psychologist; Amy Camp, fourth grade teacher at WP; Elizabeth Hughes, Spanish teacher at JCHS and Sierra Maddox, science teacher at JCHS.
Transfers include Neil Banks, part-time to full-time custodian at WP; Ashley Ryals, from Pre-K teacher to fourth grade teacher; Toni White, from interventionist at WP to fifth grade teacher; Lindsay Moore, from PEC Teacher at JCHS to math teacher at JCHS and Shakeirra Middlebrooks, from Pre-K teacher, to first grade teacher at JCPS.
Retirees from Jasper County schools include James Clay, custodian; John Hopper, PEC teacher; and Rose Vowell, fifth grade teacher. Lakeisha Ammons Martinez, bus driver, was terminated from the Jasper County Transportation Department.
Dr. Newton reviewed the budget timeline with board members stating that they were on track with the timeline. He also told the board that there would be a FY16 draft budget ready for their review with a projection of going $1 million into fund balance.
He announced that they had received forest land money early again this year for the second year in a row. He said that that was $670,000 that had to be added to the budget revenues.
Dr. Newton pointed out the positives for this budget stating that economic recovery and local recovery had been positive. He said that Jasper County had a positive increase, between $400,000 and $500,000 projected, in the tax digest this year, taking it a bit longer to kick in here, but an increase none the less. He also credited the governor and legislature for reducing austerity cuts to $617,000 this year down from $962,000 last year.
He told the board that for FY16 the insurance costs for classified employees was going up. Anne Harrison, financial director, stated that it was going up $150 per person, per month. The board had been aware of and had previously discussed a plan for financing this increase. Dr. Newton also voiced his concern over other uncertainties in funding revisions such as Quality Basic Education (QBE) and other task forces that are appointed by the governor to tinker with formulas regarding state school funding.
Because of the uncertain futures of revenues, Dr. Newton does not recommend the rollback rate that would decrease revenues by $180,000. He recommended to the board that looking at the FY16 budget, they stick to the 18.99 mills. He said that the expenditures thus far budgeted were about $18.9 million.
He stated that the state funding had increased by $1 million, and that thanks to the staff that Jasper County schools had maximized full-time equivalent (FTE) and increased enrollment. Dr. Newton and Ms. Harrison presented a draft budget to the board where that showed an estimated $1 million dip into fund balance, but that is actually offset by the forest land funds which had to be included in this year’s budget since they came in early.
Dr. Newton recommended that staying on the conservative side of the budget was erring on the side of caution. “The state of Jasper County’s financial situation is good now, but it’s the uncertain future that is out there that concerns me.”
Shannon Barton, Chairman of the Board, said, “So to sum this all up, we need to decide to rollback or not. Either way we are going into fund balance by over $1/2 million. We have a more solid budget to work with this year, but do we want to go into fund balance by over $900,000 or reduce what we can?”
“We are not raising taxes, we’re just not lowering them,” said Dr. Barton.
Dr. Newton agreed that this was again, cautionary and to try to more stabilize the fluctuation of raising and lowering taxes repeatedly. Ms. Harrison stated that with the digest increase much property that was valued at $100,000 last year would be valued at $113,000 this year, and the taxes would increase about $200 total with the BOE getting $50 of that revenue.
Dr. Newton told the board that Jasper County was named seventh in the nation for small school districts (under 3,000) for a digital survey that measures school districts’ use of innovative technology. This technology survey “recognizes exemplary school boards’ and districts’ use of technology to govern their district, communicate with students, parents and community and improve the learning environment and district operations,” according to the Center for Digital Education’s website.
During the meeting, the board recognized Brian Patrick for being named in the top 10 of Georgia Teachers of the Year. They also recognized students that participated in the Ag Mechanics competition and the Protégé Art Competition. Taylor Edwards and Chris Savage, STAR Student and Teacher of the Year were also recognized. (Mr. Patrick is featured on the front page of today’s paper and the others were recognized in previous issues).
When it came to policy discussion, the board voted to pass policy CN-Administrative Records. This was in compliance with GCIC secured materials. They also voted to place a new policy JB-Student Attendance, on the table for a 30 day review.
