School Board Hears from Parents
Members of the Jasper County Board of Education met in front of a standing room only audience Tuesday night with parents and community members expressing their thoughts and concerns about faculty that have allegedly been imposing their personal beliefs and lifestyles on students.
The board heard from five citizens before the actual business meeting began, and all spoke to particular faculty complaints. At the conclusion of the meeting no personnel action was taken, however Shannon Barton, board chair, thanked the public and encouraged the public coming and speaking.
She said, “We do appreciate all of you coming and speaking. I’m glad and we, this board, heard you. I see a lot of kids, every day and I do this for the kids. I want them to receive a quality education.”
She then asked Superintendent Dr. Mike Newton that the board have a response by Friday, Nov. 20. Dr. Newton stated that there would be an e-mailed response to those who spoke and it would also be posted on the school’s website, www.jasper.k12.ga.us and its Facebook page.
Michael Moore spoke before the board and stated, “First thing I see is ‘Our Children, Our Community, Our Responsibility’ (referring to the mission statement on the table). I am not here speaking for any group or anybody. I am here for myself as a Christian man and a father. I am here to tell you that you, the board, and the teachers that it is not your job to influence or parent my child. I understand that some teachers feel like they need to parent some children. We have bad parents just as we have bad teachers, and I can’t help you with that, I’m sorry.”
“As a Christian, I am not here to throw any stones. I have issues just like anybody else. I am here to let you know that as teachers, us parents don’t want to know about your personal lives. If you’re a good teacher, teach—stick to the curriculum. Let me do the parenting. Don’t persuade my kids.
Don’t pick on my kids,” he continued. “I am not here to ask for anyone’s job. I’m here to demand that everyone does their job. Teach and leave the parenting to me. If you have crude comments about my religion, discuss it with adults, not a child. If you teach Islam, teach Christianity. If you teach Evolution, teach Creation. Teach all of them with an open mind…leave the comments for outside the classroom. Don’t patronize my children.”
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Paul Ledoux, a parent of a tenth grader at Jasper County High School (JCHS) spoke as to his daughter being uncomfortable in a classroom due to her “faith being made fun of and that she was just uncomfortable in the class.” He said that after she showed him some things on social media, he took action to get it taken care of. He stated that after contacting the Superintendant and school counselor via e-mail, his daughter was given the choice to complete the class online, to which they all agreed. She then returned to school Thursday, went into the classroom, and was “intimidated and bullied by the teacher.” Due to circumstances, she also attended the class on Friday and Monday and both days she was “belittled, and berated in front of the other students.”
Mr. Ledoux stated that his daughter was not moved until Tuesday, a week later, and despite several attempts via e-mail and phone had not received a call from the principal as per his request. He said in closing, “I’ve told my daughter, all through her years, to think really hard about what you put on Facebook and YouTube, you be sure that you want it there. Because even though it can be taken down, it’s still out there.”
The board heard first from Mary Patrick who criticized the public comment policy stating, “It appears as if you have a mission of silencing those that wish to speak.” She went on to comment that executive session was not a place to discuss personnel matters and that “there had been 100’s of complaints on two teachers which focus on a gay and anti-Christian agenda.” To conclude she stated that “issues are not going away just by pretending that they don’t exist.”
John Cooper also spoke to the board and said that allegedly comments had been made about the Christian religion and out of concern for the students and educators. “It’s our responsibility, as Christ followers, to protect our children. Negative comments made to a child against Lord Jesus are as equally harmful as comments made to a child about their parents, sibling, or other family members based on Galatians 3:26 and Proverbs 18:24. The argument may be made that these alleged statements were made about the Bible and not about God directly, but as a Christian, we believe that as it is written in John 1:1 that in the beginning was the Word…and therefore any ugly attack on the Word of God is equal to an ugly attack on God which is equal to an ugly attack on our families. This also holds true in regards to belittling traditional values held by the child and his or her family.
“Sexual orientation and the sanctity of marriage are not open to attack from either educator to student or student to educator. However, as the educator is the adult, the authority figure, and professional, it is their responsibility to maintain and control discussions in the classroom. And basically I seek response to the two following questions. 1. Does the board also see this as a verbal abuse towards a child? 2. What can we do as a community, together to prevent this kind of verbal abuse from continuing?
Becky Henderson presented her statement to the board saying, “As a Christian, the Bible is my guidebook which we live and it tells me that I will have eternal life. It also tells me what God did for me. It is a holy, sacred book for Christians. It has come to my attention that a statement, ‘The Bible is only good as, and I’m paraphrasing, toilet tissue,’ is a statement made by a JCHS teacher to a classroom of students. I know because two students signed a written statement verifying this was what was said. I was shocked when I heard about it. No teacher in the classroom or on the campus should be allowed to mock, ridicule or discredit the faith of personal belief of any student. It has absolutely nothing to do with the curriculum.
“A teacher’s personal beliefs or non beliefs on faith or lifestyle should not be forced on any student or even mentioned in the classroom. Recently a coach at this school was told that he cannot lead his team in prayer. I understand that this is because he was forcing his personal beliefs on the students. Is this not a double standard when the teacher inside of a classroom is doing the same thing? I would like to see the governing authority of this school discourage any teacher for mocking, ridiculing or discrediting any faith or lifestyle of a student.”
After the public speakers were heard, Dr. Barton stated “we do appreciate all of the public comments and the crowd that showed up tonight. We will take all of this under advisement and issue a statement concerning these issues.”
Several of those in the audience were not pleased with no immediate action being taken, however the board had a business meeting to conduct and moved forward.
During the Superintendant’s report, Dr. Newton gave a positive financial overview stating that “We are at 33 percent completion of the fiscal year and the revenues are up and the expenditures are lower which is always a good sign. We do expect to see revenues begin to increase as tax collections have begun.” The revenues were listed at 36.68 percent and the expenditures at 31.86 percent. Dr. Newton commended Chief Appraiser Lynn Bentley and the Tax Assessors staff on a job well done as the county evaluations are at 40 percent and in compliance. The Department of Education can penalize the system if the number is over or under.
Perry Hyde gave an update on facilities stating that the multi-use facility plans had been submitted to the DOE for approval. He said that the building part was coming along swiftly, but the civil engineering part still needed some more information. He said that there did need to be some resurveying done as to the ponds and the natural run-off of water around the site.
The board then voted to pass a Certificate of Resolution for the Jasper County Primary School (JCPS) roof and heating and air conditioning project. The resolution accounted for labor, materials, and services all being complete and paid for on the project. Dr. Barton asked “well is it fixed? There are no leaks?” Dr. Newton replied that there were no leaks and the project was complete. There is a 20 year warranty on the roof.
Anne Harrison, Finance Director, told the board that the FY2014 audit had returned and it was all good. She did state that they had one finding when the CPA, which is contracted out, failed to record asset additions therefore there was a misclassification of funds due to improper recording. Dr. Newton informed the board that both he and Ms. Harrison had a checks and balances in place to further prevent this. Ms. Harrison also told the board that there were six items that had been placed as surplus. Those items can be found on the school’s website along with instructions on bidding on these items.
Three policies were approved Tuesday and they were Policy JB Attendance, Policy GBRIG on FMLA, and Policy JGI on Child Abuse. These were placed under review for 30 days prior to final approval and can be found on the school’s eboard website.
Ms. Burrell presented more in-depth information on what pathways students in high school were interested in. She said that there had been a follow up survey which was more in depth than the previous. Results of the survey showed that 39.5 percent of high school students would be interested in a JROTC program, 33.4 percent want an automotive program (for which more preferred to have a program onsite) and 31.5 percent were interested in Law and Justice. Ms. Burrell stated that 484 of 600 students had done the survey.
The board discussed where to go from here reminding each that there was no government funding for a new JROTC program at this time. Ms. Burrell stated that more research would have to be done as to an actual cost of the program as it will be locally funded. She was encouraged that students were interested and about the possibility of more pathways offered.
Nanette Manning, Director of Head Start and Pre-K spoke to the board about how grateful she was to have an additional classroom this year. She also told them about how the preschool has been partnering with Miss Kay’s Day Care and some home day cares to teach kids a rhyme per week. She said that by reaching children ages zero to four years old, and them learning four rhymes fluently there is a greater percentage that they will be better readers. She also said that the state DCAL program (lottery program) was going to give Jasper more money by having dual enrollment for students.
Dr. Newton informed the board that Dianna Blizzard was helping and that a draft application for becoming a Charter System was well under way. Ms. Blizzard presented two of the four parts during the meeting and Dr. Newton explained a Charter System to all in attendance.
“As a Charter System we will have greater flexibility in the ways that we serve kids. We will have the options for waivers and for more school governance at the local level being a Charter system,” said Dr. Newton. “Each school will have governance councils that will allow the staff more decisions. We will have supporting programs and councils that are made up with 50 percent community and parents.”
The Charter application is on schedule for a midyear submission and Jasper County School will be a charter system for the 2016-2017 school year. Dr. Newton encouraged parents in attendance to become a part of a school governance board now, as they will be filtered in as the initial governing councils under the charter system.
