School Board Honors Lady Hurricanes
The Jasper County School Board honored the Lady Hurricanes softball team at its business meeting on November 13, with team members introducing themselves, and the board members meeting each of them and the athletic director Matt Martin.
Coach Martin said he appreciated the support of the community, the school and the administration. He bragged on all the sports, and then turned it over to Coach Chris Jenkins who said how enjoyable it was coaching the girls this year. He praised his assistants, his wife, Amanda, and Ethan Huff and Brady McMichael. He recounted some statistics, and said he is proud of them.
The board then heard from Jehan El-Jourbagy, head of the school governance team at Jasper County Primary School. She said the school has a fantastic principal, faculty and staff. She said the students learn from the teachers, and we need to show our appreciation. She said although they were not happy with the CCRPI results, that they constantly see positive growth and growth trends. She talked about the new gifted teacher and more students being served, and said how the Literacy grant is going to help the school. Sit will give students more access to books, and more devices per classroom. It will also pay for a summer bridge program and a mobile learning bus.
The board agreed to surplus nearly 100 student desks at the request of the middle school.
Board members heard from Dr. Kristie Brooks some alternatives for the way the schools now pays substitute teaches. The options are to be considered at budget time.
Dr. Michael Newton, Superintendent, talked about the College and Career Academy Jones County is building, and spoke of how it could benefit our students. Some subjects it plans to offer is construction, pharmacy tech, sports medicine and EMT. He stressed that no student would go to Jones County to get what is available here, but that a select few could be chosen to participate in those programs.
The board approved several personnel changes including:
New Hires—Sandra Jackson, Bus Monitor, Jasper County Transportation Department; Deanna Reese, Clerical-Attendance Clerk, Jasper County Primary School/Washington Park Elementary School, Renee Schoenfield, Registrar(Part-Time), Jasper County High School; Erica Johnson, Substitute Bus Driver, Jasper County Transportation Department.
Resignations—Sharon Byrd, Bus Driver, Jasper County Transportation Department and Carla Lovingood, Substitute Teacher, Jasper County Board of Education.
Retirement—Emma Tillman, Clerical, Jasper County Primary School/Washington Park Elementary School.
The school board was to meet Monday, Nov. 19, to discuss the superintendent hiring plan, and the next regular meeting will be a business meeting in December on December 11.
Community members, parents and students are invited to complete a questionnaire on what is important to them in a superintendent. It is available on the Jasper County Charter Schools website, or follow the link shown in the school newsletter in last week’s Monticello News.
