School Board Promotes D. Jackson To Principal
The Jasper County Board of Education approved the hiring of local resident Dionka Jackson as the new Principal of Jasper County Middle School (JCMS) amongst other personnel during their work session Tuesday night.
Mrs. Jackson said, “Thank you board for the opportunity. I appreciate your faith in me and I will do the best that I can for the middle school students to the best of my ability. Appreciate the SGT and I’m taking them with me. And I’m looking forward to the year.”
Other personnel action included new hires, Donna Poole, Executive Director of Instructional Support Services; Courtney Mayfield, Jasper County Primary School (JCPS) teacher; Cara Youmans, Washington Park Elementary School (WPES) teacher; Ashley Clegg and Melissa Jackson, JCMS teachers; Patricia McCluskey, WPES Paraprofessional and Patricia Alexander, substitute teacher.
Additional new hires included, Tiffany Carnes, substitute bus monitor; Lena Sims, Catherine Wallace, Aquetta Banks, and and Jessilyn Asbel, all substitute custodians for the system.
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Approved resignations included Maryanne Hinkle, JCMS teacher and Erica Sands, JCPS paraprofessional.
Peyton Proctor will transfer to Instructional Coach from his current teaching role at Jasper County High School (JCHS). Kim Ragan will transfer to Instructional Coach at WPES from her current teaching role.
JCMS teacher Tamantha Lee’s contract was approved to not be renewed and Phillip Meadors, ESOL/ELA teacher for JCMS and JCHS was released from his contract.
In addition to the short business agenda the board welcomed Dr. Sherrie Gibney-Sherman to the meeting as well as members of each school’s School Governance Team (SGT) for annual training. As a charter system the Charter System Foundation offers annual required training.
Dr. Gibney-Sherman’s training was titled, “Implementing Local School Governance and Maximizing Flexibility in Georgia Charter School Systems.” After everyone in the room was introduced, Dr. Gibney-Sherman thanked everyone for their service.
“What you will see in this training is that every piece matters. People are learning all over the state via LSGTs how the school works. They are learning about the board, budgets and processes.”
The goal of the evening was to answer the below questions and to take back the information into the monthly SGT meetings and discuss further.
Questions to answer:
1. What is Effective Governance for Charter Systems
2. What is Broad Flexibility
3. What are examples of Broad Flexibility in Charter Systems
4. What innovative pilots are currently in place in Charter
At the conclusion of the training there were some takeaways discussed regarding flexibility and the SGTs were encouraged to look at out of the box opportunities that can be taken advantage of as a charter system.
Superintendent Dr. Mike Newton said, “SGTs are focused on school governance and why it’s so important for parents. I think that everyone is going to be astounded by the graduation rate this year.” “We’re doing a better job now than we’ve ever done for our students,” said Dr. Newton. “I’m excited to see where this system goes in the next few years.”
The board business meeting is next Tuesday, May 21 at 6 p.m. in the board meeting room at 1411 College Street, Monticello.
