School Board Approves 2020-2021 Calendar
The Jasper County Charter System Board of Education voted to approve the 2020-2021 academic calendar during their regular meeting Tuesday night.
The calendar boasts 177 instructional days for students with the first day of school on August 12, 2020. There will also be 13 working days for staff with teachers returning to school on August 4, 2020. Instructional days will end on June 1, 2020.
Superintendent Kenny Garland recommended the calendar stating that it had been vetted with the staff leadership teams, the student council and central office staff. He said that there were many requests for a fall break to be added and there was some discussion about the elimination of half days due to the student absentee numbers being doubled on those days.
The board also approved their meeting calendar for the next year. The business meetings will remain the second Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. There were several work sessions that were removed from the traditionally approved calendars as Mr. Garland stated that there are many activities that board members had to attend and that some of the work session items could be done in smaller, sub-committees.
Both calendars are available on the jasper.k12.ga.us website.
After many meeting discussions the board voted to request that the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) update their registry to show Jasper County, Monticello High School. This request was to be sent to GHSA on Wednesday morning for immediate update.
Mr. Garland recapped the previous discussions stating that the change was to provide consistency of all of the schools programs and to allow stakeholders to get the necessary information for academics, athletics and the arts.
To shed some light on the request, Mr. Garland showed the public a Google search for both “Jasper Co. High School, GA” and “Monticello High School, GA.” For the Jasper County entry, you found information about the schools location, academic and arts. When he searched for Monticello— all of the information about athletics was found.
He also stated that when polling the community there was much concern about changing the school name. Board chair, Bill Schilling said, “I think that this is a practical, simple solution for the system to be recognized on all fronts,” for which all of the board members were in agreement.
Prior to the business portion of the meeting the board recognized the Jasper County High School Band and One Act Play participants. Chris Savage and Michael Cooper each spoke of their achievements thus far in the year as well as recognized several participants that were in attendance.
During the Superintendent’s report, Mr. Garland shared the below Good News with the board:
•The JCHS Water Wars team was awarded $10,000 for their project, “Chat Up the Hooch,” in the 2019 Lexus Eco Land and Water Challenge. The JCHS team was only one of two Southeastern state teams that were awarded.
•The SAT prep course showed an overall gain of 54 points for those students that took the SAT as sophomores and juniors in a previous year.
•The PSAT scores showed a school average as an 886 which is close to the national average of scores at 894.
•MAP scores increased for the last evaluation period with the seventh grade reading seeing a significant jump and tremendous growth showing them right at the national average RIT bands.
•Several students across all schools participated in Red Ribbon Week activities.
•The system received one new bus that will be added to the fleet this week.
There will also be three additional buses received via the Pre-K monies later on in the year.
The below personnel were approved by the board unanimously Tuesday night.
The board reviewed the financials for November which showed that the revenues were at 40.29 percent for the year and expenditures at 39.54 percent. The board was told that the Forest Land Protection Money had been received early and that it would be reflected in the December financials.
Mr. Garland informed the board that the facilities project overview regarding spending would be available to them at the January work session. He was very positive as far as where the budget for the large project would come in.
He also informed the board that the athletic complex completion date was still set for the end of February 2020 and showed photos of progress to the board.
The board also placed policy GBRC on the table for a 30 day review. This policy is a standard policy that states that non-certified staff and their workloads.
The board also handled several personnel items, including:
New Hires—Ashely Glenn, custodian; Kurt Green, varsity girls basketball coach, JCHS; Johnny Williams, varsity girls assitant basketball coach, JCHS; Debra Van Deventer, teacher, WPES; Beverly Peak, Parapro, WPES.
Resignations—Linda Burke, parapro, WPES; Amanda Vance, parapro (PEC), JCPS; Stephanie Gibson, Parapro, Jasper County Preschool, and Rebecca Scruggs, bus driver.
The board is set to meet next for a work session on January 14, 2020.
