School Approves New Coach Hire, Hears from SGTs
The Jasper County Charter System Board of Education heard several recommendations from Kenny Garland, Superintendent including a salary increase for all employees to be included in next year’s budget.
The salary increases, according to Mr. Garland, would make the JCCS more competitive in the region salary schedules aiding in obtaining highly effective teachers for the system. The proposed increase would be two levels. Certified staff would receive an annual $1,400 increase ($117 per month) and classified staff (bus drivers, cafeteria) would receive a 90 cent per hour increase minimum which would put each of those starting salaries at least $10 per hour.
Mr. Garland said that the economy is great right now and that the fund balance has been sustaining. He said that with the above increases it would cost approximately $487,000 and the budget could sustain that amount over at least the next four years.
He said that current enrollment is up to 2,450 students with 17 new students enrolling since January 3 and in order to recruit and retain staff that the salary schedules would benefit from that increase. There will be more comparisons to the salaries with surrounding counties at the January 25 regular board meeting.
The board did vote to keep William Schilling as the board chairman and Erin Lynch as the vice-chair as they vote on each January. The board will begin looking at the budget at their May 10 meeting.
Another topic from last month was adding one school resource officer (SRO) for all schools. Mr. Garland presented the board with the total provided for that resource from Sheriff Donnie Pope stating that the annual cost would be just under $67,000 to include salary, benefits and equipment. There would also be a one time start-up projected cost of just under $52,000 for a vehicle, equipment, laptop, etc. The was no discussion
They also approved the new districts, which align with the board of commission districts that were tweaked by the state to evenly distribute voters throughout the county.
The meeting opened hearing from the new head football coach and teacher, Ashley Henderson as he addressed the board. He was fired up and gave a riveting opening about how he is fired up to be a Hurricane and was ready to serve this community. Mr. Henderson said that he wanted to come into the community being visible all while building better football players and investing in young men’s lives, ultimately building better men overall.
The board approved his hire formally during this meeting, although Coach Henderson started Monday.
During the work session the board heard from each School Governance Team and some of the highlights from each of those presentations is below. Most of the SGTs focused on students’ data and recognitions, what the SGTs have been learning as well as needs/requests for facility improvements.
Pre-K – Head Start has full enrollment while Pre-K does not. Registration opens February 28 and will close March 4. They expect a report soon as the federal Head Start monitoring visit just concluded. New updated playground equipment will be delivered soon. Teachers received continuing education for math. The SGT is working on a parent cohort and program goals.
JCPS—Just got into MAP data and have been looking at students’ evaluations from fall to end of Dec. Implemented a Summer Bridge class where 65 percent of students improved their scores. Notated that most of the numbers show reading and math averages exceeding the initial goals that were set; they are working now to maintain that improvement. iLearning has been implemented at JCPS. Attendance is a huge topic, and they continue to incentivize students to come to school.
WPES—“A place people want to go to school.” Faculty and staff are all outstanding. Programs such as Student of the Month, STEM Night, have added art and two music classes and the middle school band director has started recruiting at WPES. They have events to support literacy such as book club, AR parties, Figure Friday, Mystery Theater, Safety Patrol, CHAMPS, a tech fair, spelling bee and Science Olympiad.
WPES averages 25-28 students daily at its after-school program. They had approximately 30 attend summer camp. Improvements include having a comprehensive ELA across all schools, behavior issues being implemented and consistent.
JCMS—Began MAP testing this week. Winter sports are in full swing. Wrestling, about 40 kids, doing well. Basketball tied for first with Morgan County. Participating in Science Olympiad, spelling bee. Academically they are studying iReady and MAP data to target individual needs. Sticking to their Title I plan, discussing a family engagement plan and the school improvement plan. Improved communication to parents. Got new camera system up and running as well as added new library books and a mental health counselor to the staff.
JCHS—Beta Club is sending 40 kids to nationals in Savannah. All winter sports are in full swing. SGT focuses on graduation rate, currently 88.3 percent and noted that the CTAE graduation rate is 98.0 percent of students with that director receiving a $85,000 grant for supplies. They SGT also has been focusing on a safety plan as well as in increase in the salaries of teachers for recruiting and retaining. Excited about the football coach and are in favor of a SRO.
