New School Calendar Approved

By superadmin | August 13, 2020 |

The Jasper County School System will have almost 2,500 students when school starts August 26 (delayed from August 12 because of high COVID-19 numbers), with 75 percent choosing face to face instruction, with the remaining 25 percent choosing the digital option.

Supt. Kenny Garland told school board members at a work session Tuesday that was extremely tough to make the call on Saturday to delay the start of school two weeks. But in working with local and state health officials, the decision was made, and now there’s a new school calendar.

Supt. Garland said that the school has lots of personal protection equipment (PPE) for students and teachers, and that drinking stations and hand washing stations are in place. Students and teachers will be expected to bring water bottles which they can refill, rather than drinking out of standard drinking fountains. Frequent hand washing will be stressed as well.

Before talking about the start of school, the board held a public hearing, with no public, on the 2020-2021 budget. Afterwards the board approved the total school budget of $31,718,073. Local revenues total nearly $10 million while the remainder comes from state and federal sources.

The board also approved the final expenditure for the athletic complex. The total cost of the complex came in at $11,385,955.40.

At Tuesday’s meeting the board also accepted the bids for bread and milk. Bimbo Bakeries will provide bread for the system, and Prairie Farms will provide the milk.

Also at Tuesday’s work session, board member heard from Kathleen Hatchett about testing data for the non-English speaking students. Of 76 students, tested, nine have now been moved out of the program but will be monitored for the next two years. Of the 63 students measured for growth, 69 percent made “expected” or high growth, while 31 percent did not fare as well. Ms. Hatchett said she was looking into where the student with no improvement are, and approaching the teaching model differently this year.

After a long closed session, school board members approved the following personnel changes:

New Hire

•Jessica Babb, teacher, Jasper County Pre-School (JCPK)

•Ronda Brown, paraprofessional, JCPK

•Haley Hicks, paraprofessional, JCPK.

•Brittany Kimble, paraprofessional, JCPK

•Deborah Freeman, substitute custodian, Jasper County Board of Education.

•Roland Hyde, substitute bus driver, Jasper County Transportation Department.

•Kathy Mincy, substitute bus monitor, Jasper County Transportation Department.

•Weslyn Taylor, substitute bus driver, Jasper County Transportation Department.

•Chad Estes, teacher (49%), Jasper County Middle School(JCMS)

Resignation