School Board Discuss SACS, JCPS Improvement

Dr. Vicki Rogers presented the Jasper County School Board members with some impressive Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) news at their business meeting Tuesday.

Dr. Rogers announced that Jasper County schools met all AYP standards in grades kindergarten through twelve.

Jasper County Middle School met this standard for the second year in a row, thus bringing it off of the “needs improvement” list.

Jasper County High School did not meet the standard because of the graduation rate indicator. The graduation rate at JCHS did improve significantly, at 77 percent for last year, which was much improved over the 55 percent graduation rate in 2005. The standard rate for AYP is to meet 85 percent, and only a third of the high schools in Georgia reach this percentage.

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The Jasper County School Board took some time to discuss the Southern Association of Colleges and School (SACS) review visit that is scheduled for October 23-26 at the Jasper County schools.

Supt. Mike Newton, said that he was not worried about this review, that the review board was going to find some things, but overall the school improvement plan already had most of the issues that may be found in place to be corrected.

He notified the board members that they would have to meet in a called meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at 1 p.m. for the SACS exit report. He also said that e-board, on the Jasper County schools website (www.jasper.k12.g.us) is very easy to navigate. The seven standards and any other information that the board members or public want to would be there.

There was also discussion on the district lines saga. The school board adopted a map in September and the commissioners adopted a separate map this month. The two entities have been urged to compromise on one map to be sufficient for both the school and the county for State Rep. Susan Holmes to carry through the House.

The school board has responded to the County Manager, Greg Wood that they would indeed meet with them as a group to discuss the two maps, but would like to involve Linda Meggars from Atlanta, while moving lines, and for an experienced party present.

Thus far the commissioners have not expressed an interest in meeting with the board. School officials have received individual responses from County Commissioners, stating that two BOE members and two commissioners could go to Atlanta for discussion. One commissioner was adamant that Ms. Meggars was not wanted. Otheres have offered no response at all. Currently there are two separate maps still.

The main issue with the map that the Commissioners adopted is that some of the board members would be put in different districts than the ones in which they were elected, three this year, with a four year term to serve in that district.

At the work session last Thursday, the board met at Jasper County Primary School to do a walk through to discuss the school’s positives and issues.

Upon the review on Tuesday, commissioners said that the wish list would be to fix the leaks, and deal with cosmetic issues. It was unanimous that the things that make the school functional need to be addressed immediately.

There was also a need to make the JCPS office be more secure as a safety issue. There were also some issues with the roof.

Dr. Newton asked the board if they would be interested in extending the current bond that expires in December, and they agreed that more information on that would be beneficial. This would be an extension of the current bond, not a new bond entirely. He also said that there was a roughly $400,000 need for cosmetics and that HVAC and roof issues would be more expensive.

In other action:

• The board voted to approve a transfer of Lynn Matthews from Pre-K to the second grade teacher vacancy.

• Approved school policies (A-F) to be put on the table for 30 days for final review. These policies can be found on eboard.

• Approved fund raisers

•Approved overnight field trips

• Approved the use of facilities for recreation basketball

•Approved the minutes from the September work session and business meeting.