Board of Education to put SPLOST on '07 ballot; members see student achievement data display
By KIP BURKE news editor

In their regular August meeting Monday night, members of the Wilkes County Board of Education voted to put the next SPLOST referendum on the November ballot, awarded the contract for the new schools' electrical service, and saw the new way schools are displaying student achievement data.

At the request of the board, attorney David Chesnut had developed language for the SPLOST ballot initiative and presented it at Monday's meeting. The resolution calls for approval of an extension of the one-cent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to take effect in January 2009. The board wanted to have the initiative in place so that it could be voted on in November 2007. If the initiative were defeated then, it could be voted on twice more before the present SPLOST bill expires.

"This is a momentous occasion," said Superintendent Joyce Williams, when the board voted unanimously to place the initiative on the ballot. The new school complex will be paid for largely by SPLOST receipts for years to come, and passing the next SPLOST referendum is seen as the last possible barrier to the new school's ultimate completion.

The board also voted on bids obtained from local electrical utilities desiring to furnish the electrical load to the new school complex. After reviewing the complex bid documents with engineers at Southern A&E, Williams said, she recommended that the board accept the bid from the City of Washington. The board approved.

At the start of the meeting, Board Chairman Ricky Callaway, Vice Chairman Bob Guin, members Kay Finnell, Kelly Powell, and Steve Albertson, heard a presentation by Marie Echols, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, on the new "data rooms" now opening in each school and in the board meeting room.

The data rooms, she said, would display test results, graduation rates, and other data for students, parents, administrators, and visitors to see. The data that the system collects will make it possible to focus on continuous school improvement to raise graduation rates and to raise achievement in reading/language arts and in mathematics.

The data rooms will display information that is, she said, both good and not-so-good. Several graphs she displayed, however, showed that Wilkes County schools beat all surrounding counties in graduation rates, English/Language Arts, and enhanced math. "We're head and shoulders above the surrounding counties in some areas," Echols said, and the data rooms now make the comparison clear.

Superintendent Williams recognized board members Callaway, Guin, Finnell, Powell, and Albertson for successfully completing board member training sponsored by the Georgia School Boards Association. The members received training on Georgia's Quality Basic Education Act, budgeting and financing, legal and policy issues, school and community relations, and the roles and responsibilities of the school board.

In other action, the board discussed new grade 9-12 class size requirements from the state of Georgia. The state has given school systems some leeway now, Williams said, to allow some flexibility in class size, so that one extra student would not require the hiring of a new teacher.

The board voted unanimously to allow the maximum class sizes to flexin accordance with Georgia law.

In her monthly construction update, Superintendent Williams said that structures would start to go up on the site in the next 30 days. The board approved her request to proceed with the City of Washington to have a lift station designed and built for the complex at a cost of $292,500.

In other business, the board considered for approval the Codes of Conduct for each school. After reviewing the proposed codes, board member Steve Albertson said that he was concerned with the fact that penalties for tobacco use were less than those for alcohol use, and asked that that be looked at in future years.

Of much more contention was the high school's zero-tolerance policy toward student cell phone possession. After trying a limited plan last year by which students with extracurricular activities could check their phones in the school office,Principal Steve Echols said, the administration had chosen to keep student cell phones out of the building.

Albertson said that he was concerned about students whose extracurricular activities kept them at school late, or had them returning to school late, not being able to contact parents for a ride home. "We're punishing the 90 percent who follow the rules because of the 10 percent who won't follow the rules," he said.

Members discussed with Principal Echols and Assistant Principal Mark Ward options such as allowing coaches or other sponsors to take responsibility for students' phones during extracurricular activities, but ultimately the board passed the Codes of Conduct without change.

In other action, Superintendent Williams appointed Kay Finnell as legislative liaison to the GSBA, and Bob Guin as the board's point of contact concerning the condition of the girls' softball fields.

In Executive Session, the board voted to hire Katrina Cofer as a parapro at Washington-Wilkes Primary School and Angela Williams for school nutrition. The board also approved several substitutes in nutrition and transportation.

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