WHITE COUNTY, Ga.- The School Nutrition Director Abby Rowland provided the Board of Educaton with an update on the upcoming school year’s nutrition progress.

The board also heard a construction update from Charles Black Construction. Jack P. Nix Elementary school also sent out a club formation request that the board reived, and lastly they approved for Dr. Amanda Lammers to pursue a grant on behalf of the school system.

There have been recent rumors circling that there will be no food distributor for the next school year. After months of hard work and Rowland informed the board that they found a distributor that and they signed a contract on May 12.  The distributor is Goldstar Foods and they deal only in K-12 food sales and have no retail or restaurant business.

The reason Rowland had a hard time finding a new contract is that it is more profitable for the companies to sell to retail chains and restaurants than it is to sell to school systems. These businesses are facing the same struggles with the supply chain, gas prices for their trucks, and truck driver shortages that every other business in the country is facing currently.

Another issue that has come up recently is people concerned with the change in standards for the types of food allow to be served to the children. To review anything to do with the White County school system’s nutrition program visit https://www.white.k12.ga.us/departments/school-nutrition. The standards change all the time and Rowland and her staff works every year to keep up with the changes and to ensure that the students have the food they will eat available at school.

“Sometimes we don’t like the guidelines, sometimes we wish they wouldn’t be as restrictive but in White County we have always worked through that process, we find a way to put food out there that the kids will eat. We got their back and we are feeding them,” stated Rowland.

Rod Nix while presenting the construction update for Charles Black.

Charles Black Construction provided the current update for the projects going on within the school system. The football field is complete and ready for graduation Friday. The materials are on site for Testenee Gap’s reroofing and HVAC project and they are set to start work next week.

The new transportation center has a pad down. Concrete was supposed to be poured this morning for the footings but due to the rain, it has been pushed back until next week. The metal frame should go up on Jun. 14. The grave off of old the nature trail has not been disturbed and will not be, and once the construction is complete a new nature trail will be set up for the students.

Charles Black has received bids for the new performing arts center. The bid is for 729 seats and is $17,991,955. The current hope is to begin construction in the spring and have the center open by Aug. of 2023 however there are supply chain issues and weather details that could cause delays in the project.

Allison Lundey has requested to form a cooking club at Jack P. Nix elementary school. This club will help students work on many skills including math. If approved the club will be on the first Tuesday of the month for K-2 and the third Tuesday for 3-5 for an hour and a half. The board will take action on this at their meeting on Thursday.

The board did take action on granting Dr. Lammers a White County School System Social worker permission to apply for a $200,000 grant on behalf of the school system. The grant is through the Department of Health and DFACS.

If the grant is awarded to White County it will be used to create a school-based health center for families. This would be a place for families to come if they needed to wash clothes and take a shower, it would have a clothes closet along with the school supplies closet the system already maintains.

A possible location for the center would be the old Warrior Academy due to its private entrance so the families could be discreet. Nothing on this project has been deiced on and is still in the process of planning.

Reminder, White County High School will be hosting a graduation on Friday, May 27 at 8:00 p.m. There will be traffic delays around the school before and after the ceremony takes place.