White County School System has served 103,302 meals during COVID-19 shutdown
News May 19, 2020
Dr. Laura Burkett
WHITE COUNTY, Ga. – School Superintendent Dr. Laura Burkett announced during today’s (May 19) Board of Education meeting the White County Schools System has served 103,302 meals since schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In a really small school district, that just blows me away,” Burkett said. “That couldn’t happen without our transportation department and nutrition department teaming up.”
Friday will be the last day meals will be served until June 1. “Usually the summer feeding is a condensed version,” Burkett said. “But (Nutrition Director Abby Rowland) worked it out with a very limited staff that we will serve every single place we normally serve.”
Burkett also noted that Rowland had applied for an innovation grant through the Georgia Foundation for Public Education and, as a result, White County is one of only four school systems that will receive the $10,000 grant.
Assistant Superintendent Scott Justus led a discussion of potential special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) expenditures, that included retrofitting school busses with air conditioning and cameras, copiers for each school, cleaning products and Georgia Department of Education assistance with new facilities’ planning.
He estimated the cost to air condition the buses and outfit with cameras at approximately $28,400. The cost to purchase copiers would be between $134,000 and $150,000 depending on how many color copiers were purchased. There was a discussion about whether it would be best to lease the copiers or purchase them. Justus said, “There is no price difference lease vs. purchase.” But if the Board decides to purchase, the amount could be funded by SPLOST proceeds over a five-year period rather than come out of the General Fund budget.
Adam Wiley told Board members that plans for White County High School’s drive-in graduation ceremony has attracted national attention. The event scheduled for Friday will be streamed on live video via a fouAdar-story projector with U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter hovering overhead as the National Anthem is played.
“A reporter from Time Magazine found the video advertising our graduation and sent us an email,” Wiley said. “I — in all my infinite wisdom – accidentally deleted it,” he said. “Fortunately, she emailed me again and let me know it is on their website. She said they don’t plan to put it in the magazine, but she said that could change very quickly.”
Fetch Your News is a hyper local news outlet that covers Dawson, Lumpkin, White, Fannin, Gilmer, Pickens, Union, Towns and Murray counties as well as Cherokee County in N.C. FYN attracts 300,000+ page views per month, 3.5 million impressions per month and approximately 15,000 viewers per week on FYNTV.com and up to 60,000 Facebook page reach. If you would like to follow up-to-date local events in any of those counties, please visit us at FetchYourNews.com
Schools distributed more than 60,000 meals during the COVID-19 shutdown
News May 2, 2020
WHITE COUNTY, Ga. — Led by Nutrition Director Abby Rowland and Transportation Director Darren Sledge, the White County School System has distributed 63,706 breakfast and lunch packs to students during the COVID-19 school closure.
“That is pretty incredible,” School Superintendent Dr. Laurie Burkett said during Thursday’s Board of Education meeting. She credited School Nutrition Director Abby Rowland and Transportation Director Darren Sledge for making the program a success.
Dr. Laurie Burkett
Burkett said distribution of the breakfast and lunch bags will continue until May 22 when the Backyard Buddy program will deliver double bags. Distribution will then end for one week before it resumes on June 1.
She also told Board members the Wi-Fi system had been expanded to cover the parking lots at the high school and middle school. “This will allow someone to pull up in our parking lot and receive some free Wi-Fi,” she added.
Technology Director William Sperin explained that “about 100 students don’t have Wi-Fi at home. This would be an opportunity for them to stay in their car, not have to get out and do their assignments.”
One school board member questioned whether the expansion would just be for the duration of the school closure. Sperin said it will be permanent. There was another question about who would be allowed to use the system. Sperin said the whole community could use it. “It doesn’t cost us anything and for anybody to drive up and use it and we can monitor it,” he said.
It was noted during the meeting that the 2020 ESPLOST promotional campaign has started. There will be a Facebook Live question and answer session on May 14 and additional social media posts will start soon including a video. The campaign will provide necessary information for voters to make a decision on the $20,500,000 penny tax referendum.
May 4-8 will be the final week for teachers to introduce new material to their students. On May 22, the high school will hold a drive-in graduation at 7 p.m. On July 24 the WCHS prom will be held from 7-10 p.m. and on July 25, the traditional graduation ceremony will begin at 7 p.m.
Board members unanimously approved the finance and budget statements presented by Julie Dorsey.
Dorsey said the school system received approximately $339,000 in General Fund Ad Valorem taxes for March and $131,000 for April as well as $110,000 in Title Ad Valorem Tax (TAVT) for March and $150,000 for April. Total revenue for March was just over $2 million and expenditures were reported at approximately $3.3 million. Year end fund balance on June 30 is estimated to be $10,847,078.
Dorsey then alerted Board members to the difficulty of meeting the state-mandated June 30 deadline for approval of the budget. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, state legislators are not in session and are not expected back before June 11.
If the Board does not pass a budget by the June 30 deadline, Dorsey said it may need to pass at least one spending resolution. A spending resolution would allow the Board to spend the equivalent of one twelfth of the FY ’20 budget in the month of July.
Fetch Your News is a hyper local news outlet that covers Dawson, Lumpkin, White, Fannin, Gilmer, Pickens, Union, Towns and Murray counties as well as Cherokee County in N.C. FYN attracts 300,000+ page views per month, 3.5 million impressions per month and approximately 15,000 viewers per week on FYNTV.com and up to 60,000 Facebook page reach. If you would like to follow up-to-date local events in any of those counties, please visit us at FetchYourNews.com