School Resource Officers Agreement Amended
Board of Education, Community, Police & Government July 29, 2022
WHITE COUNTY, Ga.- The agreement between the White County Board of Education and the White County Sheriff’s Office has been amended to include two additional school resource officers.
Finance Director Julie Dorsey also presented the board with a millage rate rollback for their consideration. The board also took Superintendent Dr. Laurie Burkett’s recommendation for the contract with a power company for the new Performing Arts Center. They also approved the school nutrition bids that Director of School Nutrition Abby Rowland submitted.
At the Jun. 30 Board of Education meeting, the school board renewed the annual contract with the Sheriff’s Office for the use of the four school resource officers. This contract had an officer at the High school, the Middle school, and then two elementary schools shared one officer. To review that meeting visit https://white.fetchyournews.com/2022/07/01/board-of-education-approves-next-fiscal-year-budget/.
The amendment to the contract is to allow for two additional officers. This will allow for each school to have its one officer. The contract also gives the officers $45 an hour whereas before they were given $35 an hour. The officers will also be in charge of doing regular perimeter checks to ensure that all doors into the school are locked.
Heard in the clip above is Burkett explaining the new contract to the board members.
After receiving the tax digest Dorsey presented the board with the option for a millage rate rollback. A millage rate is the tax rate based on local property taxes, to learn more about millage rates visit https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/millagerate.asp.
The five-year data for the millage rate and it is shown in decimal form.
The 2021 millage rate for the school was 16.060 and the rollback rate presented is 14.222. If the board accepts the rollback there will be no tax increase for the citizens and the board will still collect $16,488,245 in revenue.
In the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, they only budget receiving $15.7 million. With the rollback, they shouldn’t have to dip into fund balance to balance the budget.
This will be voted on at the Aug. 23 meeting starting at 8:00 a.m. This is the lowest rollback the board of education has seen since 2008 which was 14.65, the lowest that Dorsey was able to find was in 2007 and that was a rate of 13 something.
“I think this is fantastic news for our citizens here in White County because that is a very nice rollback,” explained Dorsey.
Burkett’s recommendation for the power company contract for the Performing Arts Center Lighting is HEMC because they are offering the security of a five-year guaranteed rate of $5.1 million. Her recommendation also includes selecting option two for the outdoor lighting which has an upfront cost that will be paid out of SPLOST and then allow for a lower monthly payment. This is the option that the board approved.
At the May 24 board work session, Rowland provided an update on the struggles to find bids for the school system’s food. To review that meeting visit https://white.fetchyournews.com/2022/05/24/rowland-provides-nutrition-update/.
Rowland has now presented the board with a company for the food, bread, milk, paper and disposals, sanitation and chemical, produce, and processing of USDA items. With some of these, there are significant price increases and the possibility of continued supply chain problems.
The expected first delivery from the new provider will be later this month in time for school to start back on Aug. 5. To review these disturbers visit https://www.white.k12.ga.us/board-of-education/board-of-education-meetings/board-highlights, it is exhibit 1. The free lunches for all students have also come to an end, to parents will again need to fill out the form located at https://secure.ezmealapp.com/ApplicationScreen.aspx to see if their child qualifies for free or reduced lunches for the upcoming school year.
The board also approved the new IKBB policy for the school system. This was put on the table for 30 days at the June board meeting. The policy is in response to House Bill 1084 and all school districts are required to pass a policy for handling divisive concepts and the reporting of complaints in regard to the concepts. The policy can be viewed in full at https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/Policy/PolicyListing.aspx?S=4176.
The Open House Information
Remainder school starts Aug. 5. There will be open houses starting on Tuesday, Aug. 2 for the schools.
Rowland Provides Nutrition Update
Board of Education, Community May 24, 2022
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.