Gilmer sets school calendar and board meetings in December
News December 17, 2021
EAST ELLIJAY, Ga. – Preparing for the coming year, Gilmer’s Board of Education has approved a calendar for the school system and the board in December’s meetings. That calendar now reaches two years into the future.
The new year comes with expected changes as the previous calendar approved by the board saw them approve an option different than the most popular voted calendar. Additionally, in February the board had already begun some discussions to prepare for calendars spanning multiple years.
This month, with the end of the first semester of the 2021-22 school year, the board has already approved the calendar for its next two years. The approved calendar sees the same start date of August 8 for both years. The first day of the second semester starts on the first Friday of January.
Unanimously approved by the board, the calendars are officially adopted for use and the community now has two years head start on the schools calendars. Superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley said that he had discussed the calendars with not only stakeholders and his own team but with “local business leaders and the Chamber of Commerce.”
Dr. Ridley also noted that the calendar will align with the boards reclassification schedule so that every two years, as the board reclassifies itself, it will also create a new two year calendar. For the community this means that next year will not see two years ahead again, but rather will likely finish half of the 2022-23 calendar before the next two year calendar is approved.
Along with the school years, another calendar saw approval this month. As the end of the year approaches, the board has set and now approved unanimously the meeting dates for the Board of Education for 2022. Reaching through 2022 and including January of 2023, the board meeting dates are published for the community. Though the board can alter a few meetings as needed, GHSA does limit how many times this can occur. Additionally, the board can call special meeting or emergency meetings as they have done in the past.
Typically, these meetings follow the path of meeting on the third Thursday of the month for the Regular Meeting and holding the Work session on the Monday of the same week before the Regular Session. With a few variations set in for holidays and events, the board followed this meeting schedule for years.
With both calendars officially approved, the county is moving along and, barring a special session, will not meet again until January 24.
Board of Education approves alternative to popular vote calendar
Board of Education, News March 21, 2021
EAST ELLIJAY, Ga. – With two public speakers in the meeting asking board members to reconsider their stances that they indicated in last month’s meeting and this week’s earlier work session, the Board of Education vote came 3-2 in support of an alternate calendar from the most popularly voted option amongst three choices sent out by Gilmer Schools to parents and teachers.
Last month, board member Ronald Watkins voiced opinions to set suggested restrictions on Calendars sent in by school governance teams for consideration by the board. The process over recent years has usually culminated with the board approving the most popularly voted calendar. As the process has changed to include restricted voting and the exclusion of students in the vote this year, Watkins brought up the idea of telling schools not to submit calendars with teachers not coming back for the new year before August 1. With some support indicated and agreement from board members Joe Pflueger and Michael Parks, the vote came today with these three in favor of a less popular calendar for the school system. Michael Bramlett and Doug Pritchett voted against the calendar.
Additionally, before the vote, the Board listened as two public speaks both commented to the board in favor of the more popular Calendar 3. Lynne Barnes, a teacher from Ellijay Elementary School, said that teachers and parents have little that they directly influence. While citizens as a whole can vote on Board Members, teachers specifically have enjoyed and been afforded the opportunity to vote on the annual calendars. She said, “When that voice is not recognized, it truly is disheartening because I am a parent and a teacher. A school calendar directly affects parents’ and teachers’ lives. We should be able to choose through a democratic process without interference from the board.”
Teacher Lynne Barnes stands at the podium to speak with Gilmer’s Board of Education on the 2021-2022 Calendar.
Barnes said that the submitted calendar followed all restrictions set forth by the board but did not follow the suggested starting date. Barnes went on to say that the other calendars do not meet start date. She said, “There are flex days on those calendars. Every teacher would have to use one of the flex days before August 1 as one of the required 10 staff days. So, none of the calendars meet this requirement at all.”
Barnes also noted that while board members suggested the start date, the majority of the public disagreed and did not want to follow the suggestion as the majority of all voters from the public, voted for Calendar 3, besting the next one by over 111 votes. “This was not a close vote at all” said Barnes.
As reported earlier this week, the results between the three presented included 295 votes (38.22%) for Calendar 1, 71 votes (9.2%) for Calendar 2, and 406 votes (52.59%) for Calendar 3.
The second speaker, Kayanne West, a parent of a student and member of Clear Creek Elementary School Governance Team, echoed many of the statements of Barnes saying she was also speaking in support of Calendar 3. West echoed the sentiment of the vote saying it is an “injustice” to ignore the vote and very disheartening. West said that simply because Calendar 3 did not follow the start date is “just not a good enough reason not to vote for Calendar 3.”
Parent and School Governance Team member for CCES, Kayann West speaks to the board in support of Calendar 3, a majority winner in the public vote for the school calendars with over 50% of the vote.
West went on to add that there is so little time before class for teachers to prepare their classrooms, open house, attend meetings, and be ready for students. She said that not allowing teachers to start before August 1 pushes back their preparation time with a start date still looming on potentially August 5. She added that Clear Creek Elementary will be in a totally new building that teachers should have more days and a chance to start before August 1 in order to move into the building and familiarize themselves with the new building.
West asked the board to either vote for the more popular Calendar 3, but said, should the board choose not to support that calendar, she hoped to see the board at CCES on August 1 as teachers will have to take long hours in order to accomplish all the need to before students come back to class.
Similarly, when she spoke, Barnes told the Board before she finished that she felt not supporting the popular vote sends a very different message to the public.
After these two spoke at the beginning of the meeting, the board continued with their agenda, going through personnel before reaching the calendar for 2021-2022. Board member Ronald Watkins nominated Calendar 1. He looked to his two previous supporters as he asked for a motion. The motion came from Michael Parks with a second from Joe Pflueger, and the aforementioned final vote of 3-2.
School Calendar vote to be decided tomorrow
News March 17, 2021
ELLIJAY, Ga. – As has become tradition in Gilmer’s Board of Education in the first few months of the year, discussion and a voting system has been held for the board as they decide which calendar to approve for the coming school year.
Discussion on the topic has already risen in the BOE last month as the board began debating when school should start and when it should end. Though most of the creation of the annual calendar has been left to the schools submitting them, this year it was suggested among the board to include restrictions on when school can start back.
Once again utilizing a vote through email, this month, Superintendent Dr. Shanna Downs reported the results of the 772 responses to the calendar vote. The process was held via email, according to Downs, who said email address verifications helped ensure that nobody was voting multiple times. The vote was accessed through a link in the emails sent out and each link could only be used once.
Of those votes, the results between the three presented included 295 votes (38.22%) for Calendar 1, 71 votes (9.2%) for Calendar 2, and 406 votes (52.59%) for Calendar 3.
With the results in, Dr. Downs recommended that the board approve a calendar during their Regular Meeting tomorrow, Thursday, March 18, 2021.
The Board of Education does not currently have that voters winning calendar available on the website at this time, it is not officially adopted until a formal motion to approve and a vote has been made.
However, one board member has already voiced opinions against the winning calendar. Board member Ronald Watkins said in Monday’s meeting that he will be voting “no” on Calendar 3 as several members of the board, a majority at the time, discussed and agreed that these should not begin before August 1, 2021. Debate over the topic will continue tomorrow at their Regular Meeting scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at the administrative offices.
Watkins did note that he would vote for calendar 1, the second most popular, instead.
Additionally, as the process begins anew next year, Gilmer will likely be looking at multi-year calendars instead as the board also discussed the possibility last month, but ultimately decided not to try and change in the middle of the creation process.
Gilmer BOE approves 2020-2021 calendar
Featured Stories March 24, 2020
EAST ELLIJAY, Ga. – Official approval has come for the Gilmer Board of Education and the Gilmer County Schools’ 2020-2021 Calendar for the school year.
From late July for teachers, the approved calendar will have students returning to class on August 3, 2020, and going all the way to the final day, a 2 hour early release for students, on May 28, 2021. Teachers would have have Professional Learning Days on June 1 and 2 of 2021.
The 2020-2021 calendar also hosts five long breaks encompassing 6 full weeks.
The board presented a survey they undertook returning 1,538 responses. Those results showed 60.60% of the vote supporting this calendar over 28.74% for Calendar 2 and 10.66% for Calendar 3. The board also changed this year as they specifically emailed parents, students, and staff of the School System with a one-time use link to the survey. Their release stated that
Superintendent Dr. Shanna Downs stated that Calendar 1 incorporated more frequent breaks, Calendar 2 was more similar to previous Gilmer Calendars, and Calendar 3 was more similar to Fannin County’s school calendar.
Board member Ronald Watkins questioned some of the changes about the 2020-2021 calendar’s dates and relation to summer. They also discussed Murray County’s calendar. Going with the majority, the board officially approved Calendar 1 during their regular meeting with the vote 4-1 with Ronald Watkins in opposition.
