Requirements have been met and the Gilmer County Board of Education has approved submission of their application to be recognized as an Exemplary Board by the GSBA (Georgia School Boards Association). Recognition involves extensive training and involvement by the Board to better it’s community including incorporation of at least fifteen of the Georgia Vision Project‘s recommendations into it’s Strategic Plan.

The approval for this application was made at Thursday’s, September 22, Meeting. If accepted, the Board’s recognition will happen in December according to the GSBA.

Also in their meeting, the Board has approved an increase in lunch prices for adults. The $0.50 increase will affect prices for both staff, going to $3.50 now, and visitors to the school, going to $4.50 now. According to the Director of School Nutrition, Kim McBurnett, “USDA requires adult meal prices to cover the cost of the meal and commodity food at a minimum. The current rate of $3.00 does not.” This increase will be enacted to cover this year’s government reimbursement rate of $3.24.

Also in Nutrition, the Board of Education was approved to receive a grant to begin offering an alternative breakfast in the mornings. Sometime in October, Gilmer Middle School, Clear Creek Middle School, and Gilmer High School will begin offering “Grab and Go” style breakfasts. McBurnett states, “There are a total of 26 mini grant winners nationwide and Gilmer is one of those.”

The Grant is offered by the AASA, American Association of School Administrators, which is an separate entity from the Georgia Department of Education. When asked how the new breakfast would work, McBurnett stated, “The students will pick up their breakfast and take to the classroom to eat, rather than eating in the cafeteria. The children still are required to pay as normal, if they are a paying or reduced paying student.”

October will also see a change in the annual Apple Festival. A contract has been made between the Gilmer County Charter School System and the Gilmer Chamber to utilize school buses for transportation from parking lots during the coming Apple Festival in October. This contract will not only save money as the Chamber has been utilizing outside services for the recent years, but will also keep that money in our county as the agreement will also utilize local bus drivers to run the buses. The School System is set to provide both for the Chamber’s use during the two weekends of the Festival.

As the Board of Education considered the contract during their monthly Work Session in September, Board Member James Waters suggested an option to also staff the buses with one Chamber Employee to talk about our County and other places for visitors to go see after the Festivals. These “Guides” to our county were suggested as an additional information source to support our local businesses commerce. Though the Board talked about the idea and Superintendent Dr. Shanna Wilkes said she would offer the suggestion to the Chamber, when FYN asked her about the option, she stated that such an idea would not be a part of the contract. Rather, that option would be for the Chamber to consider on their own.

For more information on this month’s meeting check out the Finance Statement, 2010 ESPLOST, and 2015 ESPLOST reports made during the meeting below.