Calendars and Bonuses Spark BOE Discussion

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The official 2017-2018 Academic School Calendar has tallied votes online and been approved for Calendar 2.

Calendar 2 was put forth by faculty and administration from the Ellijay Primary School and recieve a total 33.11% of the votes (249 votes) online by Gilmer County’s citizens. Though Superintendent Dr. Shanna Wilkes stated the calendar was relatively similar to this year’s one, there were some changes such as the first day of school occurring on Friday, August 4th, less early release days, and a later winter holiday beginning with a early release on December 20th.

However, the approval came after some discussion among the Board members. Board Member Ronald Watkins suggested the Board put forth its own calendar option next year as well as looking at improving information on the voting process as he has received calls from citizens who missed the vote. Board Member Tom Ocobock asked why the school was starting so early in the year. Superintendent Dr. Shanna Wilkes offered that the early start allows the Schools to get the full 90 days in before the semester’s testing process. The calendar also allows full week breaks, pending weather days, for the schools’ spring break, winter break, and a full week off for Thanksgiving break.

Dr. Wilkes stated the school’s governing councils and administrators provided the calendar options who seemed to have the common opinion. Members Ocobock and Watkins both requested again that the Board also put forth a calendar next year. Chairman Jim Parmer and Dr. Wilkes both suggested the request to be very doable and it seems the requests will be followed for next year’s process.

Other options for calendars could include longer school days, which was shortly discussed but seemed to be quickly squashed due to athletic conflicts, inefficiency of student learning later in the day, and missed time for early release of certain students who travel with teams for events.

The Board also discussed a proposal to increase incentives for bus drivers in Gilmer County through a bonus. The structure would have a $500 sign-on bonus for new drivers after completion of their CDL’s and 6-months of successful employment with the school system. The same would be given to coaches and club sponsors upon completion of CDL’s and 5 trips as well as adding a $300 annual supplement after the initial year for the club sponsor or a coach as long as they continue driving. The additional supplement would provide the coach or club sponsor as drivers while not taking a regular driver off of their routes and further requiring additional drivers to cover routes for that driver.

Beginning the Board’s attempt to improve recruitment and retention of bus drivers for the county, Dr. Wilkes commented on the bonus saying, “We have enough buses, we just don’t have the people to drive.”

Ocobock questioned what else the Board was doing to bring in drivers saying he sees counties all over the state looking for drivers. Requesting a better effort than supplements and bonuses he sees the other counties doing, Ocobock expressed concern over competition with other counties for drivers. While Chairman Parmer suggested that most of your bus drivers will be local, Ocobock did assert he didn’t want the bonus to be the end of the Board’s efforts to increase drivers. He was assured by Dr. Wilkes that efforts would continue as she stated, “This is the first step.”

Also in the meeting, the Board approved the reappointment of Jody Holmes to the Gilmer County Library Board of Trustees as well as reappointing Chairman Jim Parmer as Legislative Delegate to the GSBA Summer Conference.

As the meeting moved toward the Board’s regular Policy Review Section, Board Member Ronald Watkins made a suggestion that the Board consider changing BBA Board Officers to either hold 4 districts and have the Chairman be elected at large from the county or do away with districts and have all Board Members be elected openly from anywhere in the county. While no action was taken and the suggestion simply made as “food for thought,” the Board would have to consult legal council before any change be made to the election process. However, discussion from the Board indicated that the change would actually need to be voted on by citizens and not the Board of Education.

For more information on the Board of Education’s February Meetings, check out the Policies for First Reading, Policies for Second Reading (Approved), Financial Report, 2010 ESPLOST Report, and 2015 ESPLOST Report.

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