BOE approves PlainView LED board for Pettit Field
Board of Education, News December 18, 2021
EAST ELLIJAY, Ga. – A split vote this week saw the Gilmer County Board of Education officially approving PlainView LED as the bid to install a new scoreboard at Pettit Field.
The decision came 3-2 with Joe Pflueger and Michael Parks being the dissenting votes. The 21 feet by 36 feet board will cost $440,103 and is set to finish installation before graduation in May.
With the gym scoreboard over the basketball court awaiting engineering and bids, this approval only came for the scoreboard on Pettit Field. Discussion from Monday’s meeting saw the presentation of information about the video scoreboard and the bids offered.
The scoreboard does come with a 10-year warranty and training by PlainView LED for students. The board itself is a 10 millimeter board, meaning that the LED lights used in the board 10 millimeters apart. This has become standard in similar boards across the country according to Dana Berry, Gilmer School’s Director of Operations.
When asked individually about there no votes, both Parks and Pflueger gave similar answers pointing to the timeline of the vote and voicing no concerns or issues with the board itself.
Joe Pflueger stated, “Number one, I don’t think the process was followed like it was presented. Number two, I’d like to have more than two days to look at real numbers, especially when we’re dealing with almost a half million dollar purchase.”
Michael Parks stated, “I just felt like we needed a little more time. I thought its a good plan, but I just felt like we might be rushing into it a little bit.”
When asked to clarify about the time issue, Parks explained that it was a public issue, that some of the public weren’t aware of the item and the board could have used more time presenting more information with more time available for the public before the vote.
Moving forward with the board installation, the idea presented is for replacing the current board in its location. Doing this, according to their report, will not require new permits from the county or city.
Installation of the board will also include sound adjustments to aid in some of the echo and lightning protection according to the presentation on Monday.
BOE enters July without Budget as they await State information
News June 26, 2020
ELLIJAY, Ga. – Despite a back and forth with state and Georgia Board of Education officials, Gilmer is still awaiting details to approve its budget for 2020-2021 school year. A now officially-approved spending resolution is allowing them to move forward despite that obstacle alongside other financial approvals for past budget and purchases.
The resolution came with itemized reports for extra expenses for academic supplies and subscriptions as reported in BOE to seek spending resolution tomorrow. utilizing one-twelfth, equivalent to one month, of the final amended budget from the previous year.
In their monthly purchasing policy report, the schools are continuing to expand the chromebook ratio to students as previous discussions show that the board is preparing for possibilities to return or not return to school in the fall. These discussions could see a final decision in July. The purchasing policy showed $49,140 for Chromebooks across Clear Creek Elementary School, Ellijay Elementary School, and Mountainview Elementary this month.
The board also approved their academic supplements for FY 21 including instructors and coaches for several extracurricular “academic” teams. Superintendent Dr. Shanna Downs explained that some changes from last year and inclusion of Winterguard and Band in the Academic Teams as it is not recognized as a sport yet by GHSA.
A GHS Furniture purchase also saw approval as Downs explained that the “not to exceed $125,000” recommendation was to ensure any surprises as outfitting a number of rooms and spaces including mostly science classrooms.
Moving forward with their meetings into the year, the board is changing on date in September now that they have found the approved school calendar will coincide their September meetings with Fall break. Therefore, they approved a change moving the meeting dates from September 21 and 24 to its new date of September 14 and 17.