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  School Board Takes on Issues: Budget looming By Anne Waits web posted March 15, 2013 JOHNSTON – The Edgefield County School Board took action Tuesday night regarding the authorization of a new level data software contract, accepted a bid for the roofing portion of Building Project 502 and gave permission for the harvesting of timber on the Strom Thurmond High School campus, along with other matters. In a special order of business, Assistant Superintendent Donna Strom spotlighted student participants in the Regional Math Counts Competition held Feb. 23 at Aiken Technical College. Both JET and Merriwether Middle Schools had teams that competed against schools from Aiken County. Merriwether Middle won First Place and advanced to the State Competition on March 2. JET Middle won Second Place. Team members from Merriwether Middle include Will Holmes, Ethan Lowe, Jared Bodiford, Chandler Thacker, Emily Santiago-Preachers, Jacob Hodges and Misty Henderson. JET Middle team members include Weston Whitfield, Garrett English, Alana Caddell and Gracie Herrin. "We are extremely proud of our students from both middle schools and sincerely appreciate the efforts of their math teachers/coaches, Julie Leake and Georgie Rohr," said Strom. Also highlighted at this meeting was the JET Middle School Washington, D.C. trip, with a report by JET principal Stephen Hampton. He told of the many educational and sight-seeing experiences gained from this trip. Several educators were granted permission to take students on trips, lumped together in one vote, including permission for Marietta Epps Williams of Strom Thurmond Career Center to take students to World of Coco-Colain Atlanta, Ga. on April 23; Jenene Austin of Strom Thurmond Career Center to take students to FCCLA State Leadership Competitiion in Columbia on March 14-16; Ashia Duprey of Strom Thurmond High School to take students to Charlotte, N.C. on April 26 to compete in Carowinds Education Days; and Marcus Moore of JET Middle School to take students to Atlanta Aquarium/Coco-Cola in Atlanta on May 24. Under Instructional Services, a list of Policies and Administrative Rules were approved on Second Reading: Policy IHCA-Summer School; Policy IKAB-Report Cards; Policy IKB-Homework; Administrative Rule-Policy IKB-R-Homework; Administrative Rule-Policy IKD-R-Honor Rolls; Policy JKC-Probation of Students; Policy JKD-Suspension of Students; Administrative Rule-JKD-R-Suspension of Students; Policy JKE-Expulsion of Students; Administrative Rule-JKE-R-Expulsion of Students; Policy IHBIB-Primary/Pre-Primary Education (Child Development); Administrative Rule IHBIB-R-Primary /Pre-Primary Education (Child Development); Administrative Rule IHBIB-E-Primary/Pre-Primary Education (Child Development) Student Selection Criteria and Procedure. Strom informed the Board that committees of teachers and school administrators from each elementary and middle school in the county attended the Regional Textbook Caravan held at USC-Aiken on Jan 8 to review math textbooks on the state adoption list and that each school committee had brought back information to the schools for study and discussion. Each elementary and middle school made recommendations. The Board unanimously approved the adoption of the enVision Math series by Scott Foresman/Pearson for grades K-5 and the Glencoe series by McGraw-Hill for grades 6-8. Still under Instructional Services, Strom informed the Board that beginning on Jan. 3, draft calendars for 2013-2014 had been sent to all staff members for feedback. An offer was made for any teacher or group of teachers to form a calendar to be submitted for review. After feedback was received, a second group of three proposed calendars were designed using recommendations, and a final vote was taken. Calendar #1 was recommended to the Board and the Board unanimously approved it. This calendar is available on the district website to be viewed. Under Facilities and Operations, Director James Courtney informed the Board that 16 bidders had bid on the roofing portion of Building Project 502 during pre-bid and that had been reduced to six under the actual bidding. During executive session, the low bidder, Lloyd Roofing of Greenwood, was approved for the project. Courtney also informed the Board that a beetle infestation had been found on pine trees planted by the FFA on the Strom Thurmond Campus. The way to take care of it is to harvest the timber and Log Creek Timber Company has agreed to do the job at no fee except for trucking costs. The Board voted to approve this action. The money from the timber will go back into the FFA which they will use for a much-needed shed for implements. Also discussed in open session and voted on in executive session was the Level Data Software Proposal which the School District has talked about for some time. Courtney informed the Board that he had looked for other schools with the same type of software but had not been able to find them. However, currently the district uses SIF which requires a separate SIF for each program and the district needs a system that will take information out of Power School and do an interchange for all programs. "This software is much needed to meet the teachers' needs," he said. The Board voted to accept the software ANC Group. Also under Facilities, Courtney updated the Board on the building project stating that the stadium is still behind due to rain delays and that most of the work has been below ground until now. "Now that they are coming out of the ground, they will begin catching up," he said. "Concrete slabs will be poured tomorrow and brick work can begin. They can now look at extra work and extra people. He said columns have been up on the stadium for four weeks and the bleacher part is looking to be complete on time. "They are now in 'catch-up' mode," he said. In further business, a resolution was passed for WKSX Radio Station by the School Board. Also, School Superintendent Greg Anderson informed the Board that the Sue Jolly Award has been created. "This is not a scholarship," he said. "Sue Jolly was the teacher who started the Mock Trial Program back in 1983 and in her honor the team wanted to select a person who exhibits the qualities of Sue Jolly and an anonymous donor has donated $100 to that person." Anderson also mentioned the Credit Recovery/Attendance Recovery/Maymester policies and reminded the Board that graduation is coming up and that every year they seem to have a discussion on the use of these policies. "This is just a reminder that this time is coming up and if there are any changes to be made to these policies, let us know now." After some discussion, The Board agreed that the policies need to be abided by. Under a Superintendent Evaluation Discussion, Dr. Carroll Wates, Board chairman, said he had done some checking and there were some questions regarding the format of the Superintendent Evaluation and asked for a discussion. It was decided to do more checking and to discuss at a further time. The Day at the Capitol on May 8 was mentioned and Board member James Bibbs said he will not be able to go this year. Wates reminded Board members they will need to let someone know if they will be able to attend by April 12. Bibbs also had no information as to SCSBA: Officer/Board Nominations at this time. © Copyright 2012 - 2013 All material is property of
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