001Good evening. Welcome to the July 29th work session and call board meeting of the Bear County Board of Education. It is 6 p.m. and the meeting is now called to order. May I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? >> So move. >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. Callaway. Second by Miss Kelly. Thank you. All in favor? Thank you. Um move on to our superintendent report. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you board members. I want to start tonight by just thanking our fantastic staff who have been diligently preparing for our students to return uh this Friday. As a matter of fact, we have some orientation events occurring as we speak. So, some of our leaders are welcoming families on the campus um right now. Uh we've also been enjoying some professional learning which you'll hear more
002about tonight. Um our our maintenance staffs have been working very hard all summer to prepare our campuses for the re for the start of school. I see Mr. Webb back there. Thank you, sir, for your leadership. We appreciate you. Um also want to thank our registration team. As you can imagine, it is a very very busy time of year uh right now and we are working very hard to get everyone registered as quickly as we can so we can make sure um those students can start as quickly as possible. Um I want to thank all of our community and staff members for participating in our back to bold event last week. It was wonderful. Our kids got a chance to have uh a number of things taken care of to prepare them for school such
003as uh backpacks, school supplies, haircuts, eye exams, and much more. But we were able to um deliver approximately 2500 backpacks to our students and about,00 pairs of tennis shoes so they could start the year off with some nice fresh new kicks. So, uh, thank you for, um, all of our all of the members of our community who participated and donated to, um, that effort. Uh, several of us were also able to participate in a night of prayer. I want to thank our faith leaders in our community for leading that effort. Um, it was nice to go. I got a chance to go to Russell before we all uh, converged on Appalache and just prayed over our schools for um, this coming school year. And finally, I want to thank uh you all. This board of
004education's work. Uh we've been working really hard over the last six months to set the stage for strategic planning. That'll happen uh this this school year. And um you're going to hear much more about that from Dr. Brown when she presents tonight. But uh just want to uh thank you for the alignment work that's happening. We've got a chance to visit several schools and our staff is really excited about um the work in front of us. And that concludes our report my report. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Led. We will move on to our presentations and discussions and start with Dr. Thompson. >> Good evening. It is my pleasure to be with you as always tonight for uh the board. We have two items of information. We have two action items that we're going
005to ask the board to vote on the August 5th board meeting. And then we have one item of action that we're going to ask you guys if possible to take a vote on tonight at the called board meeting portion. Um in the interest of time for our first item um the communications report. I'm not going to go through this because our second information item will be a little more extensive in what we go through. Um I'll just say that it is um posted for your review and there's some really cool photos and videos linked in there about going back to school. If you haven't had time to look through the videos that our communications team put together for back to school to get parents and kids excited, you really should look at some of those.
006They're they're they're very well done. So, the second item of information we're going to talk about tonight is is one of the most critical, if not the most critical for us, which is safety. Um, Barrow County Schools has for as long as I have worked here put safety number one above everything else. And what we want to talk about tonight is to take a little time to talk about safety as we move into the 2526 school year. We met with our leaders um a few about a week ago. We had two twin focuses. One of which was learning. We wanted to refocus on measurable learning in the classroom. But our second focus was on safety. You know, we had the tragedy at Appalache September 4th. That gave us pause to reflect to engage our community
007in some discussions on what we wanted to do to keep our schools safer. Our schools have always been safe places and there are places where um tragedies like that have been minimized by the preparation a lot of people put into preparing for that. But we also know we have to respond and change as events change. And so we have spent a lot of time as a staff trying to work to come up with layers of safety that we think are going to um support our students and families. And what we want to do tonight is talk through some of those things. So that requires a whole team to do. So to minimize um transitions, I'm going to ask them to go ahead and come on up. So we have Dr. JB Bowen, Mr. John Skinner,
008Miss Jenny Persinger, Mr. Nicole Val, and Miss Jennifer Houston. And what we're going to do tonight is focus on three areas of this. We're going to kind of review layers of safety that we have put in place over the years historically. We're also going to talk a little bit about some safety enhancements that we have coming on board over the next year or so. We also want to take some time to talk about newly passed safety legislation in response to September 4th, what that looks like, what that law entails, and how Barrow County Schools is working to implement that um with fidelity. And then finally, Miss Houston is going to talk a little bit about the safety grant funds that we received from the state of Georgia over the last couple of years and intermittently
009over several years. And we want to talk about how we have used those funds to keep our schools safe. So, I'm going to start out for the first section. I'm going to ask Mr. uh Dr. Bowen and Mr. Skinner to talk through some of our current safety enhancements. >> Thank you. Before we review those, I do want to mention to our board and our visitors that um several of us have had the opportunity in recent months, both formally and informally to talk a lot about the school safety approach in Barl County. school systems and law enforcement agencies have been interested in hearing about our community's best practices in creating safe schools for our students and staff, but also in our training and response to emergencies. The most common themes in all of those talks were
010relationships and partnerships. These are our greatest assets. relationships with our sheriff Judge Smith and the Barrel County Sheriff's Department, Barrel County Fire and Chief Brett Skinner, our representative Paul Persinger. Also would add in Winder Police, Winder Fire, and the partnerships with Northeast Georgia Health System, Advantaged Behavior Systems, Inima, Homeland Security, just to name a few. The plans and processes that we have are only as good as the people we have working in these roles. Barrel County is blessed with some really fantastic people. So now let's look at the layers of enhancement through the years. And as we start back, we uh wow, look at there. School resource officers. What do you know? U SRO's uh have been a topic of conversation and rightly so as they play a vital part in our school safety plan.
011Uh and we've had school resource officers for over 25 years. Uh we will continue to be committed to school resource officers in all of our schools. As we move through uh the timeline there, starting at the top uh going across the top, we have changed the hardware on our doors. School access is very different now than it was 20 or 30 years ago when often times you may find doors unlocked back then. You better not find them unlocked now. If you do, let me know. Uh we move also to other uh enhancements such as security cameras. Uh we are upgrading security cameras constantly. I was talking with one of our IT guys today about the latest and greatest coming down the pike. Uh I don't know if our budget folks will like that, but our
012security people do. Security vestibules are found in all schools now as as a result of of the Sandy Hook uh tragedy and we move through other things such as our audio enhancement which also has a safety feature to it as it has a an emergency button as well to communicate with the front office. We added a safety and security officer position, Chief Skinner and Lance McNamera, a health services manager position. And those two guys have just been phenomenal in leading those departments as we as we have improved greatly. Just in the past year, we've had an upgrade in school bus cameras. We uh did a full-scale exercise in March 2024, active shooter uh exercise. We added strategics in 24. We know how crucial is to our our safety plan. This board has approved additional SRO's
013which we will continue to pursue and add until we get to our magic number. And then of course we added weapons detection systems back in the spring. We'll continue to do weapons detection in our middle and high schools each day, each morning. And we'll talk a little bit more about our school dog safety app, which we've introduced to you before and now we're using systemwide. So there's a snapshot of uh of us through the years for each of the layers and enhancements and and this timeline will continue as we will continue to add enhancements and continue to add layers in the future. Now John Skinner will talk to us about our procedures. >> Good evening. Um before I get into the emergency procedures and I call it the EP so when you hear me refer
014to that you'll understand what I'm saying but we have emergency operation plan as well uh that each school does and I call it the EOP or SEOP. Uh so I want to clarify the difference between the two. uh our our EOP is a comprehensive plan uh that details roles and responsibilities and coordinations uh strategies for various types of things. So it's a really a detailed plan. Our emergency procedures which is what you see on the board here is is basically procedures for individual or teams um for different types of hazards or risk that we've identified such as evacuation, fire drills, etc. You'll understand that one. So when we look at we we updated the emergency procedures here. We put a planning team together comprised of staff administrators SRO's public safety partners etc. Uh we started
015on this several years ago about two years ago actually after 94 we revisited what we had already updated and kind of went pulled the team back together and went through a few of the proposed changes. Um what you're seeing now on the slide on this slide uh is just a quick statement. I think Dr. U Leuff says it the best. U the statement basically says there's no plan can anticipate every possible scenario. So staff training and preparedness is the key to responding appropriately. That's what that statement is. That's something new that we added into our emergency procedures. All right. So looking at this next uh slide, you'll see that these are titles of risk or hazards we have identified in our emergency procedures that we are addressing throughout the procedure. My EOP uh is a
016new app we've had for a couple of years. It has all of our procedures in it. This is available to all of our staff if they want to put it on their phones. Gives them something they can have right at their fingertips. Um, this year with the my EOP app that we've just updated, uh, it comes with fillable forms. So, that's a new feature for my EOP. I think it's something we can expand on in the future, too, with some fillable forms. Once you have that plan on your phone, it doesn't require Wi-Fi, sale access, or anything. You'll always be able to access that. All right, moving on to the next slide is going to be this is CGIS um blueprint safety blueprint. It's a mapping system. Uh it's not only going to be beneficial
017for us as for the school system, but for our public safety partners as well. Uh this project's underway. This is also going to be a part of HV268 uh that Dr. Thompson will talk about later. Uh and this this project's underway. It's probably going to take us about five or six months to get all of our campuses up to date. Um, but we started now, we've done a pilot at CFIT um, and actually finished that up this morning. And so far, I'm liking everything we see. I got to share it with Greg earlier today. I think he was liking everything he is seeing. And I'll also be able to share with our public safety partners in the next couple weeks at a meeting we'll have with them. All right. So before I go any further,
018and this is not a slide. I should have put a slide with his picture up. Um, but I would like to introduce Rob Kurop. He is our new security technical coordinator. Uh, his very first day is going to be August the 1st. I like to call it a tactical IT position. That's my name for the job. I'm not sure Dr. Kurts has approven that. That's what I like to call. Uh, but Rob is coming to us with over 30 years of law enforcement experience. Uh, where he served in many different ranks. He also has an IT background as well and he manages similar systems to what we have in the school system such as access control etc. Um having him on board is going to be a going to be a relief or a little
019bit of relief or stress for our IT department as well as our maintenance department too. Uh so we're excited to have him on board. He's beginning August 1st which is the first day of school. So he's going to hit the ground running in that day. He has been here with me for a few days helping me with certain task and projects. So we're glad to have him on board. Would you like to say anything? >> Good evening. I'm joining you tonight just to talk to you about our new anonymous reporting app. It's going it's called Stop It. Um right now we already have an anonymous reporting form and tipline. However, just like we've been adding layers and evolving, this app and um platform allows us to have um an incident response center or team monitor
020all the calls or tips that come in um and then they're able to essentially kind of triage them. Now, admin, school admin and district admin will still get all of that information as well, but this is for example at like three in the morning or two in the morning, that sort of thing. this team will help um to monitor that tip line. Um it not only does for suspicious activity but also for mental health concerns. We really like that aspect of it. Um it links straight to the crisis um te text line. Um and it also can anything from bullying or anything like that as well. So the expected launch for this is September of 2025. We're now on boarding. Um, and I'd like to thank Kevin McC with our wonderful IT department because he
021really helped um, research a lot of different apps and led that charge to um, find the best one for us. So, I'd like to thank Kevin and John Sinclair and his team. Thank you. >> Quick review. school dog. An app that was developed by a retired superintendent to give us a tool to use when we're doing our safety audit walks. Gives us a chance to or place to house our data that we can run reports from. We piloted that in four schools, five different locations. Actually, we did in five locations instead of four, I'm sorry. And we have now got u we're getting our administrators and SRO's trained this week and next week for all of our schools. So, we will have that on all of our sites and all our admin and SRO's will
022be able to use that uh this school year. So, looking forward to using school dog. Go dogs. >> Thank you, Dr. Bowen. Um, and I hope what comes out crystal clear when you hear all of that is that safety is always going to be an evolving process and our staff are constantly looking at what is next in the area because safety is all about layers. No particular layer is going to be the one that solves every problem. We need a consistent web of layers and that's what we're looking to add as we go forward. Um, in the wake of September 4th, our Georgia legislature uh was pressed into action in a very committed way and that was something I can remember in the just the days after Speaker Burns um the governor, several of them
023reached out and said, you know, we want to make this a priority in this session is school safety. What can we do as a legislature to improve safety across Georgia? Um we are very happy to report that we think what came out of that is really good for Georgia schools and will long-term um not just in Barrow County but throughout the state really enhance safety and security for families and students. This culminated in HB268. This was signed into law on April 28th, 2025. You can see the governor governor Kemp signing off on that. And you'll notice there are quite a few Barrow people who were invited to participate because what I want to impress upon people was how much our local delegation led on this. Um our local delegates on both the House and Senate
024side were sponsors on every aspect of this bill. And uh the bill was overall carried and championed throughout the process by Mr. Holt Pinger who was with us this evening. And if you've not already told him, I hope you really will take some time after this meeting or next time you see him to give your appreciation because I can tell you that was not a easy task to do. And that required a lot of coordination and work. And one of the things I can tell you is there was very much interest in what Barrow County Schools and Barrow County the community wanted to see happen. And they they spent an entire many months talking to superintendent, uh, parents, school leaders across the state. But we were always given heavy input into what came out of
025there and we're very pleased. There's going to be some components of it that are challenging to implement and that's what we kind of want to walk through but they are we think going to long term be really really good for Georgia students across the state. Um so this is an omnibus legislation uh and uh in this case it is long. It is 57 pages. That was if not the longest bill that was passed in the last session. It was certainly one of the longer ones. It has a lot of pieces to it. And so what we want to talk about tonight is a general overview of it and then how we in Barrow County Schools working to implement each aspect of that. One of the key components of it was changes in Georgia law to
026speed up the transfer of critical student records between schools, but also to um provide more guidance on how law enforcement provides information to schools and how other agencies communicate, not just on threats, but also on, you know, supports that students may need in terms of mental health because we know how critical that is. Um, so there, and we're going to talk more about that in depth in just a second. There are also, and you've seen pieces of this in the first part of the presentation, there's a section called Ricky and Alyssa's law. This refers to both our own coach Aspenwall, who we um tragically lost in the incident, but also um Alyssa, who is a student at uh Parkland, whose father has worked to try to get panic alert systems in multiple states and has
027succeeded in doing that. Um, this particular portion of the law requires every Georgia school district to have a mobile panic alert system, but also to have a 247 tip line and also to have an integrated mapping software. And you've heard components of two of those things just now from Mr. Skinner and Miss Val. And additionally, we already had the Cintic system in place. In fact, about 90% of Georgia school districts already had a panic alert system in place. This just simply asked the other 10% to have that implemented within a year. One of the things we really appreciate about this bill is it viewed safety holistically. It's not just about always hardening of schools, but it looked at the fact that students at risk need supports. And so this bill provides funding and support as
028well as trainings that will be required in the coming years in mental health, violence prevention, and suicide prevention. All of which are very important. It also will eventually have changes to how we do school safety planning in Georgia and particularly emprovising emphasizing behavior threat assessment teams. Only about 40 or 50 of the 180 traditional school districts in Georgia have a formal behavior threat assessment team. I'm happy to say Barrow County is one of them. And we've had that in place since at least 2017 um if not a little bit earlier um using the Secret Service model. This will develop out a more robust GIMA model which will be incorporated um into school safety plans statewide and then increased penalties and juvenile code for serious threats that students may make against individuals or students. And this
029is just an o broad overview. There are more pieces to it than that. And we also appreciate that they phase in at different time frames. We're not asked to have all of these things done immediately because some of them require heavy lifts to get in place. Um and so time has been built into the schedule and we'll look at that in just a second to allow school systems to integrate this appropriately and safely. Safety. One of the things we do want to focus on because it was the most immediate change and it's actually going to change one of our regulations and potentially some policies down the road is how we transfer student records. So I'm going to ask Miss Pinger to talk a little bit about how that will look under the new law. >>
030Good evening. Thank you. So, while it's always been important that we have the appropriate student records for the uh students that are coming into our school system, this law makes that a little more um defined and puts changes some timelines. So, Dr. Thompson referred to a regulation that we will be changing. Um you can see here I kind of put a pre what it looks like now and what post we are changing to. So, parents have always been able to review any records about their child. um they let us know that they need that and it says mutually agreed upon time which generally is considered about 45 days. That is now changed. A parent can request an electronic copy not just to come in and review but for us to provide a copy and we
031have until 5:00 pm on the third business day following that request to get that done. So that just intensifies quickly how our staff will respond to such requests. There's also uh just in general the transfer of student records as we said um making sure we know who's coming into our schools. So previously when a student enrolled with us from another school system we would request records and they had up to 10 days to mail or otherwise deliver those to us. Now they must come electronically again on the third business day after we've requested them. And while Barrow County has been well ahead of the game of having electronic student records, we've been there for over a decade. Some of our surrounding counties have not. And we often have been waiting on mailed records. So that
032was very important for us to um communicate to our legislators that that would be very helpful if we could move to everyone having electronic records and having to provide them on a faster timeline. So we're working with other districts on that. Uh it does also the bill defines what are considered critical records that we must have in those three days. So it's an academic transcript for students, their attendance records, their discipline records, any record of a guilty finding of a felony and any psychological evaluations. Those are part of what's considered critical that must be sent to us within those three days. Um, and then it also gives us some provisions if after 10 we are still not able to get them and that it writes in there um that our Reese's will uh designate someone
033on their staff to be a student affairs officer that we can kind of work with if another district is not able to get us those records so quickly we can kind of defer that to a RISA position that will help facilitate that for us. But then if within 10 days we don't have that, we are able to move um students to um remote learning or hold a case management consultation just to be sure that we know what services that child needs um and that we're meeting their needs before they're in our building with our students. And then there's also um a possible policy change coming up because we have in policy right now that um we have 30 calendar days before we um withdraw students like now this is change that to 10 days. So
034just know that there may be a policy change coming before you soon. Um and then I just want to talk about what does that mean right now for our registration team. Um we did actually I counted these numbers on Sunday and we had already had more than 1,500 registration applications and that's just applications not students. If a family has multiple students in their household then we've my our team has worked through a lot to make sure that we have all that we need from those families and we're getting them in. Somebody has to review all those documents. Do we have what they're uploading? Um we have joked that one of the proof of residency where we show where you live recently was a picture of them standing in front of their house and unfortunately that's
035not something we can take. So we're constantly going back and forth with parents to make sure we get the documents that we need to get their children enrolled. And then um once we have them in our system, the school data clerks and other district personnel are working to get those records either for students coming into us or the students that are now telling us they're moving to another district to meet those um important timelines. And then there's also a piece that um we let parents know now when we've received those records so that they know that all that is clear and their child is is fully enrolled with us. So, it's it does mean more for the staff we already have, but we think it's important work to get done. >> Um, I have a
036question. >> Just a quick question. I'm sorry. Um, records when, um, this young man, the shooter, um, he had been investigated in Jackson County. They did not find him guilty. So would we still receive records of any child that had ever been investigated for this type of, you know, concern or is that not going to be a part of this policy? >> This piece right here is just about school records and that would not have been part of any school record that he had. Okay. >> There are some other pieces of the legislation that will um >> uh is that part of what we share that information? Okay. I thank you. >> Thank you. We wanted to focus on that one because that was by far the most immediate change that the bill brought in.
037And as Miss Pinger said, our team are having to work very hard and we're having to build new processes to make that happen. We're better equipped than most districts, but 3 days is still aggressive, but we're going to meet it because that's what's necessary, not just for safety, but students deserve in a modern setting where everything is virtual to be able to have the records they need in place, whatever district they're in. It's there's no reason why a student should have to wait to find out that they need special education supports. taw supports, things of that nature. That was the most immediate change, but there are some further ones that we want to talk through, including that, um, piece that M. Bradford asked about in HB268. So, um, in going through, um, one of the
038things that we're excited about, every district in Georgia based on size will be funded through grants for at least one student advocate position. This was originally in some earlier versions of the law. It's a student who's a mental health clinician, but it's broadened to give a little more flexibility. Um, in a district our size, we would receive one position. There are some districts larger that might receive two or three in that instance. And that funding um we used to create it. We have to wait on that one a little bit because there's some guidance has to be built around the job descriptions. I will tell you Barrow is one of I think Dr. Lo is about nine districts that are uh project aware. Um yeah. open house. >> Oh, she's open house. That's right. Um,
039sorry. Uh, there's about nine districts that are part of the project aware of mental health supports. And in those particular instances, um, the department of education is actually asking for the job descriptions for those coordinators because they think that's a good starting point. So once again, we're one of districts on the cutting edge of how we're supporting our students in mental health. But that's a position that will go towards supporting students in whatever outcome the district deems necessary to support them, mental health, anything in that nature. And so we're very pleased that there's that funding component built in. There'll be annual required trainings in suicide and violence prevention. We're waiting on the Georgia Department of Education to provide those trainings. That's also part of the law. When those come in, we will work to make
040sure our staff and our students are trained on that. There's also sections of the law that gets to Miss Bradford's question where if you you have an official encounter, and an official encounter is very technically defined, and I'm not going to go into it here because really it's law enforcement. They're going to have to make the determination of what is an official encounter. But the law includes very specific language that in certain instances, even if there's not necessarily um evidence to sort of charge someone with a crime, there still may be information that needs to be reported in writing to local school districts. Um and again, right now that that is really not a school system function. That is much more a law enforcement function. Um, but that is part of the law that they
041will need to have that in place specifically for that reason. We, as we mentioned, there's a 247 monitor tip line. We have already talked about that a little bit. We talked about behavior threat assessment teams. There's also potentially subject to future appropriations. There was talk eventually about having a database where students that had gone through a threat assessment process or otherwise been convicted of a threat might be communicated through that. That is not in the final version of the bill, but there is subject to appropriations some talk of a possible statewide alert system in future years that might serve a similar function, maybe with a little more flexibility, things of that nature. But, um, that is still in the bill. And one of the things I do want to say to everyone here, um, one
042of the things we've made sure is that when we have students that go through our formal threat assessment process, we want to make sure those records get transferred. We want to make sure that is part of their critical records. And we certainly hope other districts that have similar process will will do the same because that's how we keep schools safe. And then you can finally see the timeline of how these things roll in. So by October 1st, per the law, we had to update our memorandum of understanding with facilities that provide on-site educational services. We've already reviewed that and found that we're compliant with that. Um, we have to have uh, again language with our law enforcement partners to include specific terms and conditions related to student information. We're in the process of doing that.
043We're working with the sheriff's office on that currently. We have a meeting scheduled to kind of talk about that. That will not be a new um, contractor um or it will be an addendum to the existing agreement that we have on that just on data sharing pieces. Um, we mentioned Ricky and Alyssa's law. Um, we are already compliant on that with the panic alert system, but that for districts that are not is not until July 1, 2026. Um, the mapping uh, uh, function that, uh, Mr. Skinner talked about is also not due till July 1, 2026. We're hopeful to have that done within this school year um, and have that operational before we go home. Same with July 1, 2026. The school safety plan changes won't go into effect until January 1st, 2027. That is
044because GEMA has to provide guidance along with several other organizations in partnership some of the sheriff's associations. So they will um put that together and once we have that um we will make sure that our plans are compliant with that. Um there uh are also requirements and you can see on the training for suicide awareness and violence prevention. We have to wait for those to be released. Those will be in effect for the 2627 school year. And then funding and job outline for the student advocacy advocacy specialist, sorry, will be 2627 as well and hopefully the appropriations will. So there's a lot of pieces to this and like a lot of bills, we expect there'll be some refinement to this in future legislative sessions, but ultimately we think this is a really positive thing and
045we're excited to be implementing this even if sometimes it is a heavy lift because it's the right thing to do for Georgia students and for Barrow students more importantly. So before we transition to the next section, I'll field any questions anybody has on HB268. >> I I do have a question. Yes, ma'am. >> Um I think this is great a great start, but as with anything once they do implement and it's implemented and it's now law, you know, once we put it in, we can hope that other districts will do. But is there any teeth in it that says if they don't comply and they don't do it, what will happen? What will the state do if they don't comply with the law? >> I can say two things. Um, one is when we were
046at the Gail conference over the summer, Phil Hartley, who many of you may know has been the um the education lawyer for for Georgia for as long as I've been in education, he made the statement, there's a lot of great things in this bill, but they'll only work if all of you out there implement them. And he's 100% correct on that. That was something I know in some of the discussions in the legislative uh conversation and the hearings that came up. I think the best I can say is that's something to have conversations with our local legislation about and I know they are monitoring closely the implementation of the bill and certainly if things are not being implemented my guess is action will be taken on that but that's not my place to say that's
047that's what I would assume based on the conversations I was privy to in the public hearings. >> Okay. So there's nothing actually written in the law itself that says if they don't do this and this is what's going to happen or this is what the next step is. My guess is the answer is >> no. >> If you don't do it, there may be coming in in future sessions because the expectation is this is state law and every district needs to be in compliance with this, but not as I'm aware of in the particular provisions of the bill as it currently stands passed. >> Dr. Thompson, just to add to that, I would assume that any district that did not comply would be subject to legal issues more than likely. >> I I would certainly
048imagine that is a possibility. >> Thank you. And and the reason I asked that is because there's another district that I'm working with a parent on um with IDA >> and nothing has happened. >> There's children falling through the cracks in that district and nothing's happening. So that's why I want to make sure >> we can't control other >> We can't control that. I'm just want to make sure that >> make sure that we're >> I know we we do it and we follow it. >> Hey, Dr. Thompson, I just wanted to say thanks to you and all of the team that worked so diligently over this last year um with our representatives uh especially uh Representative Persinger in getting this bill through. Um I know that it was a load to carry and so
049we appreciate y'all spearheading that and getting something through legislation. Appreciate it. >> Absolutely. It was our pleasure. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions on this portion? One of the other things that we have been fortunate to receive over the last few years is safety grants from the state as well as several oper federal and privately raised um funds in the wake of September 4th. And so Miss Houston is going to come up and give a little bit of a history on what we have spent those funds on um and answer your questions on those. So, we talked a lot about what we've done, what we have to do in the future, and um we've had the fortunate, we we've been fortunate enough to get some grants. Um I would love to say, you know,
050it helps relieve our taxpayers, but we all know that this is taxpayer money, whether it's state, federal, or local, but we have had some community donations, too. So, I just want to run through some of the safety grant money and how we spent that. So, in 2019, we received $450,000. Um, and this was used to um for access control and that was about $420,000 um in visitor management uh software. That's when you go into a school, you have to scan your ID and it does a little bit of a background check on you. Also for some AEDs um and some security cameras. Um we continued in 2020 we received uh $450,000 and that continued the access control, the visitor management, um the security cameras and additional um AEDs. Uh we did not receive safety security
051grant for 2021 or 2022. So for 2023, uh we received $800,000 and those funds supported um our panic alert system, our strategics. Um that was over a million dollars. And so um thankfully Sheriff Jud Smith um chipped in some of the uh security the uh the safety camera money $248,000. We did not receive grant funds in 2024. Um, so how can we fund a yearly reoccurring expense with a grant that may or may not get to us every year. So that's just something to kind of um think about. In 2025, we did receive a little over 800,000 and we use those funds on weapon detectors and supplies and also classroom phones. Uh, this adds up to over a million dollars. So, we had to fund a portion of these funds with our local property taxes.
052In May, we applied for the project serve grant through the US Department of Education and we were awarded $1.1 million. We can only use these funds for the temporary small pod of a fiveclassroom unit that was immediately available to accommodate some of the some of our classroom space. Also, the larger pod currently being leased to replace the classrooms on JH Hall, but they will only cover through March of 2026. This grant covers the transportation toqi east when the students were there for four months. It also covers substitute costs for the past year to allow staff to take time for breaks or mental health services. And it covered the additional administrator we added to support the students and staff at Chi East and the POD. Those were the items it could cover. We asked for more,
053but we were only told that the limit is around a million dollar. The SERF grant did not cover grading for the pod. That was about $600,000. Project Serve does not cover construction cost. Um, as I said, Project Serve only covers the pod lease until March of 2026. So, that leaves a balance of about $1.5 million. It also does not cover future renovations at Appalache High School. So all in all, we could spend about $5 million or more, and we will be reimbursed this $1.1 million. The Barra County Commun Community Foundation awarded the school district approximately $410,000. 179,000 went to the district to cover therapy cost and substitutes. 230,000 went directly to Appalache High School for their identified needs such as the calming areas, furniture, therapy dogs, silencing the bumpers on the weight room, uh on
054the weights in the wait room, sound systems, mental and social curriculum, exam fees, and sports reimbursements. After the tragedy of September 4th, our legislators gave all school districts an additional $21,635 per school out of their 2025 amended state budget. Then for the 2026 budget, they supported all schools in Georgia with $47,165 per school. So this year we will have $68,800 per school in security grant money. We have a meeting coming up in August um set up to compile a list of security enhancement requests such as access control updates, cameras, speaker sound system upgrades, curtains, radios, and other items that um House Bill 268 requires. We are extremely appreciative of the US Department of Education, the Georgia legislators, and our community for the funds we have received. It has been such a blessing to our school
055district um students and staff. And this is just a short list of other safety and security enhancements that we cover locally or we cover with our ELOS sales tax funds for larger projects. That's school resource officers, cameras, mental health reimbursements, security festivals, AEDs, um security at events, safety and security officer and staff, parking lot attendance, safety training software, audio enhancements, the camera subscriptions, uh community platform, commu communication platforms, uh safety applications, emergency preparedness manuals, and many more items not listed here. all paid for with taxpayer money in one form or another, whether it's property taxes or sales taxes. And that concludes this part of that um presentation. >> So, as we wrap this up and open it up for final questions, I I hope what we've impressed upon you today is that Barrow County Schools
056has both historically and going into the future put safety as our top priority, and we will continue to do so. There's a lot of people, some of which you have heard from, many of whom you haven't, who work in our schools and our district every day, who do everything they can to keep students safe. And we know we have a tragedy like September 4th that gives us all pause. All we can do is evaluate what we're doing and get back to work. And that's what we have tried to do. That's what our Georgia legislature has done. That's what our community has done in coming together. And we appreciate everyone. Um, this is the right work for us to be doing. We're f we are focused this year on learning and we're focused on safety. and
057that is the two most important things any school district can ever focus on. I will be happy and the group will be happy to entertain any final questions that you have. >> Um Dr. Thompson, I do have one final question and I think this might be for Dr. Bowen and Chief Skinner. Um usually when a tragedy such as this happens, um I'm just curious, have we received an invitation from the county to participate in an afteraction report? Um, so we've done a couple of debriefs. >> Okay. The >> we haven't done an official after action. >> Yeah. >> Typically that's done by a third party. Yep. >> Uh, and I think GEMA was going to try to help us coordinate that. >> Um, I don't know the time frame of what that would be like
058this morning. >> Well, thank you for that update. I appreciate that. Okay. Thank you. >> Any further questions? We appreciate your time and thank you to everyone who took part in this presentation and those who have been doing this work, this important work. Thank you'all. All right, so now we're going to move on to some of the action items we had. So I'm going to ask Mr. St. Clair to come up and talk about the system copier contract. Thank you. In April of 2024, the board approved a new three-year contract for copier services went to low bid respondent SOS of Athens, Georgia. The amount was $277,000 uh for yearly fixed costs and then a uh cost of 3.7 cents per page for color copies made by the district. Uh black and white copies were included
059in the contract. Uh in FY25, we made a few adjustments. Uh whole punch attachments were added to two copers at Warner Bar High School. uh one copy each was upgraded to color capability from black and white uh at the Jackson House, Jargo and Stadium. Each facility is authorized a color copier if they request it. Uh the district pays for the least costs and the facility pays for the per copier cost per copy cost in that arrangement. Um a new copier was added to county line to address gaps in coverage. They were undersized when we started the new contract. Uh and notably new copers were added for growth. We did one at Basset 2, uh two for the new pods at Appalache, one for the new pod at WER High School, and one for the PAC.
060So, six new copers added during FY25. Uh in addition, um the Sims Academy has a pre-existing contract for color copier expires next year. Uh it's used in one of their CTE classes. uh that was not included in the April 24th board presentation, but in the interest of being uh inclusive and giving you the whole picture, we're now providing that information uh including those numbers in what we're presenting to you now. Um the uh just as an item for information, the variable cost for color copies for FY25 was about $24,000 representing about 630,000 color copies made in the district. So, the financial impact is an additional $32,2748 per year, bringing the FY2026 total to $39,932.40 in fixed costs as copier leases uh out of the district's copier budget and color copy costs remain uh the same
061at 3.7 cents per color copy made paid out of either a mis mix of district funds for uh administrative facilities and school copier budgets for schools. The superintendent recommends approving an increase in the fixed yearly cost of copier services of $32,2748, bringing the yearly total to $39,932.40. >> Move to consent agenda. >> Thank you. >> Next one is policy IFBG, the internet acceptable use policy. The district's current policy, IFBG, the internet acceptable use policy, was last revised in June of 2004 and last reviewed in November of 2016. Recent action by the Georgia State Legislature, specifically bill Senate Bill uh 351, the Protecting Georgia's Children on Social Media Act of 2024, requires that we update our AUP to be in compliance with the bill. That the AUP be approved by the board by October 1st of
0622025 and then uploaded to the DOE for approval by October 15th. Um, Senate Bill 351 was not quite as comprehensive as the other one we've talked about today, but it was 31 pages of material to go through. So rather than revising the old policy, uh the new policy is a complete rewrite. We incorporated relevant components from the old policy and then of course all the various pieces required by the new Senate Bill 351. Uh we've attached uh for your uh review, I'm not going to bring them up now, but for your review, um both the new uh AUP, the old AUP for comparison and a new regulation that's not subject to uh required to be voted on by by the board, but is uh a companion piece to the new AUP. Financial impact. There is
063no financial impact for adoption of this new version of the AUP. There is however a financial consideration if we don't um if we fail to adopt the new a fail to get uh the DOE approval. Um Senate Bill 351 includes a provision to withhold funds from districts who failed to submit and gain DOE approval of a board approved policy by October 1st for the approval and October 15th for the deadline. So, the recommendation is that the superintendent uh recommends placing the new version of policy IFBG, internet acceptable use policy, on the table for review to be removed from the table and voted upon at the September 2nd board meeting. Happy to answer any questions. >> Move to consent. >> All right. Thank you. >> Mr. Claire, last action item tonight, and this is the one
064that we would like to ask the board to consider approving tonight. Um, we have had a long-standing relationship with Foothills uh Charter Regional High School, which is one of um multiple finishing schools in Georgia. Um, they operate uh out of two of our facilities, one at Sims, one at Russell. They serve both students who can enroll there because they're 18 years of age. They also enroll certain program students from us between 16 and 18 years who still remain on our books but um who are served at foothills and basically foothills allows them to do self-paced courses, evening courses. Um it allows them for students who are struggling with a traditional setup um to be successful in that. So the uh agreement you have both operates how we will work the program and student component of
065that but also about the two facility usage agreements related to um our sites. You will also notice there is an addendum to that which is a technology piece. Prior to last year Foothills enrolled or prior through last year Foothills enrolled or employed several of our technicians to basically provide support during the evening. um they have now moved to a model where they're just going to reimburse us what they were paying them directly and we would pay our staff to be on call and available. So that particular um document just outlines how it's going to be the same people doing the same work. It's just the money flows a little differently and because they're no longer our um Foothills employees, but there are employees again during that time. We wanted to have some regulations in place
066to make sure that worked correctly. So we would recommend um the night the board uh consider approving this and signing it tonight. The reason being because school is starting um on Friday and they're starting very soon for Foothills as well and we'd like to have this agreement in place by then. But I am happy to answer any questions you have about this agreement or about Foothills. >> A quick question I have Dr. Thompson is the uh in the contract that states that there's a a tiered approach um and and as we have two systems uh can you tell me what tiers both of those uh facilities are at? >> Yes, sir. Mr. Callaway is referring to is that as part of the facility usage agreement depending on the enrollment and attendance at a particular site
067foothills reimbures the school district um at a different rate. So there are three tiers tier one two and three. Um we have two sites Sims and Russells. They are Russell they are based on previous attendance and enrollment both tier three sites which basically means the district would receive $150,000 from Foothills for that site usage for both sites for a total of 300,000. And then additionally, we should this year receive $10,000 per site for the tech support, which should be a total of $320,000 under this agreement. >> Thank you, sir. >> Anything else? >> All right. Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you. >> And now like to welcome our new chief academic officer, Dr. Brown. It's her first meeting with us. We're glad to have you. >> Thank you. Good evening. Tonight's chief
068academic officer report includes one item of information, three action items for your consideration at the August 5th board of education meeting and one action item for tonight's called board meeting. So first with our uh our action item, it's all about our preparation for the school year. So, as we prepared for the 2526 school year, one of the priorities of the board and the superintendent has been to increase alignment and clarity regarding teaching and learning practices within our school system. So, I'm really excited to get to share this collaborative work tonight that you all have um participated in and um and led. So we started um July 10th we had the opportunity for a whole board training and during this session we began by revisiting and affirming the belief statements that you as a board developed.
069Megan you can switch it. These belief statements form our collective commitment to prioritizing student success and safety, elevating literacy as an academic priority, driving continuous improvement through data and accountability. providing equitable access to resources and opportunities for students, supporting our educators with meaningful compensation and professional growth, and partnering with our families and communities as co-owners of student success. So then, Dr. Thompson and I um led a review of key system achievement data including Dibbles, NWA MAP, and milestones. and we had lots of great conversations as we um took a deep dive into our current performance and that guided the next step in the work. So together we worked to develop five measurable district goals. Now it is important to to understand that um for everyone that we are going to engage in that full strategic
070planning process this school year. We're really excited about that work. And so what we really wanted to do was put some um short-term goals in place. So we set five goals to provide some immediate clarity and alignment. These set the tone for accountability. They foster a mindset of continuous growth and we want to ensure that every school and team knows that we're working together. Um so we're going to go through some of those goals and um what is or those five goals they we really key in on literacy throughout four of the five goals and then we also have a big focus on reading on grade level for students. So, our first goal um that we'll highlight tonight is um by June of 2026 um the percentage of all K through2 students performing at the
071average achievement level or higher will increase by 5% as measured by the end ofear map reading growth. One of the things that um Dr. Thompson included with that work and on the slide um for us here is you can see we wanted to quantify what that 5% would be and so that would be um 156 students. So we want to make sure that anytime we set goals and we're talking about numbers and data that we understand that each number is an individual student, individual child um that we're working to support. The next goal by June of 2026, the percentage of all third through fifth grade students reading at or above grade level will increase by 5% as measured by the Georgia Milestones ELA end of grade. And you can see there that that 5% would
072be 163 students that we're we're wanting to be able to to in addition to all students, but we're wanting to um increase that achievement. All right. The next goal at the middle school level by June 2026, the percentage of all sixth through 8th grade students reading at or above grade level will increase by 5% as measured by the Georgia Milestones ELA end of grade. And then at the high school level, by June 2026, the percentage of all students in grades 9 through 12 reading at or above grade level will increase by 5% as measured by the Georgia Milestones Milestones literature and composition 2 end of course test. We did also add a a math focused goal for the high school level. So that goal by June 2026, the percentage of students in grades 9 through
07312 performing proficient or above in math will increase by 5% as evidenced by the Georgia Milestones algebra concepts and connections end of course test. Okay. So that led into the next part of the work which included the development uh and this is all still at the July 10th um meeting included the development of a proposed policy which we're excited to talk about today. BAB school board governance that outlines a clear and aligned vision for teaching and learning in the Baro County school system. So this policy does three critical things. One, it affirms the board's core beliefs. Second, it establishes a unified system of teaching and learning. And third, it creates a foundation for accountability and support. So, here's some important components of this policy. Uh, first, our instruction is grounded in the Georgia standards of
074excellence. This means that across all schools and grade levels, we are aligning what we teach to clear, rigorous academic standards. Second, the policy outlines our approach approach to instructional resources so teachers will have consistent access to highquality materials that are aligned to the standards. At the same time, we recognize and honor the professional judgment of our teachers. They'll continue to have the flexibility to use additional standards aligned resources to meet the the needs of our students. And third, the policy emphasizes the importance of monitoring student learning through a balanced assessment system that includes both formative assessments which help guide instruction in real time and summitative assessments that help us measure progress over time. So in terms of account accountability, the policy emphasizes not just goal setting but that growth focused approach. Um Dr. LED loves
075to say when we achieve our goals we celebrate and but when we fall short we reflect and we improve. So this policy that you all created is more than just a government governance tool. It's a framework to connect every le level of Barrow County schools from the boardroom to the classroom around one clear mission and that's helping every Barrow student learn more, grow more and achieve more. All right. So then we took it to the leadership summit. So you can see this alignment here. Um with your beliefs, goals and policy in hand, we brought together our school and district leaders for the leadersship summit on July 21st. So during this summit um from a teaching and learning perspective our leaders engaged in analyzing system and school level data reviewing the board beliefs and our system
076goal our 2526 goals um participating in some vertical discussions and conversations and then of course planning for the start of the year. We had um six different breakout sessions that individuals went to. So this summit laid the groundwork for instructional coherence and it empowered our our leaders to carry this forward to their schools. All right. So next we move into pre-planning. Um so our faculty and staff have returned. We're so excited about that. They've been um hard at work engaged in professional learning. So you can see we have pictures of different things that have been happening. They've been preparing their classrooms, analyzing data, collaborating to design instruction, um their energy and creativity. Uh it's just been really exciting and inspire u inspiring um as we've been able to prepare for our students. So, Dr. Lidduff
077and I had the privilege of spending the last week visiting our schools, welcoming uh the staff back, and we'll continue. We have a couple more schools to to get to, but we've used these visits to then reinforce the alignment between the board's direction and the daily instructional practice and of course to thank the staff for their critical work um that they're doing with students. And then all of these efforts culminate this Friday when we'll open our doors and welcome our students for the 2526 school year. So thanks to the meaningful work of this board, our dedicated staff, we are excited to enter the year with uh enter into the year with clarity, alignment, and purpose. And it's going to be an incredible school year for our Bara Bold students. Are there any questions? >> I
078just have one comment, Dr. Brown. I was incredibly excited to see all those smart goals up there. So I appreciate the all the hard work that your team has done. So, thank you. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Brown. >> Thank you. Okay. So, now we'll move on to our action items for the August 5th, 2025 board of education meeting. And our first action item is policy BAB, which was just discussed more in depth as an information item. And so the superintendent recommends placing proposed policy BAB, school board governance, on the table for public review and comment at the August 5th board of education meeting. Okay. The second action item is the NWEA MAP contract and um you've you all have analyzed the um our MAP data and um the Northwest Evaluation Association
079measurements of academic progress though. So NWA map growth is an assessment tool that we used for measuring achievement and growth. It is it can be used with grades K through 12 um for math, reading, and language usage, but we will use that grades K through eight. Um it's administered three times per school year. It provides a measure of students academic growth along the learning continuum of skills during the school year and between school years. Map data allows schools to differentiate and adjust instruction for individual students, groups of students, or entire classes based on the results of the assessment. So, this approval would be for this coming school year and for four future school years as long as costs do not exceed 3% of the previous year. that financial impact. So for us, for grades K
080through eight, that would be approximately 11,500 students at $14.50 per student. Um so total expenditure or and also um an online annual license at a cost of $1,000. So that total expenditure would be $167,750 um from the general fund. Any questions? Okay. >> For the third action item, I would like to welcome our secondary director, Shelley Fallows, to discuss the formative by news and well, I've heard it pronounced two ways. News ELA or some people read it as one word, Newella. Okay, so I don't know which one is correct. I should have watched some YouTube videos. But whatever it is, the online platform contract Good evening. All right. So, yes, I am here this evening to tell you how awesome and wonderful Formative by Newella is. Um, if you go ahead and move to the
081next slide. So, I want us to start with a quick video um from Formative because it'll give you a visual of what this platform looks like and how our teachers use it. So, if you'll go ahead and click that link for me that Yep. No. Back in the um Oh, you've got it there. No. Yep. That top right one. Right click on it. Is it not letting you? >> Okay. Well, that's okay. Oh, there it is. That's it. >> Push that triangle. Yep. And then that bottom right to make it big. Do we have sound? Uh >> oh. Okay. Well, let's go ahead and keep moving then. All right, if you'll go ahead and go back to my slides for me, please. So, Formative by Newella is a web-based learning tool. It allows our teachers
082to monitor and assess student learning in real time. So, uh this first slide that she'll show you, um highlights some of those main pieces. If you'll go back one more for me. Thank you. Um so it can be used in daily instruction, classroom assessments, uh independent student practice. So teachers can even click that score and then it'll develop a practice set based on that individualized students um assessment data. So it it does some powerful things for our teachers and our kids. Um and then that last item there it provides um collaborate a tool to be used to in to strengthen and the efficiency in the work that our PLC's do our professional learning communities. So one platform for instruction assessment and adjusting in real time. So this one highlights part of what I'll show you
083on our quote which includes a vetted item bank. So, Formative was recently purchased by Newella, New Zeal the the country. Um, and Newella is a very large company. And the exciting thing is is when that happened, they were able to purchase um different banks from other companies and actually hire people who are vetting items, creating items, tagging them to standards, tagging them to do levels, that depth of knowledge, which is a piece that our teachers spend a lot of time, and I think all the leaders in the room said, "Yes, they do. They spend a lot of time doing that work because we want to make sure what we're assessing aligns to what the standards say so that then we're developing instructional activities um along the way that prepare them to show that level of
084understanding. So over 25,000 plus items. Uh they are right now mainly in those four core areas, heaviest in middle school, but they are constantly expanding and it will be in 6 through 12. And then you can see in the box there all of those different items. uh they have all of the same item types and more that students are exposed to on the milestones. So the beauty of having this tool is our our teachers can provide them with assessment experiences that are like what they're going to see. We can see how our kids are doing. We can prepare them for that stamina for that test at the end of the year. A few more things of course with AI they've really put some great features into formative where teachers can um teams can ask it
085you know I need some questions around this standard and it will start to generate I AI items of course we we as teachers are going to use our skills to decide if it's a good item or not but um it's a way to get them started and save them some time in that beginning piece um there's also an ability to have assessments and and instructional sets in here be teacher paced or be studentpaced and even be gamified. Um they provide a lock down browser which is part of our request that actually locks out other programs so that we can make sure that they're in a secure testing environment. And then uh the last piece there, they're able to see their data in this very colorful well organized different ways to click by standard or by
086question type and see where are kids struggling. and I'm teacher A, you're teacher B. Well, my kids really struggle struggled on question one, but yours didn't. What's how did you what did you do in your classroom in the learning experience that you were able to get that data? And um you know, we're really we're really looking at what did the learning experience look like? What can we do to keep refining it and help our kids all find that mastery level? Keep going for me. Yeah. All right. And then most importantly, I wanted you to see the why. So that visual is showing you that it's all about like Dr. Leuff and Dr. Brown were saying, student success. We're able to develop those learning outcomes, determine how we want to assess them, create the learning experiences,
087and then keep using that assessment tool to get formative data along the way, and modify um our instructional experiences. So ultimately it's going to provide us with consistency and coherence, standards alignment, collaboration, clear expectations, datadriven decisions, vertical and horizontal alignment, instructional continuity, and efficient resource allocation. We are currently in year four of having this tool. Um, if you guys choose to approve it, the purchase, uh, this is year four. We have trained our staff in the use of that. they were able to to engage in an asynchronous PL module and then we um had teachers all over the county yesterday engaged in PLC um lead teams and even full teams designing common assessments. All right. So then I want to read the very last piece here. So the superintendent recommends authorizing the purchase of formative
088by Newella gold licenses for students, teachers, and administrators in grades 612 along with access to the locked browser option and the vet vetted item bank so that we can continue this work with our teachers. And that total expenditure will be $88,1531 from New Zella for the FY26 school year. And I think that is all of it. Do you have um and I want to read this last piece. This approval would be for this coming school year. Um so this year as well as for future years as long as the costs do not exceed 3% of the previous year. What questions do you have? >> So So one question, um I see the the sales order that has that item back. Is that that paid question? >> It is. Yes. Now, our teachers can create their
089own items. They can upload PDFs, word documents, and it will actually they're there. This is getting better and better. We've had to use um some support from them some, but it will take those and put those in their bank. We um are able to take the item banks from the state that have been created in math and upload those all the way. They helped us get all of those in there. So, they've been pulling for they can pull from all of those places. >> Okay. face. >> Mhm. Yes, sir. >> Anything else? >> Consent. >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. The final action item we would like to request that our board take action on tonight is the GNETs intergo intergovernmental agreement. Um, our special education director Amy Wadley will come forward to discuss
090further our for GNET service. Good evening to the board. Can you hear me? Dr. Liddell. >> Hi. Thank you for having me today. So, I do believe that most of you are aware of this, but I want to add some more context. Um, for those of you who may not be aware, but Barrow County Schools has been hosting the GETS program for the past two years, and we have shared that program with Jefferson City Schools here. And for your awareness, GNETs is the Georgia Network of Educational and Therapeutic Supports Program. This program was a separate school in Athens, Clark County at Rutland Academy since the 70s. And three years ago, they shut their doors and they challenged our school districts to serve these to serve these students, this population, had a good program for them.
091And so, Barra County Schools said, "Absolutely, we're going to do that." And we split it with Jefferson City Schools. But at this time there are now two more school districts who would like to partner with us in the guts program and that is Okone County Schools and then also social circle city schools. So, the contracting school districts seek to provide comprehensive educational and therapeutic support services for their students who exhibit intense social, emotional or behavioral challenges at frequency, intensity, and duration that prevents them from benefiting educationally from the special education and related services that they currently have available to them in their school districts. And so I want to point out just some highlights that would be the the difference for the IGA we're presenting now compared to the one that we've had for the
092past couple of years. And I'll make this brief, but it would be of course adding two more school districts that we would now be paying 25% rather than 50% for this cost. Also, the districts will contribute to necessary supplies and equipment to include specific needs for the students. Jefferson City was doing that anyway, but it wasn't explicitly listed in the IGA, so it is now. Also, the GNET special education coordinator is now a Barrow County employee rather than a Resa employee. There's no financial impact there. We were already paying half of her paycheck, but now she is a part of our team officially. also special education services that would be beyond what GNEDs would provide like occupational therapy, physical therapy, um any of those services that would be on the eleas the others to be
093able to um provide reimbursement for that or supply their own people. And then also if our GETS program is unable to meet the behavioral supports above and beyond what our GETS program already provides then those districts would also have to you know contribute for that. Okay. So those are the the primary differences financial impact. Bara County School System would, if everybody is in agreement, we will now pay 25% of the total costs associated with the employees rather than 50% in addition to other expenses necessary to support the GETS program. The general fund budget will pay our portion of staff salaries and the IDA grant that would be used to fund additional costs such as supplies and therapeutic support services. The total estimated cost for the program is anticipated to be 657,000. So we would be
094paying 25% of that rather than 50% which is 164,250 as opposed to 328,500. All right. So, the superintendent recommends signing the attached intergovernmental agreement with Jefferson City School District, the Okone County School District, and the Social Circle City School District to partner in providing comprehensive educational and therapeutic support services to their students who exhibit intense social, emotional, and/or behavioral challenges. Okay. Are there any questions from the board that I can answer? Um, my only question is looking at the contract, where's the price? What page is the price on? It >> it will change every year. Um, it's because it's employees, so it's just our cost. We will send them a bill every month. >> Okay. So, right now we're saying 164,250 approximately. That is that is what we would pay for the staff if we're
095paying 25% rather than the 50% which is what we've been paying for the past two years. >> Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. >> So So there's no increase in staff even though we're handling two more districts? >> No, at this point in time there's no need for that with partnering with these two other districts that is bringing three more students to our school system at this point in time. How many students alto together are we? >> So alto together I thought you guys might want to know that so we will have five students at county line elementary and this is including all four schools. Okay. And then we would have four ater high school and Russell Middle School would have four. And then we do have consult students. So currently we have three students that are
096receiving consultative services in Jefferson City and Okone County Schools will also have three. So six stu three to six will be for consultative services. But those students are in their home districts and they're receiving those services from the coordinator. I just wanted to take a second, Miss Wley, and say thank you for your work uh put in by the sped department, the whole team to serve more students and reduce cost to our citizens that's in line with our board's newly developed core beliefs. I know that this has been an undertaking having uh served with the special education department. It's been a big move and so kudos to y'all for getting two additional uh districts to split these costs and save our citizens money. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you so much. And >> I just
097like to commend you and your team, Miss Wadley. The reason that we uh get these requests board members is because regionally regionally we are known for the product that we provide to our special education students. So uh when there's an opportunity to join our team, I think we have other systems that um jump at that chance for to partner with us to serve children. So thank you for that work, Miss Wadley. >> Absolutely. Thank you so much for the support. We couldn't do it without you guys. We appreciate you. Thank you. We'll consider this after executive session. All right, we'll move on to our chief of staff report, Dr. Curts. >> All right, good evening. Thanks as always for having us. Uh the chief of staff uh board of education report contains four information items
098and eight action items for the August 5th, 2025 board of education meeting. Um the first information item is a staffing update. In late June, uh based on some some budgetary needs, we were tasked with developing and implementing a targeted hiring freeze. Uh through that plan, our human resources department worked with district and school leaders to identify unfilled positions uh where the workload could be shifted to existing staff. Uh while the results will increase workloads for existing staff, the plan was developed uh in a manner that ensures we still have the resources we need to provide highquality educational services to our kids. Um open positions weren't evenly distributed. So there were a number of moves that needed to be made. Uh we were able to make more than half of those moves uh through voluntary uh
099staff members looking to change grade levels or change schools. those where that were not voluntary moves were um exclusively based on number of students and small programs that we were able to collapse or move to another location. Um uh because the programs were so narrow or or uh enrollments were low. Um in making these moves, we were able to cut 21 and a half positions or 21 and a half freeze 21 and a half positions originally. Uh while we froze positions, all of those positions were unfilled. So these were not any actual staff members that were here. Um, we're continuing to evaluate uh as positions come open through attrition. I've identified three others that we may be able to freeze right now, but as we look for others coming open through attrition, we'll review each
100of those closely as to whether or not that workload can be absorbed elsewhere and what the impact might be on learning and safety um against the board's priorities there to make sure that we are being efficient with the budget but also effective in our work. Um, as a followup to Mr. Callaway's question, you able to pull up those two charts? Um, as followup to Mr. Callaway's question from last week, uh, we have, do we have those two charts? We were asked to, uh, examine teaching allocations in relationship to other districts uh, around us. We chose five districts of similar size. I apologize for not having this available to you. I'll get this to you. um similar size and similar demographics because there are some economies of scale where it really is not an accurate comparison
101to take a super large district or a particularly small one and compare. Um we selected Lounge, Jackson, Barto, Walton and Carol. Um we selected all teachers and we used the October uh CPI report which uh is submitted to the state by all districts that gives us a good apples to apples comparison. So at that time um we had 12.6 6 students per teacher. Um, in looking at those other counties, uh, Loun was the closest to us at 13.5 students per teacher and Carol and Walton were the furthest from us at 15.2 students per teacher. Um if we took those numbers and looked at those against uh our total student population using those studenttoteer ratios um you know based on our studenttoteer ratio we'd have 1227 teachers uh based on uh a slightly lower ratio like
102Louns we'd have 1,148 um and then going all the way to something like Carol or Walton it would be 1,020. Um there's some reasons that we wouldn't want to go exactly with another county's numbers. There are a number of pieces that we look at specifically in here where it gets pretty far into the weeds in terms of um English language learners or special needs students and some of those types of populations that might require a different uh service ratio. But these are metrics that we look at each October. Dr. Thompson's department puts together. Well, I say October. We really don't get the data from the state till November. We review this and try to look at what metrics we have not just in teaching but in all of our departments. Where are we out of
103line? Why are we out of line? Should we be out of line? And and what can we do to make sure we're as efficient and as effective as possible. So, we will review this again in the fall as we start to look at next year's budget and start to look at allocations for next year. Any questions about staffing our current freeze uh or our ratios? >> Thank you for that update, Dr. Curts. >> Of course. Uh our next action item uh Mr. Perno will come share some information about uh CM at risk, I think. >> Yeah. So, we're we've got three information items tonight uh with system operations. And so, we'll share a series of photos here with you uh for project updates. This is our classroom pot at Wabaro High School and uh greenhouse
104facilities at Wabaro as well as Appalache and uh very pleased with the outcome of the projects here. really tied things together nicely um at both schools and uh we had a I guess a orientation event or open house event last week and I believe there's another one taking place right now at Werber High School and uh kudos to Charles Black instruction. They did a a terrific job for us, Joey Murphy, our our project manager. Um, and so, uh, we're we're ready for students and, uh, excited that they have those those facilities now in place. So, that'll be our that'll be our last update on those, uh, couple of projects. Any questions on those? Okay. All right. Uh I believe the next one is uh renovations at Sephit and we heard some discussion earlier about the
105security vestibules and this is the last campus that we needed to complete those improvements on and uh so so those are now in place at seaf fit the security vestibule um separate entrance there for our uh school safety and security team and the vis visitors that they have coming into the building. So we're we're able to separate that traffic. Uh and then we did some other improvements while we were there. Uh painting the gymnasium and we don't have photos of a of a larger meeting space that we created two spaces in. It'll be two classrooms now uh that kind of help bring kids in from the mobile uh into the building. So again, kudos to Charles Black Construction. Tight time frame on that one. Um and and Joey Murphy for helping to oversee that and
106and help pull it all together. Uh it turned out very well. Okay, our last item uh of information here. Dr. Ledv pointed out the fine work of our maintenance team under Greg Webb's leadership and we appreciate that very much. Um we also want to kind of take a minute to look at our custodial program. These folks have worked extremely hard uh this summer as they do every every summer. We we're taking apart a piece of carpet cleaning equipment there. Those are our custodial trainers, Irving and Cherry, and I'm sure they got that figured out right there. I'm confident that they did. Um, but there's all all sorts of tasks that our folks are are completing each day. They're high dusting, they're wiping down surfaces, of course, working on our floors, deep cleaning our carpets, our
107restrooms, top scrubbing and recotating um our our vinyl floors. And uh they they just do a terrific job and uh they pay attention to the details um as you see there uh getting in those corners and along the baseboards and they take a lot of pride in what they do. You'll see some pictures of uh different groups of custodians, the teams at the schools and um you know our greatest asset is our people. and when they're out there working together as teams as they do, you know, they really they really uh can go a long way. I like to show this picture and it really doesn't do it justice, but I know I've said in the past we're furniture movers for about the first week after school lets out and then about midway through the
108summer we're furniture movers again. They taken all this stuff out of the classrooms to clean it entirely and then put it back in. Um, so again, kudos to our custodial teams. They do a terrific job and and we're just uh pleased to have them out there looking after our schools. Thank you. All right. And I can attest to that, our schools look great. So much so that as my wife needed to move furniture, she had me come in on the weekend so it didn't she didn't pull it across there and scratch her nicely uh waxed floors. And I think a lot I wasn't the only one there that weekend moving furniture or helping a helping a spouse out. Um our buildings look fabulous. Um uh in terms of action items, we have eight this evening.
109Uh the first one is uh removing quite a few personnel policies from uh the table for public comment and placing them on the agenda for approval. Uh so I'm going to go through all of these and ask for questions at the end. The superintendent recommends removing board policy GAD, professional learning opportunities. Board policy GAE, complaints and grievances. Board policy GA, drug-free workplace. Board policy GMBB, possession of weapons by employees. Board policy GA, employee tobacco use. Board policy Ga, infectious disease. Board policy G Ah, employee leaves and absences. Board policy g, employee vacation. Board policy GBC, professional personnel recruitment. Board policy GBIA, teacher evaluation appeals. Board policy GBN, professional personnel termination. Board policy GCK, classified personnel suspension. from the public comment for approving these policies. He also further recommends uh board pol rem uh removing board
110policy GBA pay for performance from public comment uh for uh removing or rescending at the August 5th board meeting. Any questions about those policies? We did receive uh no public comment on any of these policies in the month that they've been on the table. Thank you. Now it's time for our construction manager at risk. >> Okay. So, I'm going to speak about our construction manager at risk for system athletic improvements and then we'll ask uh Mr. Jason Ays to come up and present a number of transportation department action items. Okay. Athletic improvements are needed within the district, including but not limited to athletic facilities at the Barrow Arts and Sciences Academy. This will be baseball, softball, stadium, track and field, gymnasium, and support facilities. Track reservicing and fence replacement are examples of needed improvements elsewhere
111around the district. Other potential building and site improvements may also be evaluated as part of the system athletic improvements project. It's necessary to put together a team to help us as the owner to evaluate, plan, design, budget, and construct these projects. The first step in building this team was to name an architect, and our board of education approved Cunningham, Forhand, Matthews, and more on May 6 of this year. The final step in putting this team together is approval of a construction manager. To that end, a project advertisement was issued which included notice of a mandatory pre-proposal meeting. Six firms attended this meeting on May 29 and four firms submitted proposals on June 10. Our project manager, Joey Murphy, director of maintenance, Greg Webb, and myself, along with our architect, who served in a consultative role,
112poured over these proposals and met on multiple occasions to examine the firms on a number of evaluation factors. This was a very difficult decision, and I say that in a positive way because we had four quality firms proposing on this work. Taking all that all the evaluation factors into account, one contractor stood out slightly above the others. In terms of financial impact, there is a $65 million stated cost limitation associated with the project. This is a number that gives contractors an idea of the potential value of the project. But actual project cost will be brought before the board as a series of guaranteed maximum price figures after the various project components are planned, designed, and priced. The only cost item that the board would be approving with this specific construction manager recommendation is $50,000 for
113pre-construction services. And so with that said, we're asking the superintendent to recommend Paris Construction as construction manager at risk for the system athletic improvement project. Any questions? >> Thank you. consent. >> Mr. Jason, our director of transportation has a number of action items related to uh our transportation department and maintaining and purchasing buses. Get y'all this exciting stuff. Get out all this other boring stuff. So anyway, buses. We need to buy a few, need to fix a few. So let's let's get rolling on that. Anyway, I'm sorry. I needed to get up and move around. It was just one of them things. But um right out of the gate, superintendent recommends Rush uh truck centers, that's international bus, uh for the supply of 1072 passenger buses. Uh bus bids were put on the Georgia procurement
114website and Barrow County Schools website to receive bids for uh for the purchase of new buses. Rush Truck Centers International is the only vendor who submitted the bid. Rush Truck Rush Truck Centers bid is uh 145,000 per bus. All buses in our fleet will be equipped with air conditioning. These are instock buses. So the delivery is pretty much immediate uh when we when we pay for these buses. So uh financial impacts price per bus $145,000 times 10 buses that's one $1,450,000. So u for total purchase amount state allocations roughly around $400,000 that'll all be offset with splash to complete the purchase and everything. So >> okay good. >> All right. Mers, >> since we have uh since school's about to kick off, is would that be a more appropriate item to move to vote to
115to vote on tonight so that we could get those buses here if they're available as you? >> Hey, I'm I'm game for that one. I've got I'll just give I'll just give you the politics of that thing. There's about seven buses over there that don't have AC that's going to be on route. Those few hundred children would appreciate it and so would those drivers. So, absolutely, ma'am. Thank you for bringing that up. >> Thank you. >> All right, we'll move that. We'll move that. >> Have at it. I'll throw you a gift card if I need to. >> There you go. Heat index has been kind of brutal. Y'all understand that? >> Yeah, it has. >> Y'all ready? >> Yeah. >> All right. I was going to hold up on that and I didn't want
116to mess it up. So, >> uh, next recommendation. Superintendent recommends the approval of the following vendors for outsourced bus repairs. Y'all see the list right there. just you know you can look at that if you got any questions. Uh summary on that currently the transportation department has six mechanics to maintain a fleet of 212 school buses. Each bus must be inspected every 20 days and service is needed. When repairs are needed they go beyond the ability of the mechanics to perform. We outsource these repairs. A pool of vendors is needed to complete repairs in a timely manner and service vehicles in a per and service vehicles in a preferred manner. Uh for instance one vendor doesn't have a shop in which the repair buses does not operate. I'm sorry I just lost my train of
117thought. right there. For instance, one vendor doesn't have a shop in which to repair buses, but does not operate for service trucks for the field repairs. Occasionally, a repair vendor may have buses in line for repairs and cannot get to our bus in a timely manner. Obviously, we're just not the only one standing in that line. So, uh with buses needing repaired everywhere, a pool of vendors allows flexibility to get buses repaired in a timely manner while still maintaining costs. Uh this is a three-year bid with potential increase in cost due to inflation, tariffs, and growth. uh supporting documents but out bus outsource vendors uh 2026 to 2028 results you got the PDF there estimated 500,000 uh per year and that's out of general fund good >> consent >> all right next one ups superintendent
118recommends awarding the fuel petroleum and oil lubrication bid to Basel Oil company the bid was put out on Georgia procurement website in County schools website. Basel Oil Company is recommended due to the rate per gallon which is 196 per gallon for gasoline and 263 per gallon for diesel. BCS to BCSS to receive priority deliveries and supply shortages uh in the shortage event. Average response time of 30 minutes for emergency delivery uh and ability of the bidder to provide lubricants as requested. Last three items on the bid form if you look at that. So you just have to break it down and kind of go line by line to see, you know, see how they kind of excel and kind of outdo the other ones. Uh this is a three-year bid with potential increase due to
119inflation, tariffs, and growth. Now, we don't anticipate anything. You know, fuel looks like it's hopefully slowing down. So, we we hope it'll just keep, you know, kind of deflating there. But, uh financial impact, uh 1.2 million per year, and that's general fund. >> Next thing, superintendent recommends the use of the following vendors for brake parts, batteries, alternator, starters, and additional parts, materials, and shop supplies. You got you got the list right there. Part of them are local vendors as well. So, we try to try to keep things in, you know, local best we can support local business and stuff. Um, the bid was put on Georgia procurement website and Bear County Schools website. Having uh three vendors allows flexibility if another is out when item is needed. Approval to use all highlighted vendors for any
120additional parts requested during the year is requested due to the fact that five that five of the vendors of aftermarket parts are local and able to deliver users to us quickly when needed. One vendor carries bulk amounts of cleaning and shop supplies. The last vendors are original equipment manufacturer parts vendors. The core on brake shoes and battery can be returned for a refund once the parts have been installed and the core is returned. The total price shown is the initial payment for brake uh shoe/ battery plus core and does not reflect the expected refund once the core is returned. Again, this is a three-year bid with potential increase of cost due to inflation tariffs and growth. Um supporting documents, you've got the PDF there for bus parts and supplies. Uh financial impact estimated 775,000 per
121year. >> Consent. >> Yes. >> Right. Next one up, tires. Uh, superintendent recommends approval of Southern Tire Mart LLC for fleet tires. The bid was put on Georgia procurement website and Bar County Schools website. Southern Tire Mart is recommended because they provide better service at a higher level of quality concerning the recap aspect of their product line. Again, this is a three-year bid with potential increase in cost due to inflation, tariffs, and growth. Uh, again, you got the PDF right there. Estimated cost per year around 200,000. >> Consent. All right. This is a lot, man. I didn't realize I had this many pages. All right. Uh re uh sec this recommendation. Superintendent recommends approval of Connor Automotive for our white fleet service. Uh that's our maintenance truck, service trucks, anything that's not yellow in the
122county. That's pretty much what our white fleet consists of. Uh the bid was put on Georgia procurement website and Bar County schools website. The white fleet consists of 87 trucks, vans, and SUVs used by maintenance, technology, transportation, school nutrition, and other departments. Uh there three-year bid with a potential increase of cost due to inflation, tariffs, and growth. Uh got the PDF there if you need to look at that. Uh financial impact estimated about 80,000 per year, and that's general fund as well. >> Consent, right, give me a breath on this one. Um, superintendent recommends uh continuing use of WEX fuel cards for fueling buses offsite due to the existing infrastructure of our tank limitations. Do not allow all the buses fueled at one location. We have some infrastructure needs that we're going to hopefully address
123in the months coming. So, I should be back in front of you guys once we get some some parts of that figured out. Uh, but we use those just to keep us flexible and we don't waste time or fuel getting fuel if that makes sense. So, uh, estimated 400,000 per year and that's general fund as well. >> That's it. Right. >> All right. Superintendent recommends continued the use of Cal AMP Sovia for the multifunction tablet use uh to support fleet functions. Uh summary on that is Cal Ampovia tablets uh support the drivers with fleet tracking route information clocking in and out and various other fleet functions. Uh supporting documents. There's the contract. You can see that if you need to. um estimated at 160,000 per year for the next four years to support the established
124duty cycle of the equipment which at what time we renegotiate the contract get new tablets and all that if if we stay with that particular vendor. So >> that's it. >> And that's all I have. >> I ain't seen you guys in a while. It's good to be back but next time I'll stay a little quieter. So >> thank you. >> Right. Thank you. >> All right. Now we need to go into executive session. May I have a motion to go into executive executive session to discuss or deliber deliberate upon the appointment, employment, compensation, hiring, disciplinary action or dismissal or periodic evaluation or rating of a public officer or employee or to interview applicants for the position of superintendent. >> Second >> motion by is that Miss >> and second by Miss Kelly? All right.
125Any discussion? All in favor? All right, we will be back shortly. >> Hello, my name is Nicholas Dawson and I'm a senior here at the Barrow Arts and Sciences Academy. I came here to BASSA not knowing that there was a robotics program in the first place. But I came here to BASA because it was the new big school on the block. I remember in middle school they came to us at Westside and said, "There's a new high school coming up and we're building it right now and you can enroll." Of course, I'm going to take that opportunity. This is a brand new school with materials that are top-of-the-line, highest tech, brand new, and I just took the opportunity. I saw a good opportunity. I took it. And it was the Barrel Arts and Science Academy.
126How could I not accept something like that if I'm going into the computer science field? In high school, this is going to sound really bad, but in high school, the most memorable experiences I have are the worst experiences I have. But I think that's because after I found the solution, it gave me the most sense of accomplishment, the most sense of pride, cuz I finally found that the error that was causing everything, it was usually I typed something wrong or I put in the wrong variable. And when I finally just saw that little mistake and fixed it, everything started working. Everything was fluent. Everything started going along like it was lively. And I was so happy to see this thing I was been working on for the past like month, two weeks, day even start
127working again. And I was always so happy. If I had to pick someone from everyone I've ever met, it has to be Miss Nolles. Miss Nolles has been my computer science teacher for the longest time. I've had her through APS, APCSP, game design, APCSA, and even now in work-based learning, I go to her and ask her questions, and she still knows the answers to all of them. Miss Nolles is a very, very good teacher. She'll always just like stand up, walk around, help people with problems. She'll never say something like, "Just look it up on Google." She'll go to it, see the problem, and say, "How can we work through this together?" My future plans right now for graduation are kind of iffy. I'd say right now, I'm I've been accepted into UG. I've also
128been given the honor of getting an internship at Loheed Martin. My parents want me to go to college, so I will. is and the short the short and sweet of it, I'm going to college because my parents asked me to and I love my parents. My biggest dream right now is if I get out of college, get an internship, get a job in my free time, start making a video game, which I'm very proud of. I've had this idea in my head for years for this video game. It's just generally I need this experience on how to program, how to draw, how to make music, do all these things, how to make a video game in general, what's the process? I'm trying to get as much experience as I can right now and through work-based
129learning through people, through talking to other people in general. Just learn how to make things, make a video game. I've a lot of small tiny accomplishments that I'm very proud of. Things I can't even remember but I know happened that I'm always happy about. But if I had to name something, it'd be what I'm doing right now. Working on the Mono project, which is a website. I started from scratch when I didn't even know how to make a website, how to know how to make an interactable interface with a website, all this and that. and communicate with an SQL, a database that actually stores all this information. When I started my work-based learning semester, like last semester, I had absolutely no clue what I was doing, what I was willing to learn, and I learned
130from every possible source I could. It's really taught me a lot about cyber security, how to build a website, how to maintain a website, what the process is to build and create and maintain all this and that for a simple website. I think the biggest accomplishment right now I've had in high school is the connections I've made along this whole path through not only engineering, software, but with people, too. I know how to communicate better. I know how to build. I know how to engineer. I know what it feels like to be working a part of a team. And I think that's the biggest thing you can learn from anything. How to communicate, how to work, how to work as a team. And I think that's the biggest accomplishment anyone can get. Try your best.
131Always be willing to learn. And most importantly, never give up what you're doing. Always follow that dream. Always follow the goal that you have and never ever let anyone tell you otherwise. Always follow the dream. Sims Academy is a career prep school available to all high school students in Barrow County. Daily, Sims is filled with students taking dual enrollment courses, industry specific CTA classes, and SIMS offered high school classes like construction. Depending the students schedule, they may spend all day at SIMS or utilize the BCSS organized shuttles to or from their home schools. >> Sims is also home to many of Barrow County school systems unique programs such as the newcomer Academy, YES program, and STEP program. >> Sims was the first school on the innovation campus before being joined by Laneer Technical College, Barrow
132Arts and Science Academy, and Austin Road Elementary School. It began with a mission that continues to evolve to ensure the success of BCSS students and our local community. >> The YES program at SIMS is a class for students with disabilities that are in their senior year of high school. The YES program is partnered with the Goodwill Northeast Georgia, Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency and High School with the goal of helping seniors be better prepared for the independent employment after high school. Goodwill staff works with participants of the youth job training program to set career goals and equip students with the necessary skills to enter the workforce. YES participants can earn high school credit for job readiness training classes and paid work experience. The YES program has three phases. Phase one, one transition class at SIMS Academy
133during the fall semester of senior year. Phase two, a paid internship in the spring of senior year if the student has proven to be motivated and reliable. Phase three, full-time job placement after graduation. >> The student transition enrichment program, also known as STEP, is a full-time year-long school-to transition program for students with significant cognitive disabilities who have the goal of supported employment after high school. The STEP program provides supported work experiences in a variety of community business settings as well as within Common Ground, the cafeteria, and various CTA classrooms. It also gives students the opportunity to practice self-determination, self- advocacy, and an independent living skills. This program has an application process, and students must be accepted for the IEP team to consider this service. Sims Academy students can build a strong foundation for their culinary
134careers through our dual enrollment partnership with Lineer Technical College. Highly qualified instructors from Lineer Technical College teach students in the career and technical education programs available to students through Sims Academy. The culinary arts program prepares students for employment within many facets of the food service industry. Students will obtain technical skills training focusing on food preparation, sanitation, nutrition, marketing, catering, management fundamentals, and work ethics. The prep cook technical certificate of credit provides skills for entry into the food services preparation area as a prep cook. Topics include food services history, safety and sanitation, purchasing and food control, nutrition and menu development and design along with the principles of cooking. Students who complete the certificate are positioned to earn several additional certificates that lead to a diploma or degree in culinary arts. SIMS offers students a hands-on opportunity
135to learn construction, carpentry, and electrical fundamentals. The construction pathway consists of four courses ranging from fundamentals and safety to carpentry and electrical skills. These courses are designed to help prepare students for careers in the construction industry, and many graduates find work in the construction industry after completing this pathway. The motto that students have in the class is that anything worth doing is worth doing right the first time. The Barrow County Newcomer Academy was established in 2017 with the purposes of supporting high school students as they transition to life in the United States. Since its inception, the newcomer Academy has served speakers of many different languages from all around the world. Instructors work with students to develop their English and product support in their academic classes. Additionally, the newcomer Academy serves to support students with many
136unique challenges of adapting to life in new culture surrounded by a new language. Sims Academy in Barrow County offers high school students a dynamic career prep experience with dual enrollment CTA classes and unique courses. Sims is a direct path to a brighter future. [Music] Hi, my name is Barbie Culp and I'm the Barrow County mentor coordinator and today I'm here with Mary and she is a mentor at Holen Peek Elementary. I am um I am so lucky because I have a second grader. He's so sweet. So sweet. I was so glad to see him back after the landfill fiasco and they were digital learning and so I was delighted to see him back. He's young enough he still likes to give hugs. >> Yeah. I wanted to do something at Holston Bay because I live
137very close there and um I think I volunteered for reading and you suggested the mentoring program. Well, when I was working um I was uh mentored at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and I appreciated it very much and um and then I became a mentor eventually there. And so when you approached about the program here in the county, I thought that's perfect. >> Um I don't know if I'm a typical mentor. I love children. I think that's the basic requirement is that you care about them and you're sincere in caring about them. And if you do that, that's really all they need. >> They will be like little flowers to the sun. I um take a little craft of some kind, not expensive, and we start with that. And then that just gives
138us a chance to just kind of talk while we're busy with our fingers doing things. Um I also take a little snack. I hope that's okay. Um you know, a little pack of crackers or cookies and um he's always happy about that. If you're thinking about mentoring, the best thing I can tell you is you get back so much more than you ever give. It's just heartwarming. And I walk out of the school every week with a big smile on my face because to be with such a sweet young man. I think mentoring is a lot simpler than what people think it is. I think um it sounds scary. It sounds overwhelming. It sounds like a huge commitment. And while it is a commitment, it is not um it's simple. It's a simple process of
139just caring for someone and um listening really. Um you know, uh so um again, we're always looking for mentors um in Barrow County. If you work from home and have 30 minutes a week to spare, um if you are retired, um if you're a parent and you have 30 minutes to spare, we'd love to have you join our mentoring program and spend time with a student. >> I think that there are a lot of children of all ages who would benefit from knowing that someone cares enough to be with them. >> Yeah. >> On a regular basis. >> Yes. [Music] races. >> This is where traditions begin and legacies are built. >> At Barrow Arts and Sciences Academy, we're sparking innovations of tomorrow by empowering our students today. Our academic course offerings are rigorous to
140prepare students for life beyond high school. And we offer a variety of art programs that encourage students to express themselves no matter the medium. We are a non-traditional school where students will discover their passion, prepare for their future, and explore the intersection where the arts and sciences complement one another. This is Basa, and we are the Blazers. Hi, I am Lynn Tilman. You can refer to me as the Tillminator. That's what I've been being called since 1989 when the Terminator movies were popular. And I teach music at County Line Elementary School. And this is my room. I have all kinds of things that I have acquired through the um fundraising website called Donor Shoes. Got some congas and bongos. And I have this sweet, totally sweet 1970s vintage set of wood blocks. Love those. I
141have some African gem. I got some bases. We got Oh, we got a got a big doghouse bass. That's awesome, too. We have um I really don't know what they're called, but I call them flapophones. We got bells. We got tubano drums. I got a xylophone. These these are mine personally. Nobody gets to touch those except me. And I got a drum set which we are rocking on all the time. I first realized that I could potentially be good as a teacher back when I was in middle school and I played the flute in Gwinnet County, Sweetwater Middle School. And my band director realized that I'd already known my parts and he asked me to help some of the people not only in my section but in other sections to learn their parts better. So
142we'd go back in the practice room. I was teach them their parts and I've always had a way of being able to break it down to its absolute simplest forms that you don't even have to understand music to get what it is and to teach on a need to know basis. This is all you need to know to be able to play this. Kind of like earlier when I was doing the bases and I said all you got to do is press the yellow dot. They don't have to know that that's an E. They don't have to know that it's an E chord. All they have to know is right now, press the yellow dot. When you see my footstep on yellow, you press yellow. The simplest form to get them to have success as
143quickly as possible. And it was back in middle school that I first realized that I had that in me and that I could get people to learn with down to the simplest thing. >> Teachers do amazing things. >> Teachers do fun activities. Yeah. >> I want them to know that teachers, we're not perfect. We can come in and we think, "I've got a plan. I'm doing good. I am going to teach." And then you come in here and you totally blow it. And sometimes you just blow it and the kids laugh at you and then you move on and you fix it. And now I'm going to fix it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. So, I was doing the >> My name's Hannah Hollingsworth and I'm a senior at Appalache High School. In my
144childhood, I grew up with a single mom and an older brother. So, I was roughousing around, you know, just trying to make it day by day. I was very independent as a kid, which honestly led me up to me being like as strong willed and independent as I am today. All right, we are back in regular session. Um, we have three action items we need to approve tonight. The GETS IGA. Do I have a motion? >> So, moved. >> Motion by Mr. Callaway, second by Miss Hendris. All in favor? All right. Thank you. Um, we have the Foothills CollaborativeU. Could I have a motion to approve this? >> So moved by Dr. Kerry. >> Thank you. >> Motion by Dr. Kerry. Second by Miss Hendricks. >> Miss Lord. >> All right. >> All in favor?
145>> Motion carries. And new buses. Have a motion to Mr. Callaway. >> Second. >> Is that right? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. And second. >> Oh, >> either one. >> Miss Maddox. >> All right. All in favor. >> All right. Motion passes. All right. And then we have tonight's personnel report. Have a motion to approve report. >> So move. >> Second. Motion by Miss Kelly, second by Miss Bradford. All in favor? Motion carries. All right, our next meeting will be Tuesday, August the 5th at 6 PM and we wish you all a great first day of school on Friday. We'll be thinking about you. All right, we're joured.