001Call this March 2nd work session to order and a motion to approve the agenda. >> So move, >> Mr. Tulle. >> Second, >> Mr. Hammond. All in favor. Passes 50. Superintendent report. >> Thank you, Mr. Ransom. And good evening, board members. March is always one of those months that feels like a sprint in the best possible ways because it's full of celebrations, warmer weather, and the start of our final preparations for graduation. It's also a reminder of how many people and programs it takes to support the whole child in our district. This month, we get to recognize quite a few important groups of people who invest in our children daily. First, March is music in our schools month and art youth youth art month. both highlight the many wonderful contributions the fine arts make to
002a well-rounded education. We are thankful for our fine arts teachers and for all they do to grow and strengthen these programs for our students. March is also National School Nutrition Month and I want to specifically thank Mr. Seagull and our school nutrition staff. They do so much more than serve meals. They help ensure students start the day cared for and ready to learn. We're grateful for the consistency, the kindness, and the hard work they bring to every day to support our students. This month also includes custodians and maintenance workers appreciation day. These crucially important staff members keep our schools safe, clean, and functional so teaching and learning can happen and we are ve very grateful for what they do for our students every single day. It's also National Athletic Training Month where we recognize our
003athletic trainers for the essential care, prevention, and support they provide our student athletes every single day. March includes National School Social Workers Week, and we recognize our school social workers, Miss Leanne Hell, Mr. Brian Bishop, and Miss Victoria Glaze. They often serve as a bridge between home and school, stepping in with resources and steady support when our families face barriers. And finally, March is schoolboard recognition recognition month, which gives us a chance to say thank you to each one of you for your leadership, governance, and constant advocacy for our students and staff. We look forward to celebrating you at next week's week's meeting. Thank you. In addition to these recognitions, there are a few other timely highlights. This is ReadAcross America Week, and our elementary schools have fun activities planned to foster a love of
004reading. We also recently observed National FFA week which highlights the leadership, career skills, and real world learning students gain through agricultural education. I was lucky enough to stop by a Coney County High School on Friday where I got some great roasted chicken from our FFA students um that they had worked hard to prepare. Finally, last Thursday, we took 10 students from the superintendent's advisory council to the state capital. It was one of those days that reminds you of why civic learning matters. Our students spent the day meeting with our legislators, touring the building, asking thoughtful questions, and seeing firsthand how decisions are made. They were even recognized from the floor. It was a great day for them to see legislation in action and to understand that their voices matter. A couple of quick closing reminders.
005Daylight savings time begins on March 8th, and we have a student holiday and professional learning day on March 16th. That wraps up the March highlights unless you have any questions. >> Thank you, Dr. Next we have presentations and discussions teaching learning report. Miss Whitaker. Learning report uh contains four items of information and no action items. The first item of information is CTAE month. February is recognized as CTAE month and our own middle and high school CTAE classes utilize this opportunity to promote their program areas and provide information to students and parents during the course registration process. The second item of information is a new CTA course edition. This course edition will be for the therapeutic services pathway at North O County High School. This course is in response to requests from students, teachers, and school
006leaders and aligns with our strategic goal of improving pathway completion. Beginning in the 2026 2027 school year, we will add sports medicine at North Okone. This will add a fourth level course option, expand pathway opportunities, and provide access to additional industry certifications. Once North Oone High School students have been scheduled, any remaining seats will be made available to OKone County High School students who are interested in in enrolling through this partnership. The DI district will pilot campus to campus transportation as part of our effort to broaden students access to specialized coursework. The third item of information is kindergarten registration. Okone County Schools will hold online kindergarten registration for the 2627 school year from March 9th through 13th. Parents and guardians may register their children by visiting our website during this period. Information about registration has
007been shared through multiple communication channels and flyers have been distributed to local preK programs to help families prepare and stay informed. Schools will contact parents after registration to schedule a kindergarten screening appointment. These screening appointments will take place March 30th and 31st. The final and fourth item of information is the 2026 Georgia Science and Engineering Fair. 20 Okone County School students have qualified for the 26th Georgia Science and Engineering Fair. These students advanced based on their showings at the Northeast Georgia Regional Science and Engineering Fair at Pedmont University. This fair for the uh region will take place on March 26th through the 28th at the Classic Center. Additionally, North Okone High students Neil Mishra and Sarah Seal earned special awards at the event. Mishra won the Naval Science Award in Earth Sciences and Sarah picked
008up the Jackson EMC Pinnacle Award in Animal Sciences. Listed in my attached report are the winners and the titles of their projects. Their accomplishments reflect OKone County School's strategic goal to prepare students for post-secary opportunities and success in an evolving workforce. That concludes the teaching and learning report unless there are questions. >> Thank you, Miss Whitaker. Next, we have student services, Dr. Yansy. Good evening, Dr. Butler and board members. The March 2026 student services report contains one item of information and two action items. Sorry. The item of information is the Luty 43 Safe Driving Summits that both of our high schools will offer students later this semester. Uh the Lutzy 43 Foundation was created in 2014 in memory of Philip Lutener with a mission to end distracted, impaired, and safe driving. Through its 43 key
009seconds initiative, the foundation empowers teens and adults to become ambassadors for safe driving using Philip's story and legacy to inspire responsible choices behind the wheel. Our safe driving summits will engage our current 10th grade students and take place at Okone County High School on March 31st and North Okone High School on April the 1st. I would like to recognize Mr. Stevens and Mr. Carter and their teams for identifying a need within our school communities and creating a meaningful learning opportunity for our students. Student services has two action items for tonight's work session. The first action item is the United Stateate field trip for North Oak Countyy's Congressional App Challenge team to travel to Washington DC on April the 20th and return on April the 22nd. And the second action item is for North Oak County
010High School juniors and seniors who are interested in attending Clemson University to travel to Clemson, South Carolina for a college group tour and campus visit on April the 22nd. The superintendent recommends approving the two field trips as presented. And this concludes student services report unless there are any questions. >> Thank you, Dr. Yansy. Yes, sir. >> Technology, Mr. Cers. >> Thank you, Mr. Ransom. Good evening, board members and Dr. Butler. Cody County Schools Technology Services Board of Education report for March 2nd includes no action items and one a excuse me, no information items and one action item for the March 9th regular session. Tonight's action item is the revision of board policy IBFG, internet acceptable use, aligning with the requirements of Senate Bill 351, also known as the Protecting Georgia's children on social media act
011of 2024. Based on re recent guidance we have received, the revisions to the policy provide additional clarity regarding the prohibition of student access of social media platforms while connected to the district network or while using schoolisssued devices. No public comments were received regarding the suggest the these suggested changes. Excuse me. Superintendent's recommendation is to remove from the table and to approve board policy IBFG internet accessible use at the March 9th regular session. And with that, that concludes the technology services report unless you have any questions. >> Mr. Millers, >> thank you. >> Operations, Dr. White. >> Good evening, board members and Dr. Butler. Operations has two items of information for this evening and one action item for this month's regular session. The firstformational item is an operations update. Houseman has completed the replacement of the
012green monster at the North County High School softball field with a black vinyl fence. You can see the before, during, and after of this project in these pictures. Only the fence topper remains. Then this project will be completed. Transportation now has a cellular camera system on our buses. This project consolidated our bus camera system to a single setup, provided operational efficiencies with cloud storage of video, and provided our drivers the ability to timestamp videos for route supervisor review in real time. Thank you for your continued support of our drivers and your ongoing commitment to modernize our fleet. We also have an update on the school nutrition task force. We have now completed our task force meetings with a broad group of stakeholders which reviewed revenue and expenditures, current and upcoming practices in school nutrition and
013time for feedback and recommendations from the group. School nutrition is now working on centralizing their recommendations, scheduling time to collaborate with other districts and investigating action items as appropriate. Our first action item for next week's meeting is our waste disposal contract. Operations has collected bids for this service. The superintendent's recommendation is for the board of education to approve rolloff systems for the waste disposal contract for our proposal cost of $93,840. This project will be paid for using general funds. Our final action item for next week's regular session is the enhancement of the radio system at High Shoes Elementary School. The superintendent's recommendation is for the board of education to approve graybar for this project with a proposal cost of $84,182.82 based on the Omnia contract. This project will be paid for using general funds andor
014safety grant funds. This concludes the operations report unless there are any questions. >> Question sir, >> operations and facilities, Mr. Ricketts. Good evening. The Elone County Schools Operations and Facilities March 2nd, 2026 Board of Education report contains one item of information and one action item for next week's regular session. First item of information is construction update. Uh we've talked about this before, the Okone Primary Driveway project. We're planning on doing it over spring break. Uh everything's in place to make that happen. the transportation project. The contractor has started work. They're currently working to install the new well and new septic system. North County auxiliary gym. We had a second meeting with the coaches and leadership team at North County and they've met with uh operations and the architect to continue the discussion of needs and
015goals for the project. The architect is investigating possible design solutions to achieve those goals. Our action item this week is the Malcolm Bridge Elementary School track. Uh what you see on your screen is the location of the track. It's going to go around the basket the the soccer goals around the soccer field and it's going to include a walkway that goes from the school to the pickle ball courts from the pickle ball courts to the track. It's the superintendent's recommend Oh, uh it will the project will be funded by the school and uh using donated funds for this project. It's the superintendent's recommendation is for the board of education to approve all about asphalt for paved for a paved walking track at Malcolm Bridge Elementary School for a proposed cost of $27,891. This project will
016be paid for using the principal's account. That concludes my report unless there are any questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Rickson. >> Human resources, Mr. Co. >> Good evening, board members and Dr. Butler. Human resources report this evening contains two items of information. Our first item of information is an update on our YAS transition. We continue to make steady progress in this transition. The contract module has been fully implemented and all employee contracts will be issued through YAS beginning next week. We have also finalized all new hire onboarding paperwork within YAS, allowing us to transition our job postings into YOS by the end of this month, completing the next major phase of implementation. This transition continues to improve efficiency, strengthen documentation processes, and modernize the HR system in alignment with our goal of operational excellence and
017improved employee experience. Our second item of information is an update on our annual service pins. It is once again that time of year when this very coveted and celebrated tradition becomes available for our employees. Staff were invited to submit their 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 year service pins honoring their dedication and long-term commitment to our students and community. This year, we are proud to recognize 72 employees who have reached a milestone year of service. Notably, a record 43 employees are celebrating their 10-year milestone. We fully expect all 43 to make it to 30 years, and we will go ahead and call them the class of 2046. Recognizing longevity is more than ceremonial. It directs uh it directly aligns with our strategic action plan, particularly our focus on retention. Celebrating service milestones reinforces a culture
018where employees feel valued, appreciated, and connected to something larger than themselves. Retention is built intentionally and these milestones reflect the strength of our people and the community that they continue to choose year after year. We look forward to honoring these employees and thanking them for their continued investment in Okone County Schools. This concludes the human resources report for the evening, but we remain available for any questions. >> Mr. Mr. C. >> Thank you, Mr. Ransom. Good evening, board members and Dr. Butler. Communications report contains two items of information. The first item is February social media information. Okone County Schools had 32 social media posts in February with an average of 21,048 views for the month. 21 posts were viewed more than 10,000 times, including one at 75,000, four at 40,000, two at 30,000, seven at
01920,000, and seven at 10,000. The top post for the month came on the first day of the month, Sunday, February 1st, and was the final post regarding winter weather. The announcement that Monday, February 2nd, would have a normal operations schedule garnered more than 75,000 views. Coney County Schools saw additional tremendous engagement in February with posts on Mr. Robert Harris's last day at Colum Ferry Elementary, counselor's month, Governor's Honors, a North Okone Okone County baseball soccer triple header, individual state championships in wrestling and swimming, SRO appreciation day, and a behind-the-scenes day spent at Okone County High School. Okone County Schools gained 215 followers in February, giving the district more than 24,650 followers. In addition, the February newsletter released last Friday has been opened 9,563 times. Our team believes the newsletter will wind up being open near
020or above 10,000 in the coming days. We are so appreciative of the parents, students, community members, businesses, and media that follow and engage with the Elone County Schools social media accounts. Finally, this evening, we have the February highlights video. February is the shortest month, but you can tell it was a jam-packed month. That concludes communications, unless you have any questions. >> I was just going to say shout out to Mr. Robert. That was a awesome sendoff for him. So, big thank you to Colin Ferry for honoring him in such a special way, too. It was cool to see him go down with a golf card and all the kids cheering for him. That was really great. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Carpet. >> We do have a need to enter executive session and discuss
021personnel, and I need a motion to do so. and land. >> Yes. So, uh, make a motion for the board to adjourn to executive session, discuss or deliberate upon real estate matters and personnel matters as described on the affidavit to be attached to the meeting to the minutes. Mr. >> Second to all in favor passes 50. We're adjourned to executive session.