by Denise Etheridge
The White County Board of Education tabled pro- posed changes to two new school policies during a regular meeting on Oct. 30. The board will revisit the recommended amendments in 30 days.
The proposed change to the Student Assignment to Schools policy stipulates that parents and guardians are responsible for reporting a student’s change in residence to the principal of the school their child attends. They must also provide documentation showing the address change.
The proposed change to the Unsafe School Choice Option policy requires Georgia’s public school systems to notify parents if their child is in a school that has been designated as an unsafe school, and to allow that child to transfer to a safe school in another school district within 30 days of a transfer request.
The board also approved several expenditures totaling $103,871.96 using 2015 Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax [ES- PLOST] funds. The system will replace two gates at Jack P. Nix Elementary School for $10,000, remove a tree and paint a wall at Mt. Yonah Elementary School for $5,000, and will up- grade electronic door lock [Salto Lock] technology for $88,871.96.
In other board business, Michele Broadwell, Director of Special Education, presented The Service Above Self Award to Erica Owens, a counselor at Jack P. Nix Elementary School.
Owens recently organized the school’s Career Day, recruiting 11 presenters that included a pediatric pulmonologist who once attended Jack P. Nix, and a lawyer whose children are students there.
Jack P. Nix Elementary School Principal Laura Hall and several members of her faculty briefed school board members
on innovative measures teachers and media specialists have initiated to improve literacy at all grade levels. Students in third through fifth grades participated in a Battle of the Books competition, and the school hosted a STEM and a Literacy Night for families.
The school board will next meet at 8 a.m.Tuesday, Nov. 18, at the administrative offices, Cliff Hood Boardroom, 136 Warrior Path, in Cleveland.