School Board Meets
Most of Monday night’s Board of Education meeting was spent behind closed doors as board members met in closed session for almost an hour to discuss personnel and compensation.
After the closed session, the meeting was reopened to the public and the board approved a consent agenda which included accepting the retirement of Michael Hart effective June 30, hiring Thomas Boyd as a social studies teacher at the high school, naming Lyndsay Simpson as After School Childcare Program Director, approving performance-based extracurricular bonuses that added bonuses for band and swimming, and reappointing Shelly McBride and Natalie Hayes to represent the school system on the Ohoopee Regional Library Board.
The meeting kicked off with the board approving a recommendation from Superintendent Dr. Stan Rentz to approve three policies — recommended by the Georgia School Boards Association — that had been out for public review and putting out for 30-day review policies on recruitment and credit card use.
Finance Director Betty Corbitt explained to the board that they already have a stringent policy on credit card use and adopting the policy in question would just let the state know that the school system has a policy.
With the 2018-2019 budget not yet complete, Corbitt asked the board to approve a resolution to spend funds during August until the budget is completed. She said that, because the board will be raising the millage rate, they must hold required public hearings and plans are to have the budget ready to approve by Aug. 13. The board approved her request.
Corbett also received approval to close out old Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax accounts and transfer the money to a more current SPLOST account.
Corbett informed the board that the system was 100% into the current fiscal year with 96.48% of the budgeted revenues collected and 97.68% of the expenditures spent.
She also said that current SPLOST revenues were above what had been estimated.
Corbett closed out her report by saying that, in August, the board will be asked to adopt a resolution to have a bond issue so the system can move forward on projects outlined in the latest SPLOST, with SPLOST proceeds to be used to repay the bond issue. The projects include constructing four additional tennis courts and a renovation project for the high school.
Dr. Rentz informed the board that the audit for the 2017-18 school year had turned up no significant findings, which prompted Board Chairman Roger Ogilvie to thank Corbitt for the work she had done on the audit, saying he appreciated the fact she has kept the board from getting into trouble through a bad audit.
Dr. Rentz seconded Ogilvie’s comments and added that the only finding was “a very insignificant amount” concerning some $10 on gate receipts.
Corbitt said they would be meeting with the coaches to come up with a plan to better handle gate receipts.
