Board OKs $1.5 million for air conditioners

The Houston County Board of Education made short work of a short monthly meeting on Tuesday, and approved vehicle purchases, tuition costs and annexation agenda items.

Stephen Thublin, assistant superintendent for finance and business operations, asked the board to approve slightly more than $1.5 million for heating, ventilating and air conditioning work at Quail Run, Morningside and Shirley Hills elementary schools.

The work is the first phase of a project to replace HVAC units in schools and is expected to be done by 2020, he said. Phase two and phase three will follow, he added.

The board approved a tuition cost of $2,071 per student for children of full time certified and classified employees living out of county.

The amount is calculated based on the prior year’s expenditure, Thublin said. The amount is $238 less than last year’s rate of $2,329.

“The reason it went down was because so much of our increased funding was saved and we did not utilize much of our local funding,” he said.

On another item, Thublin said local auto dealers did not have the vehicles to replace one SUV and four trucks and so the replacements will be purchased using a state Department of Administrative Services contract for more than $137,000. The purchase was included in the budget passed in June, he said.

In another vehicle-related matter, the board approved a donation of a used 26-foot truck from the Warner Robins High School band booster club.

The truck will be used to transport equipment, Thublin said, and band boosters will pay the maintenance costs.

Edge Academy on Elberta Road, Houston County’s credit recovery program, came in for some praise at Monday’s Board of Education work session.

Now in its fourth year, the program graduated 57 students this year, said board Chairman Fred Wilson, and 150 have graduated since the program began four years ago.

The academy enables high school students who have fallen behind to earn the credits they need to graduate. This program serves 9th through 12th graders who are at least five academic credits behind. Students are selected, and registered, by their home school based on academic need.

Shonta Lawson, a lunchroom cashier at David Perdue Primary School, was awarded the Southeast Region Employee of the Year by the National School Nutrition Association. Lawson, who is a four-year veteran, was chosen from several state winners, according to Wilson.

In addition, 10 lunchroom managers with 10 years or more experience were honored for achieving 116 perfect scores of 117 lunchrooms visited three times annually by inspectors.

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