Houston County parents may have options, come August

The regular monthly meeting of the Houston County Board of Education took place on Tuesday afternoon. Board members were fresh out of their annual retreat meeting, which had taken place the previous day.

As a part of the Superintendent’s Report, Dr. Mark Scott made it known that plans were in the works for re-opening school in August. According to the superintendent, parents and educators are being given the opportunity to weigh in on how the county will proceed. “We’ve sent surveys out, and those surveys will be out there until June 15,” Scott said. “I just encourage our employees and our parents to complete those surveys.”

Later, in a conversation with Houston Home Journal, Scott offered more enlightenment surrounding the surveys that had been distributed to parents. “We have given them some questions about returning to school and asked what are their concerns,” he stated. “We’ve given them some open-ended opportunities to respond to that. We’re letting them tell us what their comfort zone is. Do they plan on sending their child to school? Are they considering doing something different? Would they be interested in a distance learning opportunity, if that were available?” he listed. “We’re just trying to get a feel for how many students we would be talking about if we have to provide some alternate method of instruction for those who don’t feel comfortable.”

Scott emphasized that everything the school board is doing is based on the guidance of the Department of Public Health and from the governor’s office. “Should there be a resurgence of cases, we would make a different decision. We’re really just trying to get a feel of their level of comfort,” he said, further noting, “We also want to do that for our employees. We want to hear their concerns too. We want to know, from teachers, if there are some opportunities for distance learning, are they interested in doing that? We need to know this so that we know what kind of training we may need to provide.”

According to Dr. Scott, the plan is for parents to have a choice, come August. Both learning options—in the physical classroom and virtually, using Google Classroom—may be available. Based on their level of comfort, the idea is for parents to be able to choose how their child will be educated. Those who want their children to physically be at the school will be allowed to send them, and those who’d rather continue with virtual learning, can choose to do that as well.

“That’s exactly what we’re planning,” the superintendent affirmed. “We just need to know how to plan for that. For instance, if you have five teachers in fourth grade, you may need one teacher to do digital and four to do face-to-face. Or, you could need three teachers for digital and only two for face-to-face instruction. Based on the numbers and responses to the surveys, it’ll allow us to do a little bit of planning for that.”

Scott made mention of the county’s upcoming high school graduation ceremonies in his Superintendent’s Report as well, highlighting how pleased he was with the participation of the parents to whom the graduation surveys were sent. The surveys gave parents a voice in whether the commencement exercises would be held virtually, with only the graduates physically present to walk across the stage, or if parents would rather opt for an in-person ceremony where limited outside attendance was strictly enforced.

“The response rate was high,” Dr. Scott revealed, “and it was pretty unified that what they wanted was an in-person graduation.” Scott informed that graduations would run daily from June 17 through June 19, and each would begin at 8:30 a.m.

Houston County’s graduations have been scheduled as follows: Perry High School, June 17 (Herb St. John Stadium); Warner Robins High School, June 18 (McConnell-Talbert Stadium); Veterans High School, June 18 (Freedom Field); Houston County High School, June 19 (Freedom Field); Northside High School, June 19 (McConnell-Talbert Stadium). To manage the crowd of attendees, each student is allowed four tickets, limiting them each to four attending guests. The graduations will be streamed live for others to watch virtually.

In further school news, Scott announced that the Houston County School Nutrition Department surpassed the one million mark on Monday for the number of free meals that had been passed out to children in Houston County since the coronavirus pandemic forced the early closing of schools.

“A lot of hard work and dedication has gone in to making sure the children in Houston County continue to be fed during this unusual time,” Dr. Scott pointed out. “I just want to commend Meredith Potter, our director of school nutrition, and her entire team, for the accomplishments that they have made.”

Other business matters of Tuesday’s meeting consisted primarily of the approval and passing of various documentations of financial affairs to include the following: Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Hearing, Fiscal Year 2021 Budget (tentative approval), 2021 Spending Resolution, Tentative Setting of Millage Rate for CY2020 (FY2021), Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Amendment #1, Financial Reports, Purchasing Report, and Personnel Reports. Each of these reports and their details can be found on the Houston County Board of Education website. The board unanimously approved all during Tuesday’s meeting.

In personnel matters, the board unanimously approved of the superintendent’s recommendation to appoint Mr. Fredrick Thomas for the position of assistant principal at Thompson Middle School. Additionally, the new job description for the position of Director of Teaching and Learning received unanimous approval by the board, as did the job description revision for the position of Coordinator of Teaching and Learning.

For use with the county’s Pre-K program, the use of Frogstreet Excel Pre-K curriculum received unanimous approval. This, according to a remark made by Board Chair Fred Wilson, would come, “At no cost to the system.”

Policy KG Revision – Community Relations Use of School Facilities received undivided approval from the board, as well as Policy DFG Rescind-Fiscal Management Revenues, Fees, Payment, Rentals. Detailed information on both of these are available for viewing on the board of education’s website.

The last item up for approval on the day’s agenda was the 2021-2022 Proposed System Calendar, which can also be found on the BOE website. The board gave this unanimous approval before officially declaring the meeting as adjourned.

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