The Columbia County Board of Education celebrated several students as state champions at this month’s regular session on Tuesday evening, April 23.
Prior to announcing a proposed 2024-25 budget for community and board consideration, Superintendent Steven Flynt was pleased to announce all five high schools were recognized as Advanced Placement Honors Schools.
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Awarded Jan. 31, Lakeside High School students Jerry Fan, Kunsh Sharma and Iziq Thomas were also praised as state champions for winning the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Georgia’s District 12.
“It should be noted that this group of students did not have an adviser and they entered this competition all on their own,” said Assistant Superintendent Kristen Carroll.
Under the leadership of Sgt. First Class Anthony Williams and First Sgt. Curtis Marrow, Grovetown high schoolers were also commemorated for placing first in two categories at the State Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) Drill Competition for their top performing Male Unarmed Platoon and Female Unarmed Squad.
Both teams will move on to compete nationally next month in Florida’s Daytona Beach.
Greenbrier High School also celebrated state championship placements at the Skills USA State Leadership Skills Competition in the High-Risk Traffic Stop category thanks to the outstanding efforts of law enforcement students Jack Busby and Morgan Dabrowski.
In the same Skills USA competition, Grovetown High School student Colin Davis also won a state championship in the Automotive Brakes category for his excellent mechanic abilities under the tutelage of adviser Kristopher Norris.
Lastly mentioned in the long list of county accolades was Harlem High School’s participation in the Technology Students Association (TSA) State Leadership and Skill Competition. Students Georgia Health and Lola Lu’s earned state champion titles in forensic technology as a result of the school’s forensic science CTAE classes.
Followed by several families’ cheers and applause, board members said they were thrilled to have so many accomplished and dedicated students within Columbia County.
“We have such a great assembly of people here … I mean we’ve got the future of national defense here. We’ve got local law enforcement leaders, we have academic excellence, unimaginable community partners, technology experts,” said District 3 board member Judy Teasley. “We really are just blessed.”
Sharing Teasley’s happy sentiments, District 2 board member Kristi Baker said she was proud to see so many students and faculty support and celebrate each other as everyone was recognized.
“It just shows how at the end of the day we really are a big family,” she said. “… all of our students step above and beyond what is expected of them.”
Board of Education Chairman David Dekle said, with so many “wonderful students,” it was easy to see the “great things” happening in Columbia County’s school district.
Following the student honors, Flynt moved on to discuss the next school year’s possible budget, which will include a few major changes.
To stay competitive with other counties and careers, Flynt said the majority of budget changes were focused around raising teacher salaries in an effort to make up for inflation.
“The recommended changes really have to do with pay because of the cost of inflation over the last couple of years,” he said. “That’s nothing new.”
Whilst worker benefits were mandatorily increased by the state, such as health insurance for certified educators, Flynt suggested the county consider a local $500 incentive, in addition to the new $2,500 pay increase funded by the state.
“We’ve seen a lot of people leaving the profession, but in the Columbia County School District we’ve been very fortunate that – even though we have seen some challenges in specific areas – we typically retain most of our teachers from year-to-year, and we attract new teachers from other areas,” he said.
However, Flynt said the pay increase is not just about providing livable wages, but also creating and sustaining a positive work environment.
“We’ve seen double digit inflation over the last couple of years, and we still haven’t come close to being able to adequately meet that with the increases in pay for our employees,” he said.
By implementing both suggestions, Flynt said the new baseline income will allow first year teachers to start earning a little over $50,000 in the 2024-25 school year.
“Even though we’ve been providing a number of increases over the years, we still haven’t been able to keep up with the rate of inflation,” he said. “But it is something we can do to say thank you to our teachers, and hopefully keep the best teachers here in the Columbia County School District.”
As the cost of state mandated health insurance benefits increases along with inflation, Flynt said the most challenging portion of the budget will include a $4.5 million annual change.
“The state has picked up a good bit of the certified teachers’ health insurance, but they have not picked up the addition to the non-certified teachers … so that’s a pretty large increase that we’re going to be feeling for a while,” he said.
Despite the slight monetary concerns, Flynt said Columbia County’s fiscally conservative budgets in past years have set the school district up for continual success to get students the “best resources possible.”
“We are going to be challenged with that, but when we develop our budget we also do this on a five year plan, so we know that this is something we can sustain over the next few budget cycles,” he said. “… and we’re very careful on what we spend money on.”
Prior to getting the board’s final approval for Flynt’s proposed budget, the district will hold two budget presentations to hear community feedback and input.
Public budget presentation meetings will be held at the district’s Board of Education building, located at 4781 Hereford Farm Road, on May 2 at 8 a.m. and May 14 at 4:30 p.m.
The board will make a final budget ruling on May 28 at the district’s next monthly regular session at 5:30 p.m.
To view the entire proposed budget and the district’s past spending history, visit: https://www.ccboe.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1197234&type=d&pREC_ID=1440083
