Columbia County School District’s Board of Education celebrated a multitude of special recognitions and guests at its latest regular session on Tuesday evening, Oct. 10.
Inviting local Scouts of America and members of Leadership Columbia County to sit in on the meeting, district Superintendent Steven Flynt presented two schools with Georgia State Department of Education Title I awards.
While Euchee Creek Elementary was awarded as a Title I Distinguished School, Martinez Elementary School is being recognized as a Title I Distinguished School as well as a Reward School.
Schools given the Distinguished title are among the highest performing 5% Title I schools, and are based upon content mastery which are calculated from single-assessment score results, according to Assistant Superintendent Kristen Carroll. Achieving such awards will allow both schools to now compete at the national level for further education accreditations.
“We’re extremely proud of both schools, and we’re thankful that the state provides these designations as well, because it really highlights the great work,” said Flynt. “Our vision is that each student will be enriched, engaged and inspired, so that leaves none behind. We want all of our students to achieve at the highest level possible and we’re showing that. We just can’t be more proud of what they’re doing.”
In addition to the schools receiving awards, Columbia Virtual Academy’s Tiffany Weser and Lakeside High School’s Gail Peake — two county art teachers — were recognized by the Georgia Art Education Association Youth Art Month of Merit.
Weser and Peake, who currently serve as co-chairs for the Georgia Art Education Association, will be honored in an art convention in Minneapolis in April 2024.
After Flynt posed for some celebratory photos with all awardees, board members offered their congratulations to county educators for their dedication and success in the field.
“I’m not surprised about the merit awards for art,” said board member and District 1 representative David Alalof. “I’ve been to several school art shows here and they’re fabulous.”
Following the special recognitions, Flynt moved on to announcing a brief building update from informing the board of new schools across the district and how each is faring in their various states of reconstruction.
Similarly to several county schools, Flynt said North Columbia is undergoing many ongoing and rapid changes, including reconstruction blastings to eliminate some unnecessary bedrock.
With all schools on track for the 10-year building plan, Flynt said North Columbia is expected to open in Fall 2024.
He then introduced to board members a plan for acquiring more educational technology devices and supplies.
Based on pricing and proposal scoring, the school district’s Technology Department and Business Department recommended contract awards to Prosys for computers and peripheral accessories, Arey Jones for charging carts, and CDW for AirTame. According to county reports, Prosys, Arey Jones and CDW have successfully executed previous school district contracts.
With the board approving all agreements, businesses will be contracted for one year with the option of extending for four additional years upon mutual consent.
Flynt also said the school district has been awarded 5,000 Chromebooks from the Emergency Connectivity Fund grant, which totaled to an estimated $1.545 million.
The county is also celebrating an increased 92.1% graduation rate for 2024, a 1.7% increase from last year, according to Flynt.
“The rate is more than 7 percentage points higher than the state average, which is also going up,” he said. “We continue to focus on the high school experience, which has resulted in an increased number of students taking advanced placement and dual enrollment classes and doing work study, so we know we’re engaging more students.”
Towards the end of the meeting, prior to moving into an executive session, Flynt reminded families of upcoming county forums which will discuss different community topics and concerns, such as school safety, gang activity, drug use and bullying.
The first will occur on Oct. 19 at Grovetown High School, located at 2010 Warrior Way. For more information, visit the school district’s official website.
Flynt also mentioned upcoming information meetings about student relocation. These will occur on Oct. 24 at 5:30 p.m. within the school district’s scheduled work session, Nov. 7 at 6 p.m. at Martinez Elementary School, located at 213 Flowing Wells Road, Nov. 9 at 6 p.m. at North Columbia Elementary, located at 2784 Ray Owens Road in Appling, Ga and on Nov. 14 at 5:30 p.m. during the Board of Education’s scheduled regular session.
After the executive session concluded, prior to officially ending the meeting, board member and District 4 representative Lee Ann Meyer questioned whether the district was allowed to enforce a dress code at school dances and other functions.
“Because the dresses at homecoming were certainly too short. There’s no way that they can sit down from the pictures that I saw,” she said. “I even thanked a couple of moms for the appropriateness of their daughters’ dresses, because it was few and far between where the dresses would even come close to our dress code.”
Fellow board member and District 3 representative Judy Teasley said she agreed with Meyer’s sentiments and supported the idea of placing some sort of enforced dress code at school dances, especially with prom coming up in the springtime.
“I’m not suggesting anyone is out there with measuring tape, but there should be some sort of expectation met,” she said.
Wanting to address all board concerns, Flynt said he and his staff would look further into the problem and see how they could remedy the concerns.
“This was the first I’ve heard of it, but it’s obviously something we’ll take back and look into,” he said.
Concluding the meeting, the Board of Education will meet again for a work session on Oct. 24 at 4781 Hereford Farm Road in Evans, Ga.
