The Dodge County Board of Education governing board heard a presentation regarding electronic textbooks presented by curriculum director Dr. Lawanda Gillis. At the regular scheduled meeting held on Thursday, January 12, Dr. Gillis presented an instructional update to the board concerning the implementation and use of electronic textbooks within the Dodge County school system. Dr. Gillis provided information to the board to include the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing electronic textbooks. She included data and statistics from a sister school system that has implemented the use of electronic textbooks and informed the board that the technology infrastructure would have to be enhanced as well as guidelines regarding student use of the internet and laptop computers that would be assigned to every student. The board accepted the information provided and no decision was made as to next steps to move forward with electronic textbooks.
The special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) collected for October 2011 totaled $169,650.29 and the fund balance as of December 31, 2011 totaled $2,118,218.04. Expenditures from SPLOST for the month of December 2011 totaled $179,829.00 and were spent for buses and technology.
The board voted and accepted the school board redistricting plan to meet state and federal requirements.
There were no additional names submitted to the board within the guidelines of the naming facilities policy with regard to the naming of a cross-country trail. In a letter dated December 4, 2011, Leigh Law, president of the Dodge County Cross Country Boosters, made a request to name the cross-country trail in honor of coach Shirley Maddox. The matter will lie on the table for thirty days and the board, at the next regular scheduled monthly meeting, will make a decision.
In old business, the board voted to combine the awning project for the Dodge County Middle School into the upcoming renovation projects for the school. The bus shop survey project received three bids from Timothy W. Eason ($1,650.00), Georgia Land Services ($2,500.00) and Ocmulgee Surveyors ($2,500.00). Dr. Melinda Dennis made a recommendation to accept the low bid of Timothy W. Eason for $1,650.00. The recommendation was approved unanimously.
Dodge County Sheriff Jeff Hinson, of the Dodge County Sheriff’s Department, spoke to the board concerning the school resource officers. Due to the current county financial crisis and budget constraints, Hinson provided information concerning the reduction of staff and time the officers would spend at the school. Currently there is one school resource officer at North Dodge Elementary School, one at South Dodge Elementary School, one at Dodge County Middle School and a part-time officer at Dodge County High School. Discussion was held regarding Hinson’s budget cuts and the board asked Dr. Dennis to seek alternative avenues to staff and fund its own police force for the school system.
The board approved fund raising requests for North Dodge Elementary to sell tattoos to raise money for the 2012 Relay For Life and the Dodge County High School Marching Chiefs to sell pizza.
The board elected Shirley Ikedionwu as chairperson and Mark Driggers as vice chairperson for 2012. Rita Llop will continue as board attorney for this year.
The board unanimously agreed to keep the regular scheduled meetings on the second Thursday of each month with a meeting start time of 6:00 p.m. The June meeting will occur on Tuesday, June 12, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. due to a conference that requires the board to attend.
The board approved personnel additions to the substitute teacher list to include Erica Burris, Wendy Pittman, Jill Richards and Gillian Sutton. Jonathan Chris Davis was approved as a bus driver and Lucy Coggins was approved to work part-time as a teacher and part-time as a paraprofessional at South Dodge Elementary School in special education. A leave of absence request was approved for Lillie Pitts.
There will be a called meeting on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. for the purpose of the mid-year superintendent’s evaluation.
