Fannin BOE Very Thankful This Holiday Season

BLUE RIDGE, Ga – At the monthly Fannin County Board of Education meeting, held on November 13th, the board spoke on agenda items that ranged from the audit report for the fiscal year of 2013 to the value and importance that the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) has been not just to the school system, but to all citizens of Fannin County.The Board of Education received the finalized report of their yearly audit for the 2013 fiscal year this past week without a single blemish to be found. Many of the board members praised the BOE financial team for their precision in accounting for every cent of the finances that pass through the board of education.

“I am amazed that our group of people can be so precise that they aren’t off a single penny for the entire year,”

said board member Lewis DeWeese at a workshop held earlier this week.

Giving an example of how outstanding the Fannin County BOE finance team performed on their 2013 audit, a comment was made that one Georgia county had 17 discrepancies found in their audit, while Fannin had none.

Assistant Superintendent Art Hubbard also discussed a series of renovations taking place at the high school between now and Christmas.

The home economics class will be moving into the new building behind the old gym. Once the classroom has been moved, the old home economics classroom, located in the main school building, will be turned into a new guidance consoler suite. The former guidance consoler suite will then be converted into a new, larger, clinic. With the moving of the old clinic away from the front entrance of the building, the wiring from the old clinic will be moved over into the library to host several more computers for students to access.

The estimated cost for the renovations is a little over $37,400 and will be paid for with SPLOST dollars.

School superintendent Mark Henson was very pleased with how much SPLOST has been able to help pay for school projects. Henson stated that with the economic growth in Fannin over the past couple of years, SPLOST is up 12.8% above the projection.

SPLOST saved Fannin County citizens $1.2 million last year alone by spreading the cost of projects out over all of those who visit Fannin County throughout the year instead of placing the burden solely on citizens by raising their property taxes to cover the projects the school system works on.

One of the last things spoke on at the meeting was that Fannin County’s graduation rate for this past year was the highest it has ever been in school history at 92.3%. While the goal will always be a 100% graduation rate, Henson made it known that he was very thankful for all the staff, from elementary school to high school, because they make it a very high priority to help kids graduate at the end of their high school career.

The next BOE meeting will be held on December 11th, 2014 at 6:00pm. Prior to the meeting the BOE will be having a workshop beginning at 3:00pm to discuss the list of projects to be placed on the SPLOST referendum that will be voted on by Fannin County citizens in March of 2015.