Fannin Board of Education Begins New School Year

At The Fannin County Board of Education meeting on August 13, Superintendent Mark Henson said, “We’ve had a great start to the year. We’ve had a lot of enthusiastic teachers and children who returned to school.”

The Board also got to work on their first meeting of the school year.

The Board approved several requests. First they approved a request by Sharon and Ralph Osterec to use East Fannin Elementary School on Wednesday afternoons for a “Good News Club.” Next they approved fundraising requests by West Fannin Elementary School to raise money for technology and maintenance. They also approved a fundraising request from Fannin County Middle School to raise money for FFA and an eighth grade field trip.

In the transportation department the Board approved a salvage of a 1996 Blue Bird TC2000 bus and the auctioning off of five buses.

At the Fannin County High School (FCHS), the Board approved the Replacement of three HVAC units that had been struck by lightning at the Performing Arts Center. Art Hubbard, Director of Facilities, thinks the replacements can be partially bought by using proceeds from the insurance company, which will pay for repairs rather than replacements. The replacement units will be gas, which will make almost all of Fannin High’s HVAC units gas powered.

They also approved the system’s vision, mission statement, beliefs, system goals, and strategic plan (all documents can be found by clicking on them).

Henson noted, “We are checking off boxes for SACS [Southern Association of Colleges and Schools] when we run through these.”

Mrs. Karen Walton, Director of Curriculum and School Improvement added, “It also satisfies one our AdvancEd [accreditation] requirements.”

Lastly, they approved a memorandum of agreement between themselves and 4-H, and in conjunction with AmeriCorps, to hire one more person to work for the 4-H program. Walton says this agreement will provide more time for 4-H in schools and provide support with STEM Initiative.

Superintendent Mark Henson gave a report of fiscal year 2015, which ended on June 30. Only 97% of the nearly $30 Million budget was used and revenue was 1% more than budgeted. The full report can be found by following this link.

Henson also reviewed Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) revenue.

“I can’t say enough good things about SPLOST,” Henson said. He explained, “We’re gonna probably spend $1.5 Million out of SPLOST this year, that would’ve had to come out of the general fund otherwise.”

According to Henson, SPLOST collections this June were a record for Fannin County for the month of June.

The Board also reviewed discipline reports for Fannin County Middle School and Fannin County High School, which can be reviewed by clicking the names of the schools. The board also approved several new members of personnel and looked at school governance teams’ calendars. These can be found below.

Henson concluded, “This is gonna be kind of an experimental year with us, we’re delving into a lot of new things this year: STEM, College and Career Academy. We’re excited about this upcoming year and we’ll make many step forward.”