Fannin BOE Prepares for Change in Bid Procedures

Fannin County Board of Education met on September 8 for their monthly workshop to get a summary of the recent internal review and talk about changes to bid procedures and the internal review.

 

Mr. Art Hubbard gave an update on Blue Ridge Elementary School computer lab. Mr. Hubbard said the slab has been poured and block work is 20% complete. He anticipates block work to be complete by mid-September and the computer lab to open in late November or early December.

 

The board also discussed the results of the latest internal review. The review board was made up of Fannin County School’s Executive Director, Cynthia Painter, Community Members George Robinson and Manda Gwatney, and school board members Bobby Bearden and Steve Stanley. The committee found everything satisfactory with only a couple of items getting a “don’t know” from a single individual. The committee suggested a principal from one school give the board an update on their school at each meeting, in order to help the board understand the day-to-day initiatives at the schools and collaboration within the community.

 

The Board also discussed revisions to the strategic plan for the school system, in order to become a distinguished board. The revisions to the strategic plan incorporate ten Georgia Vision project recommendations.

 

According to Painter, “What we added….were things we were already doing, so it wasn’t an issue of adding something we’ve got to start doing.”

 

In order to meet requirements for distinguished board, the board members must also attend an additional training session from the three state mandated training sessions. The board is expected to approve an application to the Georgia School Board Association to become a distinguished board at their September 10^th meeting.

 

Other items expected to be approved at their September 10^th meeting include the Gideons handing out New Testament Bibles to 5^th grade students in October, Scoliosis screenings by the Fannin County Health Department, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Fannin County Health Department and the school system in case of a public health emergency, a homeless student procedure, the purchase of a school bus using SPLOST money and state bond funds, local board training dates, and revising the policy of using the state bid procedure for any purchase of $50,000 or more.

 

Superintendent Mark Henson explained, “We put in [the policy] that we would follow the state bid procedures…the problem with that is you have a 28 day window that you have to make sure that you put that out there and advertise it for 28 days and you also are at some point supposed to buy advertisements for that. So, it’s costing us additional money that we don’t really need to be spending.”

 

The Policy will still require board approval on purchases over $25,000, and bids for purchases over $50,000, but the state bid process will not be needed until purchases of $100,000 or more. Henson did say that if the board felt like the state bid procedure should be used on bids over $50,000, they will implement it. The board will discuss the change at the next board meeting.

 

The board is also expected to hear an update on school governance teams and all items approved by the governance teams. Thanks to the Charter, the School governance teams can now approve some fundraisers and local field trips as well as school budgets.

 

Fannin County schools are running smoothly thanks to the principals, the teachers, the staff, the students, and of course a board who, not surprisingly, received excellent marks during the internal review.