Fannin County Board of Education is continuing in their resolve to be among the Exemplary School Boards, the highest quality of school governance, recognized by the Georgia School Boards Association. Out of 181 school districts in Georgia, only 36 have achieve “Exemplary” level.  To reach Exemplary status, Boards must first reach Quality and then Distinguished statuses.  In 2015, Fannin County Board of Education became one of 22 Distinguished School Boards.  Inside the FetchYourNews.com service area, only White County has achieved Quality level and Pickens County has achieved Exemplary level.  Reaching the top ranking of Georgia’s school boards means that board members have had additional training hours, conducted self-assessments and been assessed by other Distinguished boards.  Another major component is that the school system implements at least 10 of Georgia’s Vision Project’s list of recommendations.  These include developing public-private community partnerships to enhance early learning, fully integrate a variety of technologies in the classroom to assist in learning, develop accountability systems that meet local needs while adhering to state guidelines, establish  schools as community anchors, and use data to improve effectiveness in enhancing student learning.  To reach Exemplary status, the school board will have to increase their training and the number of Georgia Vision Project’s recommendations.

Art Hubbard, Assistant Superintendent of Facilities and Assessment is continuing his campaign to make the High School gymnasium that can wonderfully accommodate sports and community events.  This year, he is replacing the lighting in the gym.  His next goal is to upgrade the sound system.  At each board meeting, when talking about the gym improvements, Hubbard reminds the audience that God has smiled kindly at graduation times because there has always been good weather.  “But,” he says, “the day will come when there is rain and we need a good sound system in the gymnasium.”

Finally the science classrooms in Fannin County High School are getting a makeover.  It’s a good thing because they remind Superintendent Henson of his science classes at the high school in 1981 because the rooms haven’t been renovated since that time.

In other facility upgrades, Blue Ridge Elementary students will have chairs to sit on and desks to put the new computers on in the currently being built Computer Lab which will have upwards of 90 computers.  In January, the Board voted for purchase of the computers and in February they voted for purchase of the furnishings.  During information about facility upgrades, Superintendent Henson congratulated the  masonry skills of Blue Ridge Elementary School Principal Shannon Miller and Board of Education Chair Bobby Beardon.  Slides shown revealed Miller’s excellent trowel techniques and the seamless, non-crooked brick wall for the new computer lab that she and Beardon built, along with the help some full-time masons with years of experience.

Superintendent Mark Henson commended transportation employees for their help in re-routing buses on the days that school started late due to hazardous winter weather.  On Feb. 12, he and

Benny Long, Director of Transportation and Safety for Fannin County Schools

Transportation Director Benny Long had been driving Fannin’s roads since 4 am to make sure that there weren’t any ice spots which would cause car accidents for students trying to get to school.  Henson said the hardest days to call were when the snow starts to melt because that is when the treacherous ice lays in wait for unsuspecting cars.  In addition to he and Long driving the roads, they get reports from the Sherriff’s Office, 911 dispatch and Fannin County road crews about where the slick sections are and the dangers involved.  Then Long and his team of bus drivers get to work.  They reroute bus routes where possible and the bus drivers call parents along the routes to let them know about the new schedules.  Long also said that in addition to thinking about faculty, staff and parents, they need to take special consideration for high school students who drive themselves to school.  They are drivers without much experience in driving on icy roads.

Fannin County Schools buy local.  The system took several bids for the new maintenance truck the system will buy.  Even though they received a cheaper bid from a dealership in Atlanta, they decided to buy local because it is the right thing to do and maintenance workers won’t have to spend a day in  Atlanta traffic and waiting at a service center to get the truck tuned-up.

Fannin County School System continues its fiscal integrity.  At this point in the year, the school systems expenses are two percent below budget.

The next Board of Education meeting takes place on the second Thursday in March, March 10^th at 6 pm.