Middle school attendance improves drastically

Those numbers reflect attendance taken during the last week of January at the 1,050-student school. The middle school showed a 62 percent attendance rate during the last week of Jan. 2008.

“That’s quite a marked improvement,” Madison County Schools Superintendent Mitch McGhee said last week.

McGhee noted commended the efforts of Madison County Middle School graduation coach Renee McCannon, MCMS teachers and its staff.

“Several things have been put in place at the middle school,” McGhee said of the strategies to spur attendance.

“Mrs. McCannon is in charge of those, but she solicits a lot of help from faculty, staff and administration folks there at the school.”

The middle school demonstrated the high rate during a typically low period for attendance.

“That week is one of your poorest attendance weeks … right after the holidays when we get back, that’s typically a rough time,” McGhee said.

Parts of proposed state bill ‘bothersome’

McGhee is wary of a bill going before the state legislature that places higher scrutiny on school board members than other elected officials, he says.

While most of the “school board governance bill” (SB 84) is standard practice for “good boards of education,” a few stipulations are excessive, McGhee said.

Under this bill, school board members can accuse other school board members of infractions without evidence, according to McGhee. Those matters would go to a hearing.

“No proof has to be presented,” McGhee said.

He said the bill also allows the governor to replace board members if that board of education is even being considered for probation.

“Those are two things that are a little bothersome to me,” McGhee said.

McGhee said the bill has been tweaked a little bit, but hasn’t seen the latest version.

SPLOST down

Madison County Schools showed $41,000 less in its SPLOST receipts in January compared to Jan. 2008.

“We’re watching that rather closely,” Assistant Superintendent Bonnie Knight said.