School system approves job applicant software

“We realize that hiring the best quality people is one of the most important things we do,” Knight said.

Knight said administrators and staff are working on next year’s budget and have scheduled meetings with schools to present a Powerpoint presentation to faculties and governance teams, have scheduled budget meetings with each principal and department and have made budget request forms available. Knight said she is also working on an increased website and social media presence concerning the budgeting process.

Superintendent Allen McCannon said the system would hold off establishing a tentative calendar for the 2015 – 2016 school year until they are further along in the budget process.

Knight reported that work is progressing on the renovation of the old freshman academy for the board’s business operations offices, which are currently housed in the old BOE office in Danielsville. She said work on the renovation should be done by Feb. 13 and that “moving day” has been set for Feb. 20. She also noted that going through the many old records and other items found in the old board office has yielded many items that may be considered of historical value. She said they hope to make room in the BOE meeting room to display some of these items.

The board approved the purchase of a Blue Bird school bus at a cost of $94,728 with funds from the bus purchase reserve (state allotment).

In other business, the board approved its regular meeting schedule through January 2016. The board will continue to meet the second Tuesday of each month. The next board meeting is Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. at the board office.

McCannon reported briefly on his five-day trip to China to meet with educators there. He said he hopes to see exchange programs and other educational opportunities develop between the two countries. He noted that no school system funding was used to pay for the trip, with most of the funding coming from the China government.

The high school has not been able to open a new ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) in the wing it reserved for this purpose because the government is not currently adding new ROTC classes at this time. He said they will continue to monitor the situation. In the meantime, the wing has been repurposed and is being used for a credit recovery computer lab and other classes.

CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION

Assistant superintendent Michael Williams gave a lengthy presentation on the CCRPI (College and Career Ready Performance Index), which has replaced the AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) as the system of measuring year to year student progress.

Both Williams and McCannon agreed that the CCRPI is a better system than AYP was in measuring overall student progress and that progress calculations under the new system were “pretty fair.”

“It is better than AYP, but not perfect,” McCannon noted. “Socioeconomic factors are still involved and you’re still comparing apples to oranges in some cases.”

It was noted during special recognition time that all school in Madison County are considered operation PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support) schools by the state, which is the highest level that can be achieved. Amanda Sailors said Madison County is one of only two school systems in the state (there are 180 systems) to have all their schools in their system considered operational PBIS schools.