Sitting here on a dreary Friday, I needed a break from looking at numbers, so I decided it was a good time to share some of my thoughts and information.

First of all, I am proud that we are not slightly further north.  I have talked to a couple of Superintendent colleagues from north Georgia systems and they are having to battle with the decision to close or stay open.  Fortunately for us, all we have is a little drizzle now.  We seem to have made it through the worst of what we will get today.

Secondly, I just stuck my head into a GAA meeting and it makes me feel good to see teachers concerned for students.  These teachers really take ownership and they want to see the students succeed and be pushed into greater things.

Thirdly, a big thank you goes out to Scarlet Sanders, Kristen O’neal, Melissa Valtierra, Rhonda Harris, and everyone else who helped orchestrate the two Muffins with Mom events.  It is a requirement for Title I to include parents in all aspects of the program and events like these open communication between the schools and parents.  

Lastly, I feel as though I need to clarify a little bit of the Governor’s proposal to give every teacher a 3% raise.  That was a little misleading.  The $300 million being added to QBE of the FY17 budget is to offset the austerity reduction in order to provide local education authorities the flexibility to reduce furlough days, add instructional days, and increase teacher salaries. (lifted language directly from the budget document).  Crawford County Schools has 6 furlough days in the FY16 budget.  The first priority will be used to help reduce this number.  $300 million is near the equivalent of a 3% teacher raise if it was applied to the state salary schedule (which will not be done).

The legislators have been fairly quiet during the first 7 days of the 2016 session.  The Governor has deferred the implementation of the Education Reform Commision to the 2017 session to give the legislators ample time to read (and hopefully) understand the full report.  The Governor also asked the local districts and DOE to evaluate test stating “If a test is not necessary to advance and tailor instruction, it should be eliminated.”  He also noted that there are factors that affect test scores that are out of a teacher’s control; however, he did comment on the “failing schools” which are defined by test scores.

I hope everyone has a good rest of the rainy day Friday and a great weekend.  The Crawford County Eagle Basketball Teams play in Cochran tonight.  Good Luck!