Important Dates

Hello All,

I hope everyone is staying warm on this chilly Friday.

I wanted to share a little upcoming news with everyone.  First of all, the Crawford County Board of Education has agreed to use GSBA and GLISI to guide us through an updated Strategic Plan.  The GSBA Strategic Improvement Planning Service brochure can be found here.  We will follow this process and get plenty of input from the community as well as staff and students and we should have an up to date strategic plan before the 19-20 school year. Some upcoming dates that are important in this process are:

February 19^th  6:30 CCMS Cafeteria – Community Engagement Meeting

March 18^th-19^th  TBD – Planning Team Meeting

May 1^st-2^nd TBD – Action Team Meeting

We will have action steps and monitoring instruments in place before the process is complete.

Secondly, we have had our first official meeting with Southern A&E about the new Crawford County Middle High School.  This meeting was to establish how many instructional units (Classrooms, Labs, Office Space, etc…) is needed and how much is over what the state has allotted.  The Architect will take this compiled list and start putting spaces with the units and come back with some ideas on design.  Once we get the designs started, we will be asking for input from the community and schools.

Not a lot has come out of the gold dome this week.  Most of the week was spent in budget hearings.  I do want you aware of a situation that is once again brewing in regards to teacher retirement.  There is an AJC article that gives a little information but some possible bill changes are:

• Modifying the annual 3 percent cost-of-living raises that pensioners receive. The audit said that in 21 of the past 26 years, the cost-of-living increase for TRS retirees has outpaced inflation. An independent actuarial analysis found that modifying the COLAs could save $17 million to $700 million, depending on how it’s done, such as by reducing it for new hires and/or those previously hired after a certain date.
• Cutting the interest rate credited on employee contributions into the system. The change could save the state several million dollars, depending on the new rate.
• Basing the pension on the highest five years of salary, rather than two years, as is currently the case. Doing it over five years would likely mean a lower average salary would be used in the pension calculation. The change could save $50 million annually.
• Changing the minimum age at which new hires would be able to draw a pension if they worked less than 30 years. Raising it from age 60 to 62 could save $48 million annually.

If you are a Facebook person there is a group called Teachers Rally Against Georgia Insurance Changes (T.R.A.G.I.C) that you may want to follow.  They are a grassroots organization that has a strong lobby in Atlanta.

I will have the opportunity to hear Governor Brian Kemp, Senator Lindsey Tippins, Representative Mike Dudgen, and Representative Tommy Benton on Sunday the 27^th.  I will relay any news from them or other legislators in my next blog.

Welcome 2019

Welcome Students and Staff to the second half of the 2018-2019 school year.  I hope you had a wonderful and restful Christmas Break and are revived and excited about the second semester.

Before the 2019 Legislative Session kicks off, I want you aware of some issues taking place under the gold dome that may affect you:

First of all, there has been Special Session throughout the fall to address a number of concerns, with the major concern for Education being a mandated school calendar.  School Districts across the state agree that the school calendar should be a local decision, but the Senate Study Committee on Evaluating the School Calendar thinks the legislators should tell the local boards when they should start and end.  The Final Report is available for your reading pleasure.  You will see that no school system is represented on this committee.

A second issue that will be talked about is Governor Elect Kemp’s promise of a $5000 raise for all teachers. Please know that this will get kicked around substantially before some final decision is made.  If every teacher in the state gets a $5000 raise then every system will incur a cost of about $1000 per employee in TRS alone. The devil is definitely in the details for this.

These are the two main issues we know will be addressed, but once the legislators get in session, the bills will flow like the water in the creeks and rivers of GA right now.

Closer to home, we will have an initial meeting with Southern A&E on January 15^th to start looking at number of instructional units as well as CTAE lab space in the new Middle High School.  This will initiate the planning stage of the new Crawford County Middle/High School.

We are currently analyzing the Beginning of the Year and Middle of the Year MAPS data to determine growth and concern areas throughout the district.  This is in an effort to know where our student achievement level is prior to the Georgia Milestone spring tests.

In county news, the Community Leaders for the Betterment of Roberta Crawford County met for the inaugural meeting on January 8^th.  The purpose of this meeting was to get the community leaders sitting at the same table to collaborate and address issues and concerns in Roberta and Crawford County as a combined entity.  

“The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do.  The hard part is doing it.” –Norman Schwarzkopf