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 19th
6:30 CCMS Cafeteria – Community Engagement Meeting
March 18th-19th TBD – Planning Team Meeting
May 1st-2nd 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 27th. I
will relay any news from them or other legislators in my next blog.
