CCBOE Regular Session 6/11/2024

Invocation: St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church Deacon Joseph Soparas

*Kristi Baker, District 2 Board Member, not in attendance due to to family vacation

Mr. Kilups (sp??) approved to be principal for Columbia County Virtual Academy. (approve - 4, disapprove - 0)

Approval of Consent items (these were all approved in 1 vote (approve -4, disapprove - 0) with no discussion

• Minutes from 5/28/2024 Work Session and 6/6/2024 Special Called Meeting

• Budget Amendment and Transfer (this wasn’t discussed so I’m not sure what the budget amendment was)

  • Email response “Hello Mrs. Parham,

  • As best I can remember at this moment, there were two budget amendments, and both were due to instructional staff development. As routine procedures requiring amendments for audit purposes, they were part of the consent agenda, and no discussion was necessary. Please see 8b on the attached agenda.

  • Hopefully this helps!Judy Teasley706-825-7561

• Employee Travel

• Program/Camp/Employee Participation Request

• Lease/Use of Facilities

Board Policies G, Personnel

• There were several slides detailing these changes. Many of the changes were cut/paste from “policy” to “procedure.” Some policies were merged.

• New proposed version is available for public input. If there are not too many changes after public and board input, they are planning on voting on the changes at the next meeting.

Building Program

• Project Update

  • Westmont Elementary - Still planning on opening in August for the first day of school although some areas will not be complete. Student classrooms will be complete though.

  • North Columbia Elementary - They are pouring slab in various areas and placing electrical and plumbing.

  • Greenbrier High School - New Equipment ordered and should be delivered soon. 

  • Lakeside High School - Building new theater and new parking area. New student parking area should be done before school starts.

• Bid Results

  • Nutritional Program Bids

    • Williams Foods (lowest bid, same vendor) $5,304,147 (approve 4, disapprove 0)

    • Beverage 

      • 2 bids; 1 from Augusta Coke and 1 from Pepsi

      • lowest bid was Augusta Coke and used since 2012

      • $189,325

      • Approve 4, disapprove 0

    • Milk (switch from PET to Mawa Maid Dairy. Mawa was lower bid) $625,927.50 (approve 4, disapprove 0)

    • Produce, Royal Food Service (lowest bid, same vendor) $254,259 (approve 4, disapprove 0)

    • Equipment 

      • Includes refrigerators, etc

      • Part of the spending plan with the leftover surplus from federal Covid funds

      • (I didn’t catch the name of the vendor, but the district has purchased from them before.) $237,068.07 (approve 4, disapprove 0)

  • Custodian Supplies

    • Kamo (lowest bidder, same vendor) $782,379.21 (approve 4, disapprove 0)

  • Switches & Maintenance (technology)

    • PC Solutions & Integrations, $487,760.14 (approve 4, disapprove 0)

Technology Update

• SB 351

  • Updates Current Law

  • Creates requirements for policies

    • Acceptable use

    • SM

    • Cyberbullying/Bullying

  • Additional requirements for creating minor accounts

  • Discussion about the new law requiring parents have access to “management settings” of devices that are sent home, which may pose security risks to the network.

    • Columbia County issues a limited number of devices that are sent home or allowed on the network

      • Diabetic children have devices that monitor their glucose

      • Homebound and hospitalized children are issued chromebooks

• Security Challenges

  • Dated technology protection measures

  • Personally owned/unknown devices on the the network

    • Look at limiting personally owned devices

    • Firewall has been attacked millions of times from both China & Russia

  • Ransomware/Malware/Virus

• Protective Measures

  • Network Access Control System (NAC)

  • DNS Management (currently partnering with company)

    • All new devices scanned

  • May need to end “bring your own device” days.

• Georgia BoE Guidelines

  • Guidelines are scheduled to be issued for the 2025-2026 School Year

    • Discussion between board and district staff about being proactive with Georgia BoE - weighing in on cyber security discussion before the guidelines are published.

      • One suggestion may be that the security plan discussions for districts be allowed during executive sessions since there are concerns that security plans should be protected so that they aren’t announced to adversaries.

Staffing: 

• 99.5% Certified fill rate

• 97.1% non-certified fill rate

• Less than 22 vacancies across the district

  • Recruiting SPED

Dates:

• Summer school Grovetown HS: 5/30-6/27, Graduation 6/27

• Existing Student Registration: 6/17-8/5

• United Way of the CSRA Stuff the Bus, 7/19

• School Principals’ Conference 7/22-7/23

• New Teacher Induction 7/25

• School’s Open Drive Safely AAA Press Conference, 7/29

• Teacher Pre-Planning 7/29-8/2

• Back to School Employee Kickoff 8/2

• Open House

  • High School: 7/30 3-5pm

  • Middle School: 7/30 5-7pm

  • Elementary School: 8/1 5-7pm

• English Insurance & Financial Services Stuff the Bus School Supply Drive, 8/3

• First Day of School, 8/5

Public Participation & Responses:

• Austin Rhodes

  • Concerned with the start times for JV and Middle School Football Games, proposing later start times

  • Gave a packet of information to the board regarding research

    • Traffic increases 20% during the current start times

    • Difficulty of parental involvement/participation at current schedule

    • Extreme temperatures during play times

  • After Executive Session:

    • Board shared packet with district staff

    • District staff will explore the idea, put together presentation for next working session

• (Missed the name of the concerned parent but they were from Harlem MS)

  • Parent is concerned that perfect attendance awards are not recognized during honors night.

    • Parent attended a meeting in the fall and was advised that Harlem MS would change from only recognizing in 8th grade to annual recognition.

    • In May, parent followed up and was advised that there was another meeting in April. At the April meeting, it was decided that students who earned perfect attendance would receive a certificate but not recognized publicly.

    • Parent strongly believes that perfect attendance should be recognized publicly to show a positive example to all students, encourage good attendance and to discourage bad habits.

  • After Executive Session:

    • Lee Ann Meyers asked for more information and what the justification was to not have public recognition for perfect attendance.

    • District staff will research the issue and present more information at next working session.