GAINESVILLE - Hall County School Superintendent Will Schofield got the go-ahead from school board members Monday afternoon to explore the idea of making the entire district one of "universal choice."
The board authorized Schofield to form a committee to explore the possibility of creating a system of choice. He said he'll select a cross section of the community to gather information.
"It probably will be a couple of community representatives, which would be in the form of a business representative or a parent, or a couple of either, certainly some school representation...but what we want is a cross-section of the Hall County community," he said.
Schofield said Hall County has done a good job over the last eight years of giving parents individual school choices for educating their children and he wants to do more of that.
"Every child in our system has God-given passions and God-given talents," said Schofield. "What we've tried to do is create choices so that families and parents could take a look at options and try to put their children in a situation where they get to use their God-given strengths."
Once Schofield gets his committee together, he says he expects he'll have some findings to share with the board in the next 90 to 120 days.
BOARD RESTORES ONE FURLOUGH DAY AS TEACHER PLANNING DAY
Even though the budget may be tight, school board members felt comfortable enough to restore one furlough day to the payroll. Teachers will use February 15, 2013 as a teacher learning day.
Originally, board members had thought they would restore the day as a student instruction day. However, Superintendent Schofield said, and the board concurred, that teachers needed the additional time for planning.