The Gainesville City School superintendent addressed a recent school incident involving social media, 2018 legislative requests, per diem for board members and a host of other things at the school board meeting Monday night.
After a situation last week that gained attention both from the media and online, Dr. Jeremy Williams said their first goal is to follow protocol already in place and protect any students involved.
"I continue to make you aware of situations that arise in our school systems, specifically those that may gain media attention. As social media becomes more and more prevalent, instant messages and misinformation increases.Students post information, communicating with parents and often post videos. Parents tend to share information with others and the communication train is very difficult to halt," said Williams.
"In cases where students, parents and employees are sharing information, entire facts surrounding those situations are often unknown and only those involved with the investigation are aware of specific details. We've been placed in a situation where we cannot confirm or deny the facts, but we will continue to protect the privacy of our students and employees as we work to create a safer environment where learning can occur. Gainesville City School System has great students and our focus should be on publicizing the thousands of positive daily stories and messages that we witness firsthand."
During the school board meeting, the board discussed per diem for board members, which is essentially a "per day" amount on top of a small salary.
"I'd like to offer another option. Instead of a per diem, to just raise the board's salary and give an additional amount to the boar chair, because there really is a tremendous amount of work," suggest Dr. Delores Diaz. Diaz is retiring in December. "I would suggest we just consider in our discussion an increase in our salary."
Sammy Smith pointed out it's not an easy task to raise the salary, however. "A change in our salary, Delores, would require a petition to the legislature." He also said the last time the salary was set for Gainesville City School Board members was 18 years ago. Smith laid out the process for that and Diaz said while she was not particularly interested in further researching the idea, she would if the board wanted her to do so.
Chairman Brett Mercer said they were also considering matching the City Council model, which is $150 per day, max of 12 per month, per diem.
The board also went over
a letter to legislators for 2018, once again asking for the General Assembly to "support the acceptance of in-state tuition at Georgia Colleges and Universities for all Georgia high school graduates," continue funding the Charter System, continue to support and advocate for the collaboration between the district and local colleges such as the University of North Georgia and Lanier Technical College for dual enrollment purposes, among other things. The board will vote on the letter at the next meeting, along with the consent agenda.
The board also discussed paving the driveway at the Glenwood Drive entrance of Bobby Gruhn field. Adrian Niles gave the report and said it would cost about $40,942.50 but that cost would be split in half and shared with Gainesville Parks and Rec. Niles said the GCSB half would be $20,471.25 and would come from the Bobby Gruhn maintenance account.
The board got an update on Enota Elementary, in which Niles said they were ahead of schedule by about a week and a half and about a month out. Walk-throughs have yet to be scheduled but the board may take a peek as early as the upcoming holiday break.
