Gainesville City School officials voted unanimously to approve next year’s school calendar at their meeting last night, marking the first day of school for the 2018-2019 school year as Wednesday August 8.
"Last year, with this current calender, we had some days we had a Friday off and Monday off. As we were going through governance council process, we got some feed back that we were messing up two weeks as opposed to to days in one week so you're only impacting one week negatively," said Superintendent Jeremy Williams. They issued parameters following the feedback they received and the governance council created several options for feedback. With a five vote margin on the first two calenders issued, they had another vote for a third calender, which swept the votes.
The biggest announcement came at the end of the meeting when it was announced during personnel reports that Gainesville High School Football Coach Bruce Miller would retire at the end of the week and Principal Tom Smith would retire at the end of the year.
Some financial details were reviewed at the meeting, including State Capital Outlay Reimbursement for Enota Elementary, FY18 Federal Program Purchases, which was an item they hope to review quarterly, and FY19 Budget Timeline. The timeline showed the board plans to select a millage rate and a budget at the same time, in June.
Director of Finance Kathy Pethel also showed the board the November 2017 and December 2017 Financial statements, followed by budget amendments to the general and federal funds.
Some of the items included in the budget amendments to the general fund were a decrease in tuition based on projections, an increase for State Grants and an increase for utilities at Enota Elementary for April through June, and Pethel said there were more exemptions than anticipated. "We recognized these items are items that will affect us through the year, so we bring it the board and adjust our budget by that amount so there will be no unexpected items," said Pethel. "We're sure of it, so we wanted to adjust our budget so that will help us with future projections."
Also in the finances department, Cargill donated $7,500 to Fair Street School. Fair Street alumna and Cargill employee Connie Sinauld presented the check to the board and Fair Street's principal. In addition, the Board recognized highest attendance rates. Mundy Mill Academy has the highest student attendance, Gainesville Exploration Academy had the highest school employee attendance and highest staff attendance went to the GCSS Board Offices. Student groups, including the Mindy Mill Academy STEAMing Eagles Robotics and Technology club and student council at the school were recognized in an update about the school's progress. They also recognized board member Willie Mitchell, who is now in his 26th year of service.
