With the current five-year facilities plan in place through June 2010, the board of education last week approved a resolution to begin work on an updated plan for the school system.
Superintendent Mike Ballew said administrators and board members would look at enrollment numbers in all of the system’s grade levels to determine if any changes should be made to the configuration of schools.
When asked about some possible changes, Ballew said, “We’re not to that point [that we could discuss specifics] yet,” Ballew said of the planning process. “We always look every year at what’s going to be the best for our students and our facilities. Of course there may not be a change at all.”
Currently the system boasts four K-5 schools, two middle schools and one high school. Depending on what state and local officials propose for the five-year plan, one scenario could mean changing Jasper Middle School into an upper-elementary to house all of the county’s fourth and fifth graders while sixth and seventh graders move to Pickens Middle School.
“If any changes [realigning grades at schools] are made, that will have to be determined before the end of school this year,” Ballew said.
According to Ballew, now that the board has approved that work be started on an updated facilities plan, a state consultant will be asked to review enrollment numbers and to consider the county’s facilities in determining the best configuration of schools. Following any recommendations from the state, Ballew said officials from other school systems would also be tapped for suggestions.
In recent history, the system has utilized K-5 schools, but following the opening of a new high school in the late 1990s, moved to a K-3 system with an upper elementary made up of fourth and fifth graders at the current Jasper Middle School.
•In other news, Finance Director Amy Burgess reported a revenue shortfall for the school’s general fund of $2.2 million, the total from uncollected property taxes and the state shortfall. Burgess said the system has spent 95 percent of its budgeted expenses for the fiscal year that ended in June. Burgess also said the system received $271,944 in revenue from SPLOST III. The funds are proceeds from sales tax collected in May.
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