The Union County Board of Education held a called meeting July 14 for the sake of organizing staff positions before the start of the next school year, but the bulk of discussions centered on Guaranteed Maximum Price project proposals and school policy changes.
Changes to eight policies were brought before the board for review as part of a first reading. All changes were required by recent state legislation or recommended by the Georgia School Board Association for clarification purposes.
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The first reviewed change, regarding the Equal Opportunity Employment Policy, amends who should be contacted within the school system to report alleged discrimination or harassment under federal civil rights law.
For the Employee Leaves and Absences Policy, the allotted personal or professional leave days are increasing from three to five, and a new category, “Maternal Birth Leave,” is being created.
Now, eligible employees who give birth will have 120 hours of paid leave during the immediate three weeks following the birth. This will be in addition to the 240 hours of Paid Parental Leave that is already in the policy, which may be taken during a rolling 12-month period.
Separate from requirements laid out by the State of Georgia, local administrators are considering including Bereavement Leave in the policy, although this decision is still being discussed.
The change to the Competitive Interscholastic Activities Policy for Grades 6-12 comes by way of recommendation by the GSBA to more clearly extend the policy to “virtual students,” or those enrolled in virtual programs within the district.
Virtual students, referred to as “home study students” in the existing policy, were already included in the original legislation, but the change brings clarity to virtual student participation in extracurricular and interscholastic activities and the regulation thereof.
The Promotion and Retention Policy outlines the steps that must be taken if students are not performing appropriately to their grade level. The policy is not changing in effect, but some of the wording is being amended to mirror the language from new legislation.
For the Graduation Requirements Policy, a change will clarify that the School Board can establish graduation requirements that exceed those set by the state. Also, the policy is being updated to add “guardians” to the people needing to be advised of graduation requirements.
The Equal Educational Opportunities Policy will be seeing the addition of “religion” to the list of potential discriminations or harassments under state and federal law. As with the Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, the responsible parties to receive reports of alleged discrimination are being updated.
More wording changes are being addressed with the School Admissions Policy. Foster children are now included to ensure their immediate enrollment after a request is made, and the GSBA has recommended additional language clarifications to match existing legislation.
Last but not least, although Union County Schools already banned the use of electronic devices during the school day for all grade levels, new state legislation officially banned electronics for students in high school, leading to the change in the system’s Use of Electronic Devices by Students Policy.
As for the approved GMPs – a type of construction contract that caps project costs – one covered the demolition of the administrative “C” Building by Charles Black Construction following asbestos risk. The Guaranteed Maximum Price for this work is $279,613.
The second GMP covers some security upgrades, particularly to Woody Gap School, the Technology Building, and the Alternative Education Program Building.
The Woody Gap School doors are historical and will be preserved for that reason, but they do need security upgrades, and maintenance cited rotten doors at the AEP Building as another example. The total maximum cost for the upgrades comes in at $169,703.
Demolition work is slated to start “relatively quickly,” with security upgrades expected to be complete or nearly complete by fall break.
Also in the meeting, the board hired a new paraprofessional and accepted the resignations of two maintenance employees. Having a called meeting for the resignations gives the board more time to post and fill the available positions for the upcoming school year.
