Dougherty County School Board ends year with quick meeting

ALBANY — The Dougherty County School Board held its final meeting of 2014 and breezed through a light agenda in record time Monday evening. How fast did things move? The BOE began its agenda prebriefing at 6 p.m. and it took just 15 minutes to get through the action items.

With no committee reports or further discussion from the board, Superintendent Butch Mosely looked out on the sparse crown, held up his hands and asked, “Does anybody want to say anything?”

Getting no response from the audience, the board adjourned that segment of the meeting for 45 minutes until the 7 p.m. when the regular meeting was scheduled to begin.

The board approved a $13 million lease with USBank to pay for the system’s recent One-To-One Technology Initiative which will place computer tablets into the hands of each of the district’s more than 15,000 students by the 2016 school year.

The Board also approved asking the Georgia Department of Education for another Title 50 waiver. The waiver, which the system has used for the past 10 years will allow the district to bypass Federal regulations that require that 65 percent of revenues must be spent in the classroom.

DCSS Finance Director Ken Dyer points out that the district is closing the gap, spending $3 million more in the classroom this fiscal year compared to last year. Currently the district is spending 59 percent of revenues in classroom instruction.

The Board also approved the hiring of former Albany Herald staffer J.D. Sumner as the systems new webmaster. Sumner will replace Lana Stuart, who is retiring on Dec. 31. Sumner most recently had been employed by the Albany Area Chamber of commerce’s Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Monday’s meeting was the last for BOE chair Carol Tharin and District 6 board member Darrel Ealum.

Tharin and Ealum were each elected to the board in 2010. Tharin did not stand for reelection and is moving back to Auburn Ala., while Ealum was elected to the Georgia House District 153 seat formerly held by Carol Fullerton

Melissa Strother will take Tharin’s place on the BOE, while Dean Phinazee replaces Ealum.

The next BOE meeting is set for 6 p.m. on Jan. 12.