Dougherty School Board buys five new buses, OKs $2.1 million Title II grant budget

ALBANY — The Dougherty County School Board on Monday approved the purchase of five new school buses and also approved the budget for a grant to improve teacher quality in the district.

Superintendent Butch Mosely also gave the board an update on the House transportation bill 170, which would change the way state fuel taxes are calculated, assessed, collected and distributed. The bill is meant to provide funding for transportation in the state, but will touch cities, counties and and school boards all across Georgia.

In its original form the bill would have cost the DCSS $2 million per year in lost funding.

The House amended the bill several times, went to committee twice before a final version was approved. The bill was finally passed by the House and is now is now in the Senate. Mosely traveled to Atlanta recently to talk to members of the local delegation.

“We expressed our concerns that we were going to take an unfair hit on funding,” Mosely said of the meeting with lawmakers. “In the amended version that passed through the House, it doesn’t appear we are going to get hit that hard.”

Mosely, however, could not be more specific because the bill still will be amended by the Senate.

In action items Monday, the board approved the purchase of five new school buses through a SPLOST allocation. The state issues $20 million in bonds to purchase 259 buses state-wide. The DCSS received $386,100 from the state. The system will include $172,396 in SPLOST funds for a total purchase price of $558,496.

The Board also approved a plan spending $2.1 million in Federal Title II grant money to improve teacher quality in the district.

The wide-ranging grant is meant to attract and retain quality teachers — especially in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines. Incentives and signing bonuses are included in the budget.

“It’s no secret that like most of the school systems in the state, we are desperate to find good math and science teachers,” Mosley said. “We are recruiting all over the country and we go to a lot of job fairs throughout the southeast.”

The next school board meeting will be held March 25 at 11:30 a.m. in the school administration board room.