UNREVIEWED: Murfree calls meeting to name principal

ALBANY, Ga. — Dougherty County School Superintendent Joshua Murfree has called a special meeting on Monday to name a permanent replacement principal at Albany High School. Murfree made the call at a board work session Wednesday at Sherwood Acres Magnet Elementary School.

The system is under a strict timeline set by the Georgia Department of Education to hire a principal no later than Oct. 29 to gain access to nearly $2 million in federal SIG (School Improvement Grant) funding for Albany High.

The school has been without a full-time principal for the last eight months since former principal Angela Schumate was suspended after being caught up the district’s CRCT cheating scandal.

Assistant principal Scott Horton has been serving as the school’s interim principal.

“We have submitted the corrective actions outlined by the state (in regard to Albany High),” interim Curriculum Director Mertia Jones told the board. “Now we just have to wait for the DOE to release the funding.”

The SIG money comes from one of 13 federal grant programs being looked into by the state, which has requested supporting documentation to justify Title I, SIG, FRM (Free or Reduced Meal), Race To The Top and IDEA funding be provided to the state Department of Education.

“We have furnished all of the Title I and SIG information to the state,” Murfree said. “FRM and RTT will be in their hands by the end of the week.”

In other personnel matters, the board, in the wake of rulings made during the recently completed CRCT tribunals, gave new contracts to teachers Nikki Lyons, Barbara Knighton-Harris and Adrienne Savage.

Lyons and Knighton-Harris were approved on votes of 7-0. Board member Carol Tharin was the lone dissenting vote in a 6-1 decision to rehire Savage.

David Walker was named the principal at Morningside by a 6-0 vote. Board chairman James Bush abstained.

The board also:

• Unanimously approved free vision checks and eyeglasses for Sherwood Acres students;
• Approved kitchen and cafeteria modifications for Albany High;
• Approved a change order for Dougherty High School Phase I;
• n Approved Finance Committee bid recommendations to purchase data/video projectors, office furniture and alcohol use/abuse prevention services.