Board hears about credits, textbooks

2010-02-01

By Martha Barksdale

The Fayette County Board of Education voted on only a few routine matters at Tuesday's meeting. Instead of making decisions, they got an overview of several topics.

Tracy Fleming, director of secondary education, presented the board with an update on credit recovery options for high schoolers who have either failed a class, failed the graduation test or failed a portion of the CRCT.

Fleming showed four plans that could be used for credit recovery in different circumstances. Some involved the student taking online instruction either before or after the usual school day, taking a study skills or tutorial class during the day or taking credit recovery at home. Fleming said parents would meet with counselors to choose the best option. All testing would be monitored by a teacher, even for the students who took the home study options.

Students who failed a class with a 65 to 69 could take a credit recovery course with a teacher either before or after school. The student would only have to make up the standards they had not mastered. This would be offered to students who passed the final exam in a class, but failed because they had five zeros for not doing assignments. This model and the home study model would carry a $75 charge to pay for the teacher. "They got the education for free the first time," Fleming said. "The taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for it again."

Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Sam Sweat said summer school would still have to be offered, but eventually these models would largely replace it at the high school level.

Debbie Wheat, coordinator of reading and language arts for grades K through 8, made her case to the board that they purchase Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's StoryTown series for kindergarten through grade 5.

Wheat said it had been 14 years since the school system updated its reading/language arts textbooks.

The cost of nearly $800,000 will come out of SPLOST money. The books will be available for review at the Lafayette Education Center and in the offices at all elementary schools.

Facilities Director Mike Satterfield then went before the board to make his case for the Facility Services department moving to the old

East Fayette Elementary School property. Satterfield said the current situation is dangerous, with trucks and heavy equipment in the parking lot at the LEC, easily accessible to students. He also pointed out that materials are stored in four locations around the county.

Satterfield said the nearly 64,000 square feet of space available at East Fayette would be more than adequate for their needs. He said the property could easily be secured by gates.

Satterfield said February would be an optimal time for his department to move. While the board delayed a vote until its Feb. 9 meeting, they seemed to think favorably about the proposal.

Board member Lee Wright asked if there was no commercial market for the school building. Satterfield answered that they had a couple of people show interest but nothing had come of it.

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