(The Pierce County Board of Education discussed and/or voted on the following during their monthly work session, Thursday, March 6 and their regular monthly meeting Monday, March 10.
Bass fishing team: The school board approved the creation of a bass fishing team at the high school.
(See related story in the March 19 edition.)
New baseball bullpen at PCHS: The board approved construction of a new baseball bullpen at PCHS and providing $15,000 to fund half of the cost. The Dugout Club will provide the other half of the funds. (See related story in March 12 edition.)
Closed session and personnel: The board adjourned into a seven minute closed session at Thursday’s meeting and a three minute closed session during Monday’s meeting. Both were for personnel. After Thursday’s closed session, the board approved the hiring of Amber Burney and Isabel McEuen as teachers and Megan Nix as a paraprofessional, all at Blackshear Elementary, Emma Thomas as a paraprofessional at Midway Elementary, Abbie Jackson, Cheyann New and Bryant Stafford as teachers, all at Patterson Elementary, Shawn Jackson and Suzannah Lee as teachers and Kristie Quick as a bookkeeper, all at Pierce County High School and Megan Dyal as school nurse at Pierce County Middle School, all for the 20252026 school year. The board approved Scott Bryant and Constance Drew both as assistant girls track coaches at the high school. The board also approved the resignations of Tammy Braswell, as a 49 percent teacher at Patterson Elementary, Rebecca James as counselor and Rebecka Insalaco as a paraprofessional, both at the high school. The board approved the retirements of Laverne DeLoach, with school nutrition at Blackshear Elementary and Emily Crosby, teacher at the high school. After Monday’s closed session, the board approved the hire of Sarah Chancey as a paraprofessional at Blackshear Elementary, Janet Strickland at a 49 percent teacher at Patterson Elementary, Laura Monteleone, as custodian at the middle school and Sandra Sharpe as a bus driver. The board also accepted the resignations of Janet Strickland as a full-time teacher and Melissa Crosby as a paraprofessional both at Patterson Elementary and Terry Marchman at the middle school.
Literacy Act materials purchase: The board approved paying $392,621.50 for a three year subscription to materials for literacy improvement. Benchmark Advance is the contractor. The subscription will provide instructional materials and teacher training for implementing a state mandated literacy improvement program at the elementary schools.
Midway Elementary flooring bids: The board awarded four bids for flooring at Midway Elementary to Spires Concrete Polishing and Spires Commercial Flooring, both of Waycross in the amount of $257,995. Spires was the overall lowest bidder for the projects. The work will include classrooms, hallways, administration and library and multipurpose room. The board declined to award the bid for bathrooms and kitchen and will revisit that phase of the project at their April meeting. Grainger Contracting and Services of Marietta bid $53,390 for that phase of the work and the next lowest bid was Plexi-Chemie of Jacksonville, FL at $80,730. The board opted to seek more information from the two vendors before awarding the bids for the bathrooms and kitchen. Flooring bids were in five sections and seven companies bid on part or all of the projects. In addition to the two Spires companies, five bidders also submitted bids including SE Specialty Flooring of Locust Grove bid on four phases for a total of $391,343.69. Select Floors of Marietta bid on all five phases for a total of $480,982. Pure Epoxy Coatings of Cumming bid on three projects for a total of $334,622.50. Grainger Contracting and Services of Marietta bid on four projects for a total of $378,415 One bid, by JRS of Hiram, was rejected because it did not send a representative to a mandatory pre-bid meeting and therefore failed to comply with specifications. The bids were referred to Facilities Director Harbin Farr for review at Thursday’s work session and he gave a recommendation for the two Spires companies to do the work.
Steamer and refrigerator bids for school nutrition: The board awarded bids for a steamer at Pierce County Middle School and pass thru refrigerators at Blackshear Elementary, Midway Elementary and Pierce County Middle Schools to Boelter of Duluth. Boelter bid $26,098.60 for the steamer and a total of $49,932.24 for the refrigerators. Other steamer bids included Mobile Fixture of Columbus at $26,833.94 and Norvell Fixture of Augusta at $29,914.80. Refrigerator bids included Mobile Fixture of Columbus at $53,217.51 and Norvell Fixture of Augusta at $55,185.42.
Addition of new school psychologist: The board approved hiring a new psychologist for the school district. Currently there is only one psychologist and the work load is high. The state average is one school psychologist per every 2,000 students. Pierce County’s ratio is 1 psychologist for 3,647 students, which is the highest in the eight-county Okefenokee Regional Education Services Agency (RESA) area.
Summer operations pay rate increase for school nutrition: The board approved a nine percent pay raise for school nutrition employees who participate in the seamless summer operations providing meals to students. School nutrition director Becky Swain reported school nutrition staff prepared and distributed over 40,000 breakfasts and lunches over the summer last year. The raises will be given to the 15 employees who participate in the summer operations. The raises will range from $1.35 per hour to $1.82 depending on experience. Funding for the raises will come from the nutrition department budget.
Recognition: The board recognized STAR student Walker Sergent and his STAR teacher Brandon Carlson. The board was also recognized as a Exemplary School Board for 2024 by the Georgia School Board Association. (See related items in the March 19 edition.)
Consent agenda: Several items were approved under the consent agenda. They include:
• field trip requests for the junior softball players at the high school to attend a camp at Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL March 26 and for the competition cheerleaders at the high school to attend the ACE Cheer Company in Birmingham, AL May 21-23. All out-of-state field trips require board approval.
• approval of two nonresident applications including a sixth grader and an eighth grader, both at the middle school.
• approving a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Coastal Pines Technical College. The MOU provides for faculty coordinated clinical experience for students in their field of study.
Reports: Finance Director Melanie Helms gave the system’s financial report. The school system reported revenue of $25.98 million and expenses of $23.5 million through January. The system had almost $18 million in reserves. Local tax revenues accounted for almost $5 million in January as local property taxes were due. Helms reported the system’s sales tax revenue was a record high at $297,717 in January, up $24,000 from December. The board approved the financial reports as presented. Facilities director Harbin Farr gave an update on the renovations to the old high school gym. (See related story in the March 12 edition.)
Public participation: There was no public participation.
Minutes: The board approved minutes for last month’s meetings.
Information: Superintendent Dara Bennett announced pre-k registration will take place at all elementary schools from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. March 17-21. Kindergarten registration at all elementary schools will be from 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. March 24-28. Report cards will be issued Friday, March 21. An early release day will be held Friday, April 4. Students and staff will be out for spring break April 7-11.
Next meetings: The next monthly work session will be held at 8 a.m. Thursday, April 3. The regular meeting will be delayed one week due to spring break. The regular meeting held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 14. All meetings will be at the BOE office. Board members will have training following the April work session.
