The Paulding County School District will be realigning all high school and three elementary districts to alleviate overcrowding in the new school year.

Deputy Superintendent Cliff Cole shared information about the proposed redistricting plans for next year during the Board of Education meeting Jan. 12.

“Ideally, we will have about 1,800 students in each high school,” said Cole. Currently high school enrollment ranges from a high of 2,091 at South Paulding to a low of 1,389 at Paulding County, based on information presented by Cole.

The deputy superintendent projects enrollments for high schools next year to be 1,802 at East Paulding, 1,647 at Hiram, 1,623 at North Paulding, 1,583 at Paulding County and 1,724 at South Paulding.

New classrooms are currently being built at South Paulding, Paulding County and North Paulding to provide the required space needed for each school and will be ready for the new school year.

With the opening of the new W.C. Abney Elementary school next year, the district plans to redistrict Russom and Shelton elementary schools to balance the number of students in each school. Under the proposed changes, Abney would have 957 students, Russom 881 and Shelton 1,051.

“When the proposed district lines are added to the district Web site on Jan. 13, parents can type in the street name of the student residence and it will show which school the student will be attending next year,” said Cole.

“Parents and stakeholders can also comment on the proposed redistricting through the district Web site at www.paulding.k12.ga.us or by writing to the school district,” added Cole.

In addition, the district will have a series of meetings to obtain feedback from the public before finalizing the redistricting plans during the Feb. 9 board meeting. Locations and dates for the meetings are:

North Paulding High on 1/20 at 7 p.m.

Paulding County High on 1/21 at 7 p.m.

Russom Elementary on 1/25 at 7 p.m.

South Paulding High on 1/26 at 7 p.m.

Abney Elementary on 1/26 at 7 p.m.

Hiram High on 1/27 at 7 p.m.

East Paulding High on 1/28 at 7 p.m..

Shelton Elementary on 1/28 at 7 p.m.

Rising seniors in high school who are scheduled to attend a different school will be allowed to complete their senior year in the school they are currently attending but will be responsible for providing transportation.

Under school choice options in House Bill 251, parents may request a transfer for their children to another school in the district, but they must provide transportation if the transfer is approved under district guidelines. Permanent classroom space must be available after other mandated transfers have been approved for the request to be approved.

“We have deducted out the numbers of those students who live in one school district but attend another school under the choice program,” said Superintendent Larry Ragsdale. “The numbers we have shown for next year are solid.”

Ragsdale discussed options for renewal of the special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST), due to be collected through March 2011. The target for collections was $90 million, but the district now expects to collect just over $72 million due to declining revenues.

“I met with county officials yesterday to discuss renewing SPLOST,” said Ragsdale. “This 1 percent tax has been vital to this school district.”

According to Ragsdale, the district has two possible dates this year to ask voters in the county to approve a new SPLOST. The first date would be July 20, along with primaries, and the other date would be Nov. 2, along with the general election. “My recommendation is to plan for July 20 if the board approves,” said Ragsdale.

“If the referendum does not pass on July 20, we could have as much as nine months with no collections and over a year if it failed to pass on Nov. 20,” said Ragsdale.

The superintendent presented a list of proposed projects to the board, subject to approval of the SPLOST renewal.

One proposal would be to reduce bond millage by using a set amount of funds to pay down bond indebtedness over a period of five years. “This would take some pressure off the millage rate, but we cannot guarantee that rates would drop,” said Ragsdale.

Board member Kim Curl questioned Ragsdale about whether some of the other proposed projects might be too specific in terms of spending. Ragsdale replied, “the board will be approving plans that we present and can change the amounts.”

Board attorney Tom Cable also noted “the ballot question will not show how much will be spent on each category, and the board will have flexibility.”

Board member Kim Cobb asked if this meeting would be the only time plans would be discussed, and Ragsdale said he wants “various people to come in and talk with you about the proposals.”

The board passed a lengthy list of recommendations, with all except two receiving unanimous approval.

“Every year in January the board must elect a chair,” said Cable. By a vote of 6-0-1 the board approved Kathy West to continue as board chair for another year with West abstaining from the vote.

The board next approved Michael Skelton as vice chair for the year, with the vote again 6-0-1 and Skelton abstaining.

Ragsdale recommended that Talley, Richardson and Cable be approved again as attorney for the school district, and the board gave unanimous approval.

Board meeting dates for 2010 received unanimous approval.

Five bid proposals recommended by Ragsdale also received unanimous support.

CC Dickson was selected to provide HVAC filters for the period from Jan. 13, 2010, through January 12, 2011, with an option to renew for an additional 36 months. The bid was $30,783.48.

Four vendors were selected to provide classroom/office furniture to the district for the period from Jan. 13, 2010, through Dec. 31, 2011. The vendors are Ernie Morris Enterprises, Georgia Correctional Industries, Russell Ventures and Virco. “We awarded on a line-item basis rather than overall,” said Purchasing Director Donna Perren.

The board approved a renewal for pest control services with Chandler Exterminators for a year, from Feb. 12, 2010, through Feb. 11, 2011. The projected cost to the district is $85,140.

“The state has issued new guidelines and we had only one bidder,” said Perren.

Hill Tire Co. was selected to provide automobile tires for the district at a cost of $7,238.50.

Atlanta Commercial Tires had the low bid of $69,028.50 to provide bus tires for the district. Skelton, noting that Michelin tires had been selected, asked about the quality of Goodyear and Firestone tires, which had a much lower price.

“Performance of the Michelin tires has been good, and this is not something we want to take a chance on,” said Director of Transportation Jim Black.

Two field trip requests recommended by Ragsdale were approved.

Ragsdale informed the board that he, Cole and board chair West met with Gov. Sonny Perdue Dec. 14 regarding the Race to the Top program. Thirty-five systems were invited to attend the meeting, with 20 in attendance.

“Stimulus money from the federal Department of Education is going to be available, but to receive the funding we had to pledge to do something over several years,” said Ragsdale. “There were a lot of unanswered questions and we were not willing to sign a pledge without talking to the full board.”

West also expressed concerns about the process. “They wanted us to sign on the dotted line by Jan. 6 and would not give an extension,” said West.

Cobb questioned the December report for travel and overtime in the district. She noted that $90,000 was shown for overtime and questioned whether that was higher or lower than other months. Cobb also said, “I thought overtime was being cut out in the district.”

“We never said we would not have overtime, just that we wanted to restrict it as much as possible,” replied Ragsdale.

Cobb pointed out that some district part-time staff, such as bus drivers, were also working as substitute teachers and accruing more than 40 hours in a week, leading to overtime. “I have no problem with our part-time district staff going up to 40 hours a week, but we should limit overtime,” said Cobb.

In response to questions from board members about whether the recent snow days would have to be made up, Ragsdale said he would be discussing this with the state and would bring information back to the board.

Cole, asked by the board about response to the proposed school calendar for next year, reported that 7,000 votes had come in and calendar B was in the lead.

The board recognized Emily Strickland, second-grade teacher at Dugan Elementary, as the Dallas Rotary teacher of the month for January.