In its first meeting of 2017, the Bulloch County Board of Education adopted a calendar for next school year that adds four more days for teacher training and planning but has only 176 class days for students, instead of the traditional 180.

To start the board’s organizational meeting Thursday night, District 1 member Cheri Wagner became the chair and District 6 member Jimmy “Jay” Cook Jr. the vice chair for 2017. Neither received a majority of members’ votes, but after a series of 4-4 ties, a policy the board adopted last February decided the board leadership on other factors.

Calendar survey

Possibilities for the 2017-18 school calendar had been discussed at a previous meeting. Five possible calendars, ranging from 176 to 180 class days and with other differences, were recently sent to school system employees along with an online survey. A majority of the 486 employees responding chose Option 1, with 176 class days and eight “collaborative planning” days for teachers when students will be off, reported Troy Brown, the school system’s chief financial officer.

Teachers are training to implement new state standards in science and social studies next school year, according to a presentation the board heard Thursday. They are also working together in their planning teams to keep what is taught at all the schools on track in something called a Guaranteed Viable Curriculum.

Additional planning days are needed to deal with these things, said Superintendent of Schools Charles Wilson.

 “It’s uncomfortable to appear to be taking away instructional days because instructional time is the most important thing,” Wilson said. “But if teachers are not well prepared to deliver the product and the service that the students need, the curriculum and the instruction, the efficiency of the instructional time can be jeopardized. We’re making a very strategic attempt to improve the quality of what’s delivered in less time.”

This has been the subject of a very deliberate dialogue among school leaders, including principals in the district, he said. Giving up those four class days, he said, will help to reduce the number of times teachers are away from their classrooms for planning and training on days when they are supposed to be teaching.

“Teachers are now being pulled out of the classroom, you know, haphazardly, to do the same thing,” Wilson said. “What we’re doing is taking a very structured and intentional approach.”

He reminded board members that teachers are contracted to work 190 days, including both teaching and planning days.

Georgia law still specifies a 180-day school year for students. But under the Bulloch County Schools’ contract with the state as a Strategic Waivers School System, it is allowed to have fewer class days.

The first day of the 2017-18 school year for teachers will be July 24. The first day for students will be Aug.  1. The last class day, and graduation day, will be May 25.

Next year, teachers will have only one paid “post-planning” work day, May 29, to wrap up after students leave, instead of the two days provided this year.

But they will have five days, July 24-28, instead of four to prepare for the start of school. The last of those days is designated as one of four district-wide planning days, interspersed through the year. Another four days off for students but days-on for teachers are labeled as “school” planning days. This year there were only three “professional development” days.

The current school year, 2016-17, started out with 180 instructional days, but school was cancelled four days because of storms.  No makeup days are planned. Having 176 class days as the starting point for next year will make makeup days more likely if there are cancellations, Wilson acknowledged.

Leadership tie

The board was unanimous on everything else Thursday, but split evenly on electing its leadership for 2017.

In past years, board members selected the chair and vice chair using confidential paper ballots. In 2016, this process was used and produced a majority vote for now-former member Mike Herndon as chair, but a repeated tie led to Wagner and District 8 member Maurice Hill being designated co-vice chairs.

Then in February, the board adopted a new selection process for the chair and vice chair. With this in place, the board voted in public by show of hands Thursday, but tied on both decisions.

First, Hill nominated District 2 member Mike Sparks for chairman. Cook nominated Wagner.

Hill, Sparks, District 5 member Glennera Martin and new District 7 member Heather Mims voted for Sparks. Cook, Wagner, District 4 member Steve Hein and new District 3 member Stuart Tedders voted for Wagner. They all voted the same way twice more.

The school board’s attorney, Susan Cox, explained the new policy, which states that if the vote is tied three times, the person with the least experience in the leadership position wins. Because neither Sparks nor Wagner had been chair before, a further provision, awarding the chair to the nominee who has served the least time on the board, kicked in. Wagner has served four years on the board; Sparks, six years.

Almost a toss

So it was decided just short of the final provision for breaking the tie, a coin toss.

“I’m excited and looking forward to another year and very grateful to be able to continue to serve and do what’s best for our students,” Wagner, re-elected last year by a majority of District 1 voters, said Friday.

After Martin nominated Sparks and Hein nominated Cook for vice chair, the same split and repeated tie votes occurred. Cook had not served as vice chair before, but Sparks had, so Cook is vice chair.

The chair conducts meetings and signs documents, but has no special tiebreaker of veto power. She retains a regular vote and the ability to make motions.

Sparks, who tied for both leadership posts, congratulated Wagner and Cook.

When the board heard a presentation on teachers receiving training related to standards and the Guaranteed Viable Curriculum, Sparks, a retired teacher, spoke up.

“I’m concerned that we’re losing valuable instructional time in doing all this training,” he said.

Training on class days requires paying substitute teachers while taking certified teachers, who have planned lessons, out of the classroom, Sparks said.

Wilson said the new calendar would address this for next year, and Sparks later made the motion to adopt the Option 1 calendar.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.