The Morgan County Board of Education met Jan. 12 for its first monthly meeting of the year and shared multiple updates and changes planned for the county.
Due to the new calendar year, the committee also re-elected Chairman Andrew Ainslie III and Vice-Chair Cheryl Bland to new terms in their board positions.
In recent weeks, the school system’s plans for the new K-5 facility, set to open in Fall 2028, have become a central topic of discussion at local meetings. The Board of Education presented a final design and site rendering plan for the facility, including floor plans and an outdoor front elevation.
The school system has spent months planning for the new facility, along with a $4.1 million budget proposal for a road improvement plan for the intersections of East Avenue, College Drive, Old Buckhead Road, and Highway 441. The Board of Commissioners approved paying $964,700 for the project, as requested by MCSS during the Jan. 5 meeting.
During the staff reports section of the agenda, Assistant Superintendent Jay Homan provided multiple updates within the school system’s administrative and student services.
“As you may have noticed, we received our final design and site rendering plan, so we are excited to receive those, and I think they look good,” Homan said. “We are definitely making progress on the new K-5 facility.”
Homan added that the school system now has preliminary pricing from its construction management firm, Charles Black Construction. The price plan will reportedly help the school system in “evaluating the costs in relation to the budget.”
According to Homan, the school system is making progress with implementing the Centegix Safety system across the district. The security system’s installation is complete and includes beacons, strobes, and gateways. Staff will undergo a training program at the end of the month.
The school system is currently in the process of entering into an agreement with Supreme Maintenance Organization to begin “supplemental after-hour custodial services” at the schools. Homan said this step is due to the local education system’s struggle to “fill and maintain” its custodial positions.
“We are going to experiment with the high school, starting with a hybrid model where they’ll have a few custodial representatives come in and do some work in the evenings to supplement the day shift that we have at the school,” Homan said. “This has some potential, so we are excited to evaluate whether this approach improves service levels across the board and whether we might be able to expand this option as we move forward.”
In other news from the BOE Jan. 6 meeting:
Board members recognized 24 MCHS cheerleaders, who finished as runners-up in the 2A GHSA Game Day State Championship in December. The sideline-based competition was judged in three segments: fight song, band chant, and cheer. The students all received certificates at the beginning of the board meeting and took a photo with the committee.
Dr. Chip Meyer, the MCSS Assessment and Accountability Coordinator, shared results from the Winter I-Ready assessment. This diagnostic platform determines where elementary-age students stand in their learning of classroom content. The tool is used three times a year to assess students’ growth across all classroom subjects.
“31% of our students were at or above grade level in the i-Ready reading results in the fall, and now that has increased to 47,” Meyer said. “We had 29% of our students who were two or three grade levels below grade level to start the year, and we’ve reduced that down to 21.”
In the math section, 52% of students met 50% or more of their annual growth goal.
Assistant Superintendent Susan Tolbert announced that MCCS has begun registration for the 2026-27 Pre-K lottery, which will take place on Feb 12.