Give us your background. How did you get on the school board, and why did you want to get on?
OK, so last year there was a vacancy on the board, Miss Christy McElroy had to resign from the board when she got hired to be the assistant superintendent, so there was a vacancy and it was going to be a governor’s appointment. So when that application process came open, I applied for it, and thankfully was appointed by the governor to the position.
What made you want to be on the School Board?
So, I’ve always had an interest in our community and in our schools. Both my kids came up through the schools, they’re both doing great things in life, and it’s because of the foundation they got at Gilchrist County Schools. That’s helped them as young adults being able to take off in their careers. So, I would love to see every other kid in this county have their same opportunity. So I wanted to get involved with the school board so I could help make sure that the schools continue to be successful and bring these opportunities for other kids in the community.
What are some things that you feel like have been successes for the school board since you got the board?
So one of the biggest successes that we’ve had is not official yet, but we’ve worked with the legislature, as you know, we canceled the new school project last year, and we were given $26 million from the state already to start that construction of the new school. Well, we’ve worked with the with the legislature, and we were able to put it in the budget for us to reappropriate that money so that we can keep that money to put into our current facilities, and to give a lot of updates and modernization to a lot of these aging facilities that we have, so that budget is supposed to be signed no later than June 30 by the governor, it’s in the budget, and if he does sign that, that’s $26 million to go a long way to help and improve the schools we have here.
What are some things that you’re looking to improve or change as you go forward?
Are you talking about with the money we’re receiving?
Sure.
So, one of the biggest things is three of the air conditioning units at the schools. Three of the schools have units that are running off of Windows 98 They’re very outdated. Back in December, there was a winter fest at, just to give an example, at Trenton Elementary School, and because it’s running on such an archaic program, we can’t override it. So there was no air conditioning that night in the school, so you know this air conditioning, that’s one of the biggest things we’re going to tackle, that’s going to take up a decent amount of the money, but that’s really a huge to be able to modernize that, that’s running off of a 30 year old system.
Just in general going forward, what are some things that you’d like to see change?
So, I would like to see us continue to expand our CTE programs. I think we have phenomenal programs here. Just this year, coming up, we’re going to be offering an AI CTE program, Career Technical Education, which AI is coming. There’s no stopping it. It’s part of the future, and we’ll be able to help our students be prepared for that by teaching them the basics of AI, how to navigate it, how to work it, be able to get them ready for the next next phase of America.
What do you think you’ve learned so far?
I’ve learned quite a bit in this short time. My first meeting when I came in was the beginning of the budget process, so my very first meeting as a new school board member; here’s the budget, you know? And not having a whole lot of background in the school budget, It was really drinking water out of a fire hose, really. This first year I’ve learned a tremendous amount as far as budgeting, how the different money is allocated from the tax dollars that you’re seeing between the state dollars and the county dollars, and where you can use that, and how you can apply it. That’s the biggest thing. That’s been an awakening for me.
Is there anything that we haven’t talked about so far that you think that everybody needs to know about schools?
The biggest thing I would say is we have great schools, we have great teachers, we have great administrators. Real proud of the work that’s going on in the schools. There’s a lot of good things happening, and just for the community to stay behind our schools and support our schools and support our school system.