By Michael O’Hearn

michael.ohearn@tryondailybulletin.com

 

Polk County School Board officials held their first meeting of the new year on Jan. 11.

 

The meeting began with Aaron Greene, director of Curriculum and Instruction, presenting new information regarding upcoming ACT test prep courses coming this semester.

 

“Although we have offered some SAT prep courses in the past to great success, we’re starting to see a movement towards the ACT for kids to take their scores to college,” Greene said.

 

Greene explained to the board that he is considering using SC Test Prep as the facilitator for these courses before the ACT takes place in March.

 

SC Test Prep is a nonprofit organization that will venture to Polk County High School for three days of training.

 

“It’s very important because the ACT is everywhere now,” Greene said. “It has become paramount for us to help as many students as we can.”

 

Dave Scherping then took the stage in front of the board to explain to them the success rate of both of the school system’s affiliated websites for news, Polk Sports and Polk Students, both run by Andy Rhinehart.

 

Scherping said he noticed the data produced by the websites in terms of visitors has stayed relatively consistent during the months of November and December.

 

He added that the Polk Students website, which has been existence since November, will take a few years to get to where Polk Sports is in terms of viewership.

 

Bill Miller, superintendent for the Polk County system, chimed in to Scherping’s presentation, stating he noticed people spend “twice as much time on the students website rather than the sports.”

 

The main event of Monday’s meeting brought in Christine McGoldrick, a representative of Chartwells food services, and Peggy Luther, director of dining services for the Carolinas for Chartwells, to discuss the possibility of a new food option for students.

 

McGoldrick and Luther explained the benefits of bringing Chartwells to Polk County, ranging from better menu selections to a greater purchasing power from Chartwells to give more variety to schools.

 

No action was taken at Monday’s meeting, however, and Chartwells explained to the board that a contract with the food service would not go into effect until July 1 should the board accept Chartwells’ bid.

 

The representatives from Chartwells did ask the board to create an RFP in order for Chartwells to begin doing a cost analysis to determine the price of meals going forward. The national average price for a school lunch, according to Luther, is about $2.50. Currently, Polk County falls in the $2.60 category, slightly higher than the average.

 

Luther went into detail about the benefits Chartwells gives to their communities, stating the same menu “is not seen in every district” and that the service makes their decisions based on “students and their happiness.”

 

Food service employees with the Polk County school system do have the option of either staying with the system or becoming a Chartwells employee.

 

According to Luther, Chartwells works in accordance with a dietician, the community and administration to come up with a 25-day cycle of menus for students. Each district within Chartwells’ service area has a different menu based on the input received from the communities served.

 

Although no action was taken by the board as to whether to have Chartwells draft a bid for the system, chairman Geoffrey Tennant suggested to board members that the administration begin creating the RFP sometime in the next few months to get the ball rolling on the process.

 

Up next on Monday’s agenda came budget amendments proposed by the board. A local donation of $1,500 was added to the budget, and the decrease of $44,000 in revenue and expenditures was also noted. Board member Rhonda Corley approved the budget amendments and Judy N. Jackson seconded the motion.

 

The 2016-2017 budget calendar was brought to the attention of the board next. Details on this calendar include deadlines and dates for when the new budget for the 2016-2017 school year needs to be set in place.

 

Board members have until Feb. 8 to forward the new budget packet to school principals and program directors.

 

From there, the schools and departments within Polk County’s systems have exactly one month to develop a budget request with the involvement of teachers and the community, including PTO boards and parents.

 

The Central Office Staff will receive their requests and will begin their review process.

 

By April, after the Central Office Staff reviews and creates the budget based on community requests, the 2016-2017 budget will have been presented to the Board of Education.

 

The Board of Commissioners will view this budget request after a month of deliberation to revise the budget request in May. The final budget recommendation will be submitted by the Board of Commissioners at the end of June.

 

Following the approval of the budget calendar by board members, Dave Scherping led discussion on the copier service the school system uses and has utilized for nearly 10 years. Scherping said he is considering using another copier service if the current service doesn’t lower their price for their bid this year, thereby “giving another, smaller service their chance.”

 

This bidding process for the service should be finished by April, according to Scherping.

 

There will be a health fair for employees on Jan. 19 from 12:30 – 3:30 p.m. at Polk County High School.

 

The board concluded their meeting and went into closed session at 7:42 p.m.