The Newton County School Board went into executive session to continue its discussions on a contract offer to current superintendent J.O. Amis to take effect in January after his county superintendent position changes from an elected to appointed.
Amis was re-elected as superintendent in 2015 and began his new term in January 2016. His current term expires in January 2020. Since then, the state legislature changed the county superintendent position to being appointed by the school board. That change takes effect at the end of his current term.
The school board met behind closed doors for several minutes before inviting Amis into the executive session. Once the session ended, the school board announced that no action has been taken at this time.
In other business, the school board:
• discussed changes to its student attendance policies to find ways to increase student attendance. Several options discussed included not allowing students the chance to attend participate in functions such as the prom or graduation if students reached a large number of absences. They also discussed the option of sending those students with excessive absences to the alternative school to help remediate students for classes they missed. No action was taken, but new policies could be brought back to the board at a future meeting.
• approved monthly financial reports.
• amended its FY 2019 budget to actual expenditures.
• approved section E of the school board policies and legislative policies revisions for FY 2020.
• approved the claims docket.
• approved donations.
• approved the school recognition funds that are paid to teachers.
• approved the consent agenda including minutes of the September 9 meeting, fixed asset summary, deletion of fixed assets, field trips (excluding the choir trip that was cancelled), facility use agreement, 16th section items, 2020 salary report, district test security plan, English Learner Plan and school board activity calendar.
• conducted the legislative survey.
