Grants and Apple Festival preparations in financial approvals

EAST ELLIJAY, Ga. – Several financial approvals came from the Board of Education this week with letters for grants, memorandums, bonds, and the Financial Report for the month.

With October weeks away, the board approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the Gilmer Chamber utilizing its buses again this year. With an increase in the hourly rate for drivers of the buses, the $56,000 agreement was approved during their regular meeting. The largest event of the year in Gilmer County, the buses typically run between several locations including the downtown area for shoppingmode Apple Arts, the joining event for the shoppingmode Apple Festival, the school’s parking lot for visitors to the festival, and the festival grounds themselves.

The board moved on to grant applications for the College and Career Academy at the Larry Walker Education Center. In support of a $3 million grant for the College and Career Academy, a requirement came up to include a Letter of Support from the Board of Education. The board recently approved the transferring of instructional units in July to bring it into state compliance with  the transfer and phase out of buildings in order to put the state credit earnings in there proper place.

The 2022 bond bus approval and September’s monthly financial report rounded out the meeting’s financial approvals alongside purchasing policy information including additional weights for GHS. Board member Joe Pflueger asked about the purchase after the board spent $40,000 in June on new weights for the high school. The purchase came for replacing broken weights as well as 3 additional weight stations due to high volume of students using and waiting on the original stations. With the three additional stations, nine total are now in use at the high school.

Purchases also include $12,000 in inspections for the school system as the board looks to recover from a recent lightning strike that damaged the main administration building and shining a light on a need for an additional or replacement to generators in the system.