Board Business Briefs: School Board Appoints New Member, Maintains Local Funding Control

New School Board District 3 member Mr. Chance Beam

The Cherokee County School Board on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, appointed a new board member to fill a vacancy created by retirement and voted to maintain local control of school funding decision-making by opting out of statewide legislation.

The meeting continued the structure adopted last year of a work session at 5:15 p.m. and a regular business meeting at 7 p.m.  Additionally, public hearing were held at 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. All were livestreamed via YouTube, and the videos are archived on the CCSD website in the Board of Education area online here.

NEW SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER

The School Board on Thursday voted to appoint Mr. Chance Beam of Woodstock to fill the District 3 post vacancy.

The vacancy was created by the recent resignation of longtime board member John Harmon upon his move outside the post.  The board last month voted to accept applications to fill the seat for the remainder of the term, which ends Dec. 31, 2026.

A local business owner, Mr. Beam and his wife, Christine, have two daughters who attend River Ridge High School.

Mr. Beam will be sworn into office prior to the board’s next regular meeting at a date to be announced. 

He will begin his service by attending the whole board training session later this month.  These regularly held training sessions are designed to strengthen the board’s governance work, as a high-performing school district begins with a high-performing governance team.

School Board Chair Janet Read thanked everyone who applied for the post for their interest and willingness to serve the community.

“We had a lot of great candidates,” she said.  “This is always a tough choice.”

ACADEMICS & ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT

Over the past year, the School Board has been laser focused on improving the instructional resources available to teachers and students.  They have worked together to elevate the excellence in their governance through the development of Core Beliefs, student performance goals, and a governance policy, which calls for a Cohesive System of Teaching and Learning and supportive accountability.

The School Board has paved the path to clarify standards (what teachers teach and what students learn) and customize them to meet CCSD expectations.  The board is also committing to increasing clarity and consistency as well as comprehensive resources, high expectations, and teacher autonomy.

The Cohesive System of Teaching and Learning includes:

• Customized standards aligned to the state-required standards of what concepts students should be learning in core content classes (English language arts, math, science, social studies) at each grade level, known as CCSD Teaching & Learning Standards;
• A “toolbox” of instructional resources, tightly aligned to those standards, for teachers and students, as well as teacher-developed exemplar instructional plans and examples; and,
• Tools to monitor that students are learning, including a diagnostic reading screener, formative and summative assessment tools, and intervention and extension resources, to ensure students are learning and meeting their potential.

Chief Academic Officer Dr. Josh Heath shared that the Academics & Accountability team members are now working with teachers to further customize the CCSD Teaching & Learning Standards and to prepare for the selection of new core instructional resources for English language arts and math classes.  The draft customized standards, focused on ensuring what students are learning aligns with board expectations, will be shared with the board and community next month.

New English language arts standards are scheduled for next school year, but no other content areas should expect significant changes to the standards.  This, however, is an important foundational element prior to acquiring instructional resources.

The new core instructional resources will be selected in March with increased involvement of teachers, parents, and community members through opportunities to both view the selection of possible resources, such as textbooks, workbooks and digital resources, through in-person “showcase” events and online review, and then share feedback through a survey.  This improved method for selecting instructional resources is part of the revised Policy IFAA Instructional Materials, which had its final reading and received the board’s approval at Thursday’s meeting.

More information will be shared later this month with CCSD teachers and staff, students’ families and the community as to how they can be engaged in the instructional resources selection process.

School Board member Rick Steiner asked for an update on implementation of the new accountability model.  Mr. Heath reported on the balanced autonomy and supportive accountability model designed by the School Board and started with the board’s student achievement goals that are now incorporated into school improvement plans.

School improvement efforts now are centered on the board’s student performance goals and work is underway by a collaborative team to monitor school success, provide support, and adjust instruction as needed.

BUDGET DEVELOPMENT

The School Board on Thursday unanimously voted to maintain local control of school funding decision-making by exercising its one-time opportunity to opt out of the House Bill 581 statewide floating homestead exemption constitutional amendment.

Had the board not opted out, the statewide proposed floating homestead exemption on property tax would have cost the district $10.6 million in reduced local revenue for education next school year and $58 million over the next three years.  This decision has no impact on the separate expansion of the local senior homestead exemption that removed the property value cap for seniors, passed by local referendum in March 2024.

While the district is prepared to mitigate the $14 million loss in local revenue from the expanded senior homestead exemption, through such steps as cutting all district central office budgets by at least 3%, the statewide floating homestead exemption on local property tax was an additional unanticipated funding challenge.  The impact, had the board not exercised the one-time opportunity to opt, would have meant cuts to locally funded services, such as safety and security, school nurses, custodial, transportation, and technology or reconsidering a millage rate increase.

Prior to making its decision, the board held three public hearings to hear feedback from the community.

School Board members cited their unique role, as set by state law, to put the interest of all students first in their decisions rather than the opinions of voting constituents.

“I was elected to keep students at the forefront of my decisions,” board Vice Chair Patsy Jordan said, noting her 50 years of experience in public education gives her valuable perspective as to how funding shortfalls impact student learning.  The statewide exemption, she said, “negatively impacts the backs of our students and teachers.  This is detrimental to all Georgia school districts.”

School Board member Erin Ragsdale, a former classroom teacher who now works as an early childhood speech language pathologist, said that perspective also shaped her vote.

“I know how hard that job is,” she said of classroom teachers.  “I know how thankless that job is -- and I know how rewarding it is.  I cannot, as a School Board member, as an educator and as a parent, move forward without opting out.  I won’t do it to my kids, I won’t do it to the students of Cherokee County, and I sure won’t do it to the teachers of Cherokee County.”

School Board member Kelly Poole also cited her focus on students.

“They are my true constituents,” she said.  “Opting out is the right decision for our children.”

School Board Chair Janet Read Welch said she takes the same approach to her decisions as well.

“I was elected to do what’s best for kids,” she said.  “The parents are counting on us, and the students are counting on us.”

Staff now will finish preparing next school year’s proposed budget, which will be presented to the School Board and published on the district website for community review next month. 

The focus for preparing the budget is on three priorities: directing salary improvements and resources as close to the classroom and students as possible; refocusing and realigning general fund expenditures to be as efficient as possible with limited resources; and ensuring employment stability across locally funded job families.  The budget development is built on holding the millage rate constant.

The budget adoption timeline was moved up by two months to better align with new school year preparations including recruiting and retaining high-quality professionals to provide the best education possible to students.

School Board member Dr. Susan Padgett-Harrison emphasized the cost-cutting already being undertaken by the district office, including the 3% reductions and shedding of redundancies in instructional resources and business systems, in preparation for directing more funding to classrooms.

“That’s exactly what we had asked for,” she said.

 CREDIT RATINGS AND BOND SAVINGS

Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Owen also reported during the meeting that the school district has again earned positive credit ratings from the world’s top agencies.  This news benefits the community’s taxpayers through better borrowing and financing rates for district needs.

Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s financial service companies this month reaffirmed CCSD’s excellent Aa1 and AA ratings, respectively, and awarded Stable outlooks to both in recognition of continued strong financial stewardship.  Moody’s rating ranks CCSD among the top 3% of school districts in the nation for the most outstanding credit ratings.

“The Stable outlook reflects the expectation that the district’s credit profile will remain in line with the rating category due to prudent budget management and capital planning and a strong and growing economic base,” Moody’s analysts stated in their report.  Further, Moody’s analysts noted a factor that could lead to an upgrade is a continued trend of balanced operations and maintenance of an available fund balance ratio at or above 30% of revenue. 

S&P analysts noted a diverse local economy, stable enrollment base, sufficient reserves with a 10-year track record of positive general fund operating results and moderate debt service as reasons for reaffirming their rating.

In other financial news, the board on Thursday approved a bond resolution to fund voter-approved Education SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) capital outlay projects and to refund the 2015 Series bonds.       

Partly due to these excellent ratings, the results of today’s bond issuance exceeded expectations with the school district earning more than $13.8 million in premiums (meaning bidders for bonds paid more than $1.13 for every $1 in bonds issued) and an average true interest cost of just 2.966%.  This means the school district issued $179.6 million in bonds but received more than $193.4 million in funds to continue voter-approved Ed SPLOST capital outlay projects ($108.6 million) and refund the 2015 Series bonds ($84.8 million).  By refunding the 2015 Series bonds, the school district will save taxpayers more than $5 million in interest over the remaining life of the bonds. 

The School Board on Thursday also:

• Recognized the CCSD School Police Department in honor of National School Resource Officer Appreciation Day;
• Recognized the Cherokee County Council PTA and approved a resolution, which is online here, in honor of PTA Founder's Day to thank all PTA volunteers for their dedication to supporting CCSD schools and public education;
• Heard the monthly financial report, which is online here;
• Heard the monthly capital outlay report, which is online here.  All projects, including construction of the new replacement Cherokee HS campus and Free Home ES campus, are on schedule and within budget; and,
• Approved monthly Human Resources employment recommendations.