Fulton Co. BOE recognizes student achievements at mtg.

by Barbara Atwill
STUDENT RECOGNITIONS – Fulton County Board of Education recognized Fulton County Middle School students for their recent accomplishments in the 2020 District Governor’s Cup, 2020 Future Problem Solving, and 2020 Quick Recall, during a Special Called Meeting of the Board. Pictured, with the students, are Board Chairman Rob Garrigan, far left, and Advisor Katie Smith, far right. (Photo by Barbara Atwill)
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Students were recognized for their recent accomplishments during the Fulton County Board of Education Special Called meeting on Feb. 13, at the Board office. Board members Rob Garrigan, Kimberly Hagler, Perry Turner, and Superintendent Aaron Collins were in attendance.

Board members will be attending the Kentucky School Board Association Annual Conference Feb. 20, the regular Board meeting date.

Certificates were presented to students participating in the 2020 District Governor’s Cup Competition, 2020 Future Problem Solving Team; and 2020 Quick Recall Team.

District Governor’s Cup team members included Hannah Varden, Dalton McMullin, Jonathan Young, Autumn Mitchell, A’Mareese Esters, Jackson Major, Ben Roberts, Blaine Goswick, Chloe Blackburn, and Connor O’Malley. The 2020 Future Problem Solving team members included A’Mareese Esters, Josiah Walton, Noah Jones, and Autumn Mitchell. Quick Recall team members were Ben Roberts, Mylei Sims, A’Mareese Esters, Dalton McMillin, Connor O’Malley, Johnathan Young, Josiah Walton, and Jackson Major.

The Board also recognized the Best Pilots on Board for January and February.

January’s Best Pilot was Katie Smith. She received comments of “Loves to eat lunch with her students; all around good teacher; she hosts tutoring for her students twice a week; loves Fulton County Schools; and Katie loves teaching and loves our students.”

Best Pilot on Board for February was Mat Dillon. His fellow staff members wrote “He has been instrumental in starting our FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) Club; he is always there to lend a helping hand; he meets with students to pray once a seek and they have started a prayer locker; mat encourages our kids to love Jesus; and our students look up to Mat, we need more role models like him.”

Fulton County Beta Club member Caleb Fields recorded a video, shown during the meeting, thanking the Fulton County Board Members for allowing him, and others, to participate in the State Beta Club Conference. Fields received third place in Social Studies and will be attending the National Beta Conference later this year.

Family Resource and Youth Services Center Director Brandon Uzzle said, “I am grateful for my coworkers and administration staff. Every two years, we have to go before the site-based committees, as well as the Board, and give details of what my job consists of and what my job does. I have to follow action components throughout my year-to-year job. The big job shadowing day the high school does, I collaborated with the principal and high school staff and FRYSC provided transportation for the students to go to the different job sites. The good news is some of the students received Summer jobs, while others received full-time jobs.”

“I will be working with the Fulton County Extension Office and the Early Childhood Council to create transition events for Preschoolers going into Kindergarten. My job is very broad. I hand out pencils, take students home who are sick and no transportation to get them there, and take to the hospital. I’m very blessed and thankful for my job,” Uzzle said.

Notification of Personnel actions from Supt. Collins included the hiring of Kara O’Malley and Kristi Powell, as bus monitors, and accepted the resignation of Debra Fitts as bus monitor.

Supt. Collins reported, “I was sworn in to the Educational Professionals Standards Board on Monday. The yearly Board Annual Retreat on Feb. 20 and 21. A meeting with Harshaw Trane will be held Thursday afternoon, and I have already registered you to attend.”

Collins gave an update on the kitchen remodel.

“There is a lot more plumbing work to be done, than originally anticipated. The wall will need to be resealed, redone, and repainted where the equipment is located. There is no way to complete the work until school is out,” stated Collins.

“Fulton County is an award winning district, award winning high school, elementary and middle school have been high progress schools. We believe in a free appropriate education for all. We hold true to that with an any and all policy. So, every student in the county has a choice on where to send their children. The District has seen a 10% growth in enrollment over the last three years, and I feel no school district should dictate what is best for a child and will continue to welcome any and all students in the County, who want to come and be a part of positive relationship, proficiency, and Pilot Pride. School personnel have written over $17 million in grant money the last seven years,” Collins said.

Assistant Superintendent PaTrice Chambers reported, “In the Middle School, we just had an eighth grader move in from Independent, who had some issues there. We gave him a chance and he is thriving. I still say, we are the best place to be.”

Collins said, “That puts us up to 49 in the elementary school, 50 for middle school, and 51 for high school.”

The Board approved a field trip request for the State Governor’s competition; change order Number 3 for the cafeteria; allocations for 2020-21 school year; emergency certification for Chanelle Collins and Jacob McKinney; Student Accident Insurance Renewal; Spring Sports Schedules for 2019-2020 and Fall Sports Schedules for 2020-2020; revised school calendar for 2020/2021; Set the Graduation date for May 29 at 7 p.m.; approved the SFCC offer for $8,843; and proposed track survey work.

“The SRO (School Resource Officer) has a skill set that we don’t have. The way to ask questions to a student about a situation, to know the law, like Officer Parker knows. He can quote it and be able to deescalate a situation and a student to get to class that we are struggling with. That is great. I can say without a shadow of a doubt, our school district is safer because of the SRO,” Collins said.

Meagan Scott reported, for Jennifer Davis, Financial Officer, the Year-to-date revenue actuals are $3,421,466.556, against a budget of $4,911,652.60, or 69.66%. Year-to-date expenses actuals are $2,197,038.54, against a budget of $4,911,652.60 or 44.73%.

Last Year-to-date revenue actuals were $3,155,503.38, against a budget of $4,644,540.22, or 67.94%.