Pepperell Middle phase out to go before BOE
A phase out of Pepperell Middle would put Floyd County Schools in a position to maximize state funding for building a new school, according to Superintendent John Jackson.
A resolution to phase out Pepperell Middle School, paving the way to maximizing state funding for building a new school, will go before the Floyd County Board of Education tonight.
The board will meet tonight at 6 p.m. in the boardroom at the central office, 600 Riverside Parkway. Board members will caucus in Superintendent John Jackson’s office at 5 p.m.
With an extension of the 1-cent education local option sales tax secured, Jackson said the system can move forward with the phase out, knowing the funds for building a new Pepperell Middle at an estimated cost of $20 million will be there.
A phase out is essentially the school system telling the state Department of Education it plans to build a new school and will not ask for any state funds for the current school ever again. This sets the system up to receive more state capital outlay funding, which reimburses the system, for the new school.
Another piece to the system’s aim of maximizing state funding is taking Pepperell Middle classrooms off the middle school classroom inventory. This drops the classroom numbers, which the state looks at for its funding calculation, to a deficient level, subsequently boosting the need for capital outlay funding, Director of Facilities David Van Hook previously said.
Van Hook said Monday it’s still too early to tell exactly how much more the system will receive through this process.
A draft of a revised promotion and retention policy will also be presented to the board, but no action will be taken, as the system is still seeking further input. At the end of last school year, board members called for a more concrete policy — mainly applying to elementary and middle schools — to determine whether a student passes a grade or must repeat it, Jackson said.