City school board to have winter retreat for 2022 plans

Rome City Schools’ board of education will meet at the Sheraton Suites Galleria in Atlanta at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday to discuss upcoming matters for 2022.

This will be the last retreat for board member Elaina Beeman, who was elected to the city commission in November. Pascha Burge was elected to take Beeman’s seat and will be sworn in at the BOE’S first meeting in January.

An official agenda was not available Friday afternoon, but Superintendent Lou Byars said one would be ready Monday.

Some of the items likely up for discussion include plans to expand the middle school and improve each school building’s internet capabilities.

The school system has reported growth in nearly all of its elementary schools and that growth flows upward into its single middle school.

The middle school, originally designed to hold approximately 700 students, now has nearly 1,000 students — and Byars has said it appears that student population will continue on an upward trend.

The original plan was to move the sixth grade out of the elementary schools — to alleviate the space issues there — and into a separate STEM academy building at the former North Heights Elementary School.

Now they’re debating moving the sixth grade in with the rest of the middle school. If they were to do this, they have two options: build a bigger building or add on to the current building on Veterans Memorial Highway.

The board is also working to allow for more users to be on school internet without sacrificing signal strength, specifically during test dates. In October, the board approved a $1.1 million plan to upgrade each school building’s primary network equipment.

The plan involves working with E-rate, a federal program that provides reimbursements for internet services, fiber optics, network equipment and Wi-fi equipment.

Through this partnership, E-rate will cover roughly $900,000 of the total cost, leaving a sum of $230,000 for the school to pay. Byars mentioned during caucus last week that the school system is looking to see if its third round of CARES Act funds can be used to pay that remaining figure.