March 2004

Please join me for the monthly District 3 Community Meeting on Friday, March 5, 9:30 AM at Tri-Cities High School.  The March Board Agenda and community issues will be discussed.

The Pre-Board meeting this month will be held at Dunwoody Springs Elementary School on Tuesday, March 9 at 4:30 PM. 

The Board will hold a Workshop to discuss the results of the public hearings regarding grading and retention policy on Thursday, March 11 at 5:00 PM at the Cleveland Avenue Administration Center.  The Board Meeting will follow at 6:30 PM. 

The Board will hold a Budget Roundtable to on Wednesday, March 3 at the Cleveland Avenue Administration Center.  The topic will be class size allocations, school budget formulas, cost per student and funding.

Senate Bill 49 (the referendum for incorporation of Sandy Springs) passed the Senate but was amended to exclude the area south of Mt. Vernon Highway and west of Powers Ferry Road, which is a sizable area of the Riverwood High, Ridgeview Middle and Heards Ferry Elementary attendance zones. 

Concerns voiced by residents fearing that this could create the potential for future annexation to the City of Atlanta and redistricting of the excluded area into the Atlanta Public School district led me to host a meeting last week at Riverwood High School.  In attendance were Senator Tom Price (who introduced the original bill), Senator Charles Tanksley (who amended the bill to exclude the area) and Representative Joe Wilkinson (who hopes to amend the bill in the House to add back the excluded area).  READ MORE 

The Sandy Springs Task Force, formed to address short and long term solutions to the 1,000 student over instructional capacity crowding issue in the 5 Sandy Springs elementary schools, has met on a number of occasions.  At the February Enrollment Projections Workshop, long term possible solutions presented included building a new school, purchasing an existing school, additions to existing buildings, special program relocation, redistricting or a combination of these.  Interested parties may email me or contact their school principal or School Advisory Council members for dates and times of future meetings.   

2004 General Assembly updates on educational bills being introduced in the legislature are detailed at the Georgia School Boards Association website daily. READ MORE 

Georgia Performance Standards...The state's new proposed curriculum is posted and provides opportunity for public comment. READ MORE  

Fulton County Schools Balanced Scorecard...The system wide strategic improvement plan is now on the website.    READ MORE 

Individual school strategic plans are also posted and can be accessed on the main website by pressing schools and going to the individual school site.  READ MORE

2004-2005 Budget Calendar has been approved READ MORE

March Legislative Highlights

The entire agenda and item descriptions can be viewed on the Fulton County Schools website at the Board Webpacket button.   READ MORE

Gail's Mail has been absent from your email inbox in recent months, but will be more frequent in the future.  There have been some technical changes, and some links may still not work.  Please contact me at gaildean@gaildean.org with questions, concerns or suggestions.  

Sincerely,