The Baldwin County Board of Education met on Feb. 13 with a full agenda of approvals, recognitions, and updates.
After approving the monthly financial reports, the board commenced the meeting with the reading and approval of a resolution honoring February as Black History Month.
The board also approved the naming of the Baldwin High School track in honor of Coach Anderson Bentley Jr., who has been coaching track at Baldwin High School for 50 years.
“I just wanted to thank the board for the honor…and for allowing me to stay in the system. I’m one of the few coaches that can say that I’ve been with the same system all my career and I thank God for the idea that he allowed me to stay here. I don’t take anything for granted,” said Bentley.
The majority of the meeting was spent recognizing the recipients of many different contests, scholarships, and awards, one being the Georgia College & State University Martin Luther King Writing Competition.
Three students were recognized for winning the competition. Austin Guyton and Theresa Karashay, from Lakeview Primary, were co-winners in the K-2 grade art category, along with Amira Jackson from the same school, who was the art winner for the 3-5 grade category.
The essay winner for Baldwin County Middle School was Veera Puri and Destini Morris was the winner for the high school.
Corey Goble, director of safety and security for the Baldwin County School District, was in attendance to update the board on plans for the almost $225,000 Safer Georgia Schools Grant that the school district was awarded.
The funding will be used to purchase radios, some of which were delivered to the county the day of the meeting, that will allow an open microphone setting to the entire Baldwin County emergency system in case of an emergency scenario. The process moving forward will involve the purchase of 30 additional radios, in addition to the district’s own channel on the E911 system.
“One of the good things about this grant was it required there be some partnership between intergovernmental agencies so the opportunity for us to be able to give back to our E911 infrastructure, bolster their infrastructure, such that they can be better stewards to the community and to the school district all at the same time, we looked at it as a win-win-win opportunity for us,” said Goble.
The meeting wrapped up with Superintendent Dr. Noris Price’s reading of the preliminary budget timeline. The board is still waiting for the property tax revenue estimate, as well as the updates on the Governor’s budget, which they hope to receive by early March.
The board plans to present a tentative budget to the board on April 9, and the two public budget hearings are planned for May 14 and May 23.
They hope to have a final budget approved at the June 11 meeting.