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Memorandum
from
Mary Kay Murphy
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Mary Kay Murphy, Ph.D.
District 3
School Board Member |
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Governor
Perdue and Superintendent Cox Visit District III
Duluth
Representative Brooks Coleman, founding Principal of
B.B. Harris
Elementary School
when it opened in 1966,
co-sponsored Governor
Sonny Perdue’s signature Education Bill during the
2003 General Assembly.
To recognize Representative
Coleman’s leadership and support, Governor Perdue and
State
Superintendent of Education Kathy Cox, along with
other distinguished elected officials and civic leaders,
came to B.B. Harris Elementary School in Gwinnett
County’s District III for the historic signing of S.B.
249.
Principal Melinda Sepmeyer, completing her last year as Principal of
B.B. Harris before taking on the leadership of Parsons
Elementary School as Principal, was among those in the
B.B. Harris community welcoming Governor Perdue,
Superintendent Cox, and Representative Coleman.
Of the State’s 180 public education
systems and its more than 16,000 public schools,
Governor Perdue and Superintendent Cox came to Gwinnett
County to show their appreciation for Representative
Coleman’s and for Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks’
assistance in developing the Governor’s major
education legislation of the 2003 session.
A stellar assembly of Senate and
House members, including Senator
David Schafer, Gwinnett County officials, including Commission Chairman Wayne Hill, and civic and community leaders
joined Governor Perdue and Secretary Cox for the
ceremony. Key
features of S.B. 249 include providing Georgia’s
school districts with flexibility in the key areas of
funding mandates to implement across-the-board class
size reductions. This
will be accomplished by pushing back the deadline for
reducing the teacher/student ratio in grades 4-12 from
FY 2003-04 to FY 2004-05.
Extending implementation of this
requirement for one year will spare Georgia students
from layoffs of their teachers, counselors and
teacher’s aides as well as spare property owners from
school tax hikes. Without
the flexibility afforded in S.B. 249, many of
Georgia’s school systems would end up returning money
to the State because they could not spend the money
according to legislative directives.
As accountability for school
performance become more insistent, Georgia must be able
to get needed resources to the school systems that need
them most. S.B.
249 provides this needed flexibility, allowing schools
to use all the resources at their disposal.
S.B. 249 responded to changes were mandated by
H.B. 1187 during former Governor Roy Barnes’ term and
required increased state and local funding.
As he addressed the assembled dignitaries,
the 1,100 students, and the faculty and staff of B.B.
Harris, Governor
Perdue said, “I really believe if we trust in the
hard work of teachers, educators, and administrators and
get out of the way, they will get the job done.
No student is exactly alike, no system is exactly
alike, and it’s high time we stopped treating them
that way.”
Superintendent Cox also spoke to the students, faculty, dignitaries,
and staff. Announcing
that the U.S. Department of Education had the day before
approved Georgia’s State Plan to comply with ‘No
Child Left Behind’ federal legislation, Superintendent
Cox said, “If we get everybody involved, we can lead
the nation in student education.”
Georgia is the 20th state in the
country to win federal approval of its State Plan to
ensure accountability for the educational performance of
all students. “We
are not backing up from standards,” Governor Perdue
said. “We
are not backing up from accountability.”
In other District III School news,
·
Duluth High School was the first of
Gwinnett County’s twelve high schools to hold its
Class of 2003 graduation ceremonies in the new Gwinnett
Arena. Duluth
High School was also the first of the County’s high
schools to schedule graduation ceremonies in the
Gwinnett Civic Center when it first opened. The Class of 2003 was also the first graduating class under
Duluth High School Principal Pat
Blenke’s leadership.
·
Welcome, Mrs.
Mary Anne Charron, the new Principal of Norcross
High School who is already hard at work on the job.
Mrs. Charron succeeds Mrs. Judi
Rogers who was Principal of Norcross for eleven
years and retired at the end of the 2003 school year
after a distinguished 33-year career.
·
Property owners in Peachtree Corners,
Norcross, Duluth, and Berkeley Lake likely will not
receive an increase in school taxes unless their
property has been reappraised with a higher value by the
Gwinnett County Office of Tax Assessors.
After three Public Hearings held in May and June
2003, the Gwinnett County Board of Education set the
millage rate for school tax values in the 2003 tax year
at 20.30, the same overall millage rate as for the 2002
tax year. For 2003, Maintenance and Operation will be
18.87 and 1.43 for Debt Service will be 1.43, for the
same total of 20.30 in 2002 and in 2003.
·
Returning to District III Schools in FY
2004 will be the following principals: Ms. Donna
Ledford at Stripling Elementary; Ms. Kathy
Eichler at Peachtree Elementary; Ms. Carlotta
Rozzi at Beaver Ridge Elementary; Ms. Mary
Ray at Simpson Elementary; Dr. Lenore
Watkins at Norcross Elementary; Mr. Jaime
Espinosa at
Summerour Middle; Ms. Joyce
Callahan at Pinckneyville Middle; Ms. Jane
Coomer at Chattahoochee Elementary; Ms. Paula
Deweese at Mason Elementary; Dr. Kay
Harvey at Duluth Middle; Dr. Gwen
Tatum at Hull Middle; and Mr.
Pat Blenke at Duluth High.
·
B.B. Harris Elementary School will welcome
new Principal Nancy
Hammond in the 2004 school year.
Ms. Hammond is the daughter of B.B. Harris, a
former principal of the school.
·
Berkeley Lake Elementary School also will
welcome a new principal in the 2004 school year.
Nine-year Principal Dr. JoAnn
Brown has been appointed to the Georgia Education
Leadership Council.
Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks will name a new
principal before the August 2003 opening of school.
As the District III School Board member, it
is an honor to represent the Duluth and Norcross
Clusters.
070103
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