Memorandum from Mary Kay Murphy
Mary Kay Murphy, Ph.D. District 3  School Board Member marykaymurphy@aol.com

December 10, 2010

“Legislative Priorities’ and the 2011
General Assembly

An annual event of the Board and Superintendent of Gwinnett County Public Schools is a meeting with members of the Gwinnett Delegation of the Georgia General Assembly.

Meetings are held with members of both the Georgia House and Senate and include several system’s Central Office staff and of Gwinnett County Government. Also, several members of the press attend the meeting.

Eleven elected members of the Gwinnett Delegation, including several who were elected in November 2010, attended this year’s meeting held at the new Gwinnett Policy Annex on High Hope Road off of Highway 316.

Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks addressed the delegation and reported on several key initiatives of significance to the Board and School System. These are important because of the impact they have on Gwinnett—and on Georgia. One in ten of every student in Georgia is enrolled in Gwinnett County Public Schools.

Mr. Wilbanks began thanked members of the delegation for two laws made possible by the General Assembly, one dating back to 1996 and the other passed within the last three years.

These include the enabling legislation for counties and municipalities in Georgia to ask voters to consider using the one penny SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) for construction of schools and retirement of bond debt.

The other is the IE2 bill—the legislation that allows school systems to sign a contact with the State for five years to incorporate increased flexibility in curriculum and other initiatives in return for increased accountability in student achievement and test scores.

In both cases, Gwinnett County Public Schools were the first system in the State in 1997 to secure approval from voters for the SPLOST and in 2006 from the State Department of

Education for the IE2 contract.

The Superintendent then reported on the “Legislative Priorities” of the Gwinnett school system and Board of Education for the Gwinnett Delegation to consider in the 2011 session of the Georgia General Assembly. These include the following:

1. Retain 180 school days for the annual school calendar.
2. Allow SPLOST funds to be used for specified and predetermined operation funds as well as for construction and bond debt retirement.
3. Support “Race to the Top” priorities with Gwinnett County Public Schools scheduled to receive $26 million from the $400 million competitive award made to Georgia by the U.S. Department of Education.
4. Continue to allow flexibility of class size as determined at the local school level.
5. Support current sources of revenue for local school systems, especially the property tax.
6. Help local school systems and local governments position their programs and needs related to the 2011 Governor’s Tax Commission.
7. Uphold the constitutional authority of local boards of education to determine use of local revenues, the school calendar, and other such initiatives.
8. Allocate points to local schools so that they can support their #1 priority—the academic program.

The Superintendent noted that Gwinnett County Public School system is still growing, although the rate of student enrollment has slowed. He anticipates 1,800 new students to attend the school system in August 2011, increasing the current 161,000 student enrollment to nearly 163,000.

Enrollment growth in Gwinnett County peaked in 2007, when 9,000 new students enrolled. As the school system enters the decade of the 2010s, it is still growing, but at a less rapid rate than previously.

Growth has also caused the need for 1800 classrooms to be held in trailers. These have nearly all been replaced by buildings constructed with SPLOST funds. Through the benefits of three SPLOST programs, Gwinnett County has planned for 37 new schools and added at least 27 to help contain the growth.

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