“Roll up your sleeves and have some candid conversations,” Superintendent Tim McGinnis instructed the group before they dispersed into smaller groups by school.
Members of the Elementary School SBDM, meeting with McGinnis and school board member Marc Terrell, discussed the return of the fifth grade to the elementary school.
Among other issues, SBDM members wanted to know if technology purchased for the fifth grade students would also return to the elementary school and if next year’s Primary and Intermediate Schools would have their own assistant principals. A tentative staffing formula provided that each school should have its own principal and guidance counselor, but not assistant principal.
“Its absence doesn’t mean I won’t support it,” McGinnis said of the assistant principal position, adding that he was awaiting input on the matter from the Transition Committee which is overseeing the return of the fifth grade and the split of the elementary school.
McGinnis agreed, meanwhile, that technology purchased for the fifth grade should also be relocated to the Intermediate School.
McGinnis told the SBDM members that the newly structured elementary program would “provide a tremendous opportunity … to get out of a box that we’ve been in forever.”
A hurdle that the entire school system has faced, however, is funding, as many elementary SBDM members made clear.
“We’ve got so many needs,” said Assistant Elementary Principal Brian Futrell. “Our outlook with money is not good.”
For the rest of this story, please see this week's edition of The Cadiz Record.
