Tuesday afternoon, the Coffee County Board of Education approved the FY17 budget, which includes a one-time three percent raise for all system employees. Now that it has been approved, the budget will available for review by the public.
The board also approved painting Satilla Elementary and Coffee Middle School. Gilliard Painting of Douglas will paint Satilla while ICS, Inc., will paint the middle school. Also approved were the purchase of five school buses (all with air conditioning) for $414,007.25 and Rosetta Stone curriculum, which will be taught to all second graders in the county next year at a price tag of $31,395. Funding for the Rosetta Stone project will come from eSPLOST funds.
At the end of the meeting (and following an executive session period), board member Judi Worrell announced that she had come to the meeting with intentions of resigning from her seat. She lost her bid for re-election to Reagan Miller last week. However, Worrell decided to stay on the board for the remainder of her term, which ends Dec. 31 of this year. She made a lengthy statement regarding this matter near the conclusion of the meeting.
The system videoed the meeting, as it does each one, and the entire meeting can be seen below.