The Tift County Board of Education announced in regular session Tuesday that students in grades 9-12 who qualify will be able to attend summer school free this year.

Parents of students have been paying $300 a unit for summer school. Teachers will recommend students who, after advisement, qualify to receive the service.

“Our teachers will know best what students will benefit from summer school,” said Superintendent Patrick Atwater.

Some BOE members expressed concern that students might just give up on their academics this year and wait to get the free summer classes to make up for the subjects they failed.

“I hope our students understand that the summer school classes are just as rigorous,” commented Erick Willis, BOE member.

The cost to staff the high school summer school program is expected to be between $18,000 and $20,000.

“We spent $50 million on buildings and teachers and maintenance,” Willis said. “If it cost us $18,000 to improve our graduation rate, it’s well spent.”

Atwater announced that bids from companies interested in the construction of additions and renovations of Omega School were opened March 22. Jones Construction was the low bidder on the project at $6.36 million. The two other companies who made a bid on the project were Hartford Fire Insurance Company at $6.67 million and Safeco Insurance Company of America at $8.25 million.

Atwater said he and others had met with the state’s facilities director and expected the state department to approve the project, which will be completed in three two-part phases with classrooms shifting to other areas away from where construction is ongoing. The project is expected to take three academic years to complete.

“We want to make sure that when this project is approved and work begins that safety of the students, parents, faculty and staff is paramount at all times,” said Lester Potts, BOE member.

Omega School project is part of the system’s five-year facilities plan that included projects at J.T. Reddick, Northeast Campus of Tift County High School, G.O. Bailey and the bus shop.

In other business, the board:

• Heard from a parent who is concerned that his son was suspended from class for two days when he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket while the class was watching a movie. The man said that his son had never gotten into any kind of school-related trouble and that he deserved punishment, but he would prefer that his son be paddled than miss school. He asked the board to consider reserving such stiff punishment for repeat offenders and asked them to take another look at the policy.

• Heard from Phyllis Lasseter, graduation coach at TCHS, who made a PowerPoint presentation that included statistics that showed a 25 percent nationwide high school drop-out rate. She explained how she and Carol Bell, the graduation coach at Northeast Campus of Tift County High School, are working together to counsel students who are considering withdrawing from school and their parents in efforts to help them find a way to continue through graduation.

• Introduced Chris Robinson, middle school choir director, who announced that the 55-member choir who attend “Music in the Park” in Atlanta had received several awards, including Best in Class and a sportsmanship award. Robinson said the later award was very special because the students didn’t know that the judges were watching the students’ behavior “from the time they got off the bus.”



To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.