(The Pierce County Board of Education discussed and/or voted on the following during their monthly work session, Tuesday, December 2 and their regular monthly meeting Monday, December 8. The work session was moved from Thursday to Tuesday due to the Georgia School Board Association’s conference in Atlanta.
Closed session and personnel: The board adjourned into a three minute closed session Thursday to discuss personnel. After the session, the board voted to hire Logan Crews as a paraprofessional at Blackshear Elementary, Connie Smith as a paraprofessional at Patterson Elementary, Carrie Carter as receptionist at the middle school and Holly Kindled as a food assistant for school nutrition and Leslie Johnson is the new administrative secretary at Patterson Elementary. The board also voted to accept the resignations of Maikala McGauley, paraprofessional at Blackshear Elementary and Megan Dyal as school nurse at the middle school. At Monday’s meeting, the board accepted the resignations of Anika Mason, paraprofessional at Blackshear Elementary and Brittany Cooper, school nutrition food assistant.
PCHS field house bids: Ware Paint and Drywall of Waycross at $24,998 was awarded the bid for painting the PCHS field house. Other bidders were, MSN Ventures doing business as Five Star Painting of Juliette at $25,898, Interior Motive of Peachtree City at $34,125, Titan Commercial of Monroe at $45,200, Confort Services LLC of Pooler at $53,750, Intercontinental Commercial of Lawrenceville at $60,000, Express Conveyance of Gwinnett County at $131,140 and Tyco of Blackshear at $169,750.
PCHS surplus equipment bids: The board voted to declare an 8’ by 10’ storage building at the high school as surplus and to solicit bids to sell it. The storage building was previously used by the tennis team at the high school. A new storage building has been purchased and assembled making the old one surplus.
Education special purpose local option sales tax (ESPLOST) results: The board approved a resolution declaring the results of the ESPLOST election in November. The ESPLOST was renewed by a tally of 1,488 yes (64 percent), 837 no (34 percent).
Consent agenda: Several items were approved under the consent agenda. They include:
• approval of a second reading for use of electronic devices in school and equality in sports. The electronic policy will reflect the change next year that will not allow use of electronic devices during school hours for grades K-8. The equality in sports reflects the changes to sex equity rules in athletics.
Reports: Finance Director Melanie Helms gave the system’s financial report. Revenue was at $9.92 million, while expenses were $12.22 million. The school system has a reserve of about $16 million. Helms reported the system’s sales tax revenue was $283,328 in October up about $3,500 from September. The board approved the financial report. Facilities director Harbin Farr gave an update two maintenance projects. Farr said cracks have re-appeared at the high school tennis courts, about three weeks after the system hired a vendor to repair the cracks. An engineer will come to inspect the court and see if the cracks are due to a structural issue or problems with the sealant use to repair them. Farr also reported blemishes in the flooring at Midway Elementary were corrected by the contractor over the Thanksgiving holidays.
Public participation: There was no public participation.
Minutes: The board approved minutes for its November meetings.
Information: Superintendent Dara Bennett announced schools and the central office will be closed Dec. 22, 2025-Jan. 2, 2026 for Christmas holidays. Students will be out Jan. 5-6, 2026, but staff will report for professional development. She also announced report cards will be issued Jan. 13, 2026. All schools and the central office will be closed Monday, Jan. 19, 2026 for the Martin Luther King Day holiday.
Next meetings: The next work session will be at 8 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. The next regular meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 12, 2026. Both meetings will be held at the central office.
