School Board elects new officers

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. – The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners elected a new slate of officers for 2022 this week. Wesley McCall will serve as chairman and 2021 Chairman Kristen Morrissey will serve as vice chairman.

Shiloh Point Elementary Principal Ben Jones and others reviewed the school’s 5-year plan which focused on reading and research with a goal of establishing “student ownership of every classroom.” The three primary pillars of the plan are mastery based learning, social emotional learning and authentic learning.

Chief Financial Officer Larry Hammel presented a monthly financial report that showed the school system began the month of December with a cash balance of $207,358,115 and ended the month on December with $213,978,388. In January 2021, the balance was just over $181 million.

At this point, 97.15 percent of the ad valorem taxes have been collected, compared to 96.43 percent collections at this time last year.

December expenditures totaled $40.8 million. Yearly expenditures totaled $251.8 million.

There was also a discussion about the future of the Forsyth Virtual Academy. Beginning with the 2022-23 school year, elementary school students will continue to be full-time synchronous learning students while both middle and high schools can be a full-tieme or part-time virtual students.

Mike Evans said the school system has received $2.2 million as part of the Emergency Connectivity Fund that is part of the federal government’s American Rescue Plan.

During the Public Comment period, several students called on the Board to implement mask mandate to prevent the spread of COID-19. A student who graduated last year, called on the Board to investigate a lession plan at West Forsyth High school that required students to spy on their parents and other students. Fetch Your News will have more information on that in a separate article.