March 23, 2020 — The March 2020 Buford Board of Education meeting was held by phone and broadcast live on Facebook on the Buford City Schools Facebook page. The meeting began at noon and encountered a few technical issues.
Technology has three items that need to be purchased. A learning management system needs to be purchased. Three different learning management systems were piloted. Canvas was recommended. The recommendation was approved. Brightwell was recommended for the childcare management system. Currently, the school uses two separate systems to do childcare management and tuition management and it’s more expensive than the recommended system that will handle both functions. The recommendation was approved. Softdocs needs to be converted to Etrieve as Softdocs will no longer be supported. Softdocs handles all payroll and financial functions. Approved to be under the new budget in December.
No Principal’s reports were available.
Superintendent’s report – Dr. Downs said that it is School Board Appreciation Week and he thanked the Board for all of their hard work and guidance, especially in these hard times. FY21 Preliminary Budget was discussed and it allows for growth in the Special Ed department, new positions for the high school, new computer course funding, and roof for the Academy. Mr. Beard discussed the uncertainty regarding the economy and how this could impact the proposed FY21 budget. This budget was purely informational at this time and was not voted on. The proposed budget will be advertised in May so it can continue to be tweaked in April.
Bruce Fricks thanked Dr. Downs for his hard work over this past week and thanked everyone who tuned into the meeting by Facebook live. Over 5,000 meals were passed out last week. Matt Peevy thanked the Communications department at the schools for doing such a great job on keeping the parents informed as the pandemic continues.
The meeting was adjourned.
