CCBOE hears complaint from parent

Elijah Moring spoke to the Coffee County School Board during its regular meeting on Thursday, April 5, about an incident between his stepdaughter and another student.

Moring said the incident occurred on Feb. 7 during P.E. He did not specify which school the incident occurred.

"I keep hearing there is more to the story than what I know," he said. "I don't know what the other half of the story is, but during P.E., I guess words were being said while volleyballs were getting thrown, and one of the girls told my stepdaughter, 'I hope you die like your father.'"

He said his stepdaughter went to her P.E. teacher who told her to go to the school's guidance counselor. He said the guidance counselor contacted the vice principal about the issue.

"Without acknowledging (my stepdaughter's) worries, the guidance counselor didn't seem to – I don't know – care, maybe," he said. "She didn't talk to (my stepdaughter) about nothing, and (my stepdaughter) was upset."

Moring said his stepdaughter was suspended for three days for telling the other student "she wanted to punch her in the face" after the other student initially made the remark about her father, Moring told the board.

"Ever since then, it's been a headache," he said.

Moring said his stepdaughter is currently being homeschooled, but this is difficult to maintain because of his and his wife's work schedules.

"I want to give my kids a chance, these kids a chance to continue an education in the Coffee County School System, but at a different school," he said. "It seems as if everything has been blown out of proportion with what's going on. It seems like there's some sort of conflict of interest now. I'm afraid if (my wife and my) kids go back there, they might get picked on by the same student. The principal might ignore our kids' wishes or (my stepdaughter)."

He said it seemed as if nothing has been accomplished in the past two months since the incident occurred. He requested his children be allowed to attend New Brockton Schools.

Board President Brian McLeod said the board would take the information provided "under advisement and respond as appropriate."

In other business, the board approved the calendar for the 2018-19 school year.

"The calendar committee, which is made up of teachers and administrators representing all four schools, met on March 21 to work on this draft of the calendar for the 2018-19 (school year)," Superintendent Terry Weeks said.

The school calendar includes school holidays and professional development days.

The teacher and faculty institute day for the 2018-19 school year will be held on Aug. 1. Pre-K and kindergarten jumpstart will be held on the morning of Aug. 2. An open house will be held in the afternoon of Aug. 2.

"We'll have open house from 4-7 p.m.," he said. "That's an opportunity for parents to come meet the teachers, pick up supply lists and go through a meet and greet with the teachers of the students."

The first day of school will be Aug. 6, and school will be out on Nov. 19-23 for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Christmas holidays will begin on Dec. 18, and students will return to school on Jan. 7, 2019. Teachers and staff will have a professional development day on Jan. 3-4.

There will be an in-service day for the system on Feb. 15.

"That's a really important day for us because it's an opportunity for us to train and recertify all our bus drivers," Weeks said. "We have probably 40 bus drivers who are also teachers."

Spring Break will begin on March 25 and end on March 29. The last day for students for the school year is May 23, and the last day for teachers is May 24.

The board also approved the following personnel changes:

Leave:

Donna Hussey, custodian at Zion Chapel School, beginning April 9 and tentatively ending May 31.

Employments:

Keith Hocutt, bus driver for New Brockton Schools.

During his acknowledgements, Weeks commented on a recent active shooter training held at Zion Chapel High School on April 2. He said the event was meant to test the county's E911, local first responders, the system's school resource officers and other organizations.

"In this scenario, we purposefully left a door open," he said. "Teachers were there, faculty and staff were there. They were in their rooms; they were briefed beforehand on what to do, but we purposefully left a door open."

Weeks said the "intruder" did not know which classroom door was open in the school.

"You could see it on camera, (they) went down checked this door, and couldn't get in this classroom, so what does he do? Keeps going down the hall," he said.

He said the "intruder" tried to open several doors before finding the door that was unlocked.

"It's all about buying time," he said. "That's what's most important in any of these situations is to be able to buy time until the SRO could get there."

SRO Sgt. Shawn Sawyer said he was located in the library when the event began and he had the "perpetrator down in less than a minute and 30 seconds."

He said the rest of the event was searching the rest of the school.

"In a scenario, you really don't know how many people are there," he said.

Weeks said the system will have a meeting to review the results of the training.

The next board meeting will be held on Thursday, May 8, at 5:30 p.m. at the central office in Elba.