Entries Tagged 'Schools' ↓
September 1st, 2009 — Schools
Each year, as required by law, the Baldwin County Public School Systems holds budget hearings. These meetings are open to the public.
The first of two budget hearings for Baldwin County Schools is scheduled for Thursday, September 3, 2009, at 5:00 p.m. in the Central Office Satellite cafeteria, 1091 B Avenue, Loxley.
The second budget hearing will be held on Thursday, September 10, 2009, at 5:00 p.m. in the Central Office Satellite auditorium, Loxley. A special board meeting will follow this hearing to vote on the FY10 budget and to address any other business.
Baldwin Co. announces budget hearings
August 27th, 2009 — Schools
As diagnoses of food allergies rise, school leaders are grappling with how to accommodate the needs of vulnerable students, aware that those with severe allergies might develop life-threatening conditions if they eat the wrong things.
Many school parents in Mobile and Baldwin counties received letters in recent weeks asking them to keep peanut butter and nuts out of snacks and lunches.
As peanut allergy diagnoses rise, so do restrictions in Mobile and Baldwin county schools
August 26th, 2009 — Foley, Schools
During a tight budget crunch, Baldwin County School Officials say they had to pick up the tab for a $30,000 mold problem, found at Foley Middle School.
The mold was found right before school started and has since been corrected, according to board spokesman Terry Wilhite.
Baldwin Co. School System faces $30K mold problem
August 25th, 2009 — Schools
In the midst of tough budget cuts and gloomy financial forecasts, the Baldwin County Board of Education got some good news Friday — districtwide accreditation, for the first time in the system’s history.
The announcement by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement, a division of AdvancED, was the culmination of a nearly two-year effort
Schools accredited nationally
August 23rd, 2009 — Bay Minette, Schools
A Bay Minette Middle School teacher was arrested Friday when he fell asleep in class reportedly because he was under the influence
Nicholas Taylor Pope was charged with public intoxication and illegal possession of prescription drugs, both misdemeanors.
The 25-year-old Foley resident is a special education teacher and assistant football coach.
Bay Minette teacher arrested
August 20th, 2009 — Schools
The Baldwin County Board of Education voted tonight to lay off 205 more school system employees in an effort to trim $14 million from the budget.
No teachers were on the list, but the layoffs do include Walter Ken Mason, construction coordinator, and Martha Holloway, nursing supervisor. In addition to Holloway, 12 other nurses, out of a staff of 56, were on the termination list, which cuts the number of classified employees, now about 1,800, by more than 11 percent, according to school system reports.
Superintendent Faron Hollinger says the cuts will save about $5 million. $9 million still needs to be trimmed for the upcoming fiscal year, following these cuts.
Baldwin to lay off 205 more school employees
Baldwin Co. Schools to cut 180 jobs
Full list of those affected starts on page 51 of the board’s agenda
August 20th, 2009 — Schools
School officials in Baldwin County this week announced there were at least a dozen students with H1N1 but did not disclose which schools were affected.
Kim Taylor, public information officer for the Baldwin County Health Department, said there is no quick way to determine the exact number of students sick from flu, whether it’s the H1N1 strain or the seasonal variety. Baldwin’s Taylor said that for every case that is confirmed, there are likely several people who did not go to the doctor for testing or treatment.
Baldwin school officials won’t report location of swine flu cases
Baldwin County Flu Outbreak
August 20th, 2009 — Daphne, Schools
The county’s current budget crisis got a sweet bite taken out of it Friday—at least, for Daphne’s public high school—when more than 1,150 people attended the ‘Taste of the Eastern Shore’ fundraiser at the Daphne Civic Center.
The charitable feast netted $28,700 in ticket sales; totals from the silent auction had not been tallied before press time. Donations will help county administrators offset a growing deficit—now totaling $56 million—that has led to waves of budget cuts and job losses.
‘Taste’ nets close to $30K
August 19th, 2009 — Schools
With classes back in session, flu cases, including the H1N1 variety, are already showing up on Baldwin County public and private school campuses, educators said Tuesday.
On Monday, a parent called St. Patrick Catholic School in Robertsdale to report that one student had been confirmed by a doctor as having the H1N1 variety, commonly known as swine flu, said Sister Margaret Harte, school principal.
Several students have also been diagnosed with the flu strain in public schools, said Terry Wilhite, Baldwin County Board of Education spokesman. Wilhite said he could not confirm how many cases had been reported. “It’s less than a dozen over (system’s) 45 schools,” he said
Swine flu hitting schools
County by county numbers
Parents should be told if a student at their child’s school has swine flu. Parents have a right to know if they are exposing their children to this disease when they send them off to school in the morning. Why won’t the school system release a list of school with confirmed cases?
August 17th, 2009 — Schools
Long before Baldwin County Board of Education members decide who will replace schools Superintendent Faron Hollinger next year, they face a series of decisions about how to conduct the search — the system’s first in nearly eight years.
Board members gathered Thursday for a brainstorming session on their preferences for the hiring process and the candidates it will produce. The meeting was facilitated by Sally Howell, executive director of the Alabama Association of School Boards.
“You have time. There are school systems where their superintendents have resigned, or announced their retirements, with one month. That doesn’t give the board a whole lot of options. So ku dos to Dr. Hollinger for giving you the time,” Howell said
Board begins talking superintendent search
August 14th, 2009 — Schools
Sales are up this summer at many businesses on Pleasure Island. The summer tourist season was a profitable one.
“Our June numbers are in and we saw about a two percent increase in tourist expenditures,” says Herb Malone with the Alabama Gulf Coast Tourism and Visitor’s Bureau.”
“Over 90 percent of our revenue comes from the state and local funds so it will take some time to recover, but it’s good news that the cash registers are ringing,” says Terry Wilhite, school spokesman.
Tourist Dollars Could Help Baldwin Schools
August 14th, 2009 — Schools, Spanish Fort
Students returning to Spanish Fort classrooms Monday might have noticed a few more faces than in years past, but larger classrooms are a small price to pay when weathering proration amid steady growth, school officials said.
We’re doing as well as can be expected from the budget cuts,” said Rockwell Elementary School Principal Robbie Owen, who was forced to cut three positions—but only one teaching unit—when the state announced sweeping funding cuts in April.
The school was spared what might have been a devastating staffing blow, however, when district lines were redrawn earlier this year to funnel some Rockwell students to Spanish Fort Elementary School along with six teaching units. So while Rockwell closed the 2008-09 school year with 830 students, it begins 2009-10 with only about 650, a number Owen expects to exceed 700—on par with SFES—before the close of the year.
Doing more with less
August 13th, 2009 — Schools
With additional revenue off the table, Baldwin County Board of Education officials will now begin solving the difficult math problem of making more work force and cost reductions after the academic year has already begun.
The school board on Tuesday voted 5-2 to withdraw its request for the County Commission to enact a 1-cent sales tax increase. Several members expressed disappointment at the lack of support.
“I feel like the sales tax was necessary,” said board member Norm Moore, who along with member Bob Callahan voted no
School board develops cost-cutting plan
August 12th, 2009 — Schools
A committee of Baldwin County Board of Education administrators and principals will begin work in coming days on another round of staff and budget cuts after a sales tax proposal was shot down.
The board then voted 7-0 on a set of guidelines for an executive committee to use in developing a package of budget cuts to trim nearly $14 million before the Oct. 1 start of the next fiscal year.
Those guidelines can be viewed at www.bcbe.org/crisisplan
Baldwin education cost-cutting committee will begin work soon
August 12th, 2009 — Schools
