On April 1, Gov. Kemp announced his decision to close the state’s public schools for the remainder of this school year. Online learning will continue. Spring sports are canceled and school systems across the state are still working out plans for graduation.
As of now, Habersham Central High School still plans to hold its graduation ceremony on May 22, according to school superintendent Matthew Cooper. He addressed that and several other issues facing students and families in a videotaped message on Now Habersham.
Cooper and other county school administrators responded to a series of questions Now Habersham asked regarding how the local school system will operate during the closure. Here’s the Q & A:
Will the School Board Still Meet?
Yes, our work sessions and regularly scheduled monthly meetings will continue to be held moving forward. The meetings, however, will be held virtually. In accordance with the Georgia Open Meetings Act, all meetings will be advertised as usual and will be available for viewing by the public in real-time on our system homepage. Viewing information will be shared in the official meeting announcements that are sent out.
How will the school system operate during the closure? Who will continue to get paid?
During the extended closure, our priorities will be to serve our students through the “learning from home” and food plans, to ensure the safety of our staff members, and to do our part to keep the virus from spreading here in our home county. Regardless of whether they are working from home or on site, every staff member in our school system will assist in some way to make sure these priorities are addressed. Because of the nature of this coronavirus situation and the fact that our current staffing plan is fluid and subject to change daily, I will not go into specifics regarding individuals or groups of workers. What I can say is that the school system is making every effort to have as many employees working from home as possible. We will have some employees who must continue to work on site, but only under strict social distancing guidelines. As restrictions are lifted by the governor, we will transition some employees from working at home to working on site. Some employees will continue working from home for the duration of the closure. All school system employees will continue to get paid for the duration of the closure. Despite the fact that many employees are working from home, we plan to keep open lines of communication with our parents and students. Other than Spring Break, parents can still call a school and reach an administrator. We have the ability to forward calls made to the school on to our administrator’s cell phones. All administrators will continue to work very long days assisting with the “learning from home” plan and will be available to take calls Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
What happens to state funds allocated for this year?
It is our understanding that currently allocated state funds will continue to flow to Georgia school systems on the normal timetable.
Will the school system have to revise its budget?
At this time, there is no expectation that we will have to revise the current FY20 budget. Our system is fortunate to have reserve funds to address any shortfalls in revenue that are experienced over the course of the remaining fiscal year. Our system leaders and board of education have been very conservative over the last several years and have worked to protect our reserve funds for times like the ones we are experiencing now. Much of our FY21 budget process is currently on hold as we wait for the Georgia General Assembly to reconvene and pass a state budget. It is likely that all Georgia school boards will approve their new budgets later than normal. There are protocols already in place, such as spending resolutions, that allow for such situations.
What’s the overall expected economic impact on our school system?
The closure itself should have little impact on our current economic situation. Much remains to be seen, however, regarding both the short-term and long-term economic impacts of this coronavirus situation on our school system. It is reasonable to expect significant decline in our local sales tax revenue over the next several weeks. There will likely be significant impacts to state revenues as well. At this point, we are hopeful that the state will still fully fund public education for FY21, but it is very possible that there will be some belt-tightening in the following year’s budget. We will not know anything regarding state funding until the General Assembly reconvenes and takes up the FY21 budget again. At this point, we have not heard when that might happen. For the remainder of this school year, our school system is in good shape financially and should have no trouble continuing to pay our employees or meeting the needs of our students. If adjustments are necessary in the future, we will work together as a team to do what is needed.
Will this closure affect seniors’ chances of obtaining academic and athletic scholarships?
From Jonathan Stribling, Habersham Central Principal:
Habersham Central High School seniors have had access to numerous local and scholastic scholarship opportunities during this unique, final semester in school. Luckily, many of the sponsors made applications available ahead of the school closure. Dr. Martha Cantrell, Gifted Program and College Planning Coordinator, and our entire students services team have worked tirelessly with our scholarship sponsors and seniors to ensure applications continued to be dispersed after the closure, returned to organizations, and selections continued. Although the timeline for scholarship announcements and recognitions may be altered, the Habersham County community continues to ensure our seniors’ post secondary goals are well supported through scholarships.
From Martha Cantrell, Gifted Program and College Coordinator:
We have worked over the last couple of weeks to deliver scholarship applications to our local and regional sponsors either electronically, by mail, or by personal delivery. While the extension of school facility closures will impact our original schedule, we will work on alternate plans for the announcement of our scholarship recipients. We may have to celebrate in a different way this year but want to reassure our seniors that our scholarship sponsors are moving forward in the selection of their recipients. We are most appreciative of our sponsors’ partnership and investment in the future of our students.
From Pam Dalton, Director of Secondary Schools:
As you can see from the information provided by Principal Stribling and Dr. Cantrell, local scholarship sponsors and student applicants are continuing the application and selection process, in light of the school closure/COVID-19 situation. The Habersham Central High School administrative team and student services department have done an outstanding job of helping to minimize the future impacts of the school closures on Habersham County students and their families. Regarding state-issued HOPE and/or Zell Miller Scholarships, the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) is collaborating with the University System of Georgia, Technical College System of Georgia, Georgia Student Finance Commission, and others to ensure graduating seniors are not penalized due to the COVID-19 closures.
Determinations for Hope Scholarship and/or Zell Miller Scholarships are made by the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC). GaDOE continues to work with the GSFC on identifying potential impacts on HOPE/Zell Miller Scholarship eligibility for the Class of 2020.
From Geep Cunningham, Habersham County System-Wide Athletic Director:
The closing of schools for the remainder of this school year should have little if any impact on athletes receiving an athletic scholarship to a NCAA Division I or Division II institution. Division I and Division II all have an early signing date which is already passed. In most cases, schools fill up their class in the early signing period. The spring sports also have a later date of August 1 for late signees. As previously stated most signing classes are complete at this time, but for those that are not, those athletes will have an opportunity to be further evaluated through attending future camps, workouts, and possible summer play. It seems obvious that we are dealing with something that we have never seen before in our lifetime. I feel sure that in time there may be other changes, but I think one thing is certain, and that is the fact that the well-being of student-athletes will be the number one priority of school systems and all other athletic programs.
