Muscogee County School Board rejects proposal to reimburse parents for school supplies

In a contentious meeting that stretched past the 3-hour mark Monday night, the Muscogee County School Board rejected a proposal to pay each parent or guardian $30 per child as a reimbursement for the purchase of school supplies.

District 8 representative Frank Myers, who made the request, and District 2 representative John Thomas were the lone supporters in the 2-7 vote.

Such a reimbursement would amount to an estimated $960,000 cost to the district, which has approximately 32,000 students. Board vice chairwoman Pat Hugley Green of District 1 and District 7 representative Shannon Smallman said they spent considerably less to supply their children. Myers said he based the figure on the supplies he bought from a school’s list.

“I want to give something back to the families, the people who we actually serve,” Myers said. “This $30 is not some magical number. … I went to Walmart and I finished up at Office Max, and it was $33 and change, and I have my receipts. And I’m cheap; I didn’t buy the nicest stuff.”

Myers noted the board renewed the 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax and declined to roll back the millage rate so it could benefit from an increase in the digest. He also argued that if the district has $3.5 million to spend on consulting fees to help turnaround the 10 MCSD schools on the state’s failing list, which superintendent David Lewis has mentioned as a possibility but hasn’t formally recommended, then the district should have the money to pay for school supplies.

“This is something that will not only buy us some goodwill in the community – and, by the way, I’m not up for re-election next year – but it will make sure all these kids not only have the supplies they need,” Myers said, “but it will make sure to take some pressure off these teachers who have year after year bought all this stuff for these kids.”

Smallman said, “We could be spending that money in other areas that actually will help our students. The lack of first-day school supplies isn’t going to cause you to perpetually fail.”

Kia Chambers, the nine-member board’s lone county-wide representative, asserted that the cost of Myers’ proposal would be more than the reimbursement, considering the time and expense it would take to mail checks to that many folks.

Cantrell wondered aloud whether the district next year could solicit school supply vendors to bid on an overall price per child for everything on the list.

Green said “countless organizations and individuals” give away free school supplies, and if the district reimburses parents and guardians, “Where do we stop? What about the teachers, who spend hundreds and thousands of dollars setting up their classrooms and providing resources for children who don’t bring supplies for whatever reason?”

Thomas countered that Myers’ proposal is a “philosophical stance, that the school district should provide basic supplies for students.”

OTHER VOTES

In other action, the board unanimously approved the following promotions:

• Victoria Thomas from regional career, technical and adult education supervisor to CTAE director.
• Lorrie Watt from Clubview Elementary School principal to executive director of curriculum.
• Tim Smith from Blanchard Elementary School principal to executive director of federal grants.

The board also unanimously approved the following policy revisions to comply with state law:

• Expanded the definition of bullying to include acts involving electronic communication.
• Required all certified personnel to receive annual training on suicide awareness and prevention.

Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow him on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.

This story was originally published August 17, 2015 at 10:26 PM with the headline "Muscogee County School Board rejects proposal to reimburse parents for school supplies ."