The Putnam County Board of Education discussed and accepted parts of the first draft of a student-proposed dress code for all schools on Monday.
A team of students were brought together to discuss and propose changes they would like to see in the dress code. Some of these changes include not wearing collared shirts, wearing t-shirts, wearing jeans, and not having to wear a belt. Superintendent Eric Arena brought the proposed changes to the board for discussion before a final draft is voted on at the next meeting.
“I wasn’t part of that process of what they did, but I tried to explain the process to them and that if they asked for too much, they’re probably not getting anything,” said Arena at the work session last Monday. “I’m going to advocate as much of what the students’ want as possible, but ultimately the board has to make the decision.”
When looking over the first draft, Reverend Simone Jones proposed acceptance of multiple colors and board member Caroline Anne Gunthrie proposed allowing the students to wear denim material. Rev. Jones also proposed changing the word khaki to be more understandable of whether it is a color or the material.
The board agreed on allowing solid colors for all shorts, pants and outerwear. This allowed the acceptance of students to wear solid-colored t-shirts and denim materials. Spirit wear was also accepted as the only type of shirt that does not need to be solid color. The board also accepted the students’ proposal to not have to wear a belt just because pants have belt loops. The board also proposed looking at leggings as a possible non-negotiable to be removed from the dress code for next year.
“We will come back together and put this in a document that can go back and be reviewed by the Student Government Association and the principals,” said Arena. “The final draft will be brought back to next month’s meeting to be voted on so that we can get the dress code published for the start of school in August.”
Dr. Andrew Cooper, the principal of Putnam County High School, brought forth a proposition to change how valedictorian and salutatorian are decided due to changes made by the state of Georgia related to dual enrollment. The new proposition will limit the number of classes a student can gain points from for dual enrollment and advanced placement (AP) classes to ensure all students have equal opportunity to be picked for valedictorian and salutatorian. The new proposed number to be counted for each student was 10 AP classes and 10 dual enrollment classes. “The reality is that the state
“The reality is that the state has started to change the availability of certain courses for certain children. We used to have unlimited dual enrollment opportunities, but they have now put a cap on how many courses a student can take because it got so expensive for the state,” said Arena during the work session last Monday. “What we felt was best is to base it on grade point average and then a certain number of courses so that everybody has the opportunity to earn that number of courses.” During the work session last
During the work session last week and the board meeting on Monday, Chairman Dr. Steve Weiner expressed concern over AP courses having an end exam that determines college credit versus dual enrollment not having one. He proposed that students get an additional point for making a 4 or 5 on the AP exam. Jones and Gunthrie both disagreed with his proposal and didn’t see it as fair to favor AP courses over dual enrollment courses when both offer exceptional rigorous difficulty to the student.
“To me you’re crediting those who are born naturally smart who may not need as much effort to pass,” said Gunthrie to Dr. Weiner. “I don’t think that one tends to weigh more…I think if they have passed it and they got credit for it then they get the credit that is given.”
The board continued discussion over the topic and what would be equal to the students. Eventually it was determined that passing the proposed changes was best for this year, but Dr. Weiner only agreed under the circumstance that next year, AP scores can be presented to the board with class grades to show the correlation of the grade the student received in the class to the exam score.
“We have a history where the grade in the class was viewed by teachers in the past as ‘If you take my AP class, I’m going to give you a good grade for taking it,’” Dr. Weiner said when explaining why he wants to see the correlation. “I am willing to yield, but at one price…because I am concerned about past history repeating itself.”
A new grading regulation also was proposed to the board that had minor changes to wording designed to be more inclusive throughout the grades. The board unanimously approved the changes at Monday’s meeting.
The board also unanimously approved the search for an independent architect firm for the new elementary school under the condition that Arena explains why the firm is chosen to the board for approval. Along these lines, the Marc Wilson design for the cafeteria at Putnam County Middle School was also unanimously approved.
The meeting concluded with unanimous approvals of the renewal of technical software including the Microsoft license, Newsela and Nearpod.