Britt Madden Jr. Polk School District Board Member

Polk School District has been working hard for kids and finally today we can show of some of our achievements! With the press release today, you can see the faculty and staff have been working hard for our students. Every day, we continue to do more to bring out the best in our students!

https://www.polk.k12.ga.us/live-feed/ #9610551

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Please take the time to complete this valuable survey to our board as we continue to navigate the process of finding our next superintendent! This survey is tabulated and results are maintained by our consultant, Georgia Leadership Associates and will be presented to us after the survey deadline of May 9th.

❗️Community Survey - Deadline May 9th❗️

On behalf of the Polk School District Board of Education, Georgia Leadership Associates is seeking community input from parents, students, and community stakeholders to help determine the most important qualifications of the next Superintendent of Polk School District. This survey only takes a few minutes to complete and is completely anonymous. Your input and support are appreciated.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PolkCountyCommunitySurvey

Last Night's Combined April Polk School Board Session is up and available online at this link:

https://www.polk.k12.ga.us/page/psdmeetingvideos

A combined session (work session and regular meeting) happens in months where one of the scheduled meetings falls on a school holiday. Next week, when our normally scheduled regular meeting occurs on a Tuesday afternoon, the school system will be on spring break.

Highlights from last night:
- Student and teacher recognitions for both March and April. Congratulations to all the winners!
- Financial Reports provided (See meeting minutes)
- Presentation and contract with Georgia Leadership Associates for leading PSD through the search process for a new superintendent (pending legal review).

PSD Board Meeting Videos | Polk School District Committed to Success - Every Person. Every Day.

Bond Resolution answers to questions I have heard -

1 - Funds from the bond sale cannot be used for general operations (salaries, repairs, electricity) The referendum, which is voted on by the people and is on this special election ballot, states and limits what capital outlay projects bond funds can be spent. It would be the law.

2 - PSD bond rating is quite good (AAA). Typical market rates would be expected for our bonds with this rating. Bonds are paid back with interest to the bond holders. Currently, the payback is scheduled to be over 20 years. Like most debt, it can be retired quicker than 20 years. Future ESPLOST projects can include payment in principal of this debt.

3 - There was a question about three schools investing $5.2 million per school in HVAC replacements. That figure originated from our architect whom we asked to draw and prepare estimates for replacement of the entire HVAC/Heating systems in the entire facility. This was to be a preemptive move on future repair costs at these facilities. I looked at one of the recent invoices (2+ years ago) for one rooftop replacement unit. The unit and its installation was right at $850,000. Considering schools have multiple of these units and the potential for other HVAC switch outs, the estimate seems more reasonable.

4 - We looked into accomplishing this proposed capital outlay (projects) through another ESPLOST. We learned from our bond counsel that if we utilized the ESPLOST method now, that due to the structure of the previous ESPLOST and its collection window, the interest costs would be estimated to be $6-7 million before we could even begin to legally begin paying back principal on the bonds in 2030. 2030 is when the ESPLOST money could begin to pay the bonds back under this method. Simply put, why pay an extra $7million in interest costs on same dollar amount borrowed through a splost when we could borrow on the traditional bond and payback through 1 mill of property tax and save 7 million?

Hope this helps answer a question you might have had.

As promised yesterday - To see Polk School District Board Meeting agendas and minutes, do the following:

1 - Go to https://polk.k12.ga.us
2 - Click on Board of Education
3 - Click on Eboard Access on left hand side. You will see upcoming meetings as well as past meetings.

Click on the meeting you desire to see and the agendas with provided information (paper clips) are available to view. You will also see the meeting minutes which have been or are to be approved.

Polk School District Committed to Success - Every Person. Every Day.

Polk School District is embarking on providing to our citizens a recording of our meetings. This page below will be the link to the videos. We will continually work on improving quality of the videos but we believe that our meetings should be available to anyone at any time is most convenient to them.

Coming soon - link to meeting agendas and attached reports referenced at the meetings.

Polk School District Committed to Success - Every Person. Every Day.

Sounds familiar? We have had it for three years and it works. Kid safety is so important in this day and time and all the time!

New bill proposes putting mobile panic buttons in every school across Georgia

More good news to come!

🎉 The Polk School District Board of Education named 2024 GSBA Exemplary Board! 🎉
At this month's regular session board meeting, we were proud to recognize our Board of Education members for being named a 2024 Exemplary School Board by the Georgia School Board Association (GSBA)! 🏆

This prestigious recognition is the highest level of recognition in board governance and highlights the board’s dedication to continuous improvement, transparency, and collaboration. 🌟📚
We are grateful for their strong leadership, unwavering commitment, and dedication to providing the best educational opportunities for our students!🙌