Homeless students in Paulding County will soon have new support in the district after action taken at the Nov. 10 meeting of the Paulding Board of Education.

The board unanimously approved a recommendation by Superintendent Larry Ragsdale to create a new homeless liaison position for the school district and hire someone to do the job.

A federal grant of $41,106 under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and another $83,411 from stimulus funding will provide for the position and for other costs associated with providing for homeless students.

“The federal grant provides for the current year, and there is a good chance we will get the same amount next year,” said Vince Fulghum, director of ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and Special Programs. “The stimulus funding is for a two-year period and will be used for salary costs for the new position.”

“Last year we had some students who listed their place of residence as a car,” said Fulghum. “People just can’t imagine that students are in those situations.”

Fulghum said the county school system “had 256 homeless students in the spring when we started getting the grant together. There are now 387 in the district, with 130 students from Cobb and Douglas being enrolled within the past 30 days.”

Board member Joe Watson asked if there was a timeframe for how long a student would be considered homeless, and Fulghum said it can vary if they have moved in with an extended family but it could be for up to two years.

Director Jim Black said Paulding is not transporting homeless students to other counties, adding, “Cobb and Douglas would be responsible for providing transportation to their students who are now enrolled in Paulding.”

Board member Theresa Phillips asked if the position would be full time, and Fulghum said, “we would like to have the person full time, but they might have to work part time to stay within the budget.”

“We need to show on the job announcement that the funding for the position is only through 2011 and that there are no guarantees after that,” said board member Kim Cobb.

“I agree and we will do that,” replied Fulghum.

“You will notice that we are not specifying that this be a certified position,” said Ragsdale. “We want to be sure that we can get the best person for this role.”

The only other action taken by the board was to give unanimous approval to Ragsdale’s recommendation to approve four field trips.

Dr. Richard Hutnik, principal of McClure Middle School, recognized two of his staff members and 35 students on the Student Crew.

Under the direction of media specialist Rhonda Boggs, the Student Crew from McClure placed second in Scholastic’s Student Crew Contest.

The school was recognized for its “Wii Love Books” book fair and received $1,000 for use in the media center.

Hutnik also praised the efforts of Helen Maddox, a local school technologist at McClure. Maddox pursued and was successful in obtaining donated laptop computers, desktop computers, monitors, keyboards and office furniture from the Centers for Disease Control. The value of the equipment was $430,350.96.

“We have filled three empty classrooms with the equipment, and our teachers are getting very excited about having more computers in their rooms,” said Hutnik.

“We will be using some of the equipment in the district,” said Ragsdale.

Marty Turner, executive director of Maintenance and Facilities, updated the board on the bond budget and capital outlay funds for construction. “If we get the capital outlay funds that we project, I would like for the board to be thinking about what our priorities should be,” said Turner.

Turner told the board he thought there would be more information in February on the funding, but Ragsdale said, “I think it will be closer to the end of March before we know anything.”

“I think we need to look very carefully as we are looking at budgets and show the public that we are being careful with the money,” said board member Michael Skelton.

“We will be looking again at SPLOST and will be meeting with the county soon to discuss that,” said Ragsdale.

“Our best selling point is to show what we have done in the district to save money,” Skelton responded.

Board chair Kathy West asked how schools had fared with the recent heavy rains, and Turner said the worst problem was at East Paulding High in the area between the older section and the new addition but that it has been fixed.

In response to a question from Cobb about reimbursements for flood damage in September, Turner responded, “we have been reimbursed about $750,000 from GSBA [Georgia School Boards Association] and are still waiting on reimbursement from GEMA/FEMA.”

Purchasing Director Donna Perren informed the board that Serotta Maddocks Evans & Co. submitted a low bid of $5,750 to perform a SPLOST review for the year ending June 30, 2009.

“We are required by state law to do an annual review, and it was not necessary to come to the board since the bid is under $25,000,” said Ragsdale.

When the board returned from executive session, it was announced that a special board meeting was being called for Nov. 17 for the purpose of completing the superintendent’s evaluation.